Argus Supports Independent Assessments for Growing Chinese Coal Market

SINGAPORE, July 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- In just three years, China has moved from being a major regional coal exporter to being a significant coal importer. This change, driven by soaring Chinese demand for coal-fired power, requires new approaches for pricing thermal coal imports by China.

Argus, the leading independent global coal price reporting agency, launched the first major cfr south China assessment for thermal coal in March. With the support of large producers and buyers of Chinese coal, this assessment has become the leading price benchmark for physical cargoes of thermal coal sold to China.

As the reputation for this assessment has grown, so too has interest in the establishment of a cfr south China coal swaps market. These risk management tools underpin coal markets around the world and require robust, reliable, independent physical coal price assessments.

In a free webinar on 21 July 2011, Jason Feer, head of Argus in Asia, will explain why independent assessments are the key to the development of a healthy swaps market. Argus' market leading cfr south China assessment is the most reliable and robust physical coal assessment to underpin south China cfr swaps. Register for the webinar here
http://info.argusmedia.com/mailers/cfr.html?ref=SouthChinaWebinar

The Argus cfr south China price is an independent assessment that is free from involvement by any government or companies affiliated with state-controlled enterprises. Producers, buyers and intermediaries are all given equal weight in the Argus assessment.

"The coal market needs a robust underlying price in order to help foster the emergence of useful and relevant risk management tools including swaps. Argus has a team of professionals based in China, Singapore and Japan who are assessing this market on a daily basis. No other company brings the same level of resources to the Asian coal markets," Argus Media chairman and chief executive Adrian Binks says.

Subject to agreement, Argus will provide participants in the upcoming webinar with four months of historical price data on the cfr south China market to help companies assess and analyse their price risk in this key market. The Argus coal methodology is available publicly at www.argusmedia.com/methodology.

To further promote the development of the Asian coal swaps market, Argus is holding the Argus Coal Swaps Trading Course in Beijing on 18 and 19 July 2011 in association with JP Morgan.

Argus is the leading international provider of global coal price information through Argus Coal Daily International, Argus Coal Daily, Argus Russian Coal and the Argus/McCloskey's Coal Price Index Report, which includes the API 2 (cif ARA), API 4 (fob Richards Bay) and API 6 (fob Newcastle) coal market benchmarks.

For more information on the Argus cfr south China assessment and on the Asian coal market contact Peter Caddy on 44 20 7780 4200, or Jason Feer on 65 6496 9966, or email [email protected]

About Argus

Argus is a leading provider of price assessments, business intelligence and market data on the global coal, crude and products, natural gas, electricity, emissions and transportation industries. It is headquartered in London and has offices in Houston, Washington, New York, Portland, Calgary, Johannesburg, Dubai, Singapore, Tokyo, Beijing, Sydney, Moscow, Astana, Kiev, Santiago and other key centres of the energy industry. Argus was founded in 1970 and is a privately held UK-registered company. Learn more at www.argusmedia.com.

SOURCE Argus Media