Deep Platforms: What Digital Platforms Do for Physical Materials MarketsDeep Platforms: What Digital Platforms Do for Physical Materials Markets

Buying and selling physical materials carries a lot of friction. Buyers and sellers struggle to find each other, prices are hard to see, quality and compliance have to be proven, and every record needs to hold up in an audit. For decades, much of that work sat with brokers, liquidators and long chains of intermediaries.

Digital platforms have been taking on these problems in circular markets for around 30 years, and circular electronics is one of the clearest cases to learn from. The platforms that last there go deep. They structure the transaction, vet who takes part and keep the audit trail, which gives buyers and sellers a reason to stay. Metals, mining and recycling face the same frictions.

In this MetalshubTalks webinar, we look at what digital platforms do for physical materials markets, what more than 400 circular marketplaces reveal about platform strategy, and what that means for how raw materials are bought and sold. The discussion explores:

• What digital platforms do for physical markets, and where the “just a middleman” view falls short
• What 400+ circular marketplaces across 16 sectors reveal, with circular electronics and IT asset disposition (ITAD) as the model
• Platform types, profit pools and where platforms choose to compete
• What separates shallow and deep platforms: compliance vetting, structured information, price visibility and audit trails
• How Metalshub evolved into a deep, industry-specific platform for raw materials
• How platforms manage leakage, build network effects and choose which verticals to serve
• Where the market is heading, from the coming wave of asset disposition to circularity policy and platform-to-platform integration

MetalshubTalks host Samir Jaber is joined by Dr Peter C. Evans, Managing Partner at All Things Circular and Chief Economist at the Global Reverse Logistics Alliance, for a conversation that combines platform economics, research across circular markets, and practical lessons for raw material trade.

Join the conversation to see what keeps buyers and sellers on a platform in physical materials markets.

This session is designed for procurement leaders, heads of sales and commercial teams, pricing managers, traders, digital leaders, and anyone active in metals, mining, recycling and circular materials markets.