ArcelorMittal to Build Mills in India, Egypt

Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal has been laying the groundwork for two major steelmaking complexes, one in India and the other in Egypt.

According to Industrial Info Resources of Sugar Land, Texas, ArcelorMitall has been allotted 7,750 acres of land by the government of the Indian state of Orissa to construct a planned 12 million tons-per-year steel mill in the town of Keonjhargarh.

About 7,000 acres will be used for the steel plant and 1,000 acres will be used as the site of a dedicated power plant. The 1,500-megawatt thermal power plant will have coal supplied from a mine with a 650 million reserve that ArcelorMittal has leased. About 750 acres will be used to establish a township for the project. The company is also looking for additional land in the area to rehabilitate people displaced by the project, according to Industrial Info Resources.

Construction work on the Orissa project could start by the end of 2008 along with another other major ArcelorMittal steel production project in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Together, the projects will take a total investment of $12 billion and add 24 million tons per year of steel production capacity. The submission of detailed project reports on both projects “is at an advanced stage,” according to Industrial Info Resources.

ArcelorMittal has also won a license through bidding to build a direct reduced iron (DRI) plant and an electric arc furnace (EAF) billet steel factory in Egypt. The company will pay Egypt’s Ministry of Trade and Industry $60 million for the license, which it won in competition against Essar Global of India and Al-Ghurair of the United Arab Emirates.

The bidding process went through 81 rounds, according to Industrial Info Resources. Under the terms of the license, the plant will produce 1.6 million tons of DRI and 1.4 million tons of steel billet using an electric arc furnace. Total investment in the projects by ArcelorMittal could amount to $1 billion. Construction work on the plant, on the Red Sea coast, is scheduled to start in 2009.