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Technical Papers
was higher than expected. Further services like machining are to be added in future. “The initial steps in this direction have been taken with mitre cutting and sheet- ing with customised dimensions, but a great deal still needs to be done”, Grethe admits. To him, the fundamental rule is: „Where we can create added value, we will develop new functions in liaison with suppliers and buyers.”
Jürgen Wixler, Director of alloys2b GmbH in Munich, has modelled his operations on the way social media work. Alloys2b has focussed on steel mills and foundries that need master alloys, alloys and non-alloyed material. “We started with a marketplace and very quickly developed into a software- as-a-service (SaaS) solution”, explains Wixler. Alloys2b oper- ates on the basis of the principles of a private tendering platform: buyers compile their own supplier pool, with whom they trade, and the invitations to tender go only to these suppliers. Comparable to a friendship request on Face- book, customers can invite new suppliers by e-mail and thus test the rst stage of future co-opera- tion, before expensive background checks are made. In this context, the system acts as a fast, digital communication channel between the participants. “The special features of alloys2b are simple operation and product customisa- tion – an in-house development”, Wixler promises. “This enables standard products to be found and, if necessary, be adapted to individual requirements or complex products can be created – all without the need for famil- iarisation or prior workshops.”
Wixler has developed the system into a kind of social media plat-
form for business customers. The extended platform is already online as a trading system for agricultural buying and selling. “At the moment, we are looking for partners to introduce the new trading system in the metal indus- try.” Wixler is convinced: “We believe that the future of metal trading lies in an open platform and not in isolated solutions.”
The machine orders steel
What will the future of steel trading be like? Everyone agrees: “The future of steel trading is digital”. While there is further agreement that the winners will be the traders who have who have been quick and purposeful in the digitisation of their processes.
It is, however, also possible that many steel traders will no longer be needed at all in future.
In the Industry 4.0 era, develop- ments will lead to digitisation of the entire supply and added value chain. In smart factories, stocks and machines are connected to each other directly via the Inter- net of things (IoT). If the system identi es that the steel availa- ble on the production machine is running out, an order is placed – with the steel trader or directly with the steel mill. What sounds futuristic could soon become reality. That at least is what the start-up company Axoom thinks, that has created a complex Indus- try 4.0 ecosystem. The company from Karlsruhe has been estab- lished by the machine tool manu- facturer Trumpf. Its partner in this venture: the steel trader Klöckner.
E-shops I The future of metal trading is digital www.tbwom.com
Digitisation of steel trading is developing dynamically
E-shops for industry-specific metal trading platforms
ALLOYS2B
MAPUDO
KLÖCKNER.i
THYSSENKRUPP MATERIALS4ME
XOM KLÖCKNER
SALZGITTER
ARCELOR MITTAL
E-shops for cross-sector trading platforms
AMAZON
STEEL.ONLINE
ALIBABA
GOOGLE
25–29 JUNE 2019 DÜSSELDORF
The Bright World of Metals
GERMANY
worldwide
The Bright World of Metals
ITAtube Journal No2/July 2018
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