The world's largest steelmaker Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal has announced its financial results for the third quarter and the first nine months of the current year, stating that it still expects an EBITDA of more than $6.5 billion for the full year. Additionally 2013 capital expenditure is still expected to be approximately $3.7 billion. "After a weak first half, we have seen the third quarter performance improve year on year, positively impacted by our cost optimization efforts and the increased shipments from our mining expansion," said ArcelorMittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal.
In the third quarter, ArcelorMittal reported a net loss of $193 million, compared to a net loss of $652 million in the third quarter of the previous year. In the given quarter, ArcelorMittal's sales saw a slight decrease of 0.4 percent year on year to $19.6 billion. The company's EBITDA was $1.7 billion, up 18.5 percent year on year.
In the first nine months, ArcelorMittal saw a net loss of $1.3 billion, compared to net profit of $456 million in the same period of the previous year. During January-September, the company's sales amounted to $59.6 billion, down 8.2 percent year on year due to lower average steel selling prices which declined 5.9 percent year on year. In the given period, ArcelorMittal's EBITDA decreased to $5 billion from $6.12 billion in January-September 2012.
ArcelorMittal's crude steel production amounted to 23.3 million mt in the third quarter, up 6.4 percent year on year, while its iron ore production decreased by 0.6 percent to 14.9 million mt, compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. In the first nine months of the current year, the company produced 68.2 million mt of crude steel and 43 million mt of iron ore, up 1.2 percent and up 2.6 percent respectively, both year on year.
Meanwhile, ArcelorMittal's Flat Carbon Europe segment reported an operating loss of €131 million for the third quarter, mainly due to the normal seasonal downturn as well as a negative price-cost squeeze, meaning lower sales prices were not offset by lower input costs. The Flat Carbon Europe segment's steel shipments for the given quarter declined to 6.6 million mt, falling by 6.9 percent quarter on quarter, due to normal seasonal demand patterns.