STEEL Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), the public sector steel major, conducted business worth more than Rs 100 crore over the Internet during 2002-03.

This, according to an official statement here, was the maiden entry by the company in the realm of e-commerce and an attempt to be at par with future technology.

The forward auction of prime products was for over Rs 50 crore.

Among the major items sold on the net were HR coils and plates, industrial use (IU) rails and structurals. Simultaneously, the plants sold secondary steel worth around Rs 8 crore through the e-commerce route, generating additional revenue of over five per cent for the different items. The entire process of forward auction that was taken up on a trial basis, met with a fair amount of success as the company conducted several transactions over a period of two months towards the end of the last fiscal.

SAIL also consolidated its gains in reverse auctions on the net.

Through online bidding, known as an `invisible process', the company procured caustic soda, welding electrodes, transformer coils, lamps and fittings, pipes and stone bricks worth around Rs 52 crore.

On an experimental basis, SAIL also sold some idle assets during the year.

The service provider for all these online trading activities was Metaljunction Pvt. Ltd, the joint venture between SAIL and Tata Steel.