Decision to launch FOB Indonesia, Vietnam, India inferred indices for Australian alumina index

The launch of the three new inferred indices follows positive industry feedback and requests for additional transparency in these growing markets.

Following the consultation, the alumina index inferred, fob Indonesia, the alumina index inferred, fob Vietnam, and the alumina index inferred, fob India, were launched on Monday September 2.

An inferred number is a calculation using existing Fastmarkets prices. The new inferred indices will take the daily alumina index, fob Australia, and apply the relevant assessed netback rate.

Data relating to trades outside the FOB Bunbury, Australia, base specification is currently normalized using models developed in-house and based on regression analysis of the collected data points from the previous month and is updated on the first working day of each month. The same method will be applied for the proposed inferred indices.

Fastmarkets decided not to publish the netbacks as a standalone percentage rate on the Fastmarkets platform due to lack of industry demand to do so.

The price specifications are as follows:

MB-ALU-0019 – Alumina index inferred, fob Indonesia, $/tonne
Quality: Smelter grade alumina, minimum purity of 98.5% AI2O3
Location: FOB Indonesia
Unit: USD per tonne
Publication: Daily at 4-5pm UK time

MB-ALU-0018 – Alumina index inferred, fob India, $/tonne
Quality: Smelter grade alumina, minimum purity of 98.5% AI2O3
Location: FOB India
Unit: USD per tonne
Publication: Daily at 4-5pm UK time

MB-ALU-0020 – Alumina index inferred, fob Vietnam, $/tonne
Quality: Smelter grade alumina, minimum purity of 98.5% AI2O3
Location: FOB Vietnam
Unit: USD per tonne
Publication: Daily at 4-5pm UK time

The first publication of the new prices was on Monday September 2 2024.

These prices will be part of the Fastmarkets base metals package.

To provide feedback on this consultation, or if you would like to provide price information by becoming a data submitter to this market, please contact Laura Roberts by email at pricing@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading “FAO Laura Roberts re: FOB Australia alumina index netbacks.”

Please indicate if comments are confidential. Fastmarkets will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request.

To see all of Fastmarkets’ pricing methodology and specification documents, go to: https://www.fastmarkets.com/methodology.