Metaljunction transactions up 300 per cent in Q1 to Rs 281.3 crore

Mumbai: Metaljunction.com Pvt Ltd (MJ), the 50:50 SAIL-Tata Steel joint venture company in the business of providing e-business services and solutions to the Indian industry, has reported a three-fold increase in business transacted in Q1 FY04 at Rs 281.3 crore as against Rs 90 crore of business transacted in Q1 FY 03.

For the quarter ended June 2003		Rs crore
Parameters	Q1 Performance
	Q1 FY04	Q1 FY03
Value of transactions
E-selling	114.6	36.0
E-sourcing	40.5	27.0
Financial services	126.2	27.0
Total	281.3	90.0

During the period, MJ sold over 80,000 MT of steel for its clients and made a start in selling ferro alloys. It also sold idle and obsolete capital assets of about Rs 4 crore for its clients.

MJ sold approximately 20,000 MT of prime steel and around 60,000 MT of secondary steel in Q1. All categories of steel products were sold online. Semis (billets, slabs), long products (TMT bars, rounds, wire rods, IU rails, structurals), flat products (HR, CR and GP), alloy steel and stainless steel. MJ also procured materials worth Rs 40.5 crore for its clients in the first quarter and brought about savings to the tune of Rs 2.79 crore or, 6.89 per cent.

Savings are calculated as a reduction in current purchase price over the last purchase price. In some product categories, savings have been as high as 26.40 per cent while in others there have been no savings over the last purchase price.

However, prices for these commodities, for instance non-ferrous metals, were much higher at the time of procurement and the reverse auction process brought about savings on the current ruling prices and in effect arrested the rising prices.

MJ also arranged Rs 126.2 crore of finance through its partner banks to distributors and channel partners of its clients. More distributors have started to use this facility and the proportion of utilisation against sanctioned limits is also increasing.