Compiled by Mark Reutter
Posted 4/24/06

On becoming the No. 1 steelmaker:

Ispat International announced it was to acquire LNM Holdings to form Mittal Steel Co. At the same time, the new Mittal Steel announced it had agreed to merge with International Steel Group in a transaction valued at $4.5 billion. The combined Mittal Steel now ranks Number One among world steelmakers by output and revenues with 164,000 employees in 14 countries.

On the benefits of Mittal takeover of ISG:

There’s none of the facilities being targeted at all for reduction or shutdown. We’re really excited about the opportunity to grow now that we have a strong partner working with us.

—Wilbur F. Ross, ISG Chairman, 10/25/04

We’re looking for opportunities to increase capacity.

—Rodney Mott, ISG President
and CEO, 10/25/04

We have secured the commitment to maintain and grow steelmaking and finishing capacity in North America.

On business rationale of takeover:

When we first looked at ISG, it was immediately clear to us that its management had done an excellent job in integrating the assets and building a competitive and high-quality steel operation.

—Lakshmi Mittal, “Chairman’s Message
to Stockholders,” 2004

On cultural compatibility:

We had an immediate love affair in that we both felt that we each had more in common with the other than either of us did with any of the other steel companies That gave us a great deal of confidence that the corporate culture would not be anything very shocking in terms of requiring change.

—Wilbur Ross, 10/25/04

On appointments of Mott and Schorsch:

ISG CEO Rodney Mott will become CEO of the new parent, while Inland CEO Lou Schorsch takes charge of strategy, particularly of the task of integrating the two companies…. Aditya Mittal told investors he is not expecting any significant restructuring cost to be incurred in the process “because we regard these two companies as complementary.”

—Metal Bulletin, 2/21/05

On Mittal’s capex priorities for 2005:

The most significant dollars are going in Poland, approximately $600 million plus. This involves the modernization or the setting up of a new hot-strip mill, a wire rod mill, a continuous caster, a new color coating line with a capacity of 100,000 tons, as well as the new coke oven battery.

In South Africa, we are re-building another coke oven battery. We have a strong secondary coke market as well in South Africa, and this is primarily for merchant sales. We’re installing a PCI as well in the blast furnace there.

In Kazakhstan, we completed the second continuous slab caster. The first one was done in December. Combined, the two casters have a capacity of about 4.5 million tons, and that will be completed in 2005. There’s a new coke oven battery as well as the color coating line. Furthermore, in terms of our strategy of vertical integration, we continue to modernize our iron ore mines, and because of the modernization, that too should be increasing iron ore shipments by another million tons from Kazakhstan in 2005.

Lastly, in our Romanian outfits, we want to reconstruct a pickling line to improve quality. That’s a 1.2 million ton pickling line. And again, we’re modernizing the blast furnaces and rebuilding our coke oven battery. The combined total of all of this capex in 2005, the projects I’ve listed, is $1.2 billion. Not all of it will be spent in 2005, but at least these projects will commence in 2005.

—Aditya Mittal, transcript of
webcast with analysts, 2/23/05

On increasing U.S. production and jobs:

Within ISG, we’ve really had lots of additional capacity on our rolling mills and our finishing operations. So we could actually go way up the arm of what we’re declaring currently as capacity. Now we would look at that as being a way to create jobs for our workers, at the peak in the market, or to increase their earnings. So the union is quite excited about that.

—Rodney Mott, CEO-designate of
Mittal USA, webcast, 2/23/05

Or on not increasing U.S. production:

Now we are not volume-centric. We are becoming profit-centric … otherwise Rodney would have produced 23 million tons and bump[ed] the whole market and created more bankruptcies. So that should be changing the mentality of the steel companies. I’m hoping that every board will ask the CEOs that we will continue to make money.

—Lakshmi Mittal, webcast 2/23/05

On Mott’s surprise resignation:

It’s not a good omen. Mott has the ability to cut through bureaucracy and deal effectively with unions, but Schorsch, who comes from a consulting background, has not demonstrated the same level of skill.

—Mike Locker, Locker
Associates, 4/15/05

On Schorsch’s appointment:

Lou Schorsch is a very experienced leader and has done an outstanding job at Ispat Inland since his appointment as CEO in October 2003. I have every confidence that he will continue this excellent work as CEO of Mittal Steel USA.

