Local vs International Markets in Jules

Product documentation — Why market mode is one of the most consequential settings in Jules, and how the choice between LOCAL and EXPORT cascades through logistics, pricing, documentation, goals, and commercial offers.

Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. What Defines a Market Mode
3. Where Market Mode Is Set
4. Logistics Chain Differences
5. Pricing Differences
6. Documentation Differences
7. Incoterms by Market
8. Goals and Budgets by Market
9. Offers by Market
10. Price Suggestions by Market
11. Feature Comparison Table
12. Side-by-Side Flow Diagrams
13. Key Business Rules
14. Glossary

Overview

Jules serves recyclable materials traders who operate in two fundamentally different commercial contexts: selling material to overseas customers via container or bulk vessel (export trade), and sourcing or delivering material within the same country by road, rail, or barge (domestic trade).

These are not just logistical differences. The two market modes differ in:

• The transport chain and the parties involved
• How prices are agreed and calculated
• What commercial documents are required
• What financial instruments (letter of credit) apply
• How goals and offers are structured

Jules encodes this distinction in a single setting, with two values:

This setting is not cosmetic. It controls which incoterms are available, which logistic rate tables are queried, whether a letter of credit is relevant, how offer PDFs are formatted, and how goal target prices are stored. Understanding market mode is essential for anyone configuring or using Jules.

What Defines a Market Mode

EXPORT

An export operation involves shipping recyclable material from one country to another. The seller (or buyer) is located in a different country from the counterparty. The goods typically travel:

1. From the supplier site inland to a port of loading (pre-carriage leg)
2. Across an ocean on a container vessel or bulk carrier (main freight leg)
3. From the port of destination to the buyer's facility (last-mile, handled by buyer)

Export trades commonly use:

• Maritime incoterms: FOB, CFR, CIF, CIF+, DAP
• Container or bulk cargo shipment modes
• Letter of Credit (LC) as a payment guarantee
• Bill of Lading (BL) as the key transport document
• Index-based pricing (LME, TSI, Platts) with quotational periods

LOCAL

A local operation involves buying or selling material within the same country. The goods move entirely overland:

1. From the supplier site to the buyer's facility by truck, train, or barge

Local trades commonly use:

• Domestic incoterms: EXW, FCA, DAP, DDP
• TRUCK_RAIL_BARGE shipment mode
• No letter of credit (domestic bank guarantee or open account)
• Delivery note / weighbridge receipt rather than BL
• Spot pricing or treatment-fee pricing

Key insight: The market mode is set once per operation (and per contract). Jules then uses it to filter every downstream dropdown, rate table, and document type automatically. A user working on a LOCAL operation will never see FOB incoterms or maritime freight rates in their workflow — the system filters them out.

Where Market Mode Is Set

Market mode is a required field on three core entities:

On operations

Every operation must declare its market type at creation. It can be updated later, but changing the market type mid-operation is uncommon because it invalidates logistic rates and incoterm selections already made.

On contracts

Contracts also carry a market type field. When a contract is used to prefill an operation (via the contract-prefill mechanism), the market type is automatically copied to the operation.

On offers

Every offer carries a market type field. This determines how the offer PDF is formatted, which incoterms are available for offered prices, and whether goal sale prices are automatically updated.

On goals

Goals and target prices each carry a market type field that determines how fulfillment is tracked and how the goal is displayed in goal management views.

On incoterms (configuration)

The incoterms catalogue itself is filtered by market type and operation direction. Jules filters available incoterms based on the market type and operation direction, showing only the relevant incoterms. This is enforced at the API level.

Logistics Chain Differences

This is the most visible difference between the two market modes.

EXPORT logistics chain

An export operation involves two distinct transport legs:

1. Pre-carriage — inland transport from the supplier site to the port of loading. Jules manages this via pre-carriage bookings (ROAD, RAIL, or BARGE mode).
2. Main freight — ocean freight from port of loading to port of destination. Jules manages this via freight bookings, freight rate + pre-carriage rate cards, and shipment entities with vessel tracking.

Container follow-up booking statuses relevant to export:

LOCAL logistics chain

A local operation involves a single transport leg from origin to destination. There is no port, no vessel, no BL.

