Introduction to Price-Reporting Agencies

Daniel Massey

Price-reporting agencies (PRAs) are publishers that report on and bring transparency to the physical commodity markets. They are a longstanding and critical part of the global commodity market infrastructure. They provide much-needed transparency, allowing markets to function efficiently, clear surpluses and optimise costs.

PRAs publish price assessments of the prevailing open-market price level in specific physical markets according to specific published methodologies. Within the commodities space, PRAs assess the price of numerous energy, agricultural, chemical and metal commodities. They publish their assessments daily, weekly or monthly, and allow access to them in exchange for a subscription fee. PRAs also publish databases, analysis and real-time market news, and some are involved in related businesses, such as consultancy and conference production. PRAs are independent of the markets they report on and have no vested interest in the level of any price assessment that they publish.

PRAs compete with one another to publish the most accurate and most relevant assessment of a commodity’s price. While some PRAs choose to focus on a particular region or commodity, most