Halcyon-Agri considering digital platform for natural rubber trading

SINGAPORE—Natural rubber supply group Halcyon Agri Corp. Ltd. is mulling the launch of a digital NR trading platform in response to weak commodity prices.

"We want to offer an alternative platform which will be a digital disruptor of the current price discovery platform," Robert Meyer, CEO and co-founder of Halcyon Agri wrote in a statement to European Rubber Journal.

Set to be launched in 2019, the multi-million dollar platform is intended as an "Amazon-style" makeover within the NR market, according to Meyer.

"Our goal is to move away from a commodity style pricing toward an industrial pricing and facilitate transparent supply chain transactions," Meyer said, adding that more details will be provided at a later date.

Halcyon Agri, which merged its rubber assets with Chinese state-owned Sinochem International in 2016, is the world's biggest supplier of natural rubber, overtaking Thailand's Sri Trang Agro-Industry for the top spot during the first half of 2018. Halcyon Agri's total NR supply volumes rose 17.2 percent year-on-year to 680,716 metric tons for the first half of the year, above Sri Trang's 675,471 tons for the same period.

Operating mainly in Indonesia and Malaysia, Halcyon's distribution network covers Southeast Asia, China, South Africa, the U.S. and Europe.