Discover what ION can do for you
Over half of the world’s top chemical companies use an ION Commodities product
Increasingly frequent major market disruptions exacerbate the existing industry challenges of regulation, risk, and complex supply chains. An effective commodity management system is critical for sustaining and growing your business. Only ION has the breadth of commodity management software to meet needs across the petrochemical value chain. Whether you’re just moving off spreadsheets or a global enterprise spanning the petroleum value chain, ION has a solution to meet your needs while addressing the challenges and risks in today’s petrochemical markets.
Value delivered
- Challenge
Increasing volatility of commodity prices
Volatile petrochemical prices make it difficult for:- Petrochemical manufacturers to preserve margins
- Marketers to lock in margins
- Petrochemicals consumers to control costs
When a major disruption causes extreme volatility, effective hedging can keep your company solvent, while others may fail.
SolutionReduce the impact of price volatility and preserve margins
ION offers solutions to help you determine appropriate hedging strategies, execute those strategies, track the results, and report on your hedging to stakeholders and regulators. This leads to hedging strategies that are not only more effective, but also more efficient. - Challenge
Accurately capturing and executing contract and pricing terms
The petrochemical market’s contractual terms get more complicated every year. Those who cannot constantly adapt their business model to handle new pricing, products, terms, and conditions will lose business to competitors who do. With significant commodity price swings in a matter of minutes, executing trading strategies quickly can mean the difference between huge profits or losses. A system that can adapt to changes, accurately record pricing and terms, and execute quickly is essential to survive in today’s commodity markets.SolutionExecute simple and complex transactions quickly and correctly
ION offers solutions that capture and execute deals from simple, exchange-traded futures to complex, over-the-counter deals with multiple terms and conditions. These transactions are recorded in a database, so you can retrieve and report your positions as needed. ION’s solutions can integrate with major trading exchanges, seamlessly recording and flowing your trades and fills on the exchange to simplify trade capture. ION’s solutions can also integrate with pricing services to keep your prices and valuation up to date. - Challenge
Increasing frequency of market and petrochemical supply chain disruptions
A single event—like an extended petrochemical plant shutdown—can put a commodity company out of business. In recent years, these “once in a lifetime” events have become more frequent. Effective risk management is the only way for an organization to survive and thrive in such an environment. The increasing frequency of major market disruptions in recent years makes integrated risk management essential.SolutionEffectively manage risk and volatility
ION solutions allow businesses to manage risk effectively in today’s challenging environment. Our tools show exactly where risks are across your business portfolio, and the rate of change of those risks. This insight facilitates both preemptive actions before disruptive events occur and targeted, rapid mitigation actions after events occur. Depending upon the event, effective risk management empowers your business to thrive despite major disruptions. - Challenge
Managing increasingly complex supply chains
Worldwide demand for petrochemicals continues to increase as populations and economies grow. Years of logistics optimization have led to highly efficient supply chains, but with strained capacity across most logistics assets. Finally, supply chain disruptions are increasing in frequency and severity. All of this makes scheduling and managing logistics more difficult than ever, which is especially risky when done via spreadsheets.SolutionMore resilient and cost-effective commodity supply chains
ION’s commodity management solutions help to manage your logistics supply chains for both solid and liquid products across all major modes of commodity transportation, including pipeline, vessel, barge, rail, and truck. Our solutions enable your business to better manage your daily operations. ION solutions also let you prepare for disruptions, enabling rapid mitigation when they occur. In today’s challenging business environment, better supply chain management is a competitive advantage. - Challenge
Understanding your portfolio’s inventory positions
Knowing exactly what commodities your business has and where they are is critical to running an efficient operation. When a disruption occurs, like a canal blockage, businesses with the most complete knowledge of their inventory positions can reroute quicker and more cost-effectively. Knowing what future inventories will look like can ensure your business meets its contractual obligations. Effective inventory management not only makes operations more efficient, but also keeps the business running when issues arise.SolutionImprove the visibility of your global physical portfolio
ION solutions can track and manage both your solid and liquid inventories, from a global level down to individual tanks and piles. This tracking can also be projected into the future, enabling your business to keep the right amount of stock on hand and prevent large imbalances from occurring. When disruptions occur, modeling can provide you with a plan for addressing it before your competitors. ION provides the best tools for you to manage your inventory across petrochemical lifecycles. - Challenge
Managing vessel-borne logistics
Managing the transportation of liquids or solids via vessel charters is becoming more challenging due to rising charter costs and increasing volatility. This is further complicated by IMO 2020 compliance and disruptive events like the Suez Canal blockage. If vessel chartering is a primary means for you to receive or deliver commodity products, active management of your chartering is critical.SolutionImprove the visibility and efficiency of vessel chartering
Softmar, ION’s vessel charting solution, enables you to manage your vessel chartering actively. It provides visibility into the location and status of the vessels transporting your valuable petrochemicals. This information is critical when disruptive events occur and you must find alternate routes, sources, or markets for your commodities. Softmar also provides visibility into chartering costs that enable you to better understand your cost structure and find opportunities for savings. - Challenge
Improving your petrochemical supply chain
Today’s petrochemical supply chains are increasingly complex and have to deal with a multitude of liquid and solid products. With the global distribution of both manufacturers and consumers of petrochemical products, there are many options for sourcing and delivering petrochemicals. These challenges make it difficult to know the true impact of a choice and which choices will yield the lowest costs while still meeting contractual obligations.SolutionGain competitive advantages by optimizing your petrochemicals supply chain
WAM, ION’s supply and demand optimization solution, improves your decision making when dealing with a complicated supply chain. WAM gathers supply, demand, logistics, and cost data to quantify the impact of a mode of transport, loading and unloading dates, volumes, and other supply chain factors. This information is then used to determine the optimal choices to minimize costs and maximize asset utilization, while ensuring contractual obligations are met. WAM gives you a significant competitive advantage in supply chain management.
Products
A multi-tenant, SaaS CTRM for liquid hydrocarbons and metals traders moving off spreadsheets.
A CTRM with robust scheduling and logistics capabilities for liquid hydrocarbon companies.
A shipping solution for vessel chartering and operations integrated with ION’s CTRMs.
