Shanghai's Putuo promotes industry-academia-research integration

The Shanghai Nonferrous Metal Trading Center, located in Shanghai's Putuo district, is set to achieve a significant breakthrough in the commodity trading sector by combining processes such as trading, clearing, settlement, and data services through the "Huorongtong" platform.

This full-process, end-to-end, and visual management innovation results from deep collaboration between the center, industry associations, and research institutions, based on real industry needs.

"The digital platform will effectively reduce trading risks and labor costs," said Zhang Xiang, head of domestic commodities procurement at Ningbo Jintian Copper Group, who has high expectations for the platform.

The platform is part of Putuo's ongoing efforts to build bridges between platforms, universities, research institutes and industry chain companies for collaboration, with focus on developing intelligent trading systems and applying blockchain tracing technology, to support the high-quality development of internet platforms and drive an overall upgrade in commodity trading.

The trading center has partnered with the Pujiang Digital Chain to develop a comprehensive service chain for the non-ferrous metal trade based on blockchain technology. The chain integrates transactions, logistics, capital flow, and information flow into a unified system.

In November, the seminar on commodity trade strategy and innovation amid global restructuring was held in Putuo. Experts at the seminar engaged in discussions ranging from development trends of the sector to practices, covering several key topics.

The 2025 International Bulk Commodities Market Development Conference was held in Putuo on Dec 19 and 20. The conference brought together government officials, representatives from a number of industrial associations and platforms and business executives to explore pathways for advancing the high-quality development of commodity trading.

At the conference, the Putuo district government and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing signed a framework agreement for strategic cooperation.