Supply Chain Archives — blkcommodities.com

BLK – The Raw Materials and Commodity Marketplace

Source cheaper, global, direct.

BLK was born as the digital marketplace dedicated to commodities and raw materials.

It was born from the awareness that the digitalization of commodity trading is not a question of if, but of when.

It was born to allow anyone, regardless of the size of their company, to buy directly from producers, wherever they are, paying the real value of the goods, thanks to a transparent and digital market.

Our mission is to allow anyone to purchase the raw materials they need for their business, with a simple click. It is inevitable, we saw it happen in the late 1990s with the disruption of retail at the hands of those who are now e-commerce giants.

It will happen again, for B2B purchases. It is already happening. BLK is its driving force.

Marketplace

Buy raw materials for your business from the comfort of your home

The platform that allows anyone to buy securely, in a few simple clicks. It allows you to find local and global suppliers, compare prices, specifications, delivery terms. And to buy as today we are all used to doing, online, from the comfort of home.

Thanks to the automatic invoicing and order generation as well as integrated accounting, today BLK saves 1000s man hours per year in administration tasks.

Micro and small businesses, the target market of our marketplace, have halved their procurement costs (on average a reduction from 40% to 60%).

Blkcommodities.com is the home of over $1B worth of trade, and active across 7 main categories.

Agricultural
Chemicals
Energy
Construction
Main Bulks
Industrial
Metals

Our Marketplace division has been growing on a quarterly rate of 270%+ and, to date, suppliers on our marketplace trade $332M-worth of chemical commodities; $242M of metal products (including grade A steel, stainless steel and high-strength alloys); $238M of Agriculturalgoods and $219M of energy products. Find out more about our marketplace’s key indicators here.

Supply Chain

At BLK we put at your disposal our expertise in supply chain management, international negotiations and project management to make our partners’ operations leaner, more effective and more profitable.

We pool the volume of multiple businesses with that of buyers across the UK and Italy, using the aggregated purchasing power to negotiate better deals with suppliers globally.

We scout, vet and negotiate directly with manufacturers on behalf of our partners, organizing logistics and providing a complete supply chain management solution to keep fixed costs as lean as possible, whilst reducing variable costs.

In this case, we address corporate and medium-sized enterprises, helping them to streamline their procurement processes, automate order generation, invoicing and reporting, with the aim of increasing their competitiveness on foreign markets.

Decarbonizaiton

decarbonisation — Reduce the environmental impact of your supply chain and earn with carbon credits.

We help our partners reduce their environmental impact by purchasing from local suppliers or by aggregating volume with that of other companies. In addition, we organize logistics in the most environmentally friendly way possible, reducing the overall emissions of our customers’ supply chain.

Companies that rely on us can also earn from this emission cut: their lower environmental impact is rewarded with Carbon Credits, which can be exchanged on the European Environmental Exchange.

With BLK, going green means generating a whole new revenue stream!

Rating

BLK Rate — **Quality – Cost – Service Delivery are the foundations of our criteria**

BLK developed a proprietary (patent pending) rating system to assess the key metrics of our customers and suppliers.

Quality – Cost – Service Delivery are the foundations of our criteria.

We help companies understand their positioning in the market based on these three areas and support them in improving their positioning through a detailed guide that translates into operational and actionable advice.

In addition, our rating provides further confirmation of the standing of suppliers, allowing those who buy to base their decisions on relevant parameters and on the awareness of having available commercial partners previously evaluated with a thorough level of scrutiny which goes beyond the mere financial report.

Investor Relations

Headquartered in Glasgow, BLK has been selected as one of the UK’s top 30 tech start-ups.

After a seed round concluded in January 2021, we are supported by Italy’s #1 accelerator and one of Europe’s top venture builders: Enry’s Island. We have a 10-strong team distributed between the UK, Italy and the United Arab Emirates.

