OREANDA-NEWS. August 08, 2013. ArcelorMittal (referred to as “ArcelorMittal” or the “Company”) (MT (New York, Amsterdam, Paris, Luxembourg), MTS (Madrid)), the world’s leading steel company, announced results[1] for the three and six month periods ended June 30, 2013.

Highlights:

Health and safety performance maintained in 2Q 2013 with a LTIF rate[3] of 0.9x

EBITDA of USD 1.7 billion in 2Q 2013, representing a 19% underlying improvement compared to 1Q 2013

Steel shipments of 21.3 Mt in 2Q 2013, an increase of 1.7% as compared to 1Q 2013

2Q 2013 own iron ore production of 15 Mt, up +3.8% YoY; 8.2 Mt shipped and reported at market price, flat YoY

Net debt decreased to USD 16.2 billion as of June 30, 2013, driven by improved cash flow from operations (USD 2.4 billion) and M&A proceeds (USD 0.3 billion)

USD 0.6 billion annualized management gains achieved during 1H 2013, in line with plan to achieve USD 3 billion of cost improvement by the end of 2015

Completion of AMMC capacity expansion from 16 Mt to 24 Mt; iron ore production to ramp-up during 2H 2013

Outlook and guidance:
In line with our guidance framework, underlying profitability is still expected to improve in 2013, driven by three factors: a) a 1-2% increase in steel shipments; b) an approximate 20% increase in marketable iron ore shipments; and c) the realized benefits from Asset Optimization and Management Gains initiatives

Nevertheless, due largely to lower than forecast apparent demand and lower than anticipated raw material prices, the Company now expects to report 2013 EBITDA greater than USD 6.5 billion

Due to an expected investment in working capital and the payment of the annual dividend, net debt is expected to increase in 2H 2013 to approximately USD 17 billion; the USD 15 billion medium term net debt target is unchanged

2013 capital expenditures are now expected to be approximately USD 3.7 billion

Commenting, Mr. Lakshmi N. Mittal, ArcelorMittal Chairman and CEO, said:
“The operating environment in the first half continued to be challenging but we have delivered progress in a number of important areas. The benefits of our restructuring efforts - particularly in Europe - are evident; strong cash-flow performance has enabled us to reduce net debt to below our mid-year target; and the expansion of ArcelorMittal Mines Canada is largely complete and will ramp up during the second half.

Although we have revised our full year guidance, the second half should deliver a clear underlying improvement relative to the second half of 2012, which we believe marked the lowest point in the cycle.”