Established in Genoa in 1988, Ecotrade, with over 30 million tons of materials sold to the cement industry, was the largest exporter of blast furnace slag in the world for 20 years. We based our success on exclusive, long-term contracts with the most prestigious international players, including RIVA, Arcelor Mittal, NKK, NSC, Vizag Steel and Ruukki, a strategic choice which made it possible for us to offer our customers stable long-term prices. The winner of the world’s best blast furnace slag supplier 2009, Ecotrade built its business on exclusive, long-term contracts with the most important global manufacturers.
- 80% of volumes covered through long-term sea charters
- Sales based almost exclusively on C&F arrangements
- Multi-source agreements, allowing for volume swaps based on manufacturer/consumer requirements
- Storage depots at strategic locations
- Exclusive shipping agent worldwide
- Exclusive broker
In 2008, Lugano-based Ecotrade International sold its blast furnace slag international trading division to Holcim Trading. Ecotrade Spa continued its operations as distributor of strategic materials to the Italian cement production industry, with imports and exports to and from Italy. The distribution of cementitious materials in Italy and internationally became the company’s new core business. With the development and sale of fly ashes and other by-products from Italian and international thermal power plants, Ecotrade has now taken on a key role as commercial broker between manufacturers and end users.
Today, Ecotrade works in close contact with the cement industry as a:
- leading buyer of by-products and raw materials worldwide
- transparent negotiator committed to concluding long-term contracts at the best conditions with both manufacturers and final consumers
- strategic partner who is able to rely on a unique expertise and customer portfolio to solve both market shortage and market surplus problems
- guarantor of regular deliveries to customers and regular pick-ups from suppliers.
ODA: On the strength of the experience it had gained globally in the field of alternative materials used to reduce the clinker factor, the company began to feel, over the years, the need to create a new industrial process that could extract maximum value from recycled materials. In 2001, Officina dell'Ambiente was born – an innovative company who has chosen to develop its core business through the most modern environmentally-sustainable industrial development policies, on a ISO 14001-certified and EMAS-registered site. A path that still continues to this day and which has led the Matrix Family products to become leading players in all sectors of the building industry, with a particular focus on those projects which, for their size and prestige, are now driving the environmental sustainability trend on the new Italian construction scene. An objective that has become vital for our future and for that of our planet.