For most raw materials and commodities, the supply chain is both long and complex. Increasingly, firms have been focusing on these supply chains in an effort to better control operational risks and exposures, but increased geopolitical and other risks have now served to sharpened that focus even further.
Issues like COVID-19 lockdowns and trade wars, for example, have meant that managing sourcing, movements, processing, production, procurement, contracts, storage and other activities along complex supply chains more effectively not only reduces costs and improves profitability, but also helps ensure business continuity. Meanwhile, although CTRM (Commodity Trading and Risk Management) sof tware applications that help manage trades and the risks associated with trading are seen as critical, the broader commodity management aspects around managing the supply chain more effectively are rightly gaining in importance.
