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  RMDAS™ Ferrous Scrap Price Index Now Available in Steel Business Briefing's Publications

PITTSBURGH, PA - June 19, 2009 - Management Science Associates, Inc. (MSA) announced today that its RMDAS™ Ferrous Scrap Price Index is now available to subscribers of Steel Business Briefing's publications, reports, and newsletters. "We are pleased to work with Steel Business Briefing to add value for their subscribers while increasing exposure to this important scrap price index throughout the steel and metals community," said Ralph Pinkert, Business Development Director for MSA.

The RMDAS™ Ferrous Scrap Price Index prices, which are published on the 20th of each month, are provided for several widely traded scrap commodities, representing the aggregated regional spot market prices for "prompt" new production industrial scrap generated by the metalworking industry, shredded "obsolescent" scrap, and heavy melting "cut" scrap sold to domestic steel producers each month. Prices for these grades are reported for RMDAS' North Midwest, North Central/East, and South regions, along with a Total U.S. region.

The RMDAS™ Ferrous Scrap Price Index has been published, since May 2006, in Recycling Today™ magazine and MetalPrices.com, which primarily focus on the metals and recycling industries. MSA is now expanding distribution of its index prices through this agreement with Steel Business Briefing, whose focus is more on the steel manufacturing and metalworking industries.

"At Steel Business Briefing, we are continually looking to add value and content for our subscribers. After lengthy evaluation and review of MSA's methodology and steel mill participant base, we determined that its RMDAS index is accurate and representative of a respective month's actual average regional ferrous scrap prices in the United States, so we are pleased that SBB is now able to publish this index," said Andrew Goodwin, President, SBB Americas.

The RMDAS Ferrous Scrap Price Index is transaction-based, providing weighted-average, aggregated regional "spot market" prices generated from RMDAS participants' actual scrap purchase order data, representing a significant percentage of ferrous scrap purchased in the U.S. "This index enables companies in the steel, recycling, foundry, manufacturing, and metalworking industries to now enter into sound formula-based, longer-term purchase and sales agreements, and/or for use as a raw material surcharge mechanism," Mr. Pinkert explained.

RMDAS, which stands for Raw Material Data Aggregation Service™, was developed by MSA in late 2003 with steel producers. The full service provides its program participants with actual, transaction-based, weighted-average, aggregated scrap price and volume information on all commodities purchased by the participants. Participants can do comparative analysis on the data and create a wide variety of charts, graphs, and data views to benchmark performance, identify buying/selling opportunities, and to support SOX compliance.

Currently, MSA has contracts with a significant number of EAF mini-mills and integrated steel producers in North America, who provide their actual purchase order data from over 70 melting locations, representing well over 55% of the total purchased ferrous scrap consumed in the United States each month.

ABOUT MANAGEMENT SCIENCE ASSOCIATES, INC. (MSA)
Founded in 1963, MSA is an international leader in decision-support analysis software and business automation systems. MSA specializes in data management, business analysis, information systems management, and business continuity and disaster recovery services. MSA has more than 45 years of experience in providing secure data collection, management and analysis, including forecasting, for individual companies and entire industries. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, MSA is a privately-held company employing more than 800 individuals in its offices throughout the world, including: New York; Chicago; Atlanta; High Point, N.C.; Cardiff, Wales; Shanghai, China; and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

MSA's Metals and Advanced Manufacturing Division has been providing complete turnkey computer systems, process control services, purchasing and blending optimization models, engineering and management services to the metals and other process industries since 1982.

ABOUT STEEL BUSINESS BRIEFING (SBB)
Steel Business Briefing (SBB) writes original, independent, global steel news and steel price information. SBB produces steel industry reports, conducts customized research, creates maps, and holds steel industry events around the world. Headquartered in London, SBB now has six offices around the world in key steel areas, including Pittsburgh, and publishes every day in five languages. The flagship Daily Global Briefing Newsletter is read by over 50,000 industry participants daily and is the world's most widely read steel publication.

 

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