South Korean steel giant
POSCO said on Tuesday, July 16, that it has decided to drop its $5.3 billion plan to build a steel mill in the Indian state of Karnataka due to delays in securing land and opposition from residents.
As SteelOrbis previously reported,
POSCO had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Karnataka government in 2010 to build a steel mill with an annual steel
production capacity of 6 million mt in Gadag, an iron ore-rich district in the southern Indian state. The company was planning to mine its iron ore locally.
In 2011, the state government stopped buying land for the
POSCO project as local communities intensified protests over compensation for landowners and government plans to relocate and rehouse them.
POSCO has a separate $12 billion steel mill project in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, which started back in 2005 after the signing of a preliminary deal with the state government. For the project, which is
India's biggest single direct foreign investment, the company has acquired land and has made progress recently in securing a mining license, but has yet to get environmental clearances.