The much awaited Red Sandal auction in Andhra Pradesh is now complete. The forest officials of the state has informed that 3615 Metric tonnes of Red Sandal was sold through the e-auction and the government has managed to get a whopping 991 Crores income from this sale. The auction went on to see abnormal prices as high as 1.5 Crore to 2 Crore for A grade Timber and 20-25 Lakhs on an average for Metric Ton across all the grades.
It is said that several trades from out country as well those from China and Japan participated in the auction. This auction of 4160 Metric Tonnes of the total 8460 Metric Tonnes. The unsold C grade logs may be put up to auction once again in the next phase or will be sold locally. The government has to take a call on this.
Metral Scrape Trading Corporation (MSTC) which operates under the administrative control of the Ministry of Steel, Government of India has taken the responsibility of inviting tenders from the buyers. Andhra Pradesh government even took up extensive publicity in foreign countries so as to attract more buyers.
