Cooperation of representatives from UTIPULP and EPIS ensures buyers' and sellers' interests are fully represented.
FOEX announced the publication of a revised methodology for compiling its PIX European pulp price indices. Based on nine months of collaboration with the FOEX European pulp working group, including representatives of UTIPULP and EPIS, the revised methodology was designed to maintain continuity in the PIX indices while making them more reliable and verifiable.
"After many months of focused work, we have achieved our goal of refining current specifications to achieve an even more reliable and transparent price discovery system for NBSKP and BHKP in Europe," said Timo Teräs, Managing Director of FOEX, referring to Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft Pulp (NBSKP) and Bleached Hardwood Kraft Pulp (BHKP). The methodology also clarifies various definitions to ensure there is no ambiguity for data providers in determining which transactions are covered by the index.
In a joint statement, Ari Borg, representing EPIS, and Paul Bartmann, representing UTIPULP, said, "It is important that the pulp and paper industry through our organisations has taken part in the process to refine the PIX indices, and we support the resulting methodology revisions."
While working to improve the methodology, FOEX and the working group of market participants kept a clear view of the need to maintain continuity of prices over time. Teräs explained, "Market participants rely on PIX indices to settle long-term contracts, so we need to ensure that the indices accurately measure the change in market prices between any two points of time, and that none of the definitions of what the index represents or which types of transactions it reflects have changed materially." The indices still represent the gross weighted average contract price of physical trades of pulp occurring each week.
