TPT July 2012

Global Marketplace

One early visitor to the Orbit, an 11-year-old from a local primary school, pronounced it “kind of beautiful and confusing.” Its creator apparently would concur. “It’s awkward,” said Mr Kapoor. “It has its elbows sticking out.” He acknowledged that the ArcelorMittal Orbit is experimental and unsettling – but not unbeautiful. › In more mundane news of ArcelorMittal, the company expects to show higher profit for the second quarter, largely on the basis of strong sales to US oil and gas drillers and auto producers. Also on 10 May the world’s largest steel maker reiterated a forecast that its core profit for the first six months would be higher than the $4.1 billion posted for the second half of 2011. The company sees global steel consumption rising by between 4 and 4.5% this year, after expanding 6.3% in 2011. ArcelorMittal’s outlook is in chime with that of other major steel players. World number three POSCO, of South Korea, and Japan’s Nippon Steel both look for improvement in global and Asian markets, although the latter warned of record output from China – responsible for half of global output – and a possible squeeze on coal supply. India makes China an attractive offer: produce your iron ore pellets in our country and finesse two sets of duties China, the biggest importer of Indian iron ore, has been invited to set up pelletisation plants in India. As reported by Press Trust of India (PTI), Chinese steel makers are being encouraged to take full advantage of the zero duty on pellet exports from India. Another inducement is the recent drastic reduction, from 7.5 to 2.5%, in customs duty on pelletisation machinery imported into the country. (“India Invites Chinese Steel Makers to Set up Pellet Plants,” 11 May) The chief benefit to the Chinese steel makers of what PTI terms a “win-win deal” was spelled out squarely by CS Verma, the chairman of the Steel Authority of India (SAIL): their establishment of pelletisation plants in India would offset the expense to them of the current 30% duty on Indian iron ore exports. SAIL and the Chinese Iron and Steel Association (CISA) had already signed a memorandum of understanding intended to facilitate greater interaction between the two major producers and consumers of steel. Reporting from Beijing, PTI noted that Indian iron ore exports to China – by tradition the top item – dropped 14% to $9.6 billion in 2011, from $11.2 billion in 2010. Imposed early this year, India’s increase in export duty from 20 to 30% could be expected to drive the total down still further. Mr Verma said that India, which has about 25 billion metric tons of iron ore reserves, will continue to export the raw material. But toward the close of a four-day visit to Beijing he expanded on the domestic advantages of his pelletisation proposal.

The ‘Orbit’ Facilitated by the world’s largest steel maker, a ‘curve in space’ makes a monumental statement at the London 2012 Summer Olympics Artist Anish Kapoor’s “Orbit” – the ruby-red tower of tubular steel brought to vivid life in Olympic Park in London by the structural designer Cecil Balmond – is Britain’s biggest piece of public art. Some 72 feet higher than the Statue of Liberty, it is also the tallest sculpture in Europe. The four builders involved in its construction gained experience from work on such office skyscrapers as architect Renzo Piano’s Shard London Bridge, Europe’s tallest building. Made of 2,000 tons of steel latticework formed into giant entwined figures-of-eight, the 377-foot looped and twisting Orbit was unveiled on 11 May, a day after the flame that would burn in the new stadium during the Summer Games was lit at the Temple of Hera in Greece, on the site of ancient Olympia. The tower, which can accommodate up to 5,000 visitors a day, will be opened to the public at the start of the games on 27July. That it is. The London-based Mr Kapoor is noted for large- scale installations like “Marsyas,” the giant blood-red PVC membrane displayed at Tate Modern in 2002. He is also responsible for “The Bean,” a 100-metric-ton stainless steel sculpture in Chicago’s Millennium Park. But the Orbit is monumental even by the Indian-born sculptor’s own standards. The structure is officially known as the ArcelorMittal Orbit, for the Luxembourg-based steel company that put up at least $30 million of the $36.5 million estimated cost of the project. Two other figures who bulk large in the picture are Lakshmi Mittal, CEO and 41% owner of ArcelorMittal, and Mr Johnson, who pitched the idea of the tower to the steel magnate at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland in 2009. Mayor Johnson is not reticent to claim credit for the successful outworking of his idea. He also makes no secret of his motivation. An ardent booster of his adopted London, Mr Johnson has described the Orbit, which seems set to become a major tourist attraction, as a “calling card for investment – a symbol of prosperity and growth.” › The aesthetic qualities of the Orbit are less quantifiable than its physical statistics. But at the unveiling Mr Kapoor assured Reuters that, given time, people would be won over by his spiralling red tower, just as an initially dubious Parisian public has come to cherish the Eiffel Tower. Mention was also made of London’s much-loved St Paul’s Cathedral, whose magnificent dome initially offended those who would have preferred a spire. “It is a genuine Kapoor,” said London’s mayor, Boris Johnson.

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July 2012