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The London Metal Exchange said on Thursday September 29 that it was actively reviewing the option of issuing a discussion paper on the continuing “warrantability” of Russia-origin metal.
Fastmarkets’ methodologies do not currently exclude Russian brands from the pricing process. We accept pricing data related to Russian brands from data contributors during the data collection process if it meets the specifications stated in our methodologies, some of which include a list of approved brands.
But Fastmarkets reviews all pricing data carefully to ensure that its price assessments reflect the “open and competitive” market level. Reporters therefore may apply expert judgement to exclude data deemed unrepresentative or unreliable prior to consideration of the final assessment.
This principle has led to data for Russian brands being discarded in recent months for certain metals. For example, some spot deals in the primary aluminium market were reported with large discounts and therefore discarded.
But this was not the case for all markets. Indeed, some Russian brands of other metals such as cobalt have traded in line with non-Russian brands at times in recent months.
Fastmarkets will closely monitor any action taken by the LME on the warrantability of Russian metal. For its base metals price assessments, Fastmarkets follows the guidance of the LME and its regulators regarding any suspensions or delistings of brands for political reasons or economic sanctions.
As a regulated global price reporting agency, Fastmarkets complies with international trade sanctions and recognizes that several entities will no longer deal with Russian brands despite these brands not being sanctioned. Fastmarkets will engage with the market on its approved brands as part of its annual methodology review, which is about to start for all of its IOSCO-accredited prices, including aluminium and cobalt.
Russia started its military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Fastmarkets and its parent company Euromoney have stopped all business dealings with Russian and Belarusian customers and suppliers since then.
For more information, or to provide feedback on this notice, or if you would like to provide price information by becoming a data submitter, please contact Perrine Faye by email at pricing@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading: “FAO: Perrine Faye, re: treatment of Russian brands in Fastmarkets’ methodologies.”
To see all of Fastmarkets’ pricing methodology and specification documents, go to: https://www.fastmarkets.com/about-us/methodology.