Mittal Steel Company
| Mittal Steel Company NV
|
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Naamloze Vennootschap |
| founding | 1989 |
| Seat | Rotterdam , Netherlands |
| management | Lakshmi Mittal (CEO) |
| Number of employees | 320,000 (2006) |
| sales | 28,132,000,000 USD (2005) |
| Website | www.mittalsteel.com |
The Mittal Steel Company NV was the world's largest steel producer and since the merger with the former second-largest steel producer Arcelor in 2007, part of ArcelorMittal .
Group development
Mittal Steel was based in Rotterdam , the Netherlands , but was run from Berkeley Square in London by majority owner Lakshmi Mittal ( CEO ) and his son Aditya ( CFO ). The company was founded when Ispat International took over LNM Holdings NV (Ispat is Hindi and means steel ), both of which were already controlled by Lakshmi Mittal at the time and merged in spring 2005 with the International Steel Group (ISG), in which the former US steel giants Bethlehem Steel , Republic Steel and LTV Steel were united. More than 90 percent of the shares were always owned by the Mittal family.
The South African division is based on the state-owned steel company Iron and Steel Corporation ( Iscor ), originally established in 1928 and based in Pretoria, and its production structure, which has subsequently been expanded in a variety of ways. In February 2003, took over LNM Holdings NV , the Iscor Ltd. means of acquisition share in the amount of 1.8 billion edge . In August of the following year the company name was changed to Ispat Iscor Ltd. changed. In December 2004 Ispat International NV acquired LNM Holdings NV and thus also its subcontractor Ispat Iscor Ltd. As a result of these corporate mergers, the name changed again and became Mittal Steel Company NV . The South African division, previously Ispat Iscor , joined Mittal Steel South Africa Ltd. in March 2005 . on. In October 2006, after the takeover of the competitor Arcelor, the name was changed to ArcelorMittal South Africa Ltd.
business
Mittal employed 320,000 people in 2005 and had sales of 28.132 billion US dollars (USD) that year. In 2004, 48 million tons of steel were produced, more than the closest competitors Arcelor (45 million tons) and Nippon Steel (31.3 million tons). The Luxembourg-French-Spanish Arcelor surpassed Mittal in terms of sales with an annual turnover of 37 billion in 2004.
Mitt's unique business model enabled the company to build a profitable business in countries that were not seen as the top address. Mittal bought loss-making or underutilized steel producers and put them back on the road to success through flat hierarchies , cost reduction , sales orientation , layoffs and closings. In doing so, he created leaner and more competitive societies. He also benefited from the global steel economy.
The company has production sites in 18 countries: China , India , Indonesia , United States , Mexico , Canada , France , Germany , Poland , Romania , Algeria , South Africa , the Czech Republic , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Macedonia , Trinidad and Tobago , Kazakhstan and the Ukraine .
Mittalgate
According to media reports, the British Labor Party received a donation from Lakshmi Mittal on May 23, 2001. The online magazine Slate reported that Blair allegedly wrote a letter to Romanian President Adrian Năstase , in which he thanked Mittal Steel Company for allowing the state-owned Romanian company Sidex to be bought. This letter led to the assumption that Labor had represented Mittal's interests in this way because of the donation payment. Blair's spokesman said the prime minister did not write the letter because of the donation payment. Tony Blair never knew about the Mittal donation. The case made headlines as "Mittalgate".
Bids on Krivoroschstal and Arcelor
In October 2005, Mittal Steel acquired the Ukrainian steel producer Krivoroschstal for USD 4.8 billion at an auction, after a previous, controversial auction by then-President Viktor Yushchenko to a consortium headed by the son-in-law of former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma had been canceled.
On January 27, 2006, an offer to Arcelor's shareholders was announced for € 18.6 billion. Mittal is offering € 28.21 per Arcelor share or 27% more than the closing price of Arcelor shares on January 26, 2006 on the Paris Stock Exchange . The governments of Luxembourg, France and Belgium have spoken out against the merger of Arcelor with Mittal Steel and criticized the “hostile” takeover offer without prior contact with the previous shareholders and the supervisory board. If Mittal were to be successful with its hostile takeover, with a production volume of 119 million tons of steel per year, it would be by far the largest steel manufacturer in the world in terms of both sales and turnover. Mittal Steel expects a successful takeover of Arcelor to generate synergies of approximately USD 1 billion and accelerate consolidation in the industry. Arcelor has locations in Bremen , Unterwellenborn ( Thuringia ) and with Arcelor Eisenhüttenstadt ( Brandenburg ) in Germany. Mittal operates Mittal Steel Hamburg GmbH (formerly Hamburger Stahlwerke ) in Germany and Mittal Steel Ruhrort GmbH (formerly Phoenix) and Mittal Steel Hochfeld GmbH (formerly Niederrheinische Hütte ) in Duisburg , which were sold by Thyssen when Thyssen exclusively focused on the Flat steel sector withdrew.
In anticipation of the expected objections from American antitrust authorities, Mittal has already agreed with ThyssenKrupp AG that the Canadian Dofasco Group will be separated from Arcelor and will go to ThyssenKrupp at the previously inferior highest bid. (This message caused the TK exchange rate to explode from approx. 18 euros to over 23 euros within a few hours on January 27, just in time for the general meeting of TK .)
Web links
- Homepage of Mittal Steel (English)
- The time: very hot for iron
- Michael Piskur, Economic Nationalism and the Steel Industry: Mittal's Bid for Arcelor ( PINR , March 29, 2006)
- FAZ article about Mittal Steel
- Photos of the ISPAT wire rod mill in Hochfeld
Individual evidence
- ^ ArcelorMittal South Africa Limited: Company History . on www.arcelormittalsa.com (English)
- ↑ http://www.slate.com/id/2061957/
- ↑ Mittal Steel wants to buy Arcelor for 18.6 billion euros