To bring more transparency to coal markets, Platts publishes Coal Industry Markers for five locations. Each week, industry participants submit their views of the state of the market. Platts then applies a public methodology to calculate the marker prices and, by agreement of the contributors, publishes the name of each company participating in that week's survey.

For the Atlantic Basin prices - CIF ARA (delivered to the Northwest Europe port complex of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp) and FOB Richards Bay (South Africa) -- Platts also publishes each input price, including those ultimately discarded, without matching which price came from which contributor, to maintain confidentiality. For all points, including the three Pacific Basin price points -- FOB Newcastle (Australia) and two for FOB Kalimantan (Indonesia) -- Platts publishes the high/low range of prices used and the number of discarded inputs, if any.

Following an introductory period of complimentary access to familiarize the coal industry with its CIMs initiative, Platts is now making the prices available to all on a subscription basis. For more information, please click here.

Please contact us with any queries at: coal@platts.com, or phone James O'Connell at +44 (0)20 7176 6661.

For a sample of the CIMs prices, click on the spreadsheet below:

Source: Platts International Coal Report