Anatomy of a Price Assessment
What defines an individual price assessment?
Summary
Each assessment is a distinct monthly price series pinned down by a combination of commercial descriptors — location, market side, price type, and commercial basis — plus, where applicable, a freight derivation from a reference assessment.
Every commodity is covered through one or more price assessments, and each assessment is a distinct monthly series identified by the combination of descriptors it carries:
- Location — where the price applies, at any level of the Intratec geographic hierarchy (see
At which geographic levels are assessments defined? ). - Market side — the flow the price measures, for example export, import, or domestic sales.
- Price type — the pricing arrangement, for example spot, long-term contract, or transaction price.
- Commercial basis — the delivery terms the price reflects, for example FOB, CFR, EXW, or DDP.
- Freight derivation (where applicable) — a netback or netforward relationship deriving the series from a reference assessment, as described in What are freight-based prices?.
The values named for each descriptor are examples, not a closed list — the assessment catalog records the exact definition of every published series. Each series also follows a single assessment approach — compiled, trade-based, formula-based, manufacturing cost-based, or freight-based — which is fixed for that series and disclosed at the series level; the approaches themselves are detailed in Price Assessments.
For diammonium phosphate, "US — export spot price, FOB, US Gulf" and "SAM — import spot price, CFR, Brazil (netforward from FOB Saudi Arabia)" are two separate assessments of the same commodity: different locations, market sides, commercial bases, and, in the second case, a freight derivation from a reference benchmark.
How many assessments can one commodity carry?
There is no fixed rule. A commodity with a concentrated market may carry a single assessment in one region, while a widely traded commodity may carry several assessments within the same region or across several regions — whatever set of series best represents its international trade. The selection follows the location criteria described in How are assessment locations selected?: key markets with reliable data.
Diammonium phosphate is covered through multiple assessments spanning several world regions — among them a United States export spot price (FOB, US Gulf), a South America import spot price (CFR, Brazil), and a Europe domestic spot price (DDP, United Kingdom).
The assessment catalog is the current reference for exactly which series exist for each commodity.
At which geographic levels are assessments defined?
An assessment's location can sit at any level of the Intratec geographic hierarchy: an individual country (for example, the United States), a sub-region (South America), a region (Europe), or the global level, used where a single assessment represents a worldwide market. The hierarchy itself — four regions dividing into sub-regions, which group individual countries — is the same framework shared by every Intratec solution and is defined in World Regions.
The level chosen for each series reflects how its market actually trades: a price formed in one national market is assessed at country level, while a price that is effectively uniform across a broader area is assessed at sub-region, region, or global level. The catalog states the location of every series explicitly, always using the Intratec region, sub-region, and country nomenclature.
What specification does an assessment reflect?
Each assessment reflects the commodity's most typical specification and packaging in the market it measures. This is an outcome of the data homogeneity analysis: trade records are clustered so that a series tracks one consistent product rather than a blend of dissimilar grades, as described in How is data homogeneity handled?.
Where a commodity trades in several commercially distinct grades, each grade is assessed as its own series rather than averaged into one figure — the grade is, in effect, part of the series' identity. The assessment catalog states the specification each series reflects.
The diammonium phosphate assessments reflect fertilizer grade — 18% N / 46% P₂O₅ — the specification most typical of international DAP trade.
In which units is each assessment published?
Each assessment is published in the currency and quantity unit most common in its market — the basis in which that market actually quotes and trades. Because market practice varies, the publication basis can differ between locations even for the same commodity; the series stays faithful to its market rather than forcing a single artificial basis across all of them.
Every series is also identified by a unique assessment code — the identifier that ties the same series together across price charts, the Excel Add-In, and the API. The assessment catalog lists each series' code, location, specification, and publication basis in one place.
See a Full Commodity Sample (Diammonium Phosphate)