LAKSHMI MITTAL was allocated a prestigious spot to stand, right next to the Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, when the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi consecrated the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple in Ayodhya on January 22. There was a pecking order among the 8,000 top industrialists, sports and film stars, politicians and other celebrities invited to the historic ceremony. Afterwards, Modi passed down the front line with folded hands greeting favoured guests, among them Mittal who had come with his wife, Usha. The executive chairman of ArcelorMittal, one of the few Indians to be invited from abroad, was dressed appropriately in a white kurta with a fetching dark red waistcoat. It is fair to say that Mittal normally “doesn’t do God”, as was once memorably said of Tony Blair, when the Labour prime minister was prevented from talking about his faith by Alastair Campbell, his then director of communications and strategy at 10, Downing Street. It is easy to understand why Mittal would not want to inaugurate a steel plant by smashing a coconut, displaying marigolds and putting up an “Om” symbol. ArcelorMittal, which describes itself as “the world’s largest steel and mining company”, undertakes manufacturing in 16 countries with many religions, has customers in 155 countries, has over 150,000 employees, produces 59 million tonnes of crude steel and mines 45 million tonnes of iron ore. While Mittal has kept his faith private, his father, Mohan Lal Mittal – he turned 97 last October – has been almost evangelical in his approach to Hinduism. He also passed on his business acumen to his son. Lakshmi Niwas Mittal was born in Sadulpur in the desert kingdom of Rajasthan on June 15, 1950. Like so many others from the Marwari community, which is known for its business skills, Mohan Lal moved to Calcutta. Here his son attended an Indian medium school and then got a BCom degree from St Xavier’s College. His father was a tough taskmaster and made his son serve a rigorous apprenticeship while he was still at college. Mittal’s father had a small steel company, but in India of the 1970s expansion was held back by too many bureaucratic rules and regulations. In 1976, leaving his father behind in India, Mittal emigrated to Indonesia where he set up his own steel company. The initial years were hard for him but, by and by, his steel firm progressed and started to flourish. “I was 26 — it took me 12 to 14 years of very hard work to build the business up,” Lakshmi remembered. “I went through great hardship and had to subsist on $250 a month.” He would have remained obscure had he not made the move in 1995 to London – where he launched Mittal Steel’s audacious and successful takeover bid for Arcelor in 2006. ArcelorMittal came out of the “merger”.
In February 2021, Mittal, who had been chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal, became executive chairman. Meanwhile, his son, Aditya, was promoted from president and CFO and CEO ArcelorMittal Europe to CEO of the whole firm and is now responsible for its day to day operations. Lakshmi’s “must do better” philosophy was acquired from his father, who once told the Power List “If my sons are not better than me, my business is finished. Lakshmi is better than me and Aditya (born on 22 January 1976 and educated at Wharton business school in Pennsylvania), is even better than him.” At this, Lakshmi beamed: “I’m very proud of my son.” Aditya acknowledged his debt to his grandfather and his father: “When I was growing up, I did hear from my grandfather stories of his business. With my father, I would go to his office at weekends. I had a continuous dialogue with him when I was at university.” It was the grandfather who revealed the secret of how the Mittals were able turn round a sick plant in Mexico in the early 1990s: “There were 60 Germans in Mexico, drawing more than $250,000 each. We brought 60 Indians, paying them $40,000, and replaced all the Germans. That itself converted to profit. And they did a better job.” In time, Mohan Lal moved to London to be with his sons, Lakshmi and Pramod, with forays to India to see his youngest boy, Vinod. He felt he had a duty to explain the Hindu religion to the Indian diaspora, and to this end, undertook an international tour called “Vishwa Dharma Prassar Yatra”. While he was reassured that Hindus in Britain were “more Hindu than Hindus in India”, he felt those in many other countries knew little about their religion and were suffering a loss of identity. “Something has to be done,” said Mohan Lal, who joined a new organisation called the Hindu Leaders Forum which he pledged “will not be involved in any violence and will not engage in promoting hatred or condemnation of individuals, groups or religious denominations”. All this was a long time ago but it does provide some background into Lakshmi’s psychological makeup. Unlike his father, he appears to have been much more of a secular man. Lakshmi and Aditya Mittal were placed second in Eastern Eye’s 2024 Rich List with a net value of £12.9 billion. The financial results for 2023 show ArcelorMittal recorded a net income of $919 million for 2023 compared to $9.3 billion in 2022. Adjusted net income was $4.87bn compared to $10.61bn for the previous year. EBITDA was $7.6bn and EBITDA/tonne was $136/t. According to one newspaper report, “the Luxembourg-based steel giant said it was taking $2.4bn of losses on its Kazakh operations after it was cast out from the country following a series of work accidents that prompted an investigation by local authorities. A total of 160 workers have been killed in ArcelorMittal mines in Kazakhstan in less than a decade, according to the Qaraqar Foundation, which raises money to bring legal cases against the company on behalf of Kazakh employees. “The company is also booking a further $1.4bn impairment at its majority controlled Acciaierie d’Italia business after Giorgia Meloni’s government started formal proceedings to put Europe’s largest steelworks under special administration.
