STX digitalizes raw materials trading

APC Private Equity CEO Ashley Hong, the chair of STX's board of directors, introduces TrollyGo during a press conference at the Korea Press Center in Seoul, Wednesday. Courtesy of STX

STX, a trading company owned by APC Private Equity (APC PE), launched a new platform named TrollyGo, Wednesday, for buyers and sellers worldwide to carry out transactions for raw materials and industrial goods online.

“The COVID-19 pandemic led a large number of companies to seek digital transformation, but business-to-business trading platforms still tend to handle certain types of commodities only,” APC PE CEO Ashley Hong, the chair of STX’s board of directors, said at a press conference.

During the pandemic, some Korean firms opened online platforms for trading certain types of goods, such as steel. STX emphasized that TrollyGo is the world’s first platform allowing international transactions for a wide range of raw materials and industrial goods.

The new platform features a user interface similar to those of e-commerce platforms for ordinary consumers. For customers who want to keep their transactions confidential, however, TrollyGo allows buyers and sellers to conceal the prices of goods from other users.

The platform also enables buyers and sellers to chat with each other for negotiations.

“We transplanted our offline operation directly to the online platform,” Hong said.

The chairwoman explained that STX began preparing for the launch of TrollyGo in 2018, considering the immaturity of the raw material industry’s digitalization.

“We actually want our competitors to open similar platforms, so that the raw material industry can guarantee transparent transactions and reduce unnecessary transaction costs,” she said.

Although STX Group disbanded after its liquidity crisis in 2013, the company’s name still reminds many people of the group's shipbuilding and shipping businesses. To make people aware that STX has also been engaged in the trading business for more than four decades, the company spun off its shipping business into STX Green Logis in September.

There is a rumor that the spinoff is intended for APC PE to sell the shipping unit, but Hong denied the speculation. She said that the private equity firm is not considering its divestment from STX yet, citing the long duration of the fund that had been raised for APC PE to acquire STX in 2018 from the creditors led by the Korea Development Bank.