Proposal to launch PIX containerboard price indices in the Gulf area

The containerboard market in the Gulf area is growing and there is currently no published price coverage there. We have observed an interest in market information, sufficient to warrant an independent price index series. Fastmarkets has successfully carried out a pilot program for testing the validity of local monthly testliner and fluting price indices in the GCC countries since September. The GCC countries include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The proposed specification for PIX Testliner GCC is as follows:

Description: PIX Containerboard Testliner Delivered GCC USD/tonne
Basis weight: 125 g/m²+
Unit: Metric ton
Quantity: Minimum 25 metric tons of prime quality in reels
Typical furnish: Recovered paper, primarily old corrugated containers (OCC)
Location: Produced in and delivered to: Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Imports from outside of the GCC countries are excluded.
Incoterm: Delivered to a buyer’s corrugated box/converting plant or warehouse. Most commonly DAP (delivered at place), i.e., the seller handles export and transit country formalities, while the buyer is responsible for import formalities.
Timing: Prices for actual deliveries during the data month.
Currency: USD
Payment terms: Net payment terms.
Duties: Customs and other duties paid. Excluding VAT.
Price type: Net price.
Publication: Monthly. At noon Helsinki time (EET/EEST) on the first Tuesday of the following month. (E.g.: The March index is published on the first Tuesday of April, based on prices intended for March deliveries.) If Tuesday falls on a public holiday in Finland, the index will be published on the first working day thereafter. Please see PIX publishing calendar at foex.fi.

The proposed specification for PIX Fluting GCC is as follows:

Description: PIX Containerboard Fluting Delivered GCC USD/tonne
Basis weight: 125 g/m²+
Unit: Metric ton
Quantity: Minimum 25 metric tons of prime quality in reels
Typical furnish: Recovered paper, primarily old corrugated containers (OCC)
Location: Produced in and delivered to: Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Imports from outside of the GCC countries are excluded.
Incoterm: Delivered to a buyer’s corrugated box/converting plant or warehouse. Most commonly DAP (delivered at place), i.e., the seller handles export and transit country formalities, while the buyer is responsible for import formalities.
Timing: Prices for actual deliveries during the data month.
Currency: USD
Payment terms: Net payment terms
Duties: Customs and other duties paid. Excluding VAT.
Price type: Net price.
Publication: Monthly. At noon Helsinki time (EET/EEST) on the first Tuesday of the following month. (E.g.: The March index is published on the first Tuesday of April, based on prices intended for March deliveries.) If Tuesday falls on a public holiday in Finland, the index will be published on the first working day thereafter. Please see PIX publishing calendar here.

The indices are based on actual transaction data from both buyers and sellers of containerboard. Weighting between price providers is achieved by assigning more price points to larger buyers/sellers than to smaller ones. PIX is a price average of all prices reported in the GCC region. Before calculating the arithmetical average, we remove the highest and lowest 10% of the number of price points.

The consultation period for this proposed launch starts from April 6, 2023, and will end on May 18, 2023. Fastmarkets treats feedback as anonymous. We will publish the outcome of this consultation on the Forest products methodology page under Pricing Notices by June 1, 2023, without attributing the responses in any way so as to protect the identity of respondents. Please specify whether your response is confidential, in which case we will not share it in any form.

To provide feedback on this proposal or if you would like to provide price information by becoming a data submitter, please email pricing.foex@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading ‘PIX Containerboard GCC’.

To see all Fastmarkets FOEX pricing methodology and specification documents see here.