iSteelAsia is expected to lead the steel B2B market

iSteelAsia.com deserves to be highlighted as the leading B2B marketplace in Asia following its listing on GEM. Since its launch in 1999, iSteelAsia has transacted over US$37 million in trades and has signed up over 1,500 registered users. The company expects to see an explosive growth of its revenue in the near future. Van Shun Chong Limited, the parent company of iSteelAsia, is a leading distributor of construction and industrial materials, and was the first importer and stockholder of steel rebars in Hong Kong. Through a network of six operating divisions, VSC has contributed to the construction industry and infrastructure development in Hong Kong and China. VSC has continued its growth since its listing on the HK Stock Exchange in 1994. Today, VSC controls about one third of Hong Kong's rebar supply market and has diversified into becoming a provider of value-added processing services for construction and industrial materials in both Hong Kong and the southern part of China. The company has forged strategic joint ventures in China, including a coil service center in Guangdong with Baosteel of China and Mitsui of Japan. Turnover for the latest financial year is US$400 million.

Mr. Andrew Yao, founder, chairman and CEO of iSteelAsia.com is the chairman of VSC. Mr. Yao was a pioneer in introducing to Hong Kong the "cut and bend" services which automates the cutting and bending of rebars off-site. Before joining VSC, Mr. Yao was a strategic consultant at Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. In Tokyo and a founder who helped start-up of Citisteel Inc. He obtained a B.Sc. degree in finance from the University of California, Berkeley, and a MBA from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration.

iSteelAsia.com plans to target the Asian steel market, which is worth around US$300 billion annually, out of a total global market of US$700 billion. By 2004, iSteelAsia hopes to have captured around 10% of the Asian steel trade. Immediate plans are to expand the business further across Asia, establish offices in the Americas and Europe, and prosecute joint ventures with major players in Korea, Japan and elsewhere. The overall aim is to establish iSteelAsia.com as the premier B2B vortal for the steel community in the Asia-Pacific region. Its listing on GEMs implies that iSteelAsia is the first steel vortal to be listed on any stock market in the world and its plans to list on NASDAQ in the second half of this year.

[Translated from the following The Korea Metal Journal article, dated Apr. 17th 2000, by Moonsung Cho]