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Home › Dodgy Deals ›
Dodgy Deal
POSCO integrated steel projectIndia

Project – On record

This profile is no longer actively maintained, with the information now possibly out of date
Lead organisation:
BankTrack
Contact:

climate@banktrack.org

Last update: 2016-04-02 00:00:00
Photo: -

Project – On record

This profile is no longer actively maintained, with the information now possibly out of date
Lead organisation:
BankTrack
Contact:

climate@banktrack.org

Last update: 2016-04-02 00:00:00
Why this profile?

What must happen

The Government of India, the Government of the Republic of Korea, the POSCO Corporation, and all of POSCO's investors must take immediate action to ensure the protection of human rights in connection with the POSCO-India project. 

The Government of India should:

  1. Suspend the POSCO-India project until and unless international human rights standards are fully complied with.
  2. Ensure full implementation of the provisions of the Forest Rights Act and cease all land clearance and acquisition until and unless the rights claims of forest-dwelling communities are adjudicated and recognized rights-holders consent to the diversion of forest land.
  3. Take decisive steps to ensure that police officials act in accordance with international standards on the use of force and do not engage in arbitrary arrests and detentions.
  4. Provide effective protection for project-affected communities against acts of violence committed by private actors.
  5. Ensure project-affected communities unencumbered access to work, adequate food, healthcare, and education services
  6. Ensure that the living conditions in the POSCO-India Transit Camp abide by international human rights standards.
  7. Devise a permanent resolution to the temporary housing situation of Transit Camp residents, in a manner that realizes their right to an adequate standard of living and involves their informed consent.

The Government of the Republic of Korea should:

  1. Take all necessary steps to ensure that POSCO respects human rights throughout the course of its activities, including in its projects in India.
  2. Establish a legislative framework that requires companies domiciled in Korea, such as POSCO, to adopt measures to prevent and mitigate adverse human rights impacts in their operations overseas.
  3. Ensure access to effective judicial and non-judicial remedies for those affected by the POSCO-India project.
  4. Avoid facilitating or investing in projects that fail to meet human rights standards.

POSCO should:

  1. Prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to its operations in India, even if it has not caused or contributed to those impacts.
  2. Ensure compliance with Indian laws and regulations.
  3. Ensure that the corporation's commitment to upholding international human rights standards is clearly communicated in all business relationships and fully implemented by company officials.
  4. Provide for or cooperate in the remediation of any adverse impacts to date.

All investors in POSCO, including ABP, Berkshire Hathaway, Blackrock, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, NBIM, and Bank of NY Mellon should:

  1. Take reasonable and prudent measures to ensure that POSCO: respects human rights throughout its operations; complies with domestic law; and seeks to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are linked to its operations.
  2. Consider withdrawing their investment if POSCO does not fully comply with human rights standards

About
Sectors Iron and Steel Manufacturing
Location
Status
Planning
Design
Agreement
Construction
Operation
Closure
Decommission
Website http://www.posco.com

Update: as of March 2017, POSCO has abandoned its plans for a steel plant in Odisha, in a significant victory for everyone that struggled against the project for many years. 

POSCO, a South Korean multinational corporation and the world's fourth largest steel producer, sought to establish an integrated steel venture in India's eastern state of Odisha. POSCO, via its wholly-owned and operated subsidiary POSCO-India Pvt. Ltd, planned to invest approximately US$12 billion in the project, which would have made it the largest single instance of foreign direct investment in India to date.

The proposed POSCO-India project consisted of iron ore mines, a steel processing plant, a captive port facility, and related transportation and water infrastructure. It was planned to have a production capacity of 12 million tons per year and would require 600 million tons of iron ore over 30 years. It would use over 12,000 acres of land, including 4,004 acres for the steel processing plant and port in coastal Jagatsinghpur district, 2,000 acres for a company town and associated infrastructure and a further 6,177 acres for the iron ore mine in an area roughly 200 km inland known as Khandadhar Hills. The company additionally sought an unspecified amount of land to facilitate transportation of millions of tons of raw materials and to supply the water needed for the processing of the steel.

