ArcelorMittal sees India plans stuck for yrs

ArcelorMittal's planned steel plant investments in India are likely to be stalled for years, the company's chief executive said on Tuesday.

We continue to experience difficulties in India. My belief is that the Indian projects may not see the light for five to 10 years, Lakshmi Mittal told the company's annual shareholder meeting.

Asked by Reuters later to expand on this view, Mittal said he might have overstated the situation, but said that the delay was likely to be at least a couple of years.

The world's largest steelmaker plans to build steel plants in the states of Jharkhand and Odisha, formerly known as Orissa, both with large capacities of some 12 million tonnes per year, but they have been hit by local opposition and wrangles over land acquisition.

It has also signed an agreement with the state of Karnataka to build a steel plant on a greenfield site with a capacity of 6 million tonnes.

Many industrial ventures in India are mired in a bureaucratic morass that dulls the country's investment appeal and slows growth of Asia's third largest economy.

Obstacles include tardy environmental clearances and complex land acquisitions, as well as populist policies that often deter development.

The overall 30 million tonnes of capacity planned in India is a third of the 91.9 million tonnes of steel Arcelor produced globally last year, a level more than double the output of its nearest rival.

ArcelorMittal has also mothballed the construction of a steel plant in Brazil, although it did continue to invest in mining there.

The demand did not grow... When the market situation permits us we will restart construction of this project in Brazil, Mittal said.

The company said the focus of its investment lay elsewhere, in mining and specifically of iron ore, such as its C$590 million ($592.40 million) joint purchase of junior miner Baffinland in Canada in 2011.

... contd.

ALSO READ

Reliance Mediaworks posts Rs 219 cr loss in quarter

Reliance Power Q4 net profit up 15 per cent

Nestle India Q1 net profit at Rs 279 cr in quarter

Goldman Sachs invests Rs 110 cr in BPL Medical Technologies