Steel Mills

ArcelorMittal Americas Sales Flat in Q4

February 7, 2014

ArcelorMittal Flat Carbon Americas had sales of $4.9 billion in fourth quarter 2013, just slightly below sales for third quarter and up from $4.68 billion in Q4 2012. Crude steel production declined by 1.4 percent to 6.3 million tonnes q/q due to operational issues in Brazil and maintenance for Canadian operations.

Steel shipments of 5.6 million tonnes were down 2.5 percent q/q due to lower North American shipment volumes and seasonal slowdown in Brazil. Average steel selling price was $819/tonne ($743/ton) as compared to $804/tonne ($674/ton) in Q3 and $797/tonne ($723/ton) in y/y.

For the company as a whole, ArcelorMittal reported a net loss of $1.227 billion for fourth quarter 2013 compared to a loss of $193 million in third quarter 2013. Sales were reported at $19.8 billion, up 1 percent from $19.6 billion in third quarter.

Crude steel production was flat for the quarter at 23 million tonnes while steel shipments decreased 1.6 percent q/q to 20.9 million tonnes.

EBITDA earnings reflected an improved performance in fourth quarter, up 11.5 percent to $1.9 billion from $1.7 billion in the third quarter.

In its guidance remarks, ArcelorMittal forecast a 3 percent increase in steel shipments for 2014 and a modest increase in steel margins.

“The measures we have implemented to strengthen the business continue to yield positive results. In 2013 we delivered a 11% underlying increase in EBITDA, positive free cash flow and ended the year with net debt at the lowest level since the creation of ArcelorMittal in 2006,” said Chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal. ”The improvement in the overall economic situation led us to re-start some selected steel growth projects. In addition, we have expanded our ability to serve the growing NAFTA automotive and energy steel markets through our agreement to acquire ThyssenKrupp’s rolling mill in Calvert, Alabama. We are cautiously optimistic about the outlook for 2014 and expect EBITDA for the full year to improve to approximately $8.0 billion.”

ArcelorMittal is planning one significant US outage for 2014. The #7 furnace at Indiana Harbor will be down for approximately two months starting in May or June for repairs. The company has been preparing for the outage with “slabs on the ground that will allow us to continue to serve the customer base while we are doing that repair.” No significant commercial impact is expected.

At ArcelorMittal Dofasco, construction of a 666,000 tonne per year heavy gauge galvanizing line #6 is anticipated to be finished in 2015. Upon completion, the 400,000 tonne galvanizing line #2 will be closed. The new line will add 260,000 tonnes of galvanized product available for shipment and will include advanced high strength steel capability.