It is difficult to work in India: Lakshmi Mittal

It is difficult to work in India: L N Mittal
29 Apr 2009, 0300 hrs IST, IANS


LONDON: ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steel manufacturing company, is finding India a difficult country to work in, its chief executive and chairman Lakshmi Niwas Mittal said on Wednesday.

"We realise it's not easy to build greenfield projects in India," Mittal said at a press conference held to announce first quarter results for his Luxembourg-based company.

Mittal said the entire process of building a greenfield project - from land acquisition to getting mining rights and ensuring infrastructure availability - has been "pretty slow".

"We are working with governments but progress has been pretty slow for approvals," he said in a response to a query by a news agency.

He said the global downturn may be slowing down demand in India and that it was "important for us to monitor the economic environment".

"We will continue to monitor the market. We don't want to exceed our capacity," he said adding the company will focus on producing primarily for the domestic market.

ArcelorMittal recently announced it was delaying its projects in Orissa and Jharkhand by two years.