IntercontinentalExchange deemed the first week of business for itsB2B electronic over-the-counter precious metals marketplace a success,with “no hours of down time” and “growth in both volume andcustomers.” The online scalable trading system called “The ICE,”traded precious metals spot, forwards and options within its firstweek of service (see Daily GPI, Aug. 25).

“We are quite pleased with our initial levels of tradingactivity and anticipate that, as terminal installation and tradertraining catches up to market demand volume will riseexponentially, said Jeffrey Sprecher, CEO ofIntercontinentalExchange.

The Atlanta-based company will begin trading oil, natural gasand electrical power during Quarter 4. The partnership has beeninstalling terminals and training metal traders to use the ICEtrading system since March. For the week that ended Aug. 30, thetrading platform did 1.4 million troy ounces of gold with anotional value of $370 million, and 27 million troy ounces ofsilver weighing in at an estimated value of more than $130 million.

“To the best of our knowledge, this has been among the mostsuccessful launches of an electronic market ever,” said Sprecher.”The past week has seen numerous customers, including four of ourfounding firms – Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley DeanWitter and SG Investment Banking – accessing our precious metalsmarkets from several trading locations around the world.”

Besides the financial contingent, IntercontinentalExchange’soriginal partnership included BP, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, TotalfinaElf and Continental Power Exchange. In July, the partnership addedAmerican Electric Power, Aquila energy, Duke Energy, El Paso Energy,Reliant Energy and Southern Company Energy Marketing to its team (seeDaily GPI, July 27).

©Copyright 2000 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.