Team

Led by founders from shipping, commodity trading, project management and banking, the BLK team is structured in four units: Product, Market, Fundraising and Corporate, each in charge of specific tasks and well positioned to support BLK’s rapid growth.

Product: designers and developers

Market: one-to-one sales, one-to-many sales and digital PR

Fundraising: investor relations

Corporate: HR, legal, supply chain

Discover More

To learn more about how we could build a strategic partnership, both industrial and fundraising, contact:

Gabriele Dadò – Founder & CEO gabriele.dado@blk-global.com +44 7757630638

BLK Shipping Weekly – Shipping Rates Updates

04 JULY 2021

Welcome to BLK Shipping Weekly, our update from the shipping market. In this issue, we’ll be covering:

Wet Cargo
Dry Cargo
Containers
Gas

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date with our Shipping Weekly and follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn to never miss an update.

Wet Cargo

The increasing price of crude oil has been driving the tankers’ charter rates up, with significant boom this week, especially for the Black Sea – Med routes. The barrel price above $75, caused 500%+ surges specifically on the medium-sized parcels.

VLCC – Very Large Crude Carriers rallied 100% WoW, growing with the positive sentiment around oil price. The Spot rates pretty much doubled, from $600/day to $1200/day. Although we’re still unbelievably far from 2019 levels, we can now see positive signs of pick-up. Outlook: Stable

Suezmax – rates boomed, growing on average 30% WoW, with some routes seeing a 5 times increase. As the oil price keeps surging, we expect a positive impact on the vessel charter rates coing forward. Outlook: Positive

Aframax – afra rates more than doubled on the back of the positive oil prices news last week. Current rates fixed above $10600/day. Outlook: Positive

Dirty Products – July began with a relatively stable outlook, particularly busy in the Mediterranean, particularly weak in the US Gulf. Outlook: Stable.

Clean Products – Charter rates weakened between 3 to 60% owing to the fact that most world refineries are still operating under capacity due to the low demand for refined fuels. With airlines still down and road traffic at a fraction of the pre-pandemic levels the market remains far from its best shape. Plenty of carrying capacity available on the main routes contributes to weakening the outlook. Outlook: Stable

MR – uptake in demand did not have the expected positive effects on MR rate, owing to the oversupply of carrying capacity in the market. Overall down on average 25%, settling at $3800/day.. Outlook: Stable

LR1 – demand for log-range tankers remains low. Slow pick-up is possible depending on the easing of lockdowns and demand for refined products on each side of the Atlantic. Outlook: Stable

LR2 – In general, the market remains down between 3% and 5%. Slightly better than the previous week, although far from 2020 peak performance. Outlook: Stable

Handy – As anticipated last week, with LR and MR tanker rates below those of Handy tankers, charterers have been shifting to larger vessel sizes, wherever possible. This led to a hit in the region of 10% to Handy rates, with an additional slight drop still possible until break even or below is reached. Currently at $3800/day. Outlook: Stable

Dirty Panamax – Rates continued softening slightly on all routes, with a general 15% drop since last week, among fears of a new COVID wave due to the delta variant. Outlook: Stable

Dry Cargo

General pick-up on all routes and across all segments, underpinning a strong market sentiment, driven by the increasing demand for raw materials.

Capesize – Capes remained relatively stable, having broken through the $30k/day for the first time in years and now finding resistance to a further growth. Outlook: Stable

Panamax – slight increase in demand impacted positively the charter rates, with another 7% weekly growth. Hold availability shortage played a major role, with charter rates now surpassing $3500/day on certain routes. Outlook: Stable

Supramax – rates climbing steadily over the course of 2021 and stabilised in May to pick-up again more aggressively in June, with a 20% average growth WoW. The first days of July saw a stabilisation of this trend, with a flatter growth curve, rising by an average of 7% WoW to settle on an average of $27k/day Outlook: Positive

Handysize – rates continued their upward trend breaking past the $27k/day mark. Outlook: Positive

Container

Container rates did not slow down starting July with a further 5-6% increase. Now nearing the $100k/day mark for Neo-panamax vessels too. As container liners keep stashing cash on the back of the strongest year on record, we are seeing the newbuilding order book starting to fill-up for the year ahead.

