Online Marketplace Open For Steel Traders

Compiled ByDave Schafer After a surprisingly successful pilot in April, the Global Steel Exchange (GSX) will remain open to provide international buyers and sellers of more than 50 steel products an online marketplace for trading. A total of 257,665 tons of raw products and semi-finished and finished steel were traded across the exchange during the four-week trading pilot, exceeding GSX's expectations. The success convinced GSX to keep the online market open. "International steel buyers and sellers are clearly ready to conduct business differently," says GSX CEO Lou Schorsch. "We undertook the pilot primarily to ensure the site functions well. We never expected to achieve the volumes we've seen over the past month." GSX, founded by four leading steel-trading companies, offers both a product and service exchange. Registered members can directly negotiate for products then move to the Service Exchange, where they compare prices and negotiate for logistics and financing. The company's founders and investors throughout the world have committed US$5 billion in transaction volume over the next two years, which GSX says will ensure a constant supply of online products. Registration for Chicago-based GSX is open to steel buyers and sellers everywhere. The exchange was created in May 2000 by Cargill Steel, Minneapolis; Duferco, Lugano, Switzerland; Samsung Corp., Seoul, Korea; and TradeARBED, Luxembourg.