In late March, Nippon Steel Corp. President Akio Mimura was in New Delhi to attend a board meeting for the International Iron & Steel Institute.
The meeting itself was nothing new. But it was reported a few days later that more interesting talks took place on the sidelines of the IISI meeting between Mimura and B. Muthuraman, managing director of India's steel giant Tata Steel Ltd.
Nippon Steel, the world's second-biggest steelmaker, refused to comment on what the two spoke about, but it admitted the two sides have started talks on increasing production to meet rising automotive sheet metal demand in India.