Lakshmi Mittal, industrialis besi/baja, menetap di London, dimana ia menjadi orang nomor 4 terkaya di Inggris. Kini usahanya merambah kemana-mana melalui merger. Di Indonesia dia sudah hadir dengan nama Ispat Steel, dan baru-baru ini meningkatkan usahanya.
Salam, RM ------------------------------------- Steel Big is back Oct 28th 2004 >From The Economist print edition A merger will create the world's biggest steel firm. Consumers, beware STEEL users should be worried. For years, until last winter, they held the whiphand in setting prices. Since 1990, hot rolled coil in Europe has varied from about $250 to $350 a tonne, with a blip up in 1995 and a double dip that began four years later (see chart). But this year, with a world recovery and China racing like a dragon boat, the price has soared, to near $600. And now comes a tycoon not just planning to put together the world's biggest steel company, with a crude-steel output of almost 52m tonnes this year, but looking to a day when the market is dominated by a handful of producers with 100m tonnes apiece. The boss of Arcelor, today's biggest producer, sees the same future. The tycoon is London-based Lakshmi Mittal. Lakshmi who?, many outside the industry may wonder. The Mittal dynasty took to steel only in 1975, when its founder, Mohan Lal Mittal, tired of India's semi-socialism and bought a tiny steel firm in Indonesia. But his interests swelled, and in 1994 he gave his elder son, Lakshmi Nivas, control of the holdings outside India. By 1997, the result, Ispat International, was quoted in New York. Since then it and its near-80% owner, LNM, young Mr Mittal's private company, have bought assets across eastern Europe and central Asia. The result is a steel empire with 35m tonnes of output last year, not too far from Arcelor's 43m, but divided, and little analysed or known. Mr Mittal spends lavishly, but not on publicity. Until a media row in 2002, over his earlier donation of �125,000 ($180,000 then) to Britain's ruling Labour Party, few Britons had heard of the tycoon who had set up home among them. This week's deal�an agreed one, though antitrust authorities are yet to have their say�will give Mr Mittal 89% control of International Steel Group (ISG), an American firm built up since 2002 on the ruins of the rustbelt by Wilbur Ross, another entrepreneur with a sharp eye for cheap assets that can be stripped of costs and turned to profit. Having bought the assets first of Bethlehem Steel and then of Weirton Steel, ISG is now producing 14.5m tonnes annually, and very profitably. Where next for world steel? Analysts expect more of the consolidations that Mr Mittal fancies. US Steel (18m tonnes last year), now to face a giant in its own backyard, could well be open to offers. Elsewhere, Germany's ThyssenKrupp (16m tonnes), born of a 1999 merger, has long been looking for partners, both in Europe and America, but so far without success; and its widely reported �deal� for a new Brazilian plant, along with the giant ore company CVRD, is in fact only in embryo at best. A tie-up with Anglo-Dutch Corus (19m tonnes) has been much rumoured. In Asia, Japan's two giants would risk antitrust trouble in any link-up at home, but the world has some 35 producers in the 5m-15m class; and Korea's POSCO (29m tonnes) is openly eager to reach 50m. There could well be shocks to come from booming China and India too. Reuters Lakshmi points to the industry's future Yet it is not industrial logic that is pushing for mergers: in steel, there is no great practical merit in size. But there is market power. The industry is fragmented: even now, the top six producers share only one-fifth of world output. Fresh from being squeezed by customers, the steelmen in recent months have felt squeezed by their suppliers instead�mining companies such as CVRD and BHP Billiton. Hence their dreams are not only of horizontal integration but of integration upstream too; Mr Mittal's LNM has lots of ore and coal mining of its own. None of this foretells anything near a steel monopoly. But all of it should put customers, and their antitrust watchdogs, on their guard. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/BRUplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. Menuju Indonesia yg Lebih Baik, in Commonality & Shared Destiny. www.ppi-india.uni.cc *************************************************************************** __________________________________________________________________________ Mohon Perhatian: 1. Harap tdk. memposting/reply yg menyinggung SARA (kecuali sbg otokritik) 2. Pesan yg akan direply harap dihapus, kecuali yg akan dikomentari. 3. Lihat arsip sebelumnya, www.ppi-india.da.ru; 4. Posting: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5. Satu email perhari: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 6. 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