For service providers
Laboratories, vaults, carriers, clearing agents and insurers are engaged through requests for quotation by verified member companies, and see only what the consignment's owner assigns to their task.
That boundary is not a limitation of your account. It is the reason your report is worth something to both sides of a trade you are not part of.
Who gets engaged here
A physical commodity trade needs more than two companies to complete.
Assay laboratories
Pre-shipment and outturn assay. The number you report is the commercial pivot of the trade, which is exactly why it should come from someone with no stake in the price.
Vaults and secure storage
Custody and warehouse receipts between production and delivery, filed against the lots on the consignment rather than confirmed by email.
Carriers and couriers
Hand-carried consignments, bonded transport, air and sea freight. Your waybill is filed against the lots it covers.
Clearing and customs agents
Export and import clearance in the corridors this trade actually runs — with the paperwork filed on the consignment.
Insurers and brokers
Cover for consignments in transit, with the certificate filed against the lots it covers.
Refiners providing a service
Where you refine on behalf of a party rather than buying, you are engaged on that party's consignment through a request for quotation — and your company can do both.
Exactly what you can and cannot see
What you see is what the consignment's owner has assigned to your task, checked on every request by one access gate. Releasing more is the owner's act, never a default.
- You see what the owner assigns
The consignment's owner assigns your task its lots, documents and fields. Nothing is shared by default, and releasing more is always the owner's act.
- The price is not shared by default
Not the discount, not the benchmark, not the absolute figure, not what either party paid — unless the owner assigns it to your task. An assay reported by somebody who knows what the number is worth to the payer is worth less to everyone.
- Other parties are not shared by default
You know who engaged you. The other parties to the consignment are not disclosed to you unless the owner releases them.
- You are not in their message thread
The owner's conversations with its counterparties are not shared with you. A shared thread would leak price, fee and identity in the first message and quietly undo the rest of this.
How an engagement happens
Four steps, and the third one is the one most platforms leave out.
01
A request for quotation reaches you
A member company asks for quotes over its consignment — on the market, or to you directly as a request with one recipient — for an assay, a shipment, storage, clearance or cover.
02
The requester's criteria stay private
A requester may state what it would accept: a price range, a date, required inclusions. You never see them; each quote is labelled against them for the requester alone. That is the member's own criteria, never Nelum ranking providers.
03
You quote or decline
The job is offered to you, not assigned. You judge capacity and conflict of interest and answer accordingly — a provider who cannot decline is a provider whose acceptance means nothing.
04
Once accepted, you report into the record
Acceptance is the parties' act, in writing; Nelum records both statements and the work becomes a service task on the consignment. Your results are filed per lot, with proof beside each, versioned, and read from the same place. No forwarding, no version confusion, no dispute about what you actually said.
What you get out of it
Beyond the work itself — which is the point — three of these are about protecting the thing you actually sell.
The counterparties are verified
Every company that can engage you completed business verification and sanctions screening before it could trade. You are quoting real work for a real company, not chasing an enquiry that evaporates.
Your independence is structural
You cannot be influenced by a number you are not shown. That is worth more to your reputation than any assurance you could give a client about your own objectivity.
Your work is on the record
A report filed on a consignment cannot be quietly replaced. If it is superseded, both versions stay listed — which protects you as much as it protects the parties.
You are discoverable
Member companies can find your company by name in the directory, and requests for quotation on the market are open for you to quote.
Questions providers ask
- Do we have to complete verification too?
Yes. Providers register and verify as companies like everyone else — that is what makes your acceptance of a job meaningful to the parties relying on it.
- Can we also trade on our own account?
Yes, if your company does both. The same company can publish Offers of Intent and be engaged for services.
- What if we are asked to do something outside our competence?
Decline it. A request for quotation is answered, never assigned: you are free not to quote, and a direct invitation can be rejected.
- Who pays us?
The party who engaged you, on whatever terms you agree with them. Nelum is not a party to that arrangement, does not process it, and takes no percentage of it.
- Can we see the history of a consignment we join late?
You see what the owner assigns to your task, and you can ask for more; the owner decides. The rest of the consignment — commercial terms, messages, other providers' work — stays with the owner.
- What does it cost a provider?
The same as any company: one membership per company, billed monthly; the figures are on the pricing page. Identity and company checks are not charged.
Register your company
Verify once, be discoverable to every trading company on the platform, and let the boundary do the work of proving your independence.