Word: steels
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...didn't become one of the world's richest men, and by far its biggest steel baron, by shying away from controversy. Even so, the Indian-born businessman Lakshmi Mittal says he was taken aback by the fury that greeted his announcement in late January that he was bidding to buy European steelmaker Arcelor, formed in 2002 out of what was left of the French, Luxembourgian, Belgian and Spanish steel industries. "We really didn't expect such a violent reaction," Mittal told Time. "A lot of people were obviously not happy at all." [an error occurred while processing this directive...
...kidding. Some European governments still see a locally owned steel industry as a sign of economic strength, but even so, the reaction to a company thought of as Indian buying up metalworking assets was extraordinary. It went far beyond any limits of supposed industrial logic and, at times, involved attacks of a distinctly ugly nature. In Luxembourg, where Arcelor is based, Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker called for "a reaction that is at least as hostile" as the bid, and parliament considered a new merger law that would block the deal. In Paris, Finance Minister Thierry Breton lambasted Mittal...
...late July, almost six months after his initial foray, Mittal had his prize. He admits that the personal attacks were wounding. Yet ultimately they came to naught: through sheer obstinacy and financial savvy, Mittal, 56, overcame every sort of political, personal and financial objection to forge a global steel titan, a 120-million-ton-per-year company whose vast size and range, in theory, should enable it to ride out the ups and downs of a notoriously cyclical industry...
...stunningly audacious way just how much the world has changed. Here was an upstart intruder from a country long classed as part of the developing world, scooping up a European gem that Dollé at one point (though perhaps unwisely, given later history) described as the Airbus of steel. And Mittal, assuredly, is but the first of many. Indians, Brazilians, Chinese, Russians and other entrepreneurs from emerging economies are now jostling for assets all over the world as they seek to become global players. As 2006 was drawing to a close, two other steel titans, one from India, the other...
...born and grew up in a modest but well-connected family in Sadulpur, in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan, but his business empire has been constructed entirely outside India. Mittal began making his fortune a decade ago after breaking away from his father's Calcutta-based steel business and building his own firm, buying up steel plants in countries ranging from Algeria to Kazakhstan, Ukraine and the U.S. His timing was brilliant: worldwide demand for steel has been soaring because of massive demand from China and other fast-growing economies, and with it so has Mittal's net worth...