01 July 2012

MESTEEL says that its comprehensive steel B2B web portal has put an end to the time-consuming quest for steel products and services in the Middle East region.

Whether it is about contacting steel producers in Turkey, locating a fabricator in Egypt, finding steel users in Saudi Arabia, or buying plates from stockists in the UAE, nobody can provide this information faster than MEsteel, claims web-administrator Rajpal Rao.

A query for ‘Saudi Steel’, for example, on Google, Bing or any other major search engine throws up thousands of result pages. But how do you find what you need?

Rao explains: “When you search for any Middle East country or city + ‘steel’, on any search engine, www.mesteel.com always shows on the first page, ahead of millions of search results.

“Once in MEsteel, our portal makes it easy to visitors to wade through this jungle of information. It opens the door to the steel world in the Middle East.”

Users of the portal can find companies by the products they buy or sell, their name, activities and brands within a few seconds. The portal further allows users to filter entries per country, sort by city and find, for example, who imports steel beams in Kuwait, or who sells stainless steel sheets from stock in Dubai, UAE.

“In addition, the portal provides thousands of detailed company profiles and allows emailing those companies individually or in groups, directly online. In fact, you could call MEsteel the in-depth ‘Yellow Pages’ of the steel industry in the Middle East, with endless online tools and search possibilities,” says Rao.

MEsteel.com was launched 10 years ago, as a B2B Internet steel portal of the Middle East, and has now become an icon of the Middle East steel community. “When members link their own existing website to MEsteel, or receive their own free web pages on www.mesteel.com, they at once gain the prominent place on the web they need,” says Rao.
Still growing daily, MEsteel now counts more than 4,000 members and receives about 100,000 unique visitors per month. “The portal not only provides an interactive database of steel producers, distributors, end-users and equipment and servicing companies to the Middle East steel industry, but also gives the steel professional all the information he needs. Daily news about steel, prices, projects, tenders in the Middle East, complemented with steel world news highlights, allow MEsteel members to keep them at the top of their game,” says Rao.

Also technical information on steel qualities and products, exhibitions and events updates, steel trade statistics and conversion tables are made available at the user’s finger tips.

In addition, members can also post job offers or go through CVs online, to hire the right steel and construction people.
He says one of the main reasons for setting up the portal was to bring an e-commerce business tool to the Middle East’s steel industry. “Every day, steel sellers and buyers worldwide offer MEsteel members their products or look for steel-related export possibilities from this area. Middle East steel buyers find new suppliers, stockists find steel mills and traders get leads to new clients,” he adds.

Members post inquiries and offers, show them online or email them privately to groups of companies of their interest. This applies not just to steel, but also to fabricated products and steel industry-related services. “Negotiations on inquiries and offers received can be emailed directly or conducted online. The whole negotiation history is accessible and saved online for both parties in a secure manner.

“Lists of suppliers, clients and standard company documents can be saved as ‘favourites’ online, so a laptop or Internet café anywhere is all a MEsteel member requires to pursue his steel business,” he says.

“By keeping the membership cost unchanged at only $275 per year, MEsteel.com remains the lowest cost, highest effective steel site for any steel professional in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, offering its subscribers an incomparable database of companies to interact with,” concludes Rao.

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