The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) today announced publication of the ISDA Global Physical Coal Annex to the ISDA Master Agreement.
The Global Physical Coal Annex is intended to facilitate the purchase or sale of physical coal (sourced in the US or outside the US) on a spot or forward basis, or trading in options to purchase or sell physical coal. Consistent with the structure employed by ISDA in its other commodity-specific annexes such as power, gas and emissions, the new publication is an annex to the ISDA Master Agreement Schedule.
The Coal Annex was developed to standardize terms and to increase liquidity in the growing global physical coal trading market; expansion that has occurred as a result of the fact that coal is seen as a reliable alternative to rising energy costs. The Coal Annex will also allow market participants to enter into physical coal transactions, other physical commodity transactions and financial derivatives under one master agreement and will enable these contracts to be netted under the netting provisions of the ISDA Master Agreement in the event of a default. Finally, physical coal transactions will also have the benefit of collateralization under an ISDA Master Agreement and the related ISDA Credit Support Annex.
In order to ensure broad acceptance amongst current industry practitioners, ISDA based the new Coal Annex on the Coal Trading Association’s (CTA) Master Coal Purchase and Sale Agreement for US sourced coal; the Edison Electric Institute’s (EEI) Coal Annex to the EEI Master Power Purchase and Sale Agreement, also for US coal; and globalCOAL’s Standard Coal Trading Agreement (SCoTA®) (for coal sourced outside the US) each of which is already in use in the coal markets.
Of particular note is the global scope of the Coal Annex in that it offers users the option to document US Coal under Appendix 1 and International Coal under Appendix 2. Appendix 2 incorporates by reference SCoTA terms including globalCOAL’s Relevant Standard Specifications which set out terms, conditions and quality standards based on local port rules.
US coal products covered by the Annex include such source standards as CAPP-CSX, CAPP-NS, NYMEX and PRB, each delivered by rail, truck or barge. International coal products covered in the Coal Annex include that which is delivered by ship to delivery points such as: ARA, Puerto Bolivar (Colombia), Newcastle (Australia), Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RB1 and RB2) (South Africa) and various delivery points in Indonesia.