The project made little progress in part due to significant and sustained opposition from affected communities who have used non-violent protest and democratic processes to resist their forced evictions from lands that they have cultivated for generations. The project threatened to displace over 22,000 people in the plant and port area alone, and thousands more face destruction of their livelihoods.

Impacts

Social and human rights impacts

The acquisition of land for the project will destroy the thriving local economy and the livelihoods of thousands of local residents, and will result in the effective displacement of the area's 22,000 residents. Many of those at risk of displacement are farmers who have cultivated plots of land for generations, yet many of them do not possess formal title. Although many villagers have applied to have their claims over forest lands recognized under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, the process is rife with red tape, and residents have met with limited success.

 Thousands of non-residents - including Dalits - who participate actively in the local economy also stand to lose their source of income. The proposed port threatens access to the sea, which provides food and jobs for residents and non-residents alike. Some reports indicate that the livelihoods of as many as 20,000-25,000 local fishermen stand to be negatively affected by the project. Thousands more stand to be affected at the proposed mining site in Odisha's Khandadhar Hills, Sundargarh district, which are popular with local tourists for their beauty and powerful waterfalls. The area's Khandadhar forest is also home to the Paudi Bhuiyans, a vulnerable indigenous (tribal) group that sustains itself from the forest, either by cultivating rice and indigenous lentils and grains on fixed plots of land, or by practicing a shifting agriculture method known as podu

Actions taken by the Government of India to promote the POSCO-India project have resulted in the violation of a range of human rights - including economic, social and cultural rights . Mounting social conflict around the project has lead to numerous acts of violence against people opposing the POSCO steel plant, leading to multiple injuries and several deaths. People living in project-affected communities have been effectively trapped in their villages by ongoing threats of violence and baseless arrests and the continued police presence in their area. Living in a state of siege, they face substantial barriers to their ability to work, access health care, educational facilities or other essential services.  This has also disrupted local social and cultural practices, impeding people from attending weddings or religious events or maintaining other social ties.

Ongoing and systematic human rights violations are taking place in the area proposed for the integrated steel plant and captive port, as well as in POSCO-India's Transit Camp. There is evidence of significant and ongoing attempts to illegally evict people from their lands, as well as serious abuses against individuals and communities who are resisting forced eviction and defending their human rights.

Human Rights Violations in Project-Affected Communities:  Indian authorities have targeted people who speak out against the POSCO-India project with violence, arbitrary arrests and detentions. Police forces have barricaded villages, occupied schools, leveled thousands of fabricated criminal charges against individuals opposing the project, and failed to protect individuals from attacks by project supporters. As a result of these abuses, for the past eight years, entire communities in the project-affected area have been living under siege and have suffered clear violations of their rights to security of person and freedom of movement. The right to be free from arbitrary arrest and detention, and the right to be free from discrimination-particularly on the basis of political or other opinion, have also been violated. This has also affected a host of economic and social rights, including the right to work, health, education, and food.  Generally, should the project move forward as planned, displaced communities face a serious risk of impoverishment, which in turn would undermine a range of human rights and their ability to live a life of dignity.

Human Rights Violations in Transit Camp:Since leaving their villages, the fifty-two families currently residing in the POSCO-India transit camp have suffered dramatic declines in their enjoyment of the right to adequate housing, food, water, health, education, and work. Residents live in cramped one-room homes with roofs containing asbestos. The houses fail to protect residents heat and rain and pose serious health risks. While they previously enjoyed access to abundant, clean water in their villages, residents now share one tubewell and complain of irritation to the throat and skin upon contact with the water. The sanitary facilities are limited and in poor condition, and women and girls lack privacy when bathing. According to an official investigation of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), Indian authorities have failed to ensure access, by residents in the Transit Camp, to essential health care, educational, and child welfare services, which has had an acute impact on children residing in the camp. Relocation to the Transit Camp-located far from work opportunities or land on which to farm-has impoverished residents and pushed previously self-sufficient families into economic dependence. Without sufficient employment opportunities they are forced to rely on a daily allowance provided by POSCO: Rs. 20 (approximately US$0.33) per person, an amount that is grossly insufficient to meet their needs and the needs of their families. There is no public evidence to suggest that POSCO has attempted to rectify the sub-standard living conditions in the Transit Camp.

