ArcelorMittal Q1 net income falls over 73% to $1,096 million

NEW DELHI: Global steel giant ArcelorMittal on Thursday posted a 74.43 per cent fall in its net income at $1,096 million for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022.

It had posted a net income of $4,125 million for the year-ago quarter, the company said in a statement.

ArcelorMittal is the world's largest integrated steel and mining company. It follows the January-December fiscal year.

"ArcelorMittal recorded a net income in 1Q 2023 of $1,096 million as compared to $261 million in 4Q 2022 and $4,125 million for 1Q 2022," the Luxembourg-based firm said.

The company ended the March 2023 quarter with a net debt of $5.2 billion. It had a net debt of $3.2 billion as of March 31, 2022.

On capex, the company said $0.9 billion in Q1 is in line with its full-year guidance of within the range of $4.5 billion-$5 billion.

ArcelorMittal Chief Executive Officer Aditya Mittal said, "market conditions improved as anticipated in the first quarter, with the end of customer destocking supporting apparent steel consumption growth and a rebound in steel spreads.

"This, alongside better general economic sentiment, resulted in good growth in first quarter profits as well as higher EBITDA per tonne. The improvements we have seen in market conditions are not yet fully reflected in our results due to pricing lags, and we expect a further increase in profitability in the second quarter."

Geopolitical and economic uncertainty remains, but ArcelorMittal continues to demonstrate its ability to perform in all market conditions which bodes well for the remainder of this year, he said.

According to the company statement, its crude steel production during the March quarter fell to 14.5 million tonnes (MT) from 16.3 MT in the same period in 2022.

Sales in Q1 2023 also fell to USD 18.5 billion as compared to USD 21.8 billion in the year-ago period. Total steel shipments in Q1 2023 were 14.5 MT, lower than 15.3 MT in Q1 2022.

In India, ArcelorMittal in joint venture with Nippon Steel of Japan owns and operates about 9 million tonne steel plant in Gujarat.

In 2019, ArcelorMittal along with Nippon Steel completed the acquisition of the Essar Steel Limited plant located at Hazira in Gujarat, and later renamed it to ArcelorMIttal Nippon Steel (AMNS) India.