GXS Expands Presence in China with Bsteel Agreement

IT services arm of China's largest iron and steel maker taps GXS to develop B2B platform

IT services arm of China's largest iron and steel maker taps GXS to develop B2B platform

Gaithersburg, MD — January 4, 2005 — B2B e-commerce solutions provider Global eXchange Services (GXS) today said it has been selected by Bsteel, the B2B and e-business subsidiary of Baosteel Group Corp. (Baosteel), to develop a B2B gateway and supply chain services center that will enable Baosteel business divisions to connect with suppliers. Bsteel said it will use GXS to improve efficiency of their business processes in procurement, logistics and customer service.

As China's largest iron and steel producer, Baosteel serves the global appliance, auto, construction, oil and shipbuilding industries. The state-owned company, which produces more than 20 million tons of crude steel annually, is in the process of revamping its strategic business processes to include supply chain integration and centralization of procurement and logistics.

Bsteel explained that it needed a solution to allow the company to connect with its suppliers and establish a global, centralized supply chain service center to serve major customers as well as Baosteel's internal divisions.

Bsteel selected GXS Enterprise System technology, an enablement component to the GXS Trading Grid, an integration services platform that handles transaction messaging between business partners and internal applications to gain visibility into its supply chain.

GXS Enterprise System combines data translation, transaction routing and business process integration capabilities within a single system in order to increase the efficiency of routine, high-volume transactions, while handling non-routine transactions in a consistent manner.

Later in 2005, Bsteel expects to upgrade to Enterprise Next Generation, which combines the Enterprise System technology with webMethods Fabric to create a J2EE-based B2B integration solution.

"We selected GXS over competing vendors because of their wide-reaching global presence and deep supply chain expertise," said John Zhang, president, Bsteel. "Leveraging the GXS Enterprise System will simplify our integration efforts and streamline our supply chain. Once the system is implemented, Baosteel's 2,000 suppliers will be able to improve their business transaction processes by linking with digitized business processes worldwide."

According to a Gartner Inc. report titled China's Emergence Transforms the Business World, April 24, 2004, "...China has gone from underdeveloped nation to global success story, averaging a 9 percent growth rate in gross domestic product (GDP). China's economy has grown seven times larger than in 1979, and trade volume has been even more staggering — a 2,700 percent growth rate for the same time period."

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