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ArcelorMittal plans R&D facility

Lakshmi Mittal

LUXEMBOURG: ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company, is planning to set up a Research and Development outpost in India, according to the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Lakshmi N. Mittal.

“We are not yet clear whether the facility should be for steel or mining or for both,” Mr. Mittal told journalists invited to the company headquarters in Luxembourg City on Wednesday.

Noting that the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, had a strong Department of Metallurgical Engineering, he said the company planned an “alliance with such kinds of universities.”

Referring to the renewed interest in the steel industry in the last five years, he said ArcelorMittal hoped to attract “young talent, not only from India, but from all over the world” to its research efforts.

Greg Ludkovsky, vice-president, Research and Development, said the proposal for setting up the facility would be placed before the management in the first half of December. The proposal would present a case for an R&D outpost in mining and mineral processing. The outpost will be in alignment with the investments and activities of the company in India.

Pointing out that India had high-calibre scientific teaching institutions, he said the company hoped to use local resources effectively and capitalise on the existing infrastructure.

Mr. Mittal said ArcelorMittal, which had projects in Orissa and Jharkhand, would commit an investment of $20 billion in India. It was awaiting approval for land acquisition and environmental clearance for the projects.

Asked about the difficulties in land acquisition, he said landowners should not see the acquisition as taking over of the land, but as “creating value on the land for generations to come.”

ArcelorMittal wanted to be “fair” in land acquisition. “We don’t want people to be out of their homes; that is not our objective,” he said.

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