May I ask Mittal Steel?

The Mittal Group, owned by the Indian-born billionaire Mittal, is known as the "most globalized company in the world" in the steel industry. In April 2005, Mittal acquired the American International Steel Group for US$4.5 billion, surpassing Europe's Arcelor Steel Group, which ranked first at the time, and became the world's largest steel producer. The industry summarizes its secrets of success as: acquiring and merging at the most appropriate time; using the most astute business techniques to strengthen the acquired companies.

Lakshim N. Mittal, chairman of Lakshmi Mittal Group (LNM), is an Indian-British man.

In 1957, the father of Lakshmi Mittal, the current chairman of LNM, invested in a small steel rolling mill in India. Later, due to the Indian government's restrictions on private enterprises' involvement in the steel industry, Mittal Sr. invested in and built a small steel rolling mill in Indonesia in 1976 with an annual output of only 65,000 tons, and hired 19-year-old Lakshmi Mittal. You supervise. In 1981, the Mittal family invested in an electric furnace steelmaking plant in Indonesia with an annual output of 300,000 tons.

In 1982, Trinidad and Tobago Steel Company, which provided raw materials to the Mittal family's steel company in Indonesia, had suffered losses for several consecutive years and the government privatized it. Mittal first rented the business for operation and then bought it seven years later.

In 1992, Mexico's third largest steel company, SIBAISA Steel Company, was in trouble and the government wanted to privatize it. Mittal acquired the company for only US$220 million with a government investment of US$2.2 billion. The highly modern steel complex that was built also acquired the company's production line with an annual output of 330,000 tons of welded pipes, port equipment, and a mine with an annual capacity of 3 million tons of iron ore. Currently, the company has become one of the lowest-cost flat steel producers in the world.

Two years later, Mittal acquired Sidbeck-Dosko, Canada's fourth largest steel company, from the Canadian government. Subsequently, LNM acquired the largest non-oil industrial conglomerate in the Caribbean and established Ispat Caribbean Corporation.

In 1995, Lakshmi Mittal separated the steel company he was responsible for from his father's company in India, registered the LNM Group in the Netherlands, moved its headquarters to London, England, and acquired Germany The fourth largest wire rod manufacturer and a world-famous short-process and wire rod specialized company - Germany's Hamburg Steel Company. Immediately afterwards, LNM Group spent US$450 million to acquire Kazakhstan Karaganda Steel Company (hereinafter referred to as Karaganda Steel) and renamed it Ispatkamet Company. At present, the company's steel output has exceeded 5 million tons, and its products Most are exported.

In 1997, LNM listed 16% of the assets of its subsidiary Ispart International in Amsterdam and New York, and then acquired two long steel production companies of Germany's Thyssen AG - Rwhrort and WalgdrahtHochfeld Company, the current crude steel production capacity of these two companies is 1.5 million tons/a.

In 1998, LNM invested US$1.43 billion to acquire Inland Steel, the sixth largest steel company in the United States. Importantly, by acquiring this company, LNM established contact with Nippon Steel, the second largest steel company in the world at the time. Inland Company built a 1 million tons/a cold rolling mill in a joint venture with Nippon Steel. 60% of the shares and 50% of the shares in a hot-dip galvanized sheet plant with an annual output of 900,000 tons were simultaneously transferred to LNM.

In 1999, LNM acquired the French company Unique Metals, which currently has a crude steel production capacity of approximately 1.3 million tons/a.

In 2001, with a US$100 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), LNM purchased Romania's Galati Metallurgical Company for US$360 million. The company is Romania's largest steel complex, mainly The products are heavy rail, thick plates, hot-rolled sheets and coils, cold-rolled sheets and coils, hot-dip galvanized sheets and coils and stainless steel.

In February 2002, LNM obtained the exclusive right to purchase the majority of the Czech government's shares in Nova Metallurgical Steel Company. In 2003, LNM acquired the remaining shares and changed its name to Ispartnova. In the same year, LNM also acquired 100% of Czech pig iron supplier Vysoke Pece Ostrava, 81% of Polish billet producer Siderurgica SA Hunedoara, and 70% of seamless pipe manufacturer PetroTub.

In 2004, LNM invested US$1.05 billion to acquire 60% of the shares of Poland's PHS Steel Company. It acquired the famous Hunedoara Steel Complex in Romania ahead of a Chinese steel company for US$43.4 million. It also completed the comprehensive acquisition of Isko, the largest steel company in South Africa, acquired 51% of the shares of Zenica Company in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and successfully acquired Balkan Steel in Macedonia. In order to achieve the same procurement of raw materials and cooperative sales of products with the steel companies that have been acquired in the above-mentioned areas in the past three years, in 2004 we also obtained the exclusive right to acquire the largest BH steel plant in Bosnia, and transferred Niksic bars from the former Yugoslavia and wire rod factory included in the merger and acquisition plan. It is currently planning to jointly acquire the Krivo Rog Company in Ukraine with an annual steel production of 7 million tons with the United Steel Federation.

From 1989 to 2004, LNM also acquired Ireland's only steel company and Algeria's Annaba Company.

From the perspective of the global steel industry, cross-border mergers and acquisitions will bring about startling changes in the competitive landscape of the world's steel industry. In this regard, the Lakshmi Mittal Group (LNM Group), the world's largest steel company with the largest "span" of cross-border mergers and acquisitions, the fastest rise through mergers and acquisitions, and the highest success rate of mergers and acquisitions, predicts: less than 10 years , Arcel, LNM, and US Steel Union are very likely to develop into 3 billion-ton steel companies. By then, the world's steel companies with an annual steel output of 2.5 to 3 million tons will lose their competitiveness.

Mittal Steel will also become the company with the largest share of the steel market. The company will develop steel operations in 14 countries including the United States, Canada and Mexico, and will employ 165,000 people. Mittal Steel shipped 42.1 million tons of steel in 2004, with revenue of $22.2 billion. Chairman Mittal has become one of the wealthiest people in the world. On the list of the world's richest people released by Forbes magazine on the 10th, Mittal ranked third with a net worth of US$25 billion, second only to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and American "stock god" Warren Buffett. .