India: POSCO's Steel Investment Challenge

South Korean steelmaker POSCO said Oct. 19 it will begin work on a 12 million-ton-capacity steel plant in the eastern Indian state of Orissa by April 2008. POSCO has reaffirmed its commitment to this massive $12 billion foreign investment project, despite extensive bureaucratic delays and a potent local protest movement that threatens to sabotage the entire deal. Even so, the South Korean company could soon discover that it might not be worth the trouble to battle its way through India's challenging foreign investment terrain.