L.N. Mitthal - "Steel"ing the show!!

L.N. Mitthal, a man with a mission to turn sick industries into profitable ventures. One of the greatest examples of his successful ventures is turning the steel plant in Kazakhstan into a fully operational set-up without any downsizing. The production process reached it 3 million tonne mark in 1997. Just for the records, this same plant is now churning up profits and is renamed Ispat Karmet. Now it is one of the world's largest single-site steel plants with an annual capacity of 6 mtpa, contributing to 15% of Kazakhstan's GDP.

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, the Chairman & CEO of the LNM group, inherited the group's existing plants in Indonesia, Mexico, USA, Trinidad & Tobago in 1994. In the next 3 years he spread over Ireland, Kazakh and the German market. His policy is very simple; he does not touch a plant he can't turn around in two years.

His homecoming expedition is a tie-up with ONGC and IOC to explore oil and gas in 20,000 sq. km. of prime territory in Western Kazakhstan. However, he does hold reservations about moving to India, because of high labour costs, low value addition, low productivity, high-energy costs and low economies of scale. High cost structures dissuade Mitthal to set up a huge base back home, but "Laksmi" will always be on Mitthal's side, moving silently wherever he decides to venture.

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