Still early days for formula prices

摘要

Many major Japanese and other Asian thermal coal buyers remain leery of using contract prices that are linked to indices, and the tonnages acquired using these formulas are small and experimental in nature, marketing officials in the region said. A source close to Rio Tinto, which has lately been the most active in convincing Asian utilities to price coal using an index-linked formulas, said: "I would definitely say (the practice) is experimental because the indexes in Asia are not quite developed properly yet."