The work of a chemicals trader, manufacturer or salesman is never easy. His products and customers have many contradictions. His chemical products are used everywhere and yet his customers are often on the other side of the world.  His products are simple, often elemental, and yet specifications and grades are complex. His products are universal and yet his market is niche.

So how does he find a chemical buyer? How does a buyer find a chemical supplier?

Traditionally there are three ways to connect the businessman with the chemical product to the businessman with the money, and none of them are perfect.

1. Know your product and learn who the main suppliers and buyers in the market are. Attend conferences to meet new players, and join online forums and LinkedIn groups to find those who may, or may not, at some time or other in the future want to buy or sell your goods. Stay in touch with them and then when you need to do business, you know who to contact.
2. Do the legwork. Pick up the World of Chemicals directory (http://www.worldofchemicals.com/or similar yellow pages) and start phoning or emailing. The process will be time consuming and will result in very few positive responses (especially if you’re trying to sell), but the method will put you in contact with chemicals traders. That is assuming that they are genuine chemical traders.
3. Stick with who you know. Their price may not be the best. Even the quality of their product may not be ideal, but by using the company that you bought or sold from last time at least you know what you are getting. The logistics will be known and the contacts legitimate, but of course this route will not help you if you have a new product, your old supplier is no longer trading in what you need or if you want to make a one-off transaction.

Each of these methods has its pros and cons. Some are more reliable and secure yet may lack competitive price advantage. Others may result in a better price, yet lack certainty of supply or quality.

Why isn’t there a better way to source chemicals? Why isn’t there a smoother route to finding a trusted supplier?

The chemicals industry is wealthy and technologically advanced, so any new system would have countless possibilities. Given this, how would your perfect chemicals trading system work? What would it look like? Would it be modelled on Wall Street or E-bay? Has Alibaba (http://www.alibaba.com/)found the answer or is it only a step towards a better solution?

Find us on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/sspotchemi) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/6716043) and tell us what you think the perfect chemicals trading system would look like.  Does it already exist or is a chemicals trading Utopia simply not possible?