Essar Global, the owner of India's third-biggest steelmaker, plans to spend about $6 billion to boost production more than fivefold by 2012—and a lot of that will happen in North America.

Output will rise to as much as 25 million tons a year, Prashant Ruia, Essar Steel's managing director, tells a steel conference in New York in June. Essar will increase annual output at Algoma Steel, a Canadian unit, to 4 million tons. The company also is building a 2.5 million-ton-a-year plant in Trinidad and Tobago.

According to Bloomberg News Service, Ruia didn't rule out a bid for Stelco, also of Canada, after agreeing to buy Algoma for $1.63 billion in April to gain access to mills supplying auto manufacturers in North America. Essar, the Mumbai-based company, also agreed to buy Minnesota Steel for an undisclosed price to add 1.4 billion tons of iron-ore reserves. "We continue to be open to opportunities in North America and the rest of the world," Ruia said.