India was the most promising market but obstacles could impede the speed at which India reached the full extent of the promise, said Sudhir Maheshwari, member of group management board responsible for corporate finance, M&A and business development (including India) and risk management of ArcelorMittal. Addressing the 47th National Metallurgists’ Day Celebration of the Indian Institute of Metals, Maheswari clarified, “We remain fully committed to our announced greenfield projects in Jharkhand and Orissa. We are looking for other alternatives of land acquisition to accelerate realisation of our plans.” ArcelorMittal’s two 12 million tonne steel plants in Jharkhand and Orissa were running behind schedule on account of problems with land acquisition.
Maheswari pointed out, steel companies had pledged billions of dollars to expand in India, but they were struggling to secure the land. “India risks facing severe problems in expanding its steel production capacity if the land acquisition problems cannot be overcome. There are many successful case studies available to learn from- Australia, Canada, Brazil and even China,” he said.
The steel ministry has set a target of achieving a capacity of 124 million tonnes by 2011-12. In this context Maheshwari said there was an urgent need for large scale improvement in rural steel consumption.
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