Response

Phenol Methodology Consultation – Summary of responses

Following the recent announcement that ICIS would be launching a formal methodology consultation process, we have received a number of responses from key market players. To read the public responses, one public and four anonymised, please click on the links below.

ICIS received in total 10 responses to the Phenol Methodology Consultation.

ICIS Initial Decision

The responses do not provide sufficient feedback for ICIS to change its current methodology for deals-based reporting of phenol contract or spot markets in any of the geographical regions.

In response to the specific consultation questions about the CFR China assessments in the Asia Pacific reports, ICIS intends to make the following changes:

5A In line with market feedback, ICIS will end the normalisation of CFR China prices for Phenol. A subscriber note will be published on the weekly Phenol report from 21 March through to 25 April, 2014. The new assessment methodology will be implemented from 2 May 2014 to allow market participants sufficient time to adapt to the change.

5B In line with market feedback, ICIS will not carry two CFR China assessments (ICIS will not keep the existing normalised assessment while adding a second denormalised assessment)

6. In line with market feedback, ICIS will not introduce a bonded US dollar price assessment.

7. In view of the lack of market consensus and in view of the absence of assessable information, ICIS will not replace the existing CFR China assessment with a new CFR northeast Asia (CFR NE Asia) assessment. A new CFR NE Asia assessment will be considered in the future when assessable information becomes available and verifiable.

8. In line with market feedback, ICIS will not introduce a new FOB NE Asia assessment.

9. In line with market feedback, ICIS will not publish a mid-point for the CFR China assessment.

10. In line with market feedback, ICIS will not normalise phenol of Singapore and Thai origin into India.

To provide further comments or feedback on the ICIS phenol methodology, please contact:

Barbara Ortner: Barbara.Ortner@icis.com

This document is not open for consultation