Steel inventory & RFQ network · Dallas–Fort Worth pilot
Every yard's rack, live.One RFQ, matched in seconds.
Service centers connect their ERP or Excel file once, and stock stays current as orders ship and material arrives. Buyers paste an RFQ and get a ranked best match instead of calling fifteen people. The seller's name stays hidden until both sides choose to connect.
Free for buyers. Demo network: every company and price is fictional.
Yards connected
—
TX · OK · LA · AR
Lots on racks
—
normalized to one item list
Tons searchable
—
structural, tube + plate
Median count age
—
since last ERP sync
Dead stock flagged
—
tons unmoved 9+ months
The problem, shown in one RFQ
6,480 sticks. 431.1 tons. 18 to 20 flatbeds.
No single service center is likely to have it, so the buyer's reps send the same list to several vendors — who each go to the same mills. Every extra hop adds margin, freight minimums and lead-time padding, and the mills see the same job several times over.
- 73%of the job is tube, and the 3 × 2 × 3/16 line alone is 238.1 tons.
- 1 →Rackline sends one request to the yards that have it now, and one consolidated inquiry for whatever still needs a mill.
| Line | Qty | Length | Item | Grade | lb/ft | Total lb | Tons |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 930 | 24 ft | HSS 3 × 3 × 3/16 | A500B | 6.87 | 153,338 | 76.7 |
| 2 | 3,550 | 24 ft | HSS 3 × 2 × 3/16 | A500B | 5.59 | 476,268 | 238.1 |
| 3 | 500 | 20 ft | L 2 × 2 × 1/4 | A36 | 3.19 | 31,900 | 15.9 |
| 4 | 500 | 20 ft | L 5 × 3 × 3/8 | A36 | 9.8 | 98,000 | 49.0 |
| 5 | 500 | 20 ft | L 3 × 2 × 3/16 | A36 | 3.07 | 30,700 | 15.3 |
| 6 | 500 | 20 ft | L 3 × 3 × 3/8 | A36 | 7.2 | 72,000 | 36.0 |
| Total | 6,480 | 147,520 ft | 862,206 | 431.1 | |||
Weights are AISC nominal lb/ft, computed by the normalizer. Truckloads assume 44,000–48,000 lb per flatbed.
Bottleneck today → what the platform does
Two sides from day one: buyers who need material now, yards that need accurate stock and more ways to sell it.
The system says it's there, the rack says it isn't, and orders go on backorder.
Syncs from the ERP or Excel daily or faster and stamps every listing with its last update.
The data-center build-out is tightening supply nationally and globally.
One search across every connected yard to track material down.
Overstock and dead material sitting on the ground for years.
Flags aged stock and puts it in front of buyers already searching for it.
Mill delays of weeks to months, and getting worse.
Shows which service centers have it now within X miles, with ship and pickup dates.
Hours of calls and emails per RFQ.
Locates material in seconds and sends one RFQ to the best matches.
No view of who is buying what.
Shows what each account buys from you and what the network is searching for that you could sell.
How it works
Four flows carry most of the value. All four run in this prototype.
01The RFQ email
Buyer- 1Paste the email; it becomes line items, pounds and tons.
- 2Set a radius and a need-by date.
- 3Each line gets ranked matches with pounds, city, freshness, ship and pickup.
- 4The split planner proposes the fewest yards that cover the job.
- 5One quote request goes out; names unlock when sellers respond.
- 6Award by line; counts drop; the shortfall becomes one mill inquiry.
02Connect once
Service center- 1Upload the ERP export or Excel inventory file.
- 2Map the columns once; the normalizer matches every row to a standard item.
- 3Pick visibility: public with the name hidden, private, or a customer network.
- 4Sync runs on a schedule and every listing shows its age.
03Move dead stock
Service center- 1Material with no movement in a set period is flagged.
- 2Set a move-it price or open it to offers.
- 3Buyers who searched for it are alerted, and it ranks higher.
- 4A buyer reserves it and the listing clears.
04Account review
Sales manager- 1Tons bought from you by month, top items, last order.
- 2Signals the buyer opted to share, like RFQs for items you stock.
- 3Call before the order goes elsewhere, or stock what they keep asking for.
For MetalTrax shops
Cameras watch the yard. MetalTrax stays the system of record.
Rackline reads MetalTrax's inventory exports and checks them against what cameras see as material is received, put away, cut on the laser, staged and set aside. A reading never moves inventory until a person confirms it — the same rule as our cotton bale vision work. What's left after back orders, damage and laser-cut parts is the number the network sees.
Open the yardReceiving
Mill tags read at the door, ends counted, weights checked, damage caught — then a Receive Inventory worksheet for MetalTrax.
Yard vision
Nine cameras, one map: received, stored, at the laser, staged, shipped, held or scrapped — every tag, live.
What's left
On hand minus rack-count shortfalls, holds, laser work, staging, reservations and back orders.
MetalTrax sync
Read-only exports in, worksheets in MetalTrax's own transactions out. Never a write to its database.
Guardrails, built into the MVP
Competitors never see each other. Buyers never trust a stale count.
The two risks that can sink a metals marketplace are design choices, so they ship on day one — and the design gets a competition lawyer's review before launch.
Double-blind
Sellers never see a competitor's prices or quantities. Names unlock only when both sides choose to connect.
Aggregated demand
Demand signals are anonymous and aggregated. A buyer's identity is shared only if they opt in.
Freshness stamp
Every listing shows its age, and a yard auto-hides after a set time without a sync.
Confirmed on every quote
Sellers confirm quantity against the rack on every response. Price stays optional.
Run the 431-ton RFQ through the network.
Paste it, watch it split across the yards that have it, send one quote request, and award by line.