World's first steel exchange goes online

With a steel pie valued at $300 billion by 2004, iSteelAsia has set its sights on 10% of that market.

13 JUL 2000 (Manila Bulletin) - ISTEELASIA.com, the world's first steel portal is targeting at least 10 percent of the $300 billion steel market by 2004.

The Asian steel industry accounts for 45 percent of the overall world consumption. Through iSteelAsia.com, companies participating in the online trading could save at least 12.5 percent in process cost.

Anthony William Dixon, iSteelAsia. com director for strategic alliance said online trading could cut costs, promote strategic alliance among steel players and add value to services.

"The real growth in the steel industry is in business-to-business (B2B) model where the expected transaction value is estimated at $633 billion by 2003," said Dixon.

World Steel Dynamics has forecasted that online transaction wou ld reach five million tons of steel. And half of the steel industry would be transacted online by the end of the decade.

Dixon noted that the steel industry is a complex process among the major participants due to poor information aside from being fragmented.

iSteelAsia.com's ebusiness strategy is to provide a fully integrated one-stop e-business services to the steel ecosystem, Dixon said.

Participants are assured of a two-level security when transacting online.

The website is an online marketplace where buyers and sellers get together.

The community of steel participants could share knowledge and experiences.

Dixon said only bonafide members of the steel industry can register with iSteelAsia.com. The strict registration process involves the designation of a primary contact person of a company.

Dixon explained that iSteelAsia.com is not a party to any transaction and the governing law on the transaction would have to be agreed between the two parties.

More than 2,000 companies have already registered with iSteelAsia.com, 70 percent of which are in Asia, 12 percent in Europe and 10 percent from the United States.

Dixon said that he expects similar websites on steel would be launched but they would later consolidate.

Registered participants of iSteel.com can avail of the extensive additional value-added services that include insurance, surveying, shipping and bank services.

Established in December 1999, iSteelAsia.com became the first steel trading portal to list in the stock exchange when it debuted in Hong Kong's growth enterprise market.

Aside from its online auction system and extensive international member base, iSteelAsia.com offers multilingual community-building features. Steel news from Reuters and other sources, industry gossip and hot topics and a bulletin board facilitate critical information exchange with extensive personalization features to tailor the site for user's individual needs at no cost.

Dedicated to Asian steel trade, iSteelAsia.com is supported by major industry players and is a neutral marketplace for steel traders, manufacturers and end users to trade, talk, bond and form new networks and communities reinforced by new technologies across the geographical, cultural and languages of Asia.

It aims to increase industry competitiveness in the region, cement relationships within it and internationalize the Asian steel industry.

The founders of iSteelAsia.com are major steel industry players including Van Shung Chong Holdings Ltd (Hong Kong), Shougang Concord International Enterprises Company Ltd (Hong Kong), Amsteel (Malaysia), ICDAS (Turkey), Scaw Metals, a member of the Anglo American PLC group (South Africa), Coutinno Caro & Company (Germany), Stemcor Ltd (UK), SK Global Company Ltd (Korea), Commercial Metals Company (US) and Hanwa Company Ltd (Japan).

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