We are now seeing more ship owners ordering new tonnage, predominantly ultra-large carriers, LNG fuelled like CMA CGM or methanol-propelled, like Maersk.

More, new carrying capacity is set to enter the market, which should contribute to the softening of the rates. The entrance in service of these vessels is, however, still many months away and demand for containers still looks strong.

On the raw materials side, however, and especially in chemical commodities, the high freight rates (now looking upwards of $15,500 per TEU on the route China – Europe) now impact prices of goods to the extent that it is equivalent or cheaper to source from European suppliers.

We expect to see a continual decrease in smaller-batches shipments westbound from Asia to Europe, hopefully accompanied by a subsequent easing of the TEU rates towards the end of the year.

Air cargo is now cheaper than ocean freight for smaller parcels, are we on the tipping point for this huge container rally?

Outlook: Positive

Gas

Rates for Gas Carriers remained relatively stable, with a small growth for large carriers. Pressurized and semi-pressurized vessel rates remained constant.

As plenty of tonnage is currently tied-up in dock for ballast water treatment systems installation, we are to expect a softening of the rates next month, as the ships come back into the market.
Outlook: Stable

To learn more about how we can support your business shipping as cheaply and environmentally-friendly as possible, visit us at BLK.

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date with our weekly shipping updates.

Shipping rates updates

Every Friday on BLK.

BLK Shipping Weekly – Shipping Rates Updates

25 June 2021

Welcome to BLK Shipping Weekly, our regular shipping rates updates. In this issue, we’ll be covering:

Wet Cargo
Dry Cargo
Containers
Gas

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date with our Shipping Weekly and follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn to never miss an update.

Wet Cargo

Charter rates down, on all fronts, although we seem to be scraping the bottom of the barrel, with owners’ resistance to further drops, leading to a no deal on a growing number of fixtures.

VLCC – It was another bad week for VLCCs, with most routes commanding negative charter rates. Very good news for shippers, especially those looking at cross-Atlantic routes. List of uncharted vessels remain high, with supply overpowering demand. Owners are now starting to turn down cargoes, in a bid to drive charter rates back up. Avg. VLCCs rate at $601, underpinning the large tonnage oversupply. If you can, ship now. Outlook: Negative

Suezmax – rates still suffering from the oversupply of tonnage in the market but made a slight recovery WoW. Rates now surpassing those of VLCCs, just below the $2500 per day mark. Outlook: Stable

Aframax – afra rates saw drops between 4 and 11%, with the exception of Mediterranean Routes, which saw a whopping +144% growth WoW. Avg. charter rates stable at $4900/day. Outlook: Stable

Dirty Products – the slow decline in rates continued, primarily driven by the low availability of tonnage in the Mediterraneand and Baltic. Charter rates fall slowed down compared to the previous week, shrinking only between 3% and 28% Outlook: Stable.

Clean Products – Charter rates weakened between 2 to 40% owing to the fact that most world refineries are still operating under capacity due to the low demand for refined fuels. With airlines still down and road traffic at a fraction of the pre-pandemic levels the market remains far from its best shape. Plenty of carrying capacity available on the main routes contributes to weakening the outlook. Outlook: Stable

MR – uptake in demand drove rates up, with a positive outlook for the weeks ahead. Outlook: Positive

LR1 – demand for log-range tankers remains low. Slow pick-up is possible depending on the easing of lockdowns and demand for refined products on each side of the Atlantic. Outlook: Stable

LR2 – In general, the market remains down between 12% and 22%. Outlook: Negative

Handy – Slow pick-up is possible subject to the easing of lockdowns and demand for refined products on each side of the Atlantic. LR and MR tanker rates, however, are now below those of Handy tankers, meaning that charterers will likely shift to larger vessel sizes, wherever possible. Therefore, we should expect a further drop in Handy rates. Outlook: Negative

Dirty Panamax – Rates softened everywhere, among fears of a new COVID wave due to the delta variant. Outlook: Stable

Dry Cargo

General pick-up on all routes and across all segments, underpinning a strong market sentiment, driven by the increasing demand for raw materials.

