[London, ENGLAND] In response to American and Asian online
solutions, European steel producers announced their own
e-commerce platform Wednesday by introducing
SteelDex (Steel Direct Exchange).
Privately funded, but soon to be backed by what it calls
“a leading European financial institution,” SteelDex will
enable European producers, traders, and selected customers
to buy and sell the whole range of steel products.
Leading participants are currently Thyssen Mannesmann
Handel of Germany and Champion of France, but SteelDex management
said many others are either signing letters of intent or
taking shares in the new market.
SteelDex Chief Executive Moritz Spilker said that negotiations
with key players in the European steel industry were well
advanced.
“With SteelDex our partners exclusively bring in their
experience. We are looking forward to developing with them
the leading electronic steel market in Europe,” said Spilker.
Spilker added that the new market would commence trading in
the fall.
Among the private shareholders are Peter Jungen, the
former chief executive of Strabag, and Michael B. Pfitzner,
former board member of Saarstahl/Krupp.
Two prominent figures are serving on the SteelDex supervisory
board — Josef Rentmeister, director of Cisco Systems in
Germany and Lenhard J. Holschuh, secretary general of the
International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) in Brussels.
Headquartered in Germany, SteelDex is inviting potential
members to register online. Only registered members will
be admitted to the exchange.
Helping SteelDex with the technical aspects of putting
the exchange online is IT partner Electronic Business
Consult, a German-based B2B consultancy.