The Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) has launched a new trading platform to help bolster liquidity.

The DMCC Tradeflow is an electronic system that brings together all the parties involved in inventory-based financing. The new platform incorporates warrants that signify ownership of goods stored in warehouses in the UAE, which can be transferred to financiers as collateral in return for working capital.

“The DMCC has become one of the most prominent commodities trading centre,” says Ahmed Bin Sulayem, executive chairman of the DMCC while speaking at the Middle East Trade & Export Finance Conference in Dubai on 14 February.

“We expect to witness increased access to trade finance for not only DMCC licensed companies, but for commodity traders throughout the world who use Dubai as a trading hub,” he says.

There are currently 3,750 active companies based in the Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) freezone in Dubai where the DMCC is based. Of those 1,400 were added last year. According to Sulayem, JLT is now the fastest growing freezone in Dubai.

Gold trade in the first half of 2011 totalled $25.4bn, up from $21.2bn in the same period in 2010.

The value of diamonds traded rose from $16.3bn in the first half of 2010, compared withs $25.3bn in the corresponding period last year.