Discover what ION can do for you
The largest businesses across the global metal value chain rely on ION Commodities solutions
With the energy transition comes increased demand for metals. Wind and solar are 37 times more copper-intensive than conventional
energy, and electric vehicle batteries drive the increased need for nickel and cobalt. Regulatory and macro-economic changes have
introduced considerable volatility into metals markets, bringing metals trading software and logistics management back to the forefront
for metals producers, traders, and end users.
Value delivered
- Challenge
Accurate material information
Firms today need to integrate physical metals trading with scheduling. Because no two metal units are precisely the same in terms of exact weight and quality, the delivered metals may vary from what was originally contracted. With increased volatility and rising metals prices, tools for accurate, dynamic, and real-time risk reporting are a necessity.
SolutionImprove visibility of your physical positions
Manage and view the full physical delivery details for metals — from mine to point of export — with ION’s commodity management solutions. Comparing fineness, grade and quality, adjustments, and matching actual physical delivery against the value of trades can expose any differences between expected and actual positions.
- Challenge
Optimizing the pricing and use of contract optionality for complex transactions
Producers face many operational burdens across their business, especially when dealing with multiple pricing components and quotation periods. The metals trading platforms currently in use by many companies don’t give producers insights into how to provide guidance to traders and end users on how to work together optimally.
SolutionUnlock insights
ION’s commodity management solutions provide extensive functionality for capturing and evaluating optionality in contracts. Our solutions use projected market data to provide a present value for each option, allowing producers to price it correctly. For end users, the systems automatically recommend the best use of the optionality available (how and when to exercise it) based on forward-looking prices.
- Challenge
Accurately capturing concentrates contracts
Capturing and modeling complex contracts associated with concentrates is often managed with spreadsheets.
SolutionReduce the time and effort required to manage concentrates contracts
Our solutions cover both physical contracts and financial derivatives, including swaps and exotic options. You see an aggregated view of positions, risk, and P&L in a single solution, with the ability to drill-down to the transaction level in a single click. You can also decompose the exposure from more complex physical products, such as concentrates, scrap, and alloys, into their constituent products and compare against the relevant derivatives.
- Challenge
Understand the impact of changes in the macro environment on carry trades
Low interest rates and quantitative easing (QE) policies have made the metals carry trade highly attractive for banks and trading firms. But profit from carry trades in base metals depends on the fairly thin margin achieved between the cost of capital and metals storage charges, along with the gradually appreciating price of the metal concerned.
SolutionReduce the impact of price volatility and preserve margins
ION’s commodity management solutions provide comprehensive stress testing of scenario impacts, such as a quarter-point change in overnight lending rates or the profitability of the portfolio over time. Our solutions also help manage the instruments required to hedge likely exposures—such as interest rate swaps, interest rate futures, and FRAs.
- Challenge
Complex value chains
Several market participants now have global operations with large inventories and logistics operations, creating an added layer of complexity in managing risk. Large volumes of on and off exchange warrants can create operational nightmares.
SolutionGain a global view of your physical materials
ION’s commodity management solutions deliver fast storage, company-wide inventory reports, and retrieval of massive data quantities. They can scale as transaction volumes grow and they provide aggregated real-time position reporting to keep pace with even the largest trading operations.
Products
A metallurgical accounting solution for mass balancing and production reconciliation.
A multi-tenant, SaaS CTRM for liquid hydrocarbons and metals traders moving off spreadsheets.
A single solution for managing physical bullion inventory across the value chain.
A supply chain management solution to simplify coal and mineral operations and logistics.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Do ION Commodities solutions span the complete value chain?
Our solutions enable the complete management of bulk materials from mine to point of export or consumption. Advanced mining software allows for the synchronization of operations, logistics, marketing, and commercial functions, providing a transparent view of export and domestic supply chain operations.
