ArcelorMittal Q1 Profit Rises - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Integrated steel and mining company ArcelorMittal (MT) reported that its net income attributable to equity holders of the parent for the first-quarter of 2018 rose to $1.192 billion or $1.17 per share, from $1.002 billion or $0.98 per share in the same quarter last year.

Sales for the quarter grew 19.3% to $19.2 billion from the prior year's $16.1 billion primarily due to higher average steel selling prices (+18.2%), higher steel shipments (+1.4%), and higher market-priced iron ore shipments (+5.5%), offset in part by lower seaborne iron ore reference prices (-13.1%).

Total steel shipments in the first-quarter of 2018 were 1.4% higher as compared with 21.1Mt for 1Q 2017 primarily due to higher steel shipments in Brazil (+11.5%) and Europe (+4.8%) offset in part by lower shipments in ACIS (-6.0%) and NAFTA (-0.9%).

Lakshmi N. Mittal, ArcelorMittal Chairman and CEO, said, "… we continue to focus on structural improvement - through the delivery of our Action 2020 strategic plan - and investing with focus and discipline in opportunities that will drive higher future returns. Our acquisition of Ilva has now received competition clearance from the European Commission and we expect to complete this acquisition by the end of the second quarter 2018."

The company expects cash needs of the business, excluding working capital investment, to increase in 2018 to approximately $5.6 billion from $4.4 billion in 2017. The expected increase in capex to $3.8 billion in 2018 from $2.8 billion in 2017 largely reflects the Mexico hot strip mill project and anticipated ILVA capex as well as additional strategic projects. Net interest is expected to decline to $0.6 billion from $0.8 billion in 2017 reflecting the benefits of liability management exercises completed in 2017.

The Board has agreed on a new dividend policy which has been approved by the shareholders at the AGM on May 9, 2018. Given the current deleveraging bias, dividends will begin at $0.10/share in 2018.