Logistic rate table: Jules queries local rate cards when the market type is LOCAL. The local rate captures:

• Pre-carriage area (collection zone)
• Destination area (delivery zone)
• Transport mode (ROAD, RAIL, BARGE)
• Transport provider (pre-carriage line)
• Cost per unit

This is a simpler, area-to-area rate rather than a port-to-port route. The system routes to the correct rate table based on market mode automatically.

Logistics comparison

Pricing Differences

Both market modes support spot and index pricing, but the typical patterns differ.

EXPORT pricing patterns

Export operations in recyclable commodities are predominantly index-priced. The final price is calculated from a market benchmark (LME Steel Scrap, TSI, Platts, RISI) adjusted by a differential and/or recovery rate, over a quotational period tied to the shipment date.

Common formula patterns for export:

Price = (LME Steel Scrap M-1 Official) × 78% Recovery − 12 USD/T Other Costs
Price = TSI HMS 1&2 CFR Turkey − 15 USD/T Differential
Price = (RISI OCC 11 average W-1) + 5 USD/T

Index pricing requires a market index, a price formula combining the index with adjustments, and a quotational period defining which time window is used.

Export operations also commonly carry a provisional temporary price flag before the index settles at the end of the quotational period.

LOCAL pricing patterns

Local (domestic) operations are predominantly spot-priced (fixed price per tonne) or use treatment pricing (a fee for processing material). Index pricing is less common for domestic trade, though it is supported.

Spot pricing example:

Price = 85 EUR / T EXW
Price = 120 EUR / T DAP (delivery included)

Treatment pricing is specific to Waste Management (WM) contracts — the "price" is a fee the generator pays for the material to be collected and processed, rather than a commodity value the buyer pays.

Pricing comparison

Documentation Differences

The documentation workflow differs significantly between market modes, primarily because international trade requires legally-binding transport documents and financial instruments that domestic trade does not.

EXPORT documentation

Export operations involve a full documentary chain:

The Letter of Credit is an export-specific instrument. It is opened by the buyer's bank, guarantees payment to the seller upon presentation of the correct document set, and specifies:

• Authorized shipping lines
• Incoterm on document
• LC amount and validity
• Period for document presentation
• Payment clause

Jules tracks LC details at the operation level and monitors the shipment documentation workflow status.

LOCAL documentation

Local operations use a much simpler documentary chain:

There is no Letter of Credit, no BL, no Annex 7, and no VGM in a local operation. Jules also supports delivery slip tracking in Jules for local operations. Payment is typically on open account (invoiced with payment terms) rather than through a bank instrument.

Documentation comparison

Incoterms by Market

Jules filters available incoterms per market type and operation direction combination. This prevents users from accidentally selecting a maritime incoterm on a domestic operation, or vice versa.

Common EXPORT incoterms (BUY operations)

Common LOCAL incoterms (BUY operations)

System behavior: The incoterm selector takes market type and operation direction (BUY or SELL) as required inputs and returns only the matching incoterms from the organization's configuration. If a trader changes the market type on an operation, the incoterm selection is invalidated and must be re-chosen from the correct filtered list.

Some incoterms carry a flag indicating whether the logistics cost is billed back to the supplier — common in certain domestic waste management contracts.

Goals and Budgets by Market

Goals segmented by market

Every goal in Jules carries a market type field. Goals are not shared across market modes — a goal for "HMS 1&2 export to Turkey at FOB 320" is entirely separate from "HMS 1&2 domestic supply at EXW 80 EUR/T."

The filtering system enforces this segmentation: when viewing goals, only goals for the selected market mode are returned.

Export goal fields typically include:

• The origin port
• The destination port
• Geographic market (e.g., "Turkey", "Southeast Asia")

Local goal fields typically include:

• The delivery zone
• The collection zone (where material is sourced)
• The specific delivery site

Goal fulfillment by market

When an operation is linked to a goal, the fulfilled quantity accumulates on that goal's fulfilled total. Because goals are market-specific, a purchase on a LOCAL operation can only fulfill a LOCAL purchase goal.

Budget templates by market

Budget templates carry a shipment mode field (CONTAINER, BULK_CARGO, or TRUCK_RAIL_BARGE). Organizations typically create separate templates per market mode:

• Export container template: includes freight cost, pre-carriage, BL fees, customs, THC, insurance, agent commission
• Local template: includes transport cost, weighbridge fees, sorting/processing, possibly treatment fee

This ensures the cost breakdown is relevant to the trade type being modeled.

