Methodology workshops for ICIS chemical pricing

Price assessments being at the heart of our business at ICIS, I've been involved with some methodology workshops in Houston and London over the last couple of weeks. In my role as head of market reporting, it's been interesting to hear from our pricing editors about the varying discount structures and contract settlement processes across different chemical markets.

We've been looking at markets with numerous players and ones with a shrinking number of participants, and discussing the individual methodology approaches which are appropriate. We have to keep moving to keep up with perpetually evolving markets.

Each week I sign off on structural changes to the market reports. In recent weeks we've had plenty of report changes, including:

• Adding quotes in eight local currencies to the Latin American polymers reports;
• Adding rupee quotes to various polymer and solvent reports which include India;
• Changing the US fatty acids spot assessments to monthly contracts.

We've also been redefining delivery terms and filling in gaps where we haven't previously had coverage. Asia is undoubtedly the region which is evolving the fastest, and developments on the ICIS Asia and Middle East reports come across my desk (or screen) in a constant stream. The end-result is always good, but sometimes the journey there can be a bit tortuous.