Argus Methanol
Daily methanol price assessments, contract benchmarks, news and analysis across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific in a single global service.
Overview
Argus Methanol is a daily pricing service covering physical spot and contract methanol markets across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. It publishes assessed prices, market commentary, fundamentals analysis and feedstock insight, to support trading decisions, contract negotiations and commercial planning.
Our coverage in the US is the leading benchmark among major methanol producers and consumers and we are proud to be a growing reference in Europe, where we publish a monthly methanol contract price, and Asia.
At a glance
- Daily methanol price assessments across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
- Spot and contract benchmarks for key methanol markets.
- Track low-carbon methanol prices and differentials.
- Monitor supply, demand and feedstock market drivers.
- Support contract negotiations with transparent price data.
Access insights via a daily PDF and Argus Direct®.
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Key features
Global methanol coverage
Daily methanol price assessments, news and analysis across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific, providing an integrated view of the global methanol market in a single service.
Spot and contract benchmarks
Methanol price assessments cover open spot market trades, posted contract prices and volume-weighted averages for key locations including the US Gulf Coast, Rotterdam and China main ports.
Low-carbon methanol prices
RED biomethanol price assessments for the US Gulf Coast, ARA range, China and India, including differentials to conventional methanol benchmarks.
Feedstocks and fundamentals
Analysis of methanol plant operating status, trade flows, supply and demand drivers, and the impact of feedstocks including crude oil and natural gas on methanol values.
Daily and weekly analysis
The daily PDF report delivers methanol price tables and market commentary. Friday editions include deeper regional performance coverage, fundamentals reporting and capacity analysis.
Access via Argus Direct
Prices, news and analysis are accessible through the Argus Direct platform, through custom workspaces, as a daily PDF report, and via electronic data feeds and third-party data integrators.
How Argus assesses methanol markets
- Daily and weekly market surveys
Argus conducts daily and weekly surveys of key industry participants to confirm transactions, bids and offers across methanol markets.
- Transaction verification
Reporters verify price, volume, specification, location and counterparty for each transaction before inclusion in a methanol price assessment.
- Judgment-based price assessment
When methanol transaction data is insufficient, reporters assess market value using bids, offers, spread values and other verified factual market inputs.
- Volume and deal specifications
Methanol transactions must meet minimum volume, delivery, timing and specification requirements as defined in the Argus Methanol methodology.
- Transparency in price reporting
Where available, Argus publishes methanol deal lists with price, basis and volume data, enabling subscribers to verify assessments against reported trades.
Who uses this service
Methanol producers and consumers
- Benchmark methanol contract settlements using assessed spot and contract prices.
- Support negotiations with transparent, methodology-based methanol price data.
- Monitor methanol supply, demand and feedstock dynamics for planning and budgeting.
Traders and distributors
- Identify arbitrage opportunities across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
- Track regional methanol price differentials to evaluate trade flow economics.
- Access daily methanol market commentary to inform position and risk management.
Investors and financial analysts
- Model methanol-exposed companies using reliable, consistent price series data.
- Track methanol market developments with news and expert fundamentals analysis.
- Access historical methanol price data to support risk assessment and valuation work.
Frequently asked questions
Key price assessments
Argus Methanol price assessments cover spot and contract markets across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Key benchmarks include fob Houston barge, fob Rotterdam barge and cfr China, used for trading, contract benchmarking and derivatives settlement.