Capesize – Uptake in charter rates picked up, with nearly $5000 growth WoW, which pushed the Cape rates beyond $30k/day for the first time in years. Outlook: Positive

Panamax – stable demand which impacted positively the charter rates, with a 7% weekly growth. Hold availability shortage played a major role, with charter rates now nearing $30500/day Outlook: Stable

Supramax – rates climbing steadily over the course of 2021 and stabilised in May to pick-up again more aggressively in June, with a 20% average growth WoW. Outlook: Positive

Handysize – rates remained stable without much movement from the previous weeks. Fixed around the $24k/day mark. Outlook: Stable

Container

Container rates continue with their strong rally, with ultra-large container carriers breaking through $100k/day for the first time in history.

As container liners keep stashing cash on the back of the strongest year on record, we are seeing the newbuilding order book starting to fill-up for the year ahead. This week Hapag Lloyd announced the order for 12 Ultra-large 23,500 TEU vessels. We expect other liners to soon follow-suit, booking yards for LNG-fuelled vessels.

Positive news for shippers, with new carrying capacity entering the market, which should contribute to the softening of the rates. The entrance in service of these vessels is, however, still many months away and demand for container still looks strong.

Rising inflation in post-lockdown economy may contribute to ease the demand for finished goods but it remains to be seen whether this will be permanent or, as the Bank of England predicts, only temporary. In the latter case, we’re in for a long winter of very expensive shipping from Asia with final consumers paying the ultimate price.

On the raw materials side, however, and especially in chemical commodities, the high freight rates (now looking upwards of $12,500 per TEU on the route China – Europe) now impact prices of goods to the extent that it is equivalent or cheaper to source from European suppliers.

We expect to see a continual decrease in smaller-batches shipments westbound from Asia to Europe, hopefully accompanied by a subsequent easing of the TEU rates towards the end of the year.

Air cargo is now cheaper than ocean freight for smaller parcels, are we on the tipping point for this huge container rally?

Outlook: Positive

Gas

Shipping rates updates for Gas Carriers are not significant. Stable WoW, with a slight 9% recover for large carriers rates. Pressurized and semi-pressurized vessel rates remained unchanged.

As plenty of tonnage is currently tied-up in dock for ballast water treatment systems installation, we are to expect a further softening of the rates next month, as the ships come back into the market.
Outlook: Stable

To learn more about how we can support your business shipping as cheaply and environmentally-friendly as possible, visit us at BLK.

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date with our weekly shipping updates.

Shipping rates updates

Every Friday on BLK.

BLK – Il Marketplace di Materie Prime e Commodity

Chi Siamo

BLK nasce come il marketplace digitale dedicato alle commodity e alle materie prime.

Nasce dalla consapevolezza che la digitalizzazione del trading di commodity non è questione di se, ma di quando.

Nasce per consentire a chiunque, a prescindere dalle dimensioni della propria azienda, di comprare direttamente dai produttori, ovunque essi siano, pagando il valore reale delle merci, grazie ad un mercato trasparente e digitale.

La nostra mission è quella di consentire a chiunque di acquistare le materie prime necessarie al proprio business, con un semplice click. È inevitabile, lo abbiamo visto accadere a fine anni ‘90 con lo stravolgimento della vendita al dettaglio per mano di quelli che ora sono giganti dell’e-commerce.

Accadrà di nuovo, per gli acquisti B2B. Sta già accadendo. BLK ne è la forza motrice.

