Back to basics for Lakshmi Mittal. The Chairman of ArcelorMittal, the fifth World Fortune has signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the construction of a steel plant in India, Karnataka State, south of the country. A mammoth project with an annual capacity of six million tonnes which would require more than 5 billion euros of investment. In the crosshairs, the Indian market: "India needs more steel and we must take part in this growth," said Lakshmi Mittal.
It was a long ArcelorMittal looking to implement a major project in India. A similar agreement was thus created in 2006 to develop a huge site.The state of Orissa, north-east, had been chosen, but since the group steelmaker hardly be allocated land by local authorities.
Beyond the financial aspects, this new project is a highly symbolic Lakshmi Mittal. He might be born in Rajasthan, have raised and educated in Calcutta, the wire was broken long ago with his country of origin. If he cut his teeth in the small mill of his father, the tycoon starts very early in the assault on lucrative opportunities abroad. In Indonesia, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico and Kazakhstan that makes the group a family empire of steel.
Other projects in northern India
The gap is widening even further in 1994 with the partition of the group. Lakshmi, his father and his two brothers did not agree and the company is split in two.In Lakshmi operations abroad to the rest of the family, the Indian Affairs. Since, like Anil and Mukesh Ambani, the richest two brothers of the world settle their disputes before the courts, Mittal have all the trouble in the world to reconcile. Incommensurate with the billions earned by Lakshmi, his two younger brothers were still able to grow and it is not uncommon for the two groups are fighting the same markets. Africa was the setting for these quarrels, in 2004 or 2008 in Liberia and Nigeria.
Gradually, Lakshmi was thus cut off from India. Yet holds an Indian passport, he could never win in his homeland. Stamped "NRI", acronym of Indians living outside their borders, it has long been criticized for its lack of involvement in Indian affairs.Ask in the streets of Bombay Indian captains of industry, the name of Mittal will systematically swept under the carpet, at the expense of the brothers Ambani, Ratan Tata or India's Richard Branson, Vijay Mallya.
With this comeback, Lakshmi Mittal India regilds therefore its image. Especially since the Indian adventure should not stop there way. In addition to this mill, ArcelorMittal plans to inject more than $ 20 billion in other sites in northern India.
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