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Management Science Associates, Inc. (MSA) Founded in 1963, MSA is an international leader in decision-support analysis software and business automation systems. MSA specializes in data management, business analysis, information systems management, and business continuity and disaster recovery services. MSA has more than 40 years of experience in providing secure data collection, management and analytics, including forecasting, for individual companies and entire industries. MSA is a privately-held company, headquartered in Pittsburgh, employing more than 800 employees throughout the world.
Its Metals & Advanced Manufacturing Division has been providing turnkey computer systems, process control services, purchasing and blending optimization models, engineering and management services to the metals and other process industries since 1982. This division developed the Raw Material Data Aggregation Service™ (RMDAS) in late 2003 with steel producers, providing its program participants with actual, transaction-based, weighted-average, aggregated scrap price and volume information on all commodities purchased by its participants.
Currently, MSA has contracts with a significant number of EAF mini-mills and integrated steel producers in North America, who provide their actual purchase order data from over 60 melting locations, which represent well over 55% of the total purchased scrap consumed in the United States each month. These RMDAS participants have determined, among many value propositions, that easily reviewable, accurate, comprehensive and timely information is a competitive advantage and is essential for responsibly evaluating their company's purchasing performance against other producers in the industry, as well as in their market segment.
MSA's RMDAS™ Ferrous Scrap Price Index is generated from participants' actual purchase order data, representing a significant percentage of scrap purchased in the US. Thus, MSA's reliable, transaction-based regional ferrous price index enables companies in the steel, foundry, manufacturing, metalworking and recycling industries to now enter into more realistic formula-based, longer-term purchase and sales agreements, and to use as a raw material surcharge mechanism.
The RMDAS™ Ferrous Scrap Price Index published prices are limited to several widely-traded scrap commodities, best representing the aggregated regional spot prices for "prompt" new production industrial scrap generated by the metal working industry, shredded obsolescent scrap and # 1 Heavy Melting "cut" scrap sold to domestic steel producers each month.
How RMDAS Works
MSA, as a trusted independent, neutral and experienced data management service provider, separately contracts "one-on-one" with each participant company and executes a Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement. Each participant company contractually certifies that the actual raw material order data they submit on a timely basis to MSA will be accurate and complete, to the best of their knowledge, with no orders intentionally withheld, and each participant understands that all orders and related receipts/shipments can be reviewed by MSA, individually and/or from their accounting systems.
Each participant company electronically transmits to MSA, on a periodic basis during each month, all of their actual purchase order data for ferrous scrap materials, bought for each of their locations. RMDAS utilizes MSA's data@factory® and secure data repository to collect, cleanse, analyze, verify and store all of the data provided by its participants. MSA then aggregates all the participants' information and allows access to this data in a number of meaningful, comparative report formats. With MSA's data review and verification processes, it can ensure that only valid, non-duplicated data is included in RMDAS' reportable database.
Each participant's data is kept in a confidential manner by MSA at all times. Only aggregated data is shared among RMDAS participants, based on MSA's pre-established minimum reporting criteria, so that no one participant's exact price paid for a commodity or volume purchased/sold is able to be determined by other participants.
Although all ferrous scrap purchase orders are provided by all RMDAS participants, only spot purchases, typically for 30-day delivery, are included in RMDAS' reported "spot market" prices, delivered to consumers within each region, for each respective month. Formula-based orders are not included in any aggregated data reported.
Participant companies are granted convenient and secure access to their data on the Internet and can use MSA's BusinessWEB™ reporting system to easily analyze regional aggregated data. MSA's "visibility rules" for each participant company, to be able to view comparative data online, are an incentive for prompt and regular transmission of their order data. Monthly comparative analysis reports are also provided to participants online, with additional data, such as price ranges by commodity within each region.
For more information contact Ralph Pinkert at rpinkert@msa.com
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