Aditya Mittal’s comment at the launch of the annual report was: “Despite the operating environment becoming increasingly challenging as the year progressed, our profitability per tonne is healthy and well above long-term averages. Looking ahead, there are early signs of a more constructive industry backdrop.” Lakshmi and Aditya Mittal then addressed 25,000 of their employees around the world and took questions from them. At 73, Lakshmi has become in some ways a man of mystery. Since he became executive chairman, he has – according to those who follow him – “taken a step back in terms of public profile, doesn’t give speeches, he doesn’t do interviews. He meets very senior politicians for business reasons but those are private meetings. He doesn’t seek the public eye. He’s always been quite a private man.” He used to be on the panel of judges for the Financial Times/Arce lorMittal “Boldness in Business Awards” but has withdrawn from that. But where work is concerned “he remains as active as ever. He works every single day. He’s in the office all the time, he still travels around the world visiting his steel plants and meeting political figures. The effort, energy and time that he puts into ArcelorMittal has not changed one jot since he became executive chairman. There are no signs of a man slowing down.” Those who have met him or worked with him say there is an “aura” about Mittal. “To be honest, ArcelorMittal wouldn’t exist without Mr Mittal,” is one assessment. “He didn’t come from a particularly wealthy family. And ArcelorMittal is now an enormous company. Any individual who does that deserves a huge amount of respect. And Mr. Mittal gets that respect. “There was an event many years ago when Bill Clinton was the keynote speaker. And he was an absolutely phenomenal keynote speaker. Irrespective of what you think of Bill Clinton and his presidency and the Monica Lewinsky scandal, he spoke for an hour and a half without a single prompt card. Everybody was hanging on to his every word. I put Mr. Mittal in that category. There’s something about him.” To compare Mittal with Clinton might be going too far. However, the boss of ArcelorMittal has been compared to Andrew Carnegie (1835- 1919), the Scottish American industrialist who led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century. This is a bit like any batsman being compared to Donald Bradman. Over the past year, Mittal has met many world leaders. One meeting was in January this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos with Volodymyr Zelensky, when the president of Ukraine appealed for greater help in his fight against Russian aggression. As it is, the Mittals have a large plant in Ukraine in Kryvyi Rih in the south of the country. This was going to be mothballed when the Russians invaded but management agreed with the locals that it should be kept going for “both business and community reasons”. But only a small part of the plant is able to function. Mittal has taken other hits. In November last year, a Russian missile damaged the superstructure of a Liberian-flagged civilian vessel while entering one of the Odesa region’s three active ports in Ukraine. One of the port’s pilots was killed and another employee injured. Three of the ship’s crew members – Philippine nationals – were also injured, according to the Ukrainian authorities. ArcelorMittal confirmed that the ship was due to carry its cargo. Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, said the iron ore was destined for China. Mittal also met Emmanuel Macron when the French president invited leaders from the world’s largest multinational corporations to the sixth edition of the “Choose France” Summit at the Chateau de Versailles outside Paris. This was aimed at attracting investment into France. Mital was seen entering the conference chamber alongside Elon Musk and was later filmed seated next to Macron, having a chat with the French president.
It is ironic that the French are now going out of their way to be cordial to Mittal. Back in 2006, when Mittal Steel made a bid for Arcelor, the then French president, Jacques Chirac, did his best to scupper the deal. But during a state visit to Delhi, Chirac was persuaded by Manmohan Singh’s government to treat the battle as a bid by one European company for another. Chirac was told the French should not jeopardise their long-term interests in India. To give Mittal due credit, he was able to deal gracefully with French racist barbs. Arcelor’s CEO Guy Dollé and his executives bizarrely described Mittal Steel as “Eau De Cologne”, while their own company, a cut above, was “perfume”. Mittal Steel was accused of being staffed by “Indian monkeys” but this did not ultimately prevent Mittal’s successful bid. The venue for the meeting with Macron must have brought back happy memories for Mittal. It was at the Palace (referred to as Chateau in French) at Versailles, once the home of Louis XIV, that Lakshmi and Usha Mittal had hosted an engagement banquet for 1,200 guests when their 23-year-old daughter Vanisha – she is now a non-independent director at ArcelorMittal – married the businessman Amit Bhatia. Vanisha’s wedding cost Mittal £30m. This year Lakshmi and Aditya Mittal will be present at the Paris Olympics from 26 Jul 2024 – 11 Aug 2024, because ArcelorMittal have the prestigious task of manufacturing some 2,000 high tech torches. Each Olympic torch will be 70cm long, have minimum and maximum diameters of 3.5cm and 10cm respectively and weigh 1.5kg. They will made using special decarbonised steel at three French plants. The company will also make the mini-cauldrons and the “Spectaculars”, the large Olympic rings and Paralympic agitos that will be installed in Paris. When ArcelorMittal launched its integrated annual review last year, Mittal set out his fundamental goal of making “smarter steels for people and planet”.
The steel tycoon said: “Our integrated annual review aims to provide our stakeholders with a clear understanding of how we manage our business, and how we seek to build and protect sustainable value. It provides an overview of the company’s performance, not just financially, but against our broader strategic priorities and our sustainability goals. In this respect it takes account of our focus on safety, our actions to reduce carbon emissions, our people values, and our concerted efforts to working sustainably within the natural environment, and with our local communities and society at large. “As we transition to a more sustainable, circular world, steel has a central role to play in delivering low carbon, long-lasting and ultimately reusable infrastructure for this new economy. “Developing smarter steels sits at the heart of our purpose. Our future is our people, and in a highly competitive employment and skills market, it is crucial that we are seen to be offering exciting and rewarding careers that respond to the needs of the younger generations. This means ensuring our brand conveys our values both internally and externally, what our purpose is, and how these fit into the world of transition that we are facing. “Diversity and opportunity are central to these values, since we believe diversity strengthens our capabilities, provides different perspectives and deepens our resilience. Innovation is likely to best thrive through a diversity of thought and creativity.”
