Covid19 has failed to dampen the spirit of Aditya Mittal, president and chief financial officer of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel maker.
A year after steering his father’s dream to set foot in India with the top dollar buy of Essar Steel, Mittal said the “long term potential” of the business remained intact despite the “unparalleled challenges” of the pandemic.
In a letter to the employees of AM/NS (ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel) India, as Essar Steel has now been christened, after completing a year of concluding the Rs 42,000 crore acquisition, Mittal set target for gradual expansion of the capacity while loading up on the inbuilt technology prowess of the parent ArcelorMittal, to make grades of steel hitherto not produced in India.
Steel, Aluminum, Copper, Stainless, Rare Earth, Metal Prices, Forecasting | MetalMiner
The
Raw Steels Monthly Metals Index (MMI) rose by 7.8% for this month’s reading, as steel prices continued to rise.
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Steel price gains slow
As we’ve chronicled in this monthly column, steel prices have been rising consistently since last summer.
Buyers have struggled to find supply in what eventually became an allocation market.
Steel prices have posted double-digit percentage gains on a month-over-month basis. However, that ascent appears to be slowing somewhat.
Keeping future demands in mind,
Nippon Steel Corp. has decided to focus more on markets like the United States and India.
At the same time, it is reducing focus on Japan for the medium term.
The aim, according to a top-level executive of the Japanese steel company, is to capitalize on overseas profit which. At present, uptake in the global automobiles sector is largely driving that profit.
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Nippon looks overseas
News agency Reuters quoted Nippon Steel’s Executive Vice President Katsuhiro Miyamoto as saying they were looking at increasing the production capacity overseas, where demand is expected to go up.