ArcelorMittal Group is planning to invest £200 million in Odisha, its Group Chairman and CEO Laxmi Niwas Mittal said. Mittal said this while interacting with Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik through a video conference. ArcelorMittal Group is the world's largest steel maker.
"We already have a £200 million investment plan in Odisha which is already going on with support of your administration, your people and your guidance. "You have a great experience and you have managed the Covid crisis very well which is a good news," Mittal told Patnaik during the interaction.
Referring to his company's investment plan, Mittal said if it so happened that the "company could not produce in Hajira, the full production, we would produce in Odisha and export pellets. But, what we like is that we have a lot of ideas to continue our expansion in Odisha. We are working on two mines - Sagasai and Thakurani," he said.
Mittal also said that of these two mines, one mine the company has already got through auction, which was organised in a very transparent manner. Patnaik assured Mittal of all support from the state government. He said the Chief Minister's Office will interact with the ArcelorMittal office so that your (Mittal's) project gets headway very soon.
The chief minister also advised the steel magnate to add value to the mineral resources procured from Odisha in the state itself so that it will help creation of employment opportunities and enhance the development of the state economy.
Meanwhile, a statement released by the Chief Ministers Office said that the company is planning to expand its pellet plant at Paradip and increase its production capacity from 6 MTPA to 12MTPA. The company is also planning expansion of its iron beneficiation plant at Baduna in Keonjhar district from 5 MTPA to 16 MTPA.
Essar steel has been acquired by ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel. The Essar plant has 6 mtpa pellet plant at Paradip. ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS India) is the new name of Essar Steel India after it was acquired by a joint venture between ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel Corporation.
With the acquisition of Essar Steel at a cost of more than £5 billion, as much as USD 7 billion has been invested in India, which is considered as one of the biggest foreign direct investment (FDI), the CMO statement said.
ArcelorMittal had signed for a project with the Odisha government way back in 2006 to set up a 12-million-tonne annum steel plant in Keonjhar. However, the group withdrew from the project after facing stiff resistance from locals.
Plans to sell Canadian infrastructure assets
Meanwhile, according ro reports, ArcelorMittal is considering selling a 420-km railway and other infrastructure assets in Canada to reduce debts and strengthen its balance sheet. The steelmaker, which recently raised $2 billion through a sale of shares and convertible bonds, is weighing a deal to sell the infrastructure assets that service its 24M metric tons/year Mont-Wright iron ore mine in Quebec, according to the report. Selling either the entire infrastructure entity or a stake in it would help the company achieve its target of reducing net debt to $7 billion from $9.5 billion currently.
