One striking similarity exists amongst commodities such as oil, gas and metals: accurate and well publicized price information. As a raw material, recovered paper is as important as any other commodity. It has been widely used at paper mills for more than a hundred years. Almost all paper mills incorporate recovered paper to some degree in their operations. It is environmentally friendly and helps to lower cost of production.

Most commodity markets consist of thousands of participants ranging from raw material generators to brokers, speculators, exchanges and end-users. Recovered paper is no different in this respect. What differs however is the lack of accurate price information, both historical and current. At any given time, a particular grade of recovered paper might be trading within a range of $10 per ton. On a typical transaction of 500 tons, that translates to $5,000. Such disparities seldom exist for more than a few seconds in the crude oil or natural gas markets.

The question now becomes how do you derive reliable and badly needed price information from the recycling industry? The answer is the SEFEX approach. SEFEX was established in the early 90's as a "brokers marketplace" for dealers of recovered paper. Participation grew from a handful of customers to over five hundred within a few short years. During that time, SEFEX observed many nuances of doing business in the recovered paper markets. Quality, location, credit and reputation are all important factors that contribute to the success of a trade. The supplier/ end-user relationship is extremely strong more so than in other industries. Most market participants are hesitant to do business outside of their normal circle of trading partners. These factors are actually deterrents to building a seamless trading platform.

Over the years SEFEX has gained a strong respect for the way business is done within the recovered paper industry. So much in fact that SEFEX has shifted its focus to finding ways in which we can enhance a customers own business practices. Rather than force trades between unknown parties, SEFEX helps its customers trade within their own network of dealers. By doing this, SEFEX gains access to unbiased pricing information while retaining a strong national customer base. The information gathered helps these same customers make better business decisions.