E-commerce site Jumore to boost bulk trading of commodities

If Jumore, a new e-commerce service, has its way, China's manufacturers will soon find buying commodities in bulk from across the world a breeze and empowering too as it will likely cut costs and secure long-term supplies.

This has significance because China is now the world's largest consumer of bulk commodities, according to Liu Yufeng, secretary-general of the China Electronics Chamber of Commerce.

According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs, China bought 930 million metric tons of iron ore in 2014, up 13.8 percent year-on-year, and 310 million tons of crude oil, up 9.5 percent.

As China's first e-commerce site for bulk commodities, Jumore has set a goal to help manufacturing enterprises minimize cost of raw materials bought in global markets. Jumore will centralize procurement orders on a massive scale.

Lu Hongxiang, president of Zhejiang Jumore E-commerce Co Ltd, the parent company behind the platform, said it aims to be a bridge between manufacturing enterprises in China with companies around the world that make bulk commodities and industrial raw materials.

By enabling large-scale purchases on international markets, Jumore hopes to empower Chinese manufacturers to have a say in determining prices of bulk commodities in global markets and minimize costs.

The Hangzhou-based company is involved in chemicals, nonferrous metals, minerals, steel, energy and agricultural products.

"Being a cross-border e-commerce platform, Jumore is in line with globalization, and because trade in bulk commodities is global these days, it will bring new vitality to the manufacturing industry," Lu said. "The problems of the market represent an opportunity for Jumore."

It has already forged strategic cooperation with major enterprises in Kazakhstan and Russia, including United Co Rusal, the world's leading producer of aluminum.

Lu said the company will cooperate with resources-rich countries along the Belt and Road, including Southeast Asian countries. For instance, Indonesia has nickel minerals in abundance and the Philippines has plentiful supplies of copper.

Lu said Jumore's larger goal is to "help Chinese enterprises transition from the vicious circle of low prices, low profits and poor quality to the virtuous circle of high investment in research and development, high quality and high profit".

According to the China E-business Research Center, the country's cross-border e-commerce touched 4.2 trillion yuan ($656 billion) in 2014, up by 33.3 percent. Exports accounted for 85.4 percent. In terms of types of deals, the business-to-business segment accounted for 93.5 percent.

A report issued by UBS AG, the leading Swiss bank, showed that China's imports of bulk commodities and raw materials have increased by three-fold in the past decade years due to domestic construction boom. However, China has no power to influence prices of bulk commodities.

Liu said: "A cross-border e-commerce platform can become an accelerator of the e-business economy. There is a huge potential for an e-commerce service dealing in raw materials. Jumore provides a new model for bulk commodities trade."

Jumore has a center each for finance, R& D, future cash, big data, manufacturing industry and logistics. They provide solutions to the manufacturing industry for problems such as capital shortage, low profit margins and low value-added products.

Lu expects the traditional trade in bulk commodities to be replaced by e-commerce in the next five years.