Whether it is about locating a steel construction company in Egypt; or contacting a steel producer in Saudi Arabia; or finding buyers in Iran for finished steel products; or inquiring for steel rebars from Turkey, nobody can provide this information faster than MEsteel, claims Shaheen Mohamed Ali, web administrator for the portal.
“A query for ‘Saudi Steel’ on any of the search engines – be it Google, MSN, Yahoo, or any other – throws up several hundred thousand results,” he says.
However, the web surfer can strike lucky with the first search result.
Ali explains: “When you search for any Middle East country or city + ‘Steel’, http://www.mesteel.com/ always shows on the first page, ahead of thousands of search results.
“Our portal provides clients with an easy way of wading through this jungle of information that is thrown up at them every time they run a search.
“MEsteel.com opens a doorway into the world of steel in the Middle East. At the portal, users can find companies by the products they buy or sell, their name, their activities and brands – all within  a few seconds. The portal also allows users to filter per country, sort by city, and find for example who buys steel angles in Kuwait, or who sells stainless steel plates from stock in Dubai.
“In addition, the portal provides detailed company profiles and allows emailing these companies directly online. In fact, you could call MEsteel the ‘Yellow Pages’ of the steel industry in the Middle East, with endless tools and search possibilities.'
Mesteel.com was launched four years ago, as a B2B internet steel portal for the Middle East, and in a very short span of time, it has become an icon of the Middle East steel community, he says.
Growing by an average of 100 members every month, MEsteel now counts more than 2,000 members, and receives 170,000 visitors per month,” he adds.
MEsteel not only provides an interactive database of steel producers, distributors, end-users and servicing companies to the Middle East steel industry, it also gives the steel professional all the information he needs. The portal continuously updates with search engines and is linked to all major steel-related search engines and regional websites.
“When members link their own existing website to MEsteel, or receive their own free web pages on http://www.mesteel.com/, they gain at once the prominent place on the web they need,” Ali says. “Daily steel news, worldwide and about the Middle East, in particular, technical information on steel qualities and products, steel events, steel trade statistics and conversion tables are made available at the user’s fingertips. In addition, MEsteel members also receive regular Middle East steel news, special promotional offers on software and seminars. They can also email groups, and post free job advertisings online.”
Elaborating on the portal, he says: “One of the main reasons for setting up the portal was to bring an additional ‘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 export possibilities from this area. Middle East steel buyers find new suppliers. Stockists find new steel mills and traders to work with, and get leads on new clients.
“Unlike many other e-commerce sites that earn commission on concluded deals, MEsteel provides members free online trading. Members can also post inquiries and offers, show them online - accessible to the whole world - or email them only to companies of interest. This applies not just for steel, but also for fabricated products and steel industry-related services. 
“Negotiations can be conducted on inquiries and offers received, irrespective of the geographical location of the user. The whole negotiation history is accessible and saved online for both parties in a secured manner.”
“Lists of suppliers, clients and standard documents can be saved as ‘favourites’ online, so a laptop or Internet cafe anywhere is all that’s required to pursue the e-business.”
By keeping membership cost for all these services as low as $275 per year, MEsteel.com targets a large base of subscribers, and aims to grow to a minimum 5,000 members in the next three years. In the near future, similar steel sites for other continents will also be launched, he adds.