Chicago June 22, 2001 Flying in the face of recent marketplace closings (four in the past month, if my attrition calculator is functioning correctly), American Ethanol Exchange recently announced at the International Fuel Ethanol Workshop and Trade Show their plans to launch the company's new online exchange. AMETHEX, an acronym for American Ethanol Exchange, is a neutral electronic marketplace designed to generate time and cost savings by improving business processes and increasing efficiencies throughout the global ethanol industry. Registered users can begin transacting through the AMETHEX trading platform on June 29, 2001.
"AMETHEX is unique in that we are the first online marketplace focused solely on trading ethanol and other alcohols," said Rory Baker, vice president of marketing and business development at AMETHEX. "Our trading platform is not a new concept in marketing but will provide an Internet-based tool for the ethanol industry using the traditional marketing concepts of bids, offers, counter-offers and open negotiation."
AMETHEX claims that its most is its real-time capability. When trading through the Web site, buyers and sellers will use real-time secure trade negotiations and real-time price discovery as well as immediate accessibility to new buyers and sellers around the globe.
"The petroleum industry, as well as other commodities, has had the advantage of real-time price discovery available through their various forms of both cash and futures markets for many years. The ethanol industry has been in dire need of this capability and AMETHEX will provide this type of crucial information to its marketplace, " said Chet Perry, president and CEO at AMETHEX. "We feel that moving the buying and selling of ethanol online is the next natural step for our industry, leveraging today's technology to improve the trading process."
AMETHEX will provide buyers and sellers of ethanol with secure trading opportunities across the globe. Once a bid has been posted, members are in full control of the trading process. A series of offers and counter-offers occurs directly between buyers and sellers until ultimately, through negotiation, an offer is accepted, rejected, withdrawn or timed out.
AMETHEX will offer a trading membership and a general membership. There is no cost for registering with AMETHEX but there will be a credit approval process for potential trading members. Trading members are granted full trading privileges that include creating bids, making offers and counter-offers and requesting information on bids. General members will have access to most trading areas on the web site but will not be granted privileges to perform trades. This allows non-decision makers within companies, industry analysts, observers and others to follow the activities of the ethanol industry.
