Assurance review
Every year we carry out independent assurance reviews for all our commodity benchmarks. We successfully completed the latest independent assurance review of our benchmarks in October 2018.
Compliance and ethics
We operate a rigorous and transparent control framework to govern our price reporting activities. This is underpinned by our global compliance policy, which can be downloaded below, and includes an ethics policy. Our Global Compliance Officer oversees the compliance framework, including a rolling programme of internal audits to ensure compliance with stated methodologies and policies. Our global compliance policy provides guidance on the following:
- Context
- Best practice
- Corporate structure and governance
- Ethics policy
- Staff
- Data and data security
- Corrections policy
- Methodology and compliance
- External audit
- Consultation and communication
- Argus complaints handling process
- Queries
Methodology
We use a market-appropriate methodology to assess prices in the markets we cover. We consult with many different types of participants involved in each market, and publish methodologies for each price report on our website.
Consultation and review
We continually review each methodology to ensure that it always meets the needs of market participants and is in line with industry practice. We seek to accurately and objectively reflect the way markets are traded, rather than impose a different view.
Response to consultation on changes to LPG assessments
In October and November 2018, Argus Media published an LPG formal consultation notification.
London, 19 October (Argus) — In response to requests from market participants, Argus proposes to narrow the spread used in the event that only assessment-relevant bids or offers are available in the market at the time of assessment — as described on page 7 of the Argus International LPG methodology — to $6/t from $10/t.
Argus also proposes to move from rounding bids and offers to the nearest dollar, to the nearest 50¢.
The consultation received one response from a stakeholder that agreed that their response could be published.
Argus response
In response to feedback from the market in the course of a formal methodological consultation within the framework of the IOSCO principles for Price Reporting Agencies, Argus Media issued the following announcement.
Argus to narrow northwest European and Mediterranean propane and butane spreads to $6/t from $10/t
Following consultation, Argus will narrow the price spread published in the event that only assessment-relevant bids or offers are available in the market at the time of the assessment to $6/t from $10/t. The change will take effect on Wednesday 2 January 2019.
Following consultation Argus will also begin rounding bids and offers to the nearest 50¢ instead of the nearest dollar in early 2019. A precise date for this change cannot be announced at this time for technical reasons, but will be announced shortly.
Responses to consultation on changes to coal assessments
In December 2017, Argus Media published a thermal coal formal consultation notification. The consultation proposed that the specifications for the Argus cif ARA and fob Richards Bay 6000 price assessments should be widened to incorporate a minimum calorific value of 5,700kcal/kg.
The consultation also recommended that the minimum cargo size for the Argus cif ARA (5,850kcal/kg) price assessment be reduced to 25,000t, with effect from 26 February 2018.
The consultation ran for five weeks and many different issues were raised in the process, including:
- What happens to the current index – for longer term deals?
- Shouldn’t the specification match the globalCOAL DES ARA 5700 contract?
- Why change volume size to 25,000t for DES ARA?
- Why not publish parallel indexes? Several market participants asked for additional data on the size of the 5700 market and the number of trades.
- Why raise the max ash to 18pc on Fob Richards Bay 5700 contract?
The consultation received 26 responses, but only four stakeholders agreed that their responses could be published.
Argus response:
In response to feedback from the market in the course of a formal methodological consultation within the framework of the IOSCO principles for Price Reporting Agencies, Argus Media is launching two new physical thermal coal assessments, covering the lower calorific value 5,700 kcal/kg activity for CIF ARA and FOB Richards Bay.
The launch of these assessments will not compromise the integrity of the current API2 and API 4 indexes. In due course, Argus will initiate a review process, in conjunction with stakeholders, to determine if the cif ara and fob rb 5,700 kcal/kg pricing is sufficiently robust and transparent to form the basis of new benchmark indexes.
For further information, please contact Dan Hayes.
Editorial code of conduct
All our reporters and editors operate according to a rigorous editorial code of conduct which aligns with best journalistic practice, including the avoidance of conflicts of interest. Our code of conduct provides guidance on the following:
- Accuracy
- Confidential sources
- Impartiality
- Conflicts of interest
- Professionalism
- Plagiarism
- Attribution and sourcing
- Questions about this code
Regulatory responses
Argus maintains an active public policy programme to keep abreast of relevant international developments. We regularly engage with policy makers, regulators, governments and other industry bodies to promote transparent and efficient wholesale commodity markets.
Comments and complaints
Argus has a formal complaints handling procedure, which can be found on page 6 of the Global Compliance Policy. For further information on this policy and any compliance issues, please contact us.
Modern slavery statement
Argus takes its legal responsibilities under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 seriously. Read our statement about the steps we have taken to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking in our business and among our suppliers.