ArcelorMittal's Essar bid delays planned Joint Venture with Steel Authority of India
by David Fleschen
ArcelorMittal's prolonged bid to buy debt-ridden Essar Steel is delaying the world's biggest steelmaker's joint venture with state-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), India's steel minister and SAIL's chairman said, according to the Indian newspaper "Economic Times".
India's biggest state-owned steel company SAIL and billionaire Lakshmi Mittal-controlled ArcelorMittal signed a deal in May 2015 to set up a steel plant to produce automotive grade steel. However, no timetable has ever been set out.
"It will take a few years for the plant to be built. Both the companies are ready to sign definitive agreements, but ArcelorMittal is busy with the Essar Steel acquisition," Chaudhary Birender Singh, India's steel minister told the news ageney Reuters after a steel seminar in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Source: Economic Times, photo: fotolia