—Lakshmi Mittal, 4/15/05

On exodus of ISG executives:

It was a scene reminiscent of Bethlehem Steel in the spring of 2003. The headquarters of International Steel Group in Richfield, Ohio, was half empty on Tuesday, after having been acquired by Mittal Steel Co. last week. “Most senior managers have either resigned or agreed to move into another operation,” said Charles T. Glazer, ISG’s manager of communications and public relations.

On relocation of ISG’s R&D researchers:

These would be some of the best scientific minds in the steel industry today…. We’re trying to relocate all of them to East Chicago. Research is clearly a priority and a competitive strength that we do bring to the marketplace.

—David Allen, Mittal USA
spokesman, 4/22/05

On Schorsch’s priorities:

“You’ll see more progress early on,” Schorsch said, as Mittal Steel USA expected to have synergies completed within the next two years. The synergies include saving more than $150 million annually “due to changes in the mix of purchased goods, purchase price reductions, and integrated purchasing processes.” Plus there is expected to be savings of at least $60 million in manufacturing synergies, $20 million in operating synergies, and a one-time $60 million savings in inventory reductions.… The company intends “to capture all attrition and voluntary retirements from the company, which should result in productivity improvements.”       

—Northwest Indiana Times, 4/27/05

On idling blast furnaces:

Mittal Steel USA is taking further steps to match its output with inventory adjustments occurring in the markets that it services. To accomplish this, the company is taking its C-6 furnace at its Cleveland plant offline in preparation for gunning of refractory material to shore up its lining.… In addition, the company is idling H-3 blast furnace on the west side of the Indiana Harbor plant in East Chicago, Ind. The furnace will return to production when business conditions demand its 2,000-ton-a-day output. No. 6 blast furnace on that plant’s east side has been idle since March.

“The underlining economy is still strong,” said Louis L. Schorsch, CEO of Mittal Steel USA. “However, the excess inventory in the distribution sector that was built in the last half of 2004 is still being worked down. Given that, it is appropriate that we adjust our production and use this opportunity to undertake necessary maintenance and improvements.”

—Mittal press release, 5/6/05

We have a number of blast furnaces down around the company and have said from the beginning that they will come back as the market tells us to bring them back.

On Mittal stock price swoon:

Steel stocks have suffered waves of selling this year, with May 25 remembered as one of the worst days. However, the really smart money started exiting steel stocks early in March, when the New York Stock Exchange price for Mittal Steel, the world’s biggest steelmaker, peaked out.… By the end of May, Mittal Steel was trading nearly 50 percent down from its peak, at around $23 a share.

—Moneyweb, “Investment
Insights,” 6/24/05

On cancellation of Riverdale (Ill.) mill expansion:

I’m extremely disappointed. We were working so hard to get the county’s approval, and Mittal stops the project without a good reason. We’ve had tremendous support from state and federal officials.

—Zenovia Evans, Mayor of
Riverdale, 7/7/05

It became clear expansion didn’t fit into Mittal’s plan, at least for now. Maybe we can work together in the future with local officials. For now, however, there’s no sense burdening the forest preserve board with something that’s not in our plans.

—David Allen, 7/8/05

We had an opportunity to bring new revenue and economic development to the county. But [Mittal] closed the door on that opportunity and will never have it again.

—Deborah Sims, Cook County
Commissioner, 7/8/05

On aggressive thinking:

John Lefler [Sparrows Point General Manager] and John Cirri [President of USWA Local 9477] have really stepped up to the plate and on their own have come up with some aggressive and breakthrough thinking in the way they run that plant to be more cost-effective. In a down market, you compete for your tons.

—William Brake, Operations East
regional director, on cost cutting
at Sparrows Point, 8/21/05

We just send data, data, data every day because they want to see what’s happening in the business. They’re very involved, but they have not at this time interfered with what we need to run the business, and the structure has not hindered us in doing our business the way we were before.

—John Lefler, Sparrows Point
General Manager, 8/21/05

On closure of Weirton’s steelmaking hot-end:

We reviewed it [the plan] in Chicago and, frankly, it wasn’t enough.

—Lou Schorsch on $93 million
cost-cutting plan offered
by the union, 12/13/05

I’m extremely frustrated by Mittal Steel’s decision to close the hot-end plant [without consultation].... Had Mittal been willing to reinvest in Weirton and our workers, we would have proved once again that we could be more than competitive on a global scale.

