Mumbai: ArcelorMittal, the world''s largest steelmaker, will spend $35 billion, including $20 billion in two 12-million-tonne steel plants in India, to build additional capacity.

The money would be invested in the next eight years, Lakshmi Mittal, its CEO, told London''s Financial Times in an interview.

About $20 billion would go in two steel plants in India — in Jharkhand and Orissa — with 12 million tonne annual capacity each by 2015.

Mittal said two plants in India made sense because the demand for steel in Asia''s fourth-biggest economy was growing fast. By 2020, India could be consuming 200 million tonnes of steel a year, he said.

ArcelorMittal would like to build a plant in Russia, where the company has no production. Mittal said he is also awaiting Beijing''s approval for acquiring a minority stake in local steelmaker Laiwu.

Over the longer term, Mittal said, he expects China to allow foreign producers to take majority stakes in Chinese steel mills.

Mittal said the credit market crisis has not impacted demand for steel and industry conditions were very favourable, with the exception of perhaps the US market where ArcelorMittal could sell only about a fifth of its steel.

ArcelorMittal, meanwhile, announced the repurchase of about 4.18 million shares between 13 September and 19 September.

The shares were repurchased at an average price of 48.6465 euros and for a total amount of 203.1 million euros.

also see : Other reports on ArcelorMittal