Mittal Steel, which became the world’s largest steel maker with the $4.5 billion acquisition of International Steel Group, has vowed to invest $1.5 billion in Europe in the next five years.

It also promised to cut its worldwide labour force of 160,000 by 25 per cent and acquire more assets in an industry benefiting from sky-high prices driven by economic growth and industrial demand, a Reuters report said.
“There will be more opportunities for consolidation,” chief operating officer Malay Mukherjee said in Rotterdam after a meeting of Mittal shareholders.
The purchase of Richfield, Ohio-based International Steel was the final step in the bid by Mittal Steel headed by steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, to surpass Europe’s Arcelor as the biggest steel producer.
Mittal Steel was born in December when the magnate’s LNM Holdings merged with Dutch-based Ispat International NV.
Mittal Steel, an $18.5 billion behemoth that dwarfs the market capitalisations of the largest US steelmakers Nucor and US Steel Corp, began trading in December on the New York Stock Exchange and Euronext’s Amsterdam bourse.
In Rotterdam, Mittal’s Europe chief executive Roeland Baan said he expected the company to spend $1.5 billion in Europe in the next five years. “There will be significant capex (capital spending) in the next few years to solidify our position in Europe,” he said. Mukherjee said of the more than 160,000 jobs now in Mittal worldwide, 40,000 would be cut in the next five years, adding there might be voluntary US white-collar layoffs, perhaps involving 200-300 people.
He said steel consumption was up 20 per cent in the first quarter of 2005 and he saw that growth continuing, with India showing the same growth in the future as China.
Asked about Mittal’s purchase of a stake in China’s Hunan Valin Steel Tube & Wire by the end of the second quarter, Mukherjee said he expected Chinese government approval. “We definitely are looking at other opportunities in China,” he said.