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According to Mr Pengcheng Zheng, General Manager of Enuit China, he sees three areas of CTRM demand developing there. The first is in the traditional CTRM marketplace of the various medium and larger companies that procure, sell or trade commodities. The second are those companies that have a trade management system or ERP in place but need more advanced risk management and analytics. The third are those that are doing derivatives accounting management and want or need to add further risk controls and more analysis. This sounds pretty similar to the market for CTRM in other locations around the world showing that the market and appetite for CTRM software in China is following a familiar path, at least at a high level. Mr. Zheng also sees that Enuit’s Commodity Management strategy announced last year is positioning the company well for China.
Indeed, Enuit has a strong base now in China with several offices, the latest of which opened recently in Shanghai. It has six Chinese clients and just won another large holding company that has subsidiaries in insurance, banking and financial services. It is deploying parts of Entrade such as strategy, commodity, contracts and deals to help this client to manage its supply chain finance business. Enuit has also hired five more people to form the team in Shanghai. “With a local and experienced team, we are building a strong Chinese brand,” Mr. Zheng told me. “The team will also be doing more than selling, supporting and implementing but also developing to meet local business requirements.” Enuit is also utilizing a network of local business partners particularly to sell and deliver to small businesses in the country.
One thing that is driving CTRM interest in China is the increasing complexity of commodity trading. As new exchanges and new instruments are launched like LPG, Fuel Oil, International Copper and others, more are using futures and options in order to try to boost flagging trading profits. More is yet to come with a new exchange set up in Southern China readying power and emissions instruments as well. The increasing complexity particular in managing risk along with a regulatory push to deploy international standard software, is helping drive demand, says Mr. Zheng.
Enuit has established itself in China where it competes with local providers and IT shops and one or two other international vendors. However, by virtue of having local employees and a Chinese setup, it does appear to have a bit of an edge on its international competitors and is now deploying a two edge strategy that allows it to compete with local IT shops and providers as well. We will monitor its progress in the coming months.
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