India gave final approval last week to South Korea's POSCO to build a giant $12 mbillion steel plant, the country's biggest foreign investment deal since 1991.

POSCO, a South Korean firm that is the world's fourth-largest steelmaker, likes to prove its critics wrong.

This week Nippon steel and POSCO, South Korea's largest steelmaker, which already hold shares in one another, said they were considering deepening their defensive partnership.