The Hindu Business Line : MetalJunction eyes mineral trading

Talking to Business Line, the Managing Director, Mr V. Oberoi, said the company had firmed up plans for e-trading of a particular `mineral' during the current fiscal.

"I will not disclose the name of the mineral at this juncture. However, the services will be launched shortly."

MetalJunction.com had previously announced plans to commence high-sea trading of nickel and tin in the country in partnership with an Indian importer.

The project was expected to eliminate the hedging cost for booking forward contracts now borne by the user companies.

A SAIL-Tata Steel joint venture, MetalJunction has almost doubled its turnover to Rs 4,200 crore during 2004-05 against Rs 2,135 crore in 2003-04.

During the last fiscal, the company added business process outsourcing business to its portfolio in addition to e-selling of steel, financial services and e-procurement.

While e-selling of steel continued to be the mainstay of the company, MetalJunction added pig iron to its product portfolio last year.

The total sales turnover (of steel and pig iron) was close to Rs 2,000 crore. Of the rest roughly Rs 1,000 crore business was contributed through financial services and the rest by the e-procurement for the steel industry and a host of other clients.

"In steel we are currently the largest electronic market place in the world. In last three years we have handled a total of 2.4 million tonnes of steel, of which 1.3 million tonne were sold on 2004-05 alone," Mr Oberoi said.

Having made a foray into the BPO business by acquiring the entire business responsibility of the Rs 450-crore secondary steel products division of Tata Steel in December 2004, MetalJunction is expecting to add new clients during the second half of this year.

"During the last three months we have stabilised the process and are currently working on implementation of automation and IT system which should take another three months. We will also rope in logistics service providers to offer solutions in areas like warehousing and transportation," he said, adding that BPO will be a major source of income to the company in due course.

SAIL has emerged as the biggest client of MetalJunction's steel trading business in 2004-05.

While Mr Oberoi did not disclose details, sources in SAIL said that the public sector major had sold steel worth close to Rs 900 crore from the electronic platform, which is roughly 45 per cent of MetalJunction's total turnover from the steel trading business.

The company has traded 1.3 million tonnes of steel during the last year worth approximately Rs 2,000 crore.

SAIL emerges a top client

SAIL has emerged as the biggest client of MetalJunction's steel trading business in 2004-05.

The company has traded 1.3 million tonnes of steel last year worth approximately Rs 2,000 crore.

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