E-commerce platform aims for supply chain transparency

The entire supply chain of raw materials has to be taken into account when producing “green steel”, says Sebastian Kreft of Metalshub, a Düsseldorf-based e-commerce trading platform for ferroallyos.

Speaking at the recent “Zukunft Stahl” conference organised by German business daily Handelsblatt, Kreft bemoaned the opacity of the global supply chain with respect to the reliability of sources. In his presentation he said that 90% of the world’s manganese production takes place in China, with manganese ore bought mostly from Africa. But “mills in Europe buy mostly via traders, and have no idea what emissions occurred in the production,” Kallanish heard him say at the event.

Another example is that South Africa, a typical mining country, operates on electricity mainly from coal power plants. Against that, Finland, with its water-based hydropower, accrues only a third of the emissions South Africa does. But European mills do not evaluate and honour that. However, “they will have to in view of a looming supply chain law”, he admonished.

Cloud-based digitalisation would lay the basis that provides audits of the suppliers, and all the documents needed for shipping companies, financing partners, and traders along the chain, Kreft said.

Christian Koehl Germany