# Imported raw materials and multi-round settlement

Imported raw materials and multi-round settlement is Tranexio’s solution for importers of ores, metals, agricultural products and other raw materials. It covers L/C issuance, pricing markets and price fixing, multi-round settlement from provisional to final price, quality and weight adjustments, and landed costs (两税九费) estimated, recorded and allocated item by item.

## Key points

- **Import L/C issuance**：The full workflow is managed: application, choice of issuing bank, supplementary documents and margin, submission to the bank, comparison against the bank’s confirmation, amendments, and acceptance and payment against documents.
- **Pricing markets and fixing**：Pricing markets are maintained as two types, futures exchanges and physical price reporting agencies, while fixed, average and formula prices are all calculated in the pricing order.
- **Multi-round settlement**：Estimated, provisional and final prices form a version chain; assay and weight survey results drive price adjustments, and differences are posted back automatically.
- **Landed cost in inventory**：Duties, import VAT and freight, insurance, port, warehousing, inspection, agency and bank charges are estimated and recorded at actual item by item, then allocated to inventory cost by batch.
- **Driven by the arrival plan**：The arrival plan organises each import shipment, and the estimated time of arrival drives backward scheduling of customs, port and warehousing tasks.

## The problem

In raw material imports, price waits for fixing or the end of the averaging period, quantity waits for the weight survey and quality waits for assays, so a shipment is often settled two or three times. L/Cs, taxes and port charges each follow their own rules, and true cost is only known at month-end.

## What the platform does

| Step | How Tranexio handles it |
|---|---|
| L/C issuance | End-to-end [letter of credit](https://tranexio.com/en/resources/glossary/letter-of-credit/) workflow from the applicant’s side, with document checklists, completeness rates and confirmation checks |
| Price | Pricing market master data, [price fixing](https://tranexio.com/en/resources/glossary/price-fixing/), [average pricing](https://tranexio.com/en/resources/glossary/average-pricing/) and formula pricing |
| Settlement | Estimated → provisional → final price version chain; quality-based price adjustment; weight with a three-stage record |
| Cost | [Two taxes and nine fees](https://tranexio.com/en/resources/glossary/two-taxes-nine-fees/) estimated, recorded and allocated item by item |
| Customs | Import declarations and duty estimation; see [Customs and Single Window](https://tranexio.com/en/capabilities/customs-single-window/) |
| Risk | Pricing exposure, hedge recommendations and FX hedging |

## Key controls

- Contracts without a final price are included in the risk view as contingent exposure.
- Settlement weight and dry tonnage are derived by formula and cannot be edited by hand.
- Alerts are raised when actual costs deviate from estimates beyond a threshold.

## FAQ

### One import shipment is settled several times. How does the system manage that?

Through a price version chain. L/Cs are issued and payments made on the estimated or provisional price; once assays, weight surveys and price fixing are complete, the final price is set and the system calculates the difference from the previous settlement and generates a top-up or refund. Every round is traceable.

### What are the “two taxes and nine fees”, and how do they reach cost?

They are the costs of an import shipment beyond the goods themselves: taxes such as customs duty and import VAT, plus freight, insurance, port, warehousing, inspection, agency, bank and overtime charges. The system supports estimating each item, recording actuals and allocating them by batch to inventory cost and order P&L.

### Each bank wants different L/C documents. How do we cope?

The system keeps a document checklist per issuing bank and calculates completeness when an application is raised, prompting for anything missing. The bank’s confirmation is compared automatically with the application, and differences must be confirmed before moving on to amendment or payment.

### Are there real-world results?

At one agricultural import company, arrival deviations were spotted as they happened, gaps in certificates and documents surfaced before declaration, and demurrage and amendment charges became noticeably less frequent. These results are measured against that company’s own baseline and are not a general promise.

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Source：https://tranexio.com/en/industries/import-raw-materials/ · Updated 2026-10-06 · © 上海赛淘数据技术有限公司 / Shanghai Saitao Datatech Co., Ltd