Blockchain-based global e-trading platform for physical commodities launched in Singapore

Commodities Intelligence Centre (CIC) has launched Singapore’s first physical commodity B2B e-trading platform, together with partners Zall Smartcomm, a major B2B player in China; Global eTrade Services (GeTS) Asia, a CrimsonLogic subsidiary, and Singapore Exchange (SGX). Enterprise Singapore also played a role in bringing CIC's partners together.

CIC is a one-stop global trading platform built on Blockchain technology that will provide commodity traders around the world access to a range of services from transaction matching, one-click customs clearance, to supply chain financing and payment term options, as well as greater pooling of resources for both buyers and sellers.

CIC trades in products such as oil and petroleum, chemicals and plastic, as well as ferrous and non-ferrous metals. The CIC platform was trialled in July, and has nearly reached turnover of US$200 million in trade across markets such as China, Australia, India, and Malaysia. Successful transactions include a Chinese silk-related transaction to India, as well as the import of polyvinylpyrrolidones (PVP) materials from the UAE into China.

Powered by Blockchain, the CIC platform boasts of enhanced security across trade-related documents, from Certificates of Origin to commercial invoices. This enhances the transparency and trust between shippers, freight-forwarders and users, while providing a strategic edge to businesses trading on the platform.

Source: CIC. Yu.

Peter Yu, CEO, CIC said the e-trading platform creates greater trading synergies within and beyond ASEAN with China, and the rest of the world as well. "With its strategic location and the opportunity to form an alliance with giants like Zall Smartcom, GeTS and SGX, Singapore was the perfect base to launch this platform,” he said.

Enterprise Singapore’s Assistant CEO Satvinder Singh added, “Commodity trading remains a critical growth pillar for Singapore’s economy having generated US$1.2 trillion in turnover in 2017, driven by a sustained global economy and demand from Asia. The presence of digital B2B platforms like CIC in Singapore, along with Singapore’s excellent connectivity, supply chain and financing ecosystem, will strengthen Singapore’s position as a global trading hub.”

“CIC is going to be a game-changing platform for Singapore’s commodity trading community. As a shareholder and technology partner of CIC, GeTS and its CALISTA platform orchestrates the key physical and non-physical – such as regulatory and financial – logistics activities on a digital ecosystem, making commodity trading easier, accessible, and predictable,” said Eugene Wong, Chairman of CrimsonLogic and GeTS.

“Importantly, CIC can revolutionise commodity trading by attracting more buyers and sellers globally to come on board, with the potential to lower and even stabilise the cost of commodities.”

CIC has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Marubeni, a leading Japanese integrated trading and investment business conglomerate. The agreement aims to unlock commodities trade opportunities for supply chain finance.

Source: CIC. Supported by Zall, GeTS and SGX in Singapore, the MOU signing was witnessed by Iwasa San, MD, Marubeni ASEAN, and Sharon Chou, CFO, CIC at the official launch of the CIC platform.

Marubeni’s interest to collaborate with Zall Smartcom comes off the back of the company’s plans to provide comprehensive trade financing capabilities to international small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) through more finance channels. The MoU sees Marubeni integrating the CIC to facilitate more payment term options to bridge buyers and sellers globally with greater ease and efficiency. The CIC platform will also help the business to streamline global trade by matching buyers and sellers of commodities, while also providing supply chain financing, faster clearance, and logistics services.

Tiger Brokers arrives in Singapore

China-based international securities firm Tiger Brokers has further expanded in Asia on the heels of its growth in mainland China. The latest version of Tiger Trade, its one-stop trading platform for global asset allocation with a focus on US stocks, now supports Chinese-speaking retail investors in Singapore.  

The Tiger Trade app provides data on individual stocks, technical indicators and global news, all in Chinese, enabling Chinese investors to trade stocks across capital markets worldwide. Offerings are low-commission and support cross-border investment.

Tiger Trade will also provide fast trade execution, competitive transaction fees, background information in Chinese as well as transaction services for US, Hong Kong and mainland China A-shares, with trades for stocks in all three of the markets handled through a single deposit in one account.

Tiger Brokers founder and CEO Wu Tianhua said that Singaporean investors can open an account online in three minutes. In addition to access to US stocks, Hong Kong stocks, and China A-shares, Tiger Brokers supports transactions involving securities margin trading in addition to 13,000 US stocks, share options and ETF products.

Wu explained: "Our goal is to make Tiger Trade the app of choice for any Chinese speaking investor with an international investment portfolio. Growth in securities trading apps is an inevitable trend, in tandem with the accelerating popularity of smartphones and driven by the demand by Asia-based investors for a more globally diversified allocation of their assets."

Over US$100 million in transactions were booked through Tiger Trade in the first month following the platform's launch. The dollar value of transactions handled through Tiger Trade jumped 22 times in the more than one year following the initial launch, topping US$2.2 billion a month.

According to Tiger Brokers, Singapore-based investors typically face substantial fees when trading US stocks through the existing choice of venues compared to a similarly-placed investor in the US. The minimum commission required per transaction is priced at several tens of dollars.

Tiger Brokers users enjoy commissions as low as US$0.01 per share with a minimum of US$2.99 per transaction when trading US stocks. As an illustration, if the investor completes one transaction per week, involving 300 shares, he or she will save US$30 per transaction on average or US$1,500 in one year.

Tiger Brokers' shareholders include Xiaomi Technology and Citic Securities.

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