Luxembourg-based global steel giant ArcelorMittal has announced its financial results for the first quarter of the current year.
In the first quarter, ArcelorMittal reported a net loss of $1.12 billion, compared to a net profit of $414 million in the first quarter of the previous year. Sales revenues for the first quarter this year totaled $14.84 billion, decreasing from $15.51 billion in the previous quarter and from $19.19 billion in the same quarter of 2019, due to declining steel shipments (-1.2 percent) due to the coronavirus and lower market-priced iron ore shipments (-11.0 percent). ArcelorMittal registered an EBITDA of $967 million in the given period, down 41.5 percent year on year.
The company's crude steel production fell by 12.4 percent year on year to 21.1 million mt in the first quarter, while its iron ore production increased by 2.1 percent to 14.4 million mt, compared to the same period of the previous year.
ArcelorMittal chairman and CEO Lakshmi N. Mittal said, “There are still too many uncertainties to accurately predict what the rest of the year holds. However, it seems likely that over the course of this month countries will start to announce details of their “exit” strategies. Whilst these are likely to be an easing, not an immediate ending of lockdown, construction and manufacturing are expected to be among the first sectors to be permitted to restart operations and indeed we are seeing signs of customers restarting production.”
In the second quarter of this year, ArcelorMittal’s steel shipments are expected to be around the range of 13.5-14.5 million mt. ArcelorMittal also said that it is provisionally reducing its fixed cost in line with lower production rates and so in the second quarter of this year it expects its fixed cost will be 25-30 percent below the first quarter level.