Headline: Steel trades in Asia move online
Byline: The Straits Times Interactive - Money
Publication date (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/12/1999

Regional Gateway

By Ignatius Low

ASIA'S first Internet portal for steel trades was launched yesterday.

This development is in line with the current fad of bringing traditional business-to-business, or "B2B", transactions online.

The portal, iSteelAsia.com, provides a central Web-based electronic platform on which buyers and sellers of steel products can transact safely and securely.

It also provides users with real-time news updates on developments in the steel industry and information about steel companies.

This will be available in various languages including English, Chinese and Japanese.

iSteelAsia.com is a joint effort of 20 regional steel companies, news provider Reuters and iMerchants, a Hongkong-based e-commerce solutions consultant.

Membership of the portal is free to both buyers and sellers in the industry. And since it was founded last month, iSteelAsia.com has registered more than 300 users.

The figure is expected to rise to 1,000 by next year and the portal hopes eventually to secure some US$5 billion (S$8.4 billion) in transactions by 2002.

Mr Leroy Kung, managing director of iMerchants, said that the portal will improve price transparency in the market, resulting in significant cost- and time-savings to industry players.

Buyers and sellers in Asia's steel industry are still reliant heavily on traditional facsimile and phone communication.

US-based technology research firm Forrester has estimated that online "B2B" transactions conducted through portals such as iSteelAsia.com will reach US$1.3 trillion by the year 2003 -- more than 10 times the volumes expected for online consumer shopping.

The founders of iSteelAsia.com hope that the popularity of Internet "B2B" transactions will open up additional growth opportunities for Asia's steel industry which it estimates chalks up an annual turnover of more than US$300 billion.