Final decision of open consultation on IOSCO-audited non-ferrous price assessments, indices

Fastmarkets invited feedback from the industry on the pricing methodology for its International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)-audited non-ferrous materials, via an open consultation process between October 5 and November 3, 2023. This consultation was done as part of our published annual methodology review process.

This consultation sought to ensure that our methodologies continue to reflect the physical market of for our audited alumina, aluminium, cobalt, copper, lithium, spodumene, nickel sulfate, graphite and manganese ore prices, in compliance with the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) principles for Price Reporting Agencies (PRAs). This includes all elements of our pricing process, our price specifications and publication frequency.

Full details of the prices covered by this consultation can be found here.

No feedback was received during the consultation period and therefore no changes will be made to the methodologies at this stage, with the exception of the manganese ore and cobalt prices.

Fastmarkets has started an informal consultation on manganese ore related to individual grades in response to market feedback. A formal consultation will be launched in the near future and a pricing notice published.

Fastmarkets has received feedback regarding its specifications for cobalt, and will look to start informal discussions on a potential consultation and publish a notice with more detail about this at a later date, should it be deemed necessary. In the meantime, Fastmarkets welcomes any initial feedback on cobalt brands on an ongoing basis.

Fastmarkets invites feedback on a continuing basis throughout the year on all markets.

Fastmarkets has in the past month separately launched a consultation inviting feedback on a potential discontinuation of its lithium contract price assessments to reflect the evolving lithium marketplace, where long-term contract negotiations are increasingly linked to spot price indexation. View the open consultation, here. 

To provide comment or feedback on the content of the IOSCO-audited non-ferrous methodologies, or if you would like to provide price information by becoming a data submitter to these prices or indices, please email pricing@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading “FAO: Fleur Ritzema/Juliet Walsh, re: IOSCO non-ferrous methodologies.” Please indicate if comments are confidential. Fastmarkets will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request.

You can find the current methodology for the IOSCO-audited non-ferrous materials here https://www.fastmarkets.com/methodology.

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

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