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Calcutta, April 16: After pizzas and shares, the internet is being used to sell scrap. The need to dump items for a price that is fair, has spawned auction sites on the Net. Companies, many of them bue-chip conglomerates, are using them to make purchasing inputs and slecting contractors easier.
The transparency of the worldwide information highway cubs tendencies at cartelisation, buyers at the time of disposal and suppliers when purchases are made.
" The best thing about on-line auctions is their transparency, which prevents cartelisation and leaves little scope for kickbacks in big deals," says CESC vice-president Shantani Bhattacharya.
The RPG-group utility recently disposed aluminium, copper and lead scrap worth Rs.23 lakhs used in transformers through auctionindia.com. The auctioneer claims the company made a 52 per cent gain on the Rs.23-lak disposal.
Hindustan Lever, setting up a personal care products factory at Doom Dooma in Upper Assam, saved 28 per cent when it awarded a electricity job contract for Rs. 1.13 crore, Rs. 44 lakh less than it had estimated. Six firms had been shortlisted.
There are several B2B players but only a few-indiamarket.com, electricmarket.com and freemarket.com...specialise in auctions.
Sandeep Jain, the zonal head of auctionindia in the city, says his company, with seven branches and 26 franchises, conducted 75 auctions worth over Rs.18 crore. With 24 auctions being wrapped up for companies every month, it is confident of securing business of more than Rs. 100 crore this year.
Clients of Auctionindia, a part of the Rs.7000 crore TVS Group include Tisco, Tinplate, Hindustan Motors, Birla Periclase, Ashok Leyland, Rane, Voltas , India Piston, L&T, TVS, Tube Products and public sector majors like BHEL and HMT.
Hindustan Motors, which has been disposing scrap through auctionindia has now decided to use its own website to purchase radiators, glass and other items, Jain said.
Private companies in the eastern rgion dispose scrap valued at Rs.7000 crore every year. However, Jain says the low internet awareness among employees in these firms comes in the way of expanding this medium to more outfits.
Auctionindia, he said, spends sveral weeks negotiating with companies, training people in online bidding, providing them a password. The identities of those who bid are kept secret in auctions which often continue for several hours. |
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