ArcelorMittal likely to slash India investment *By Press Trust of India* Amid a sharp decline in steel demand due to the global economic slowdown, steel giant ArcelorMittal may halve the size and slash its investment for the first phase of its Rs 1,00,000-crore projects in India.
The world's largest steel maker also sees a delay of at least two years in commencing production from its proposed plants of capacity 12 million tonne per annum (MTPA) in Jharkhand and Orissa each. "Initially, we were thinking of putting six million tonne per annum steel plant in phase one. We may (now) put up smaller plants. We could cut the size to 3 MTPA in each phase due to the slump in steel demand and other issues, including land acquisition problems in India. "Investments could naturally come down in the same proportion," ArcelorMittal India chief executive officer Vijay Bhatnagar told reporters on the sidelines of a FICCI steel summit here on Wednesday. He, however, clarified that overall plan to reach 12 million tonne per annumcapacity at each plant in Orissa and Jharkhand has not been changed. Bhatnagar said that due to slow land acquisition for the projects and global downturn, the company would overshoot the 2012 deadline to commence production in India. "We already have a process of acquiring mining and land. It turned out to be much more slow than what we expected in the beginning ... and then on top of it we have the unexpected global slowdown," Bhatnagar said. He added, "our estimate is that projects are getting delayed by minimum two years." The company has been offered 1,058 acres of government land in Jharkhand, though the firm requires about 10,000 acres. The Orissa government has also offered land to the steel maker which is yet to be transferred in the company's name. The company has got a mining licensee in Jharkhand and is working to get its mining plan approved, at the moment, he added. The company requires about 8,000 acres of land in Orissa. http://in.biz.yahoo.com/090415/50/batfva.html --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""GLOBAL SPECULATORS"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalspeculators?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
