Amid stringent environmental concerns, the future of Platts NEAT will have growing importance in the Northeast Asia region due to increasing needs of switching between different generation fuel types for both consumption and trading. Moreover, there will be a shift from medium and long term contracts to spot trading activities in the region as the government supports coal-fired utilities with high-efficiency while maintaining a low cost of electricity. Due to the shrinking demand of coal by individual countries in the global coal market, a normalized price assessment on a delivered basis like Platts NEAT targeting the Northeast Asian region is expected to have growing relevance for the region in the future.
In Southeast Asia, nearly 100 GW of new coal-fired capacity is set to come online mainly in Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia, despite the increasing public opposition to the development of coal-fired power plants in countries such as Thailand and the Philippines as well as renewables push and more challenges in financing, coal demand in Southeast Asia remains significant in the energy mix. As Platts shifts its focus away from a FOB dominated market to a more CFR centric market, Platts SEAT will accompany the Platts NEAT to give the company a clearer direction in alignment with the evolving market dynamics, and a further redirection of global thermal coal assessments.
