Fastmarkets is proposing to reduce the frequency of publication of its lead premium assessments for Indian and Southeast Asian markets.
There has been a notable fall in spot liquidity in these two markets. In particular a lack of trading in primary lead ingots has caused the 99.99% lead premium for Southeast Asia to remain unchanged since July 2018, while the 99.99% cif India lead premium has only moved three times in the past year.
While the 99.97% ingot markets are comparatively more active, supply from the Middle East has been less abundant with Iranian units largely absent from the spot market in recent years.
Fastmarkets acknowledges that some of these prices are used for the settlement of contracts. Therefore, we invite market participants active in these markets to contribute to the consultation on this proposal.
Fastmarkets proposes to publish these four price assessments on a bi-weekly basis on Tuesdays instead of weekly at present.
The assessments that are under consideration are as follows:
MB-PB-0087 - Lead 99.97% ingot premium, cif India, $/tonne MB-PB-0086 - Lead 99.99% ingot premium, cif India, $/tonne MB-PB-0107 - Lead 99.97% ingot premium, cif Southeast Asia, $/tonne MB-PB-0108 - Lead 99.99% ingot premium, cif Southeast Asia, $/tonne There are no proposed changes to the specifications of these assessments.
The consultation period for these proposed changes will end one month from the date of this pricing notice, with changes taking place, subject to market feedback, on Tuesday May 26. The price will subsequently be published on a bi-weekly basis every Tuesday.
To provide feedback on this proposal or if you would like to provide price information by becoming a data submitter to these assessments, please contact Julian Luk or Archie Hunter by email at
pricing@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading FAO: Julian Luk / Archie Hunter, re: Asian lead premiums assessment frequency.
To see all of Fastmarkets' pricing methodology and specification documents, go to
https://www.fastmarkets.com/about-us/methodology.