ArcelorMittal Slips To Loss In Q2 - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - ArcelorMittal (MT) on Thursday reported that its second-quarter net loss attributable to equity holders of the parent of $447 million or $0.44 per share, compared to net income of $1.87 billion or $1.84 per share in the previous-year quarter.

