Arcelor Mittal Orbit Mistake?

We have our doubts about the economic benefits that the LONDON Olympics are supposed to bring in the form of tourism and certainly research by the ETOA (European Tour Operators Association) suggests that every city that has hosted the games has suffered a DOWNTURN in tourism as s result of the games rather than the opposite.

And now the new Arcelor Mittal Orbit Tower does seem to be a grand folly thrown atop. Dreamed up by the mayor of London this grand tower (or giant Mr Messy) will grace the Olympics and serve as a monument to a country 'coming out of recession' (Boris Johnson).

The name Arcelor is derived from a combination of letters from various steel companies: the first two letters come from Arbed, a Luxembourg steel company (Acieries Reunies Burbach-Esch-Dudelange) formed in 1911 from three smaller companies with origins in the late 19th century. The next three letters, c, e and l, are taken from Aceralia, a Spanish steel company which grew out of another early 20th-century amalgamation, this time of three blast furnace businesses in Bilbao. A hundred years ago it was Spain's biggest company; its later career is complicated by many takeovers and reorganisations and its acronym less easily explained than Arbed's, but by the year 2000 it was its country's leading steelmaker. The 'or' is from Usinor, the French steelmaker formed in 1948 by a merger of two old companies (the important one, acronym-wise, is Les Forges et Aciéries du Nord et de l'Est). In 2001, Arbed, Aceralia and Usinor came together to form the pan-European Arcelor.

And Lakshmi Mittal is the richest man in Europe and the fourth or fifth richest in the world, with personal wealth estimated at more than £19bn. After Mittal Steel bought out most of Arcelor's shareholders in 2006, he became chairman and chief executive of the world's biggest steel company. ArcelorMittal has 250,000 workers at plants in 60 countries that together produce 8% of global steel output and last year earned revenues of around £44bn.

Arcelor Mittal has no steel plants in Britain and so the tower, ostensibly built to symbolise the regeneration of Britain for the olympics, will be made from steel imported from abroad where cheaper manufacturing processes have been sought.

Not quite right is it?