1. ESP Specialty Steel Products Virtual Inventory Program

2. Virtual Inventory What Is It? Ability to send data to customer on status of our inventory This is done through a feed from our system, MCMS, to the customers ERP system Timing of feed depends on customer – Current feeds range from every 5 minutes, to nightly feeds Key task is to map customer part numbers and descriptions to ESP part numbers 2

3. Virtual Inventory It is easy to deploy. ESP works with customer IT department We need a list of part numbers and descriptions from the customer that they want us to supply information on We take that list, cross reference it to our part number and descriptions We then create a file containing customer-specific inventory information from our system (MCMS) Finally the file is sent to customers as either an email attachment or directly over the Internet, FTP. (See attached example) 3

4. Virtual Inventory Benefits to Customer Access to sell inventory they do not own Saves time for buyers to check stock Saves time of ISR’s in buy outs Full access to information on inventory ESP carries just for a customer – This includes on hand, next mill due date, receipt date 4

5. Virtual Inventory Business Requirements: What does customer want to see? – On hand or quantity available for sale (on hand less pending orders)? – Incoming quantity? – ETA of incoming quantity? – Pricing per item? – How to show both ESP locations inventory, Houston and Chicago, in their system. We will report separately? 5

6. Virtual Inventory Technical Requirements What file format do you want the data in? (.csv,.txt,.xls, other?) How do you want the data sent? (via FTP or e- mail) How frequent do you want updates? (hourly, daily, etc) 6

7. Virtual Inventory Considerations Long periods between data updates makes info on our inventory in your system out of date. Consider regular data updates (e.g. hourly) to keep info more accurate. Take inventory position on both ESP warehouses (Chicago and Houston). Consider setting up as separate locations in your system 7

8. Virtual Inventory Considerations In addition to getting our inventory data, consider also getting info on inbound as well as pricing. To broaden ability to sell, consider creating part numbers for items ESP stocks that the customer does not stock. Improves sales efficiency on buyouts, allows customer to be in markets without carrying inventory. 8

9. Virtual Inventory Managing the Effort Establish a regular review between ESP and customer: Review process and performance of data transmission and availability Review feedback from sales – Their thoughts on process, use of data – lost opportunities due to inventory – pricing feedback 9