Third Austrian EUA Auction 23 March 2010

On 23 March, the Austrian Government intends to hold its third EUA auction for 300,000 EUAs, within the EU ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme), on the Climex Platform.

For compliance companies under the EU ETS this is an excellent and accessible opportunity to become acquainted with an allocation auction held in the same format as the auctions organised in Phase III of the EU ETS are likely going to be; single round, closed order book and a single clearing price.

This 3rd Austrian auction will be exactly the same as the previous auctions; the competitive auction with 200,000 EUAs for sale and the non-competitive auction with 100,000 EUAs.

The competitive auction will be exactly similar to the format used so far by auctioning Governments and has received the EU consensus as the design for post 2013 Allocation Auctions.
The non-competitive auction was specially developed for SME not active on the trading market and offers them small number purchases of EUAs for their compliances, risk free and easily accessible. The minimum bid size is 50 EUAs. Participants in the non-competitive auction only bid for volumes, the price will be defined during the competitive auction.

During Phase II of the EU-ETS (2008 - 2012), the Austrian Government is allocating an annual average of 30.33 million emission allowances to Austrian installations participating in the EU ETS. According to the Austrian Allocation Plan and corresponding ordinance, 2 million EUAs (about 500,000 per year, starting 2009) - accounting for 1.3% of the total number - will be auctioned throughout this period, at two auctions per year.

The 1st Austrian Auction, consisting of a non-competitive and a competitive auction format, was successfully coordinated and conducted by Climex with the support of ÖEKV on 16 March 2009 on behalf of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management (BMLFUW). 205,050 EUAs were sold at €11.65, with 5,050 EUAs resulting from the non-competitive auction, leaving the remaining 94,950 EUAs from the non-competitive auction for later auctions.
The 2nd Austrian Auction was a competitive auction, which took place on 13 October 2009. A total of 200,000 EUAs was sold at €14.23.

The Austrian auctions are open to all parties with a Holding Account connected to the CITL. For further information about the auction, please contact the Climex Customer Service Desk. Companies interested in participating in the auction need to be a Member of Climex and need to fully collateralise their bids. There are no costs or obligations related to becoming a Member; for registration go to www.climex.com.

The official announcement regarding the auctions can be found on the website of the BMLFUW (www.lebensministerium.at) and the Austrian Emissions Trading Registry (www.emissionshandelsregister.at). The announcement will also be published at www.co2markt.at and www.climex.com, as well as all related news items and further details.