ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, has embarked on a plan to optimise its assets, after shutting down its liquid steel facility in Belgium. The Luxembourg-based company plans to save $1 billion on an annualised basis with this move.
Mandakini Sud, spokesperson, ArcelorMittal India, told Business Standard that over the next few weeks the company would announce shutting down or rationalisation of more blast furnaces. At the same time, it would announce an increase in production or new capacities in other regions.
“The steel demand is still robust and we are not witnessing any slowdown. However, certain regions are not performing and some areas are seeing buoyant demand. Therefore, the company has planned this asset optimisation programme,” she said.
Overall, ArcelorMittal would see an increase in production in the current year and as well as the next.
The company also made it clear that the asset optimisation plan would not affect its commitment towards India. Although ArcelorMittal expressed its reservations on the current situation in Karnataka’s Bellary district where iron ore mining is banned, the steelmaker said it would decide on the six-million tonne steel plant it proposes to set up in the southern state, once the situation improved.
The steelmaker on Friday decided to shut down the Liege Steel plant, as the demand was taking longer than expected to recover. It said the shutdown would not affect its production capacity in Europe and customers would continue to receive normal supply.
The company had two blast furnaces at the site with a combined capacity of 3.1 million tonne, which is now permanently shut down. One of the two blast furnaces has been idle since 2008.
ArcelorMittal has maintained India and Brazil as its growth targets, and expects its investment commitments in the two emerging economies will not go down.
The company plans to set up two steel plants of 12 million tonne each in Jharkhand and Orissa. Sud said ArcelorMittal had already got the prospecting government licence for the iron ore mines in Jharkhand. However, the Orissa plant is on the backburner at the moment.
