E-commerce lifts steel firms

Taobao, a C2C online platform owned by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, now provides not only small items but also bulk commodities such as steel products.

E-commerce business, highly accepted by the market, is transforming the surplus steel industry of China.

China has 580 bulk commodity e-commerce platforms, about 100 of which are involved in the steel business. Steel e-commerce is a bellwether among all the bulk commodity e-commerce, said Cai Jin, vice-chairman of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.