London: Head of the world's largest steel company Lakshmi Mittal is keen to have his firm's presence in India and China, as his ultimate objective is to supply to global customers.

"If you look at us, we are in 14 countries, in four continents, and this is the only truly global steel company. But this is not enough," the NRI business tycoon, head of the newly-created Mittal Steel Corporation, said in an interview published in 'The Sunday Telegraph' today (Oct 31, 2004).

"We need to do more, we need to have a presence in some other markets like China and India. The ultimate objective is to be the global supplier to some of our global customers. We are not there yet," he said in the interview given in New York.

Mittal, who last week emerged as Britain's richest resident with a fortune of 12 billion pounds, said the steel industry was facing a period of tremendous upheaval that would see the demise of local companies and rise of global giants.

He said his vision was of an industry that puts its chequered history of mammoth losses and ailing businesses behind it and foresees the emergence of five or six world class groups, each producing 100 million tonnes of steel a year.

"There is a new breed of CEOs in the steel industry who don't just not want to lose money as they've done in the past, they also want to make money," Mittal, who merged his company with America's International Steel Group to form the world's largest steel company, said.