Lakshmi Mittal has called for Beijing to reduce its restrictions on inward investments to help damp hostility to efforts by Chinese companies to take stakes in businesses in countries such as the US.
“You cannot expect business people in the US to be relaxed [about planned inward investments by Chinese companies] if their attempts to do the same thing in China are covered by restrictions,” the chief executive and main owner of ArcelorMittal said in an interview with the Financial Times in Tokyo.
Mr Mittal was speaking in light of a row in the US over a planned participation by Anshan Iron & Steel, one of China’s biggest steelmakers, in a $168m venture to build a steel plant in Mississippi by John Correnti, a veteran US steel executive.