Marketplace

Acquista le materie prime per il tuo business comodamente da casa

La piattaforma che consente a chiunque di acquistare in sicurezza, in pochi semplici click. Permette di trovare fornitori locali e globali, di comparare prezzi, specifiche, termini di consegna. E di comprare come oggi siamo tutti abituati a fare, online, comodamente da casa.

Grazie alla generazione automatica di ordini e fatture e alla contabilità integrata, oggi BLK fa risparmiare in media 1000 ore uomo all’anno in mansioni di amministrazione.

Le micro e piccole imprese, mercato target del nostro marketplace, hanno dimezzato i loro costi di procurement (in media una riduzione dal 40% al 60%).

Supply Chain

In BLK mettiamo a disposizione le nostre competenze in supply chain management, negoziazione internazionale e project management per rendere le operazioni dei nostri partner più snelle, efficaci e redditizie.

Aggreghiamo il volume di molteplici aziende con quello di acquirenti in tutto il Regno Unito e in Italia, utilizzando il maggior potere di acquisto per negoziare accordi migliori con i fornitori a livello globale.

Ricerchiamo, verifichiamo e negoziamo direttamente con i produttori in vece dei nostri partner, organizzando la logistica e fornendo una soluzione completa di gestione di supply chain per mantenere più snelli possibile costi fissi, riducendo al contempo i costi variabili.

Ci rivolgiamo, in questo caso, a corporate e medie imprese, aiutandole ad efficientare i loro processi di procurement, automatizzare generazione ordini, fatturazione e reportistica, con l’obiettivo di aumentare la loro competitività sui mercati esteri.

Decarbonizzazione

Riduci l’impatto ambientale della tua supply chain e guadagna con i carbon credits.

Aiutiamo i nostri partner a ridurre l’impatto ambientale acquistando da fornitori locali o aggregando volume con quello di altre aziende. Inoltre, organizziamo la logistica nel modo più ecologico possibile, riducendo le emissioni complessive della supply chain dei nostri clienti.

Le aziende che si affidano a noi possono anche guadagnare da questo taglio delle emissioni: il loro minor impatto ambientale viene premiato con dei Carbon Credits, scambiabili sulla Borsa Ambientale Europea.

Con BLK, diventare “green” significa generare un flusso di entrate completamente nuovo!

Rating

BLK ha sviluppato un sistema di rating proprietario (in attesa di brevetto) per valutare i parametri chiave dei nostri clienti e fornitori.

Qualità – Costo – Servizio sono le fondamenta del nostro criterio.

Aiutiamo le imprese a comprendere il loro posizionamento nel mercato in base a queste tre aree e le supportiamo nel miglioramento del loro positioning tramite una guida dettagliata che si traduce in consigli operativi e attuabili.

Inoltre, il nostro rating fornisce un’ulteriore conferma dello standing dei fornitori, consentendo a chi acquista di basare le proprie decisioni su parametri rilevanti e sulla consapevolezza di di avere a disposizione partner commerciali previamente valutati in modo approfondito.

Investor Relations

Con sede operativa a Glasgow, BLK è stata selezionata come una delle top 30 tech start-up del Regno Unito.

Dopo un seed round concluso a gennaio 2021, siamo supportati da uno dei migliori acceleratori in italia, Enry’s Island, e contiamo di un team distribuito tra UK, Italia ed Emirati Arabi.

Team

Guidato da founders provenienti da shipping, commodity trading, project management e banking, il team BLK è strutturato in quattro unit: Prodotto, Mercato, Fundraising e Corporate, ciascuno preposto a specifiche mansioni e ben posizionato per supportare la rapida crescita di BLK.

Prodotto: designer e sviluppatori

Mercato: vendite one-to-one, vendite one-to-many e digital PR

Fundraising: investor relations

Corporate: HR, legal, supply chain

Discover More

Per approfondire come potremmo costruire una partnership strategica sia industriale che in chiave fundraising, contattare: Gabriele Dadò – Founder & CEO gabriele.dado@blk-global.com +44 7757630638