According to media reports, global steelmaker ArcelorMittal has secured land in the Bellary district of the Indian state of Karnataka where it plans to set up a six million mt capacity steel plant. However, Karnataka state officials contacted by SteelOrbis pointed out that the land allotment is only on paper for the time being and there has been no physical land transferred to ArcelorMittal.
ArcelorMittal has not made any specific investment commitment for the project since it does not have any access to iron ore and will not make such an investment commitment until it gets raw material linkage, the officials said.
Meanwhile, the 30 million mt of iron ore permitted to be mined in Karnataka by India's Supreme Court is just sufficient to meet the demand of existing steel plants. The courts have turned down permit requests for any further mining activities in the immediate future.