Metaljunction casts Net wide to cover coal, auto

Five years after it was set up to sell steel, on-line auction site Metaljunction is diversifying into coal and automobiles.

At the moment, only e-bay offers a similar business-to-business (B2B) service for automobile sales in India. That's not all.

The site, set up in 2001 by Tata Steel and Steel Authority of India, is adding an entirely new dimension by helping the Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam in holding online auctions to dispose of tonnes of hair donated by devotees.

Autojunction, the name given to the new site to deal in cars, had a soft launch about two weeks ago, said Viresh Oberoi, managing director, Metaljunction Services (MSL).

For now, Autojunction offers B2B services in the sale of repossesed automobiles by auto finance companies to dealers of used cars on an as-is-where-is basis. But by the end of this year, MSL also plans to get into B2C sales, that is, new cars will be sold online straight to consumers, said Oberoi.

Having achieved some success with the steel industry "" Metaljunction is India's largest e-commerce platform, having traded 3 million tonnes of steel and with a compounded annual growth rate of 177 per cent "" MSL seems ready to turn its attention to other industries. Last year, Metaljunction totted up transactions worth Rs 4,200 crore; and this year, aims to almost double that to Rs 8,000 crore.

Metaljunction also holds online auctions for chemicals like benzene and toluene, real-estate, lanc, idle machinery and industrial surpluses. Last year came Coaljunction for the online sale of coal, which has succeeded in unlocking revenues of over Rs 1,000 crore for Coal India Limited.

Then there is also Comercejunction, which offers e-sourcing services tto manufacturers. The automobiles venture is one of the two new industries that Metaljunction will enter into this year, said Oberoi.

Metaljunction has set up a new businesses initiative team, to evaluates industries in which it can make a difference with the knowledge base it has acquired in supply-chain management and interventions using IT.

Aluminium, cement, food and horticulture products are some of the areas that are being actively considered by Metaljunction, said Oberoi, where the company can bring value to manufacturers, suppliers and end-users.

Autojunction will have a lot of catching up to do since e-bay, an established player with far higher numbers of registered members and also more visits by consumers, offers far cheaper rates, say auto dealers.