Launch of Chinese Version of iSteelAsia.com - Asia's First Steel Exchange Portal

Beijing, 2nd February 2000 - Asia's first vertical steel exchange portal, iSteelAsia.com today announces in Beijing the launch of its Chinese-language version. iSteelAsia.com offers Chinese steel community a new, online mechanism, for buyers and sellers of steel products, to transact and communicate in a highly efficient and economical fashion. The English version was launched successfully in Hong Kong in December. The launch in Beijing was attended by Chinese government officials from State Metallurgical Industry Bureau and China Steel Industry Association, industry experts, representatives of steel enterprises and traders.

The new online exchange portal aims to broaden the market reach of Chinese steel suppliers while, at the same time, increasing buyers' choice and convenience, and introducing considerable process cost savings. iSteelAsia.com enables both buyers and sellers to initiate inquiries or offers, search for products, as well as negotiate the full details of a transaction electronically. In addition, the SSL system secures the entire transaction from enquiry to completion, ensuring that all trades are confidential and safe from interference. Other value-added services include payment and value-added banking services, free freight insurance for transactions conducted on-site, surveying and exhaustive vetting of all potential trading partners.

On 11 January 2000, the Asian steel industry witnessed the first ever online steel trade in the region, between Duferco Group of Switzerland and Shougang Concord conducted on the iSteelAsia.com online trading portal. Duferco traded US$1 million of prime newly rolled high tensile reinforcement bars with Shougang, with specification, sourcing, negotiation and purchasing transacted entirely online through iSteelAsia.com's systems. This was the first time that a complete business-to-business e-commerce transaction had been conducted on a Greater China vertical portal industry Web site, marking a step forward in the evolution of e-business in the region.

"We are immensely impressed by the speed, convenience and efficiency of the portal. It represents the trend of steel trading. It has significantly improved the operational efficiency of our steel trading business", Shougang Concord stated. Mr. Trevor Hughes, spokesman for partners in the trade Duferco, has said, "this is a great business opportunity for us, setting us ahead of the competition in terms of the savings in cost and time we can make in our trades."

Mr. Andrew Yao, Founder and CEO of iSteelAsia.com said: "Asia currently accounts for about 45 per cent of global steel consumption, worth an annual turnover of more than US$300 billion. China is one of the largest steel traders in the region. Online end-to-end steel trading business, fueled by the increasing popularity of the Internet and constant improvements in Web technologies, will open up additional growth opportunities to steel enterprises in Asia and in China, as well as to iSteelAsia.com. Analysts have estimated the process cost savings of e-commerce at up to 25%, leading to total cost savings of around 12.5%. The portal will not only offer significant cost and time savings to industry members, but will also introduce revolutionary changes to one of the most important and largest industries in China."

iSteelAsia.com keeps the steel community informed of both industry and business developments by providing real-time global news and archive steel news which will be available in multiple languages including English, Chinese and Japanese. Other trading and community-building features include company profile, online auction and procurement, hyperlinks library, industry calendar, industry news and reports, and market information.

iSteelAsia.com was founded in 1999 by a consortium of steel industry members, e-commerce experts and a leading global information and news group, including Van Shung Chong Holdings Ltd. and, Shougang Concord International Enterprises Company Limited. Other key founding members within the consortium include companies from Hong Kong, Malaysia, Turkey, South Africa, Germany, United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia. To date, the portal already has over 800 registered members. It is anticipated that its membership will rise to 6,000 by the year-end.

About iSteelAsia.com
Limited Launched in December 1999, iSteelAsia.com (iSteelAsia) was Asia's first online exchange for trading in steel and steel products. It is the first of its kind to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's GEM board in April 2000. Focused on the Asian steel community, iSteelAsia aims to offer an open and neutral marketplace for steel trading. Trading competitiveness and efficiency are optimised on iSteelAsia as players can access a full spectrum of buyers and sellers and timely market knowledge. iSteelAsia serves as a single point of contact offering financing, insurance, surveying, shipping and logistics services, providing members with a one-stop end-to-end steel trading.

To date, iSteelAsia has over 2,600 registered members who regularly use its online trading services and access into its online Reuters and Asia Information Resources News.