A few weather-beaten shipping containers, a swathe of sand and a bitterly divided village: that is all South Korea’s POSCO has to show seven years after it announced plans for a $12 billion steel mill on a fertile strip of India’s east coast. Recently, the project took a step forward as land was taken over from farmers for the first time since 2011, and yet Posco is still a long way from its goal of forging steel there. Despite the years of protests and battles over environmental clearances, Posco insists it is not about to throw in the towel. However, if a court ruling on access to local iron ore goes against it, that could push it over the edge.
See http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/content/en/mineweb-iron-and-steel?oid=177094&sn=Detail.
See also the ‘Collective statement to the Government of Odisha, India’, sent by organizations from all around the world in support of the communities resisting Posco: http://www.escr-net.org/node/365084.
(British-based investors in South Korean company Posco include Barclays, Alliance Bernstein/Alliance Bernstein Global Wealth Management, Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust PLC, and Henderson Far East Income Limited: see http://moneytometal.org/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=Posco&go=Go.)