Resins auctioned on the Internet

Citation

Bean, J. (1998), "Resins auctioned on the Internet", Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 27 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/prt.1998.12927aaa.004

Resins auctioned on the Internet

Resins auctioned on the Internet

In April 1997 BIP Ltd of Oldbury announced that they were changing the face of the commodity chemicals market by auctioning chemicals over the Internet. As they put it:

The click of a mouse replacing the beat of a gavel.

BIP manufactures formaldehyde as a basic raw material for its own production of amino resins, its core business. Most of BIP's excess production capacity of formaldehyde was already being sold to external customers. Creating an on-line auction seemed an opportunity to experiment with a new marketing approach.

We spoke to BIP very recently and they told us that the auction on the Internet had been very succesful, particularly as formaldehyde availability had become tighter as the year progressed. They added that they were now looking at putting some of their amino resins into the Internet auction.

As a guide for bidders,the average sales price for the previous week is published on BIP's public web site as the BIPSPOT price. Bids for ex-works Olbury tankers are accepted for 24 hours. On Friday afternoon the winners for that week are notified, and arrangements for them to pick up their formaldehyde within seven days starting the following Monday.

BIP's web site (http://www.bip.co.uk) provides general information on the company's products including speciality coating, paper, textile and adhesive resins, as well as thermoset and thermoplastic moulding materials.

John Bean