NEW YORK, Sept. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A comprehensive array of news, market analysis and pricing is now available to the burgeoning biofuels sector through three new products from Platts, a leading global energy, petrochemicals and metals information provider and a premier source of benchmark price references.

"Platts has been covering biofuels for more than a decade in a variety of our publications," said Leon Yeo, Platts general manager of petrochemicals, "but given the industry's continuing growth in size, complexity and political importance, we are now putting a primary focus on biofuels and consolidating our content into a single line of products and services to serve the sector."

Platts this week introduced the following services and products:

    --  Platts Biofuels Alert (PBF): a new comprehensive real-time service
        providing breaking news, market analysis, and Platts price assessments
        for global ethanol, biodiesel, MTBE(1) and European ETBE(2).  The
        service consists of 60 live pages of prices, commentaries, regional
        plant operating and production rates, plant crushing rates and other
        associated content including U.S., Europe, Asia, South America ethanol
        and biodiesel. PBF is available through Platts' proprietary platform,
        Platts on the Net, (POTN) and Platts' distribution partners such as
        Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg and Global View and third-party platforms.
    --  Market Data-Biofuels: a flexible format, end-of day, data feed that
        facilitates  trend analysis and financial modeling, giving access to
        global price assessments for ethanol, biodiesel, MTBE, and European ETBE
        and including renewable identification numbers or RINs(3).  The data
        feed can be delivered directly by Platts as well as through its
        distribution partners. Historical and custom data sets are also
        available.
    --  Biofuelscan: a new end-of-day, daily PDF newsletter sent by email,
        containing Platts price assessments, commentary, charts and analysis of
        the global biofuels market, including ethanol, bioethanol, biodiesel,
        and ETBE.

With the exception of MTBE, Platts' biofuels content previously published in Platts Global Alert and Platts Petrochemical Alert will now be published solely in Platts Biofuels Alert.

For more information on the new Biofuels services, to request a content sample or a free trial, please email this address: biofuels@platts.com. For more information on Platts and petrochemicals visit the website at www.platts.com.

(1) MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, is a fuel oxygenate used in gasoline to help it burn more cleanly

(2) ETBE, or Ethyl tert-butyl ether, is a fuel oxygenate used in gasoline to help it burn more cleanly

(3) RINs are a numeric code assigned renewable fuels produced in or imported into the US that must be compliant to the U.S. government's Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

About Platts: Founded in 1909, Platts is a leading global provider of energy, petrochemicals and metals information and a premier source of benchmark prices for the physical and futures markets. Platts' news, pricing, analytics, commentary and conferences help customers make better-informed trading and business decisions and help the markets operate with greater transparency and efficiency. Customers in more than 150 countries benefit from Platts' coverage of the carbon emissions, coal, electricity, oil, natural gas, metals, nuclear power, petrochemical, and shipping markets. A division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), Platts is headquartered in New York with approximately 900 employees in more than 15 offices worldwide. Additional information is available at www.platts.com.

About The McGraw-Hill Companies: McGraw-Hill announced on September 12, 2011, its intention to separate into two companies: McGraw-Hill Financial, a leading provider of content and analytics to global financial markets, and McGraw-Hill Education, a leading education company focused on digital learning and education services worldwide. McGraw-Hill Financial's leading brands include Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, S&P Capital IQ, S&P Dow Jones Indices, Platts energy information services and J.D. Power and Associates. With sales of $6.2 billion in 2011, the Corporation has approximately 23,000 employees across more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/.

CONTACT:
Kathleen Tanzy
212-904-2860
Kathleen_tanzy@platts.com

SOURCE Platts

SOURCE: Platts