MSTC plans e-auction for iron ore

NEW DELHI: State-owned trading firm Metals and Scrap Trading Corporation (MSTC) plans to offer e-commerce services for iron ore trading through e-auction platform to public sector mining firm NMDC.

MSTC entered the e-auction market for iron ore this financial year with Orissa Minerals Development Company (OMDC) and wants to expand the model by forging alliance with other iron ore producers.

���The talks are in advanced stage for including NMDC into our e-commerce platform. We hope to conclude the deal and start trading by next month,��� MSTC chairman and managing director Malay Sen Gupta told ET.

NMDC may kickstart e-auction of iron ore through fines where trading is on a higher scale. ���Since iron-ore fines market is fluctuating, auction is the best way for pricing and e-auction is even more convenient. The price discovery will be very transparent on our e-auction platform compared with what happens in normal spot trades where the buyer and the seller are never sure if they have got the right prices,��� he said.

MSTC���s e-auction platform has helped OMDC trade one lakh tonne since April-end when it entered into contract with MSTC.

However, the sales have only been limited for the domestic market. Even NMDC will target the same when it starts e-auctions of iron ore fines NMDC, which has been trading through e-auction with M-junction Service, is still undecided if it will just put iron ore fines or combination of iron ore lump and fines at the e-auction platform. ���E-auction is a transparent process and we can find bidders in the domestic market,��� NMDC commercial director V K Sharma said.

MSTC now trades coal, scrap and ferro-manganese through the e-auction route. It procures industrial raw materials from foreign and domestic producers and sells them to the traders and buyers to do business in metal scrap.

NMDC is the country���s biggest miner of iron ore and other minerals and a leading supplier of iron ore to domestic steel companies. It sells under long-term contracts to Vishakhapatnam Steel Plant, Essar Steel, JSW Steel , Vikram Ispat and dozens of smaller firms.