Argus Launches North American Wood Chip Price Assessments

HOUSTON, USA, Jan 5, 2011 - International energy pricing agency Argus today launched North American wood chip assessments. This expansion into US and Canadian wood chip pricing complements Argus' coverage of US wood pellet prices and its broader European biomass indexation.

"Argus understands the global significance of renewable fuels, and we are pleased to be at the forefront, providing transparency to emerging biomass markets," Argus Media chairman and chief executive, Adrian Binks said.

The US and Canada are two of the world's largest producers and exporters of wood chips, which are increasingly used to fuel power plants and district heating systems – either alone, with wood pellets or co-fired with coal. Growing demand from the North American market has prompted Argus' recent decision to provide weekly industrial wood chip price assessment.

Prices for new delivery locations include fob and cif assessments for metric tonne and short ton values. Including cif and fob delivered values to terminals that often serve as export facilities reflects the increased importance of these locations as sources of wood chips for both export and domestic North American markets. Publishing prices in dollars per short ton as well as dollars per metric tonne reflects trade in both export and domestic markets.

The new prices are for cargoes loading at, and shipments delivered to:

* Portland, Oregon (includes Longview)
* Tacoma, Washington
* Vancouver, British Columbia
* Mobile, Alabama
* Morehead City, North Carolina
* Sheet Harbor, Nova Scotia

Wood chip and pellet price assessments are published in Argus Biomass Markets, a weekly report that provides market commentary, news and analysis of power generation economics. Specifications for wood chips and wood pellets are listed in the methodology for Argus Biomass Markets on the Argus website.

For further information please contact: Tammy Tiedt in Houston at +1 713 429 6309, or tammy.tiedt@argusmedia.com.

About Argus Media

Argus is a leading provider of price assessments, business intelligence and market data on the global crude and products, natural gas, coal, electricity, emissions and transportation industries. It is headquartered in London and has offices in Houston, Washington, New York, Portland, Calgary, Johannesburg, Dubai, Singapore, Tokyo, Beijing, Sydney, Moscow, Astana, Kiev, Santiago and other key centres of the energy industry. Argus was founded in 1970 and is a privately held UK-registered company. Learn more at www.argusmedia.com.