Tata Steel-SAIL JV will kick off first phase in three months

MUMBAI: mjunction services limited, a joint venture between Tata Steel and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), will soon enter trading of imported coal.

mjunction managing director Viresh Oberoi said there was a pool of around 8,000 buyers in India. "We anticipate a substantial demand for imported coal," he said. In the next three months, a concrete action plan would be put in place.

mjunction is one of the largest e-commerce companies in India and operates one of the biggest online markets for steel in the world. It was formed in February 2001 after Tata Steel and SAIL inked a 50:50 joint venture for an online steel trading company.

Over the years, mjunction has diversified not only into online trading of coal but also into buying and selling of automotives and FMCG goods. Last year, the company posted a transaction value of Rs 10,500 crore. It expects to take the figure to Rs 50,000 crore in the next five years. The company has five business verticals-metaljunction, coaljunction, autojunction, straightline and mjunctionedge.

Currently, coal is sold under coaljunction. "We facilitate e-auction of coal for Coal India Limited and the transaction volume is 40 million tonne," Oberoi said. In the next three months, the company will begin the first phase of imported coal trading.

"We are looking for suppliers in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia for buying coal and selling it to our prospective customers on their behalf," the managing director said. He, however, made it clear that the company is not looking at ownership of mines abroad.

Oberoi found it difficult to predict how many of the 8,000 buyers would be interested in imported coal. "Our target customers are small players who do not have access to mines in India or abroad," he said. Mjunction hopes to attract customers from the cement and brick kilns segments and also small captive power generating companies. "We are aggregating the demands of these players to order the first shipment," he said.

mjunction is planning to bring to India 100 million tonne of coal initially. Out of this, close to 50% would be pre-sold and the rest would be sold after import.

The company is also planning to increase focus on autojunction and straightline, the verticals through which it became a B2C player from being a B2B player. Mjunction has 10 offices in India and will soon be opening an office in London.

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Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1163528