Nothing can stop Indian projects: Aditya Mittal

Unfazed by delay in executing its 24 billion dollars steel projects, Arcelor Mittal top official Aditya Mittal has vowed not to give up on India venture saying even hostile reception including forced landing by gunship in Europe did not dissuade them from acquiring steel giant Arcelor. “We are a steel family and love steel more than anything. How can we give up in India when we did not give up on Arcelor despite hostility,” Aditya, considered the brain behind the takeover of the European steel giant in 2006 and the CFO of the combined entity, said.

In a nostalgic mood, Aditya recounted the “hostile and cold reception” that he got from a prime minister and a finance minister of some European country. “When we launched the bid (for Arcelor) there was tremendous opposition. There was a prime minister who went to Parliament and gave a 45-minute speech denouncing the deal and said they will everything in their power to stop this deal. “I remember having breakfast with another finance minister of another country. They told me that a hostile deal deserves a hostile response. I remember sitting there for breakfast. The coffee was served but it was cold. The cuisines were there far off. No matter how much I stretched I could not get any of the bread. So there was no breakfast. Not only the coffee but the atmosphere was also cold,” Aditya, son of L N Mittal who is the fourth richest person in the world, said.

Emphasising that India was the biggest focus for the group, he said the commitment to start the project would not falter and exuded confidence of breaking the ground for the two projects later this year.

Acknowledging the tremendous support given by the Indian government Aditya made it clear that contrary to perception, his company was fully committed to the project saying “First thing is that people for some reason have this belief that we are not committed or not serious enough. We are serious that these projects will happen and there are no doubt about it.”

Saying relief and rehabilitation of people of the project areas remained a challenge, Aditya said “One of the biggest issue is the Relief and Rehabilitation (R&R) and how to rehabilitate and relocate the people, who are impacted. We have announced our CSR programmes in these areas and are committed to $50 million for CSR and R&R efforts,” he said. “If you create the right atmosphere you can do better. So in many ways we are lucky because we can see issues others have faced and we can plan for that,” he reasoned.

Aditya said India’s consumption per capita is 50 kgs which is nothing as developed countries are at 400 kgs, Taiwan and Korea are at 600 kg and China is at 250 kgs.