Iron ore majors ramp up supply even as China faces challenges
Iron ore is one of the year’s worst performing major commodities, slumping by almost a quarter as China’s property crisis drags on.
Lakshmi Mittal, in charge of the world’s largest steel company ArcelorMittal, has no immediate plans to invest in his home country India, “where his recent attempts to build steel plants in Jharkhand and Odisha reportedly face local opposition and wrangles over land acquisition,” reports The Times of India:
“India remains a priority but not for investment. I’m not locating capital to India or China as I don’t see things progressing there. We can’t remain stuck, so we move on. Now our priority is to reduce debt, we sell non-core assets. But we continue to invest in mining and become self-dependent.”
Asked about his strategy to target India and China for growth, he said: “We’ve not succeeded in both countries”.
According to calculations by Bloomberg, Mittal’s wealth has declined more than 10% this year making him one of the worst performer on the Top 40 Billionaires Index.
Mittal’s various investments are now worth only $16.9 billion. At the end of last year his fortune still amounted to more than $20 billion although that was already $10 billion less than in 2010.
The London-based magnate’s wealth topped out $45 billion in 2008, before the global financial crisis hit.
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Comments
Hirk
Wait until he get’s a 100 year supply of pure (67%) iron ore from the generous people of Canada. They head faked Canada by getting a green mailer to help them take private what would have been a joint venture with a number of Canadian shareholders. The transaction is now in the hands of the OSC and the greenmailers (Nunavut Iron Ore) have been charged with insider trading. While that is encouraging, Mittal had all the same insider information and will, at the end of the day, end up with owning the project with no pesky shareholders or joint venture partnership.
CEO Lakshmi Mittal was extremely excited about the Baffinland acquisition:
“The operating costs at Baffinland are potentially so low that once the project is built, it can produce a profit through any cycle. Certainly at long-term iron ore prices in the order of $50 to $60 per ton, this project makes a lot of money”.
Then see how much money he makes….