Testing times: a steelworker takes a sample at the blast furnace of ThyssenKrupp in Duisburg. Karl-Ulrich Köhler, chairman of the German company, says customers are cutting orders but people are ‘still talking about growth’ in overall steel demand

Lakshmi Mittal next week faces the biggest test of his career. The Indian metals magnate will try to convince investors that his vision of the steel industry still has merit, in spite of the battering the sector has received amid the global financial crisis.