Fatty Acids Methodology Consultation – Summary of responses
Following the recent announcement that ICIS would be launching a formal methodology consultation process, we have received one formal response from the market. To read the anonymised public response, please click on the link below.
ICIS received in total one formal response to the Fatty Alcohols Methodology Consultation.
The issues raised in this response were: the lack of spot price assessments in the Europe report; the risk that the Europe contract assessments could be too high; a request for assessments to be based on net prices, with details of current discounts.
ICIS Decision
The consultation has not resulted in any feedback indicating ICIS should change its current methodology for deals-based reporting of fatty acid contract or spot markets in any of the geographical regions.
In response to the specific points about the Europe report from the sole respondent, ICIS investigated whether there is industry support for the addition of spot price assessments, and whether information can be obtained from the market about net prices and discounts. This survey was completed in October 2015.
There was not sufficient support from the European industry for the regular reporting of spot prices. However, ICIS will continue to try to ascertain these prices and include this information in the report commentary. At the point when it becomes possible to confirm spot prices on a weekly basis, ICIS will revisit the idea of adding a regular assessment.
Similarly, sources were unwilling to discuss the size of their discounts, and so ICIS cannot commit to reporting regularly on this.
To provide further comments or feedback please contact Barbara Ortner, Head of Market Reporting: Barbara.Ortner@icis.com