Offers by Market

Offers are the commercial proposals sent to counterparties before a deal is confirmed. Market mode shapes how offers are constructed and what effect they have on the system.

EXPORT offers

Export offers list material qualities with prices, typically expressed in USD/T with maritime incoterms (FOB, CIF, CFR) and specific destination ports.

The offered price line includes:

• Quality (e.g., HMS 1&2, ZORBA)
• Price in USD/T
• Incoterm (maritime)
• Port of destination
• Estimated logistic cost (optional, for internal reference)
• Equipment (container type)

Export offers are grouped in the PDF by destination port or quality, so the counterparty sees a matrix of quality × port × incoterm.

LOCAL offers

Local offers list material qualities with domestic pricing (EUR/T or other local currency) using domestic incoterms (EXW, DAP).

The destination is expressed as delivery sites rather than a port. The offer PDF is formatted to reflect domestic trade terms.

Important system behavior: When a LOCAL offer is created or updated, Jules automatically creates or updates goal sale prices. This means the act of making a local offer to a buyer feeds directly into the goal management system, keeping target sale prices in sync with current market intelligence.

This automatic goal-price update does not happen for EXPORT offers — export pricing is typically negotiated deal by deal and does not auto-update goal targets.

Offer comparison

Price Suggestions by Market

Jules' price suggestion and price list system produces different views depending on market mode.

Export suggestions

For export, the suggestion grid is built around port of destination as the axis. A trader selecting a supplier site and a quality sees:

• Target purchase price (from export goal with matching port of destination)
• Available incoterms (filtered to EXPORT BUY)
• Port of loading options
• Capacity and fulfillment status

Local suggestions

For local trade, the suggestion grid is built around destination area as the axis. The same grid shows:

• Target purchase price (from local goal with matching destination area)
• Available incoterms (filtered to LOCAL BUY)
• Pre-carriage area
• MQC and capacity

The UI uses the market mode to route to the correct rate cards and goal targets when the trader acts on the suggestion.

Feature Comparison Table

Side-by-Side Flow Diagrams

Full export trade flow

Full local trade flow

Logistics detail contrast

Key Business Rules

1. Market mode is enforced at the incoterm level

The system filters available incoterms based on market type and operation direction and returns only the valid incoterms for that combination. Jules does not allow saving an operation with a LOCAL market type and a maritime-only incoterm like FOB.

2. The logistic rate lookup branches by market mode

Local rate cards (area-to-area transport) and export rate cards (port-to-port) are stored separately and never mixed. The system routes to the correct rate table based on market mode.

3. Local offers automatically update goal sale prices

When a LOCAL offer is created or updated with offered prices, Jules automatically updates goal sale price targets in the Goals module. Export offers do not trigger this logic — export pricing is too deal-specific for automatic goal updates.

4. Letter of Credit is an export-only workflow

The Letter of Credit links to an operation. While the system does not technically block attaching an LC to a LOCAL operation, the workflow and UI make this an export-only feature. LC fields such as authorized shipping lines, ETD, and BL incoterm are meaningless in a domestic context.

5. Goals must be matched by market type when linking to operations

When a trader links an operation to a goal, the goal's market type should match the operation's market type. Jules tracks fulfilled quantities on goals — linking a LOCAL operation to an EXPORT goal would produce nonsensical fulfillment data.

6. Budget templates are indexed by shipment mode, not market type

Budget templates use shipment mode (CONTAINER, BULK_CARGO, TRUCK_RAIL_BARGE) as their organizing dimension rather than market type directly. In practice, CONTAINER and BULK_CARGO templates are used for export deals, and TRUCK_RAIL_BARGE templates are used for local deals. Organizations should configure at least one template per shipment mode.

7. Price suggestions deliver different views per market

The suggestion system generates export suggestions (destination axis = port) and local suggestions (destination axis = area). Both carry the market type on the output, so the UI can render the correct column headers and link to the right rate cards.

8. The EXPORT / LOCAL split also appears on contracts

A contract's market type is inherited by the operations created from it via the contract-prefill mechanism. Teams should ensure that their contract portfolio is consistently classified — an export contract should not be used to prefill a domestic purchase, as the incoterms and logistic terms would be incorrect.

Glossary