Anticipated additional human rights threats if the project goes forward
If the POSCO project in Odisha proceeds as planned, and the forcible acquisition of lands results in the anticipated displacement and evictions, project-affected people will face serious threats to their ability to realize the right to food, right to adequate housing, the right to health, right to education and the right to work. The Government of India and POSCO have failed to guarantee compensation that is adequate in nature and scope and effectively guards against impoverishment and serious declines in the standard of living of people affected by the project.

Women living in the project-affected villages have been severely affected by the repression of people opposing the POSCO-India project. They have been the targets of violet attacks and have suffered serious medical problems as a result of their inability to access adequate health care facilities. Women and girls who are members of project-displaced households living in the POSCO-India Transit Camp have suffered severe declines in their living standards, including the inability to bathe or use sanitary facilities in privacy.

Women residing in project-affected communities have expressed concerns that the POSCO-India project will contribute to a gender gap in employment opportunities. Betel leaf cultivation, the mainstay of the local economy, employs both men and women and allows all adult members of the community work under conditions of equality. While individuals and families displaced or affected by the POSCO-India project will be eligible for employment in the steel plant, families may only nominate one person to be considered for employment. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) Committee on the POSCO-India project noted that it is likely that women and young people will largely be overlooked for employment in the steel plant because they lack the skills and education necessary to get jobs with POSCO-India. Although the project authority must make "special efforts to facilitate skill up-gradation of the nominated member of the displaced family to make him/her ‘employable'," it is not clear how these efforts would sufficiently eliminate a gender gap in employment opportunities.


Environmental and climate impacts

The POSCO-India project has given rise to significant concerns related to the diversion of the local water supply and to environmental impacts, including potentially irreversible effects on endangered species and on coastal sand dunes that act as natural barriers against powerful storms. Many species of animals live and breed in the area's waters, lush estuaries, and dense forest.

The construction of the proposed plant and port threatens the area's unique biodiversity.  The site of the proposed captive port includes beaches, which serve as a nesting site for over 100,000 endangered olive ridley turtles every year, one of only three such sites worldwide and the only site in the Eastern Hemisphere. Ecologically important horse shoe crabs also depend on the sediment along the coast in the port area, and fish and shrimps use the estuaries and coastal waters as breeding grounds. There also exist well-founded concerns regarding air pollution and the diversion of water resources. POSCO has already received approval from Odisha's Department of Water Resources for the daily withdrawal of 10 million gallons of water from sources that supply drinking and irrigation water to the nearby cities and districts. The construction of the proposed plant and port will also destroy the coastal sand dunes that act as natural barriers against powerful storms, the removal of which would leave the area more exposed to the harmful effects of powerful storms.

In March, 2012, India's National Green Tribunal  ("NGT") suspended the environmental clearance granted to POSCO due to serious inaccuracies with the company's environmental impact assessments. A final determination by this Tribunal is expected in September of 2013.

Financiers
Institution type
Finance type
Year
Companies

POSCO

South Korea
Website
Project sponsor
No companies
News
BankTrack
Partners
Blog
External
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

POSCO closure with myriad open ends!

2017-04-01 | New Delhi | Milleniumpost
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

International human rights groups celebrate POSCO's withdrawal from Odisha

2017-03-28 | Bhubaneswar | OdishaChannel
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

As Posco exits steel project, Odisha is left with thousands of felled trees and lost livelihoods

2017-03-22 | Scroll.in
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

After defeating Posco, farmers turn to reclaim betel leaf economy

2017-03-20 | Jagatsinghpur, Odisha | VillageSquare
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Posco closes last chapter in Odisha project

2017-03-18 | Bhubaneswar | Business-standard.com
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

ESCR-Net calls for Suspension of POSCO-India Steel Project Amidst Ongoing Human Rights Concerns

2014-01-16 | New York
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

India: Urgent call to halt Odisha mega-steel project amid serious human rights concerns