—Sen. Jay Rockefeller
(D, W.Va.), 12/15/05

[Schorsch] is a businessman who does what he does to protect his family’s bottom line.

—David Gossett, union
spokesman, 2/19/06

We’re here to be profitable, but we’re here for the long term.

—Brian James, plant
manager, 4/24/06

On Mittal’s takeover bid for Arcelor:

This is a great opportunity for us to take the steel industry to the next level. Our customers are becoming global; our suppliers are becoming global; everybody is looking for a stronger global player.

—Lakshmi Mittal, announcing
his bid for Arcelor, 1/27/06

We are a Luxembourg-based company with European cultural values. That means a lot in terms of employee relations with their employer, and sustainable development.

—Guy Dollé, Arcelor CEO,
rejecting Mittal bid, 1/30/06

A child in a playpen.

—Wilbur Ross characterizing
Dollé’s behavior, 1/31/06

In the seven-eight years I have had dealings with Mr. Mittal, I have not seen him break his word on what he has said and in some cases he has delivered [in terms of investments] more than he promised.… Arcelor put our workers through half a year of hell [related to the 2004 sale of Allegheny Technologies].

—Leo Gerard, 2/2/06

The industrial logic in this merger is extremely slim. Arcelor’s approach is based on making advanced, high-value steel using sophisticated technology and selling it to customers with demanding specifications, such as the car industry. Mittal Steel is based much more on using low-cost production centers, often in former communist countries where the plants were privatized, and selling less sophisticated types of steel. Arcelor’s shareholder structure is orthodox. It has a large spread of shareholders, including no single dominant group. We have a 18-person board representing four countries and proper rules of corporate governance. Mittal has a share ownership in which the Mittal family has 88 percent [actually 98 percent] of the voting rights. The two companies have widely contrasting business cultures.

—Guy Dollé, 2/23/06

You have to create a European global champion to protect jobs – otherwise companies in Europe will be more susceptible to cheap products coming in from China and India.

—Lakshmi Mittal, 3/19/06

We invite you to visit Cleveland to speak with the neighbors of Mittal Steel’s Cleveland Works, and to see, smell, and feel the pollution pouring out of the complex. This first-hand experience may lead you to agree that Mr. Mittal needs to learn how to manage the factories he already owns before he continues his buying spree.

—Letter from Ohio Citizen Action to
Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner
for Competition, 2/17/06

On business experience of Aditya Mittal:

My son is not on the management board.

—Guy Dollé, 1/30/06

Aditya has added a lot of value to the company and brought new perspective in terms of growth and strategy.

—Lakshmi Mittal, 1/31/06

I think [Aditya] thinks he is more experienced than he really is. I think that’s a problem. He claims he was an analyst in investment banking at Credit Suisse First Boston. He was, but for six months.

—Chuck Bradford, Bradford
Research, 2/13/06

On winning the hearts and minds of Europeans:

Europe must continue to look outwards. I have watched the growth of a united Europe – the move away from narrow nationalism – with admiration. The danger, though – and there have been signs of this recently – is that Europe begins to demonstrate a return to more nationalist sentiment. To my mind, that would be a great mistake.

—Lakshmi Mittal, speaking at
Fourth European Business
Summit in Brussels, 3/18/06

Dollé said earlier he had met 80 percent of Arcelor’s institutional investors, who account for about 70 percent of Arcelor’s capital, and is “more and more confident” that they will reject Mittal’s overtures. He repeated that Mittal’s bid was a purely financial offer lacking a business plan.

—Media report on rally of Arcelor
shareholders in Paris, 3/23/06

Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker – who is also chairman of the 12-nation Eurogroup – remained adamant that governments had the right to “question” takeover bids on issues like jobs. Juncker’s stance reflected his continued opposition to a planned hostile takeover by the Rotterdam-based Indian steel giant Mittal of European steel firm Arcelor, based in Luxembourg.

—Media report of EU Finance
Ministers’ meeting, 4/9/06

We have given additional commitments.

—Lakshmi Mittal, following a meeting
with Belgian Prime Minister
Guy Verhofstadt, 4/20/06

We are involved in a war.

—Joseph Kinsch, Arcelor
Chairman, 4/22/06