In what appears to be an online extension of its steel trading business, M&M has launched Steelmartindia.com which will serve as an online exchange to augment its steel trading business - Mahindra Intertrade - which is a 100 per cent subsidiary of M&M. The company expects to see about one million tonnes traded on the exchange in a year with around 1,000 transactions occurring at any given point according to the managing director of Mahindra Intertrade, R R Krishnan. The company currently trades about 0.5 million tonnes of steel per annum. The company has teamed up with ICICI Bank to offer an online credit facilities to members and has also hired international research and consulting company Gartner to assess the viability of the business plan, revenue model and the group's capabilities to run an online business. Elaborating on the portal's USP managing director of M&M Anand Mahindra said, "It is a neutral exchange, provides credit facilities and delivery capabilities given the existing back-end system.

"Mr Mahindra was however unwilling to elaborate on how the company planned to service its long term capital requirements. Steelmartindia will provide for members to dispose of inventories and offers a choice of two exchanges, a steel exchange (Sx) which is open to all and facilitates online trading and a priority exchange (Px) which provides exclusive services like finance, logistics, insurance, transaction management and claims assistance.