2013-10-01 | Geneva
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

This land is whose land

2013-09-07 | Economist
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Posco responsible for delay in environment clearances to its steel plant: MoEF

2013-08-25 | Times of India
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Non-clearance of NPV dues to hit Posco land transfer

2013-08-05 | Business Standard
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Cancellation Of Two Steel Projects By POSCO And Arcelor Mittal Has Lessons For Other Projects

2013-07-19 | Counter currents
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Advocacy Groups to Dow Jones: South Korean Company’s Transgressions Merit Removal from Sustainability Index

2013-07-09 | Yahoo finance
Resources
Documents
Images
Videos
Links
2013-09-05 00:00:00

The Price of Steel

Human Rights and Forced Evictions in the POSCO-India Project
NGO document
2013-09-05 00:00:00 | ESCR-NET

POSCO Integrated Steel Project

2013-09-03
Betel vine cultivation provides a steady and sustainable income for people living in the area where the POSCO steel plant and port will be built.

Investing in Abuse

2013-08-27 16:11:04

Protesting the POSCO project at the Indian Consulate in New York

2013-08-27 16:04:56

Dividends of Resistance: The POSCO-India Story

Along the eastern coastline of India, in the state of Orissa, lie the four villages of Dhinkia, Patna, Gobindpur and Nuagaon. In June 2005, the government of Orissa announced its decision to hand over the villagers' land to the South Korean steel company, POSCO, for it to build a steel plant and a private port. This is land that the villagers have cultivated for generations, and within days the people announced their decision to resist POSCO's project. This film is a testimony to what seven years of resistance does to a people, and a record, we hope, of the real costs of resistance ... For more info, see www.miningzone.org
2013-08-27 15:56:52

People against POSCO

2013-08-27 15:52:52

Video Volunteers - anti POSCO voices

WITNESS blog on Odisha

Change on Orissa

Mining Zone on POSCO

Stop Posco

Updates

2017

2017-03-18 00:00:00 | POSCO closes last chapter in Odisha project

South Korean steel major POSCO has scrapped the plan to set up a 12-million tonne steel mill in Paradip, Odisha. It has written to the state government that it wants to surrender the land allotted for the project (source business-standard.com). The formal closure of Posco’s steel plant project in Odisha is seen as a victory of agrarian economy over unwanted industrialization and the betel leaf farmers of Jagatsinghpur are rejoicing, although those who lost their land face new challenges.

2013

2013-05-27 00:00:00 | Nowegian and Dutch contact points publish final statements

The Norwegian NCP published its final statement in the POSCO/NBIM case on 27 May 2013, and the Dutch NCP issued its final statement on the same day. The case set an important precedent regarding the applicability of the OECD Guidelines to the financial sector. The Dutch NCP confirmed that the OECD Guidelines also apply to minority shareholding of financial institutions.

2012

2012-10-12 00:00:00 | OECD complaint filed

On October 2012, an OECD complaint was filed against the Dutch National Civil Pension Fund (ABP/APG) and the Norwegian Government Pension Fund - Global (GPFG).

(1) Dutch National Civil Pension Fund (ABP/APG) - ABP/APG has shares in POSCO worth approximately € 17m and is cooperating with the Dutch National Contact Point. On 06 March 2013, a joint statement was issued in which APB/APG confirmed they are "committed to using their influence to make POSCO's activities and practices consistent with international principles and standards." On 13 March 2013, the Dutch NCP issued a preliminary statement, which confirms that the OECD Guidelines "are applicable to financial institutions and to investors, including minority shareholders." It also clarified that the term "business relationship" applies to financial relationships. The Dutch NCP is currently attempting to set up an evaluation and research mission and is seeking to ensure that the mission is jointly commissioned with the Norwegian and Korean NCPs.

(2) Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) - GFPG is managed by the Norwegian Bank Investment Management (NBIM) on behalf of the Norwegian government and owns 0.9 per cent of POSCO. Arguing that the OECD guidelines do not apply to minority shareholders, NBIM has refused to cooperate with the Norwegian National Contact Point in its assessment of whether NBIM is violating human rights through its investment.

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