South Korean steelmaker POSCO could scrap plans for a $12 billion project it had agreed to set up in India a decade ago, after a new law makes it costlier to source iron ore for the plant, a company spokesman said.
The 2005 project to set up a steel plant in Odisha was billed as India's biggest foreign direct investment at the time, but it has encountered a series of delays.
The company waited almost a decade to acquire land for the proposed 12 million-tonnes-a-year steel plant due to opposition from local tribal groups.
A mining law enacted in March by India means the company would now also have to buy a mining licence in an auction. Originally, the Odisha government had promised to help the company obtain the licence for free.
That could raise costs for the company at a time when a global steel glut is depressing prices.