Platts to switch Brazil biodiesel contract fees to volume-weighted average
Platts will replace simple-average Brazil biodiesel contract fees with a volume-weighted method on Sept. 1. The change comes as B15 lifts demand and regional logistics drive price discovery.
Platts on Sept. 1 will switch Brazil biodiesel contract fee indexes to a volume-weighted average across eight regional benchmarks, replacing its current simple average method. The change is aimed at a market where contract fees reflect producer margins and distance from fuel distribution centers.
The methodology update builds on the eight bi-monthly regional biodiesel contract indices Platts launched in Brazil on July 1, 2025. At launch, Platts said the biodiesel term contract market accounted for about 90% of transacted sector volumes, leaving the spot market as a much smaller slice of trading. Platts also said it would calculate and publish daily term contract prices by region using bi-monthly fees, while screening out anomalous data after surveying market participants.
That survey pool has already been sizable. Platts said it surveyed 46 companies between Aug. 19 and Aug. 29, 2025, to calculate biodiesel term contract fees across eight key microregions. In the May-June assessment, it surveyed 48 companies from April 24 to April 30, 2026, and one company was out of negotiations during the period. Shifting to a volume-weighted average should give more weight to the fee levels where trading is concentrated, rather than treating every reported deal or quote as equally representative.
The timing lines up with a stronger blending mandate. Brazil’s National Energy Policy Council approved B15 on June 25, 2025, lifting the mandatory biodiesel blend in diesel from 14% to 15% effective Aug. 1, 2025, alongside an increase in gasoline ethanol to E30 from E27. The council had already pushed B15 back from March 1, 2025, after concern over high biodiesel feedstock prices and food inflation. Brazil shifted its biodiesel trading model from public auctions to bimonthly contracts in January 2022, and the latest benchmark revision is meant to make the logistics fee component and outright biodiesel pricing easier to compare as the market grows.
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