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Reprinted from:
American Metal Market

Metalsite and Scrapsite Get Back Online
By Scott Robertson

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 27 -- Management Science Associates, Inc., (MSA) Pittsburgh, Tuesday re-launched MetalSite and ScrapSite with two service centers, JR Metals and Stark Metal Sales, already having posted more than 90 items of hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated products for sale on the site.

The site, one of the original steel e-commerce sites, began operation at 10 a.m. and by noon, had completed six sales, according to company executives.

Metals Supply Alliance, LLC, an MSA subsidiary, purchased the intellectual and proprietary assets of the former MetalSite, Inc., including the MetalSite and ScrapSite names, according to Dr. Alfred Keuhn, founder and chairman of MSA.

MetalSite, which was founded by Weirton Steel Corp., Weirton, W.Va., and included equity partners such as Weirton Steel, Bethlehem Steel Corp., Steel Dynamics Inc. and Ryerson Tull, Inc., temporarily suspended operations in June. Kuehn said he thought he could restart the site as soon as July 2, but, after a close examination, worked with staff to cut costs associated with the former entity before re-launching yesterday at www.metalsite.net.

"We looked at the way MetalSite did business, and the amount of money that went into expenses, and we realized we could take a large amount of money out of expenses that went to hosting and managing the site," said Patrick Gallagher, president of MSA MetalSite. "We see this as a business opportunity, not as an e-commerce, dot.com opportunity. We've made a number of changes that were requested by former users - more than 300 different changes to improve user-friendliness, functionality and better reporting ability to buyers and sellers."

Kuehn and Gallagher said they were very pleased with the quick response the site received shortly after the re-launch.

"We've done much better than we expected we would to start," Keuhn said. "This is beyond what we thought would happen."

Gallagher said the quick start on Tuesday was a testament to the need for such a site in the steel marketplace and a credit to employees, buyers and sellers who were part of the re-launch.

"It's been very impressive, but the credit has to go to our employees, our customers and the people who are buying and selling on the site already," he said. "We're extremely happy with the way things have gotten started."