COVERAGE NOTE: Changes to North American pulp price assessments finalized

After reviewing stakeholder feedback, RISI announced that changes to its North American pulp price assessments originally proposed on January 12, 2015 will be implemented without modification.
The changes are as follows:
1) Rationalized publication of North American pulp prices across World Pulp Monthly, PPI Pulp & Paper Week (PPW) and online news (APRIL 2015)

These changes will go into effect as of April 2015.
2) Combined coverage of NBHK and SBHK; discontinue BCTMP price assessment (JULY 2015)

Bleached Hardwood Kraft: Because NBHK and SBHK prices have tracked so closely in recent years, to improve the liquidity of the market assessed, price assessments for NBHK (including mixed and aspen) and SBHK will be combined into a single assessment: BHK Mixed hardwood (US/Canadian sources). This applies to spot prices as well as contract prices in PPW and World Pulp Monthly.

Bleached CTMP: The price assessment for bleached CTMP in World Pulp Monthly will be discontinued due to the relatively small size of this market in North America. These changes will go into effect as of July 2015.

3) Improvements to current methodology (won't affect continuity of reported price series)

As outlined in the January 12 presentation, RISI is implementing improvements to standards and processes according to IOSCO's Principles for Oil Price Reporting Agencies. Full documentation of these improvements will be posted within the next few months.

These changes don’t change what is measured by RISI prices or the fundamentals of how prices are assessed, so won't affect the continuity of the reported price series.

Included in these changes is the transfer of responsibility for determining price assessments published in World Pulp Monthly from our pulp economists to the RISI Indices editorial team. Our pulp economists will continue to gather market and price information, and will share relevant price data with the RISI Indices team, but no longer will be responsible for determining the final published assessment.

This change is being made to separate responsibility for price assessment and price forecasting responsibilities according to the IOSCO guidelines.

4) Study of new net price assessment moving forward

RISI has received enough indications of interest in its proposed net price assessment that it will proceed in convening a working group of market stakeholders to flesh out the details of the new assessment.

If you are interested in hearing more about developed of this net price assessment, please contact Todd Petracek, VP of Markets & Compliance, at tpetracek@risi.com or 781-734-8915.