Could you introduce Tradeasia to our international audience?

Tradeasia was established in 2002. We started with a single portal called chemtradeasia.com and have grown by developing various industry-specific and country portals especially focused towards the global trade of industrial chemicals. The sub-sectors we cover are soaps and detergents, food and beverage, animal feed and nutrition, textile, leather, pulp and paper, etc. The country portals we developed gave us an entry into global markets both for sourcing and marketing. It also grew our footprint in many countries of Asia and introduced us to numerous suppliers and customers worldwide.

How important are digital platforms to your business model?

B2B chemical marketplaces have been evolving ever since the 2000s, and what we see today is a second wave in the development of B2B Chemical Marketplaces. While customers on these marketplaces may not have adopted digital payment methods, they certainly have started looking for distributor-led platforms wherein they can buy a whole range of their requirements in one location. The chemical distributors have also started becoming very supply chain driven to become cost competitive to potential customers and to provide them a one stop integrated service platform.

Thus, through our platforms, Tradeasia intends to continue to meet the needs of our customers by integrating the digital presence of our marketplace supported by newsletters, digital marketing, etc. together with our offline presence in local offices and via agents and distributors. Hence, digital platforms for industrial chemicals are becoming more and more important as the world embraces digital engagement in every sphere of our life.

Could you comment on the company’s performance over the past two years and the current demand trends you’re witnessing?

During these last two years, we have grown phenomenally, registering growth upwards of 50% for our Singapore, Indonesia, India and UAE businesses. As we all noticed that demand for industrial chemicals has been extremely strong after Covid due to supply chain disruptions. We have had attractive growth in both top line and bottom line like most chemical companies.  As regards future demand trends, we surely anticipate a slow down globally once higher interest rates are implemented. Hence, in the near future, we anticipate a period of weakness in demand.

To continue building Tradeasia, we have in the past year developed new business verticals for the trading of Polymers (Plastradeasia.com), Fertilizer (Fertradeasia.com), Rubber (Rubbertradeasia.com) and the Circular Economy Portfolio (Scraptradeasia.com). These verticals will potentially give us future growth opportunities in the years to come.

Could you elaborate on the expansion opportunities you identify in LatAm markets?

The Latin American market has been less accessed by Asian companies due to the distance and high supply chain costs. But during the pandemic, when even regional supply chain costs became extremely high, it became strategic to source some products from Latin American countries. Moreover, the exchange rate weakness in Argentina and Brazil during the last two years also made it viable for select Latin American products to be sold in Asia. We anticipate that even in a slow down, Latin American products will have a market in Asia due to customers' greater awareness and understanding of their products. Hence, we see phenomenal opportunities in trading with LatAm Markets in future.

What is the role of Trade Asia Academy?

When the pandemic began, we realized many young students were stuck at home and keenly wanted to learn. Hence, we saw an opportunity to establish an online learning academy to give students the chance to work on business development projects that are related to their studies and also to our business. It has proved to be a good experience wherein students got exposure to the business and Tradeasia was empowered with young minds to develop and improve our business development projects. Many young students have since then joined Tradeasia as they found global trade interesting as a career and are with us in our growth journey.

Do you have a final message?

Tradeasia will continue to invest in three key pillars going forward: People, Technology, and Supply Chain. People will continue to be the core of our organization and the reason why we exist. All stakeholders - employees, customers, suppliers and shareholders, eventually must feel a sense of value from the activities of Tradeasia.