Sinopec to further diversify its online industrial supply system

The online industrial product system epec.com has witnessed total transactions of 90.2 billion yuan ($13.1 billion) since its launch last April, a year-on-year increase of 526 percent, Asia's largest refiner China Petroleum & Chemical Corp said on Tuesday.

More than 1.58 million products are available at the platform from industries including coal, steel, petrochemicals and oil equipment, after one year's operation, an increase of 532 percent year-on-year, with registered enterprises reaching 35,000, up 45 percent compared with the previous year, said the refiner, which is also known as Sinopec.

The online industrial product system, which the company aims to build into an industrial version of Taobao.com, the country's largest online shopping marketplace owned by Alibaba, is part of Sinopec's efforts to promote market-oriented transformation to further diversify its business and enhance profitability.

Alibaba provides services to Sinopec in terms of internet security, big data and technology upgrading.

Sinopec has also launched the international business platform global.epec.com, which aims to introduce China's best products to the world and help connect trade chains worldwide.

"The construction and commercial operation of Epec coincides with the State's full implementation of supply-side structural reform, which aims to push forward the growth pattern transition, structural adjustment and the innovative development of enterprises," Jiao Fangzheng, Sinopec's deputy general manager, said at a news conference in Beijing.

"Epec will closely follow the Belt and Road Initiative to serve enterprises, projects, partners and global industries."

Steve Meszaros, GE vice-president responsible for the company's supply chain in China, said as an Epec partner, GE plans to cooperate with Epec to support the creation of a fair trade environment within the Epec platform.

"We hope to expand our cooperation with Epec in the future, broadening our participation across other GE business sectors in China where we can demonstrate additional benefits to both GE and Sinopec for continued purchasing optimization and the ongoing development of the e-commerce business model," he said.

"We also hope that GE Industrial Solutions can leverage the Epec platform to promote our brand, our products and our technologies in Sinopec, in the oil and gas industry, and even in more B2B industries in China and overseas."

Wan Donghui, deputy secretary-general at China Electronic Commerce Association, said the industrial product system holds more opportunities and will serve as a bridge between the domestic market and the international market, explore opportunities and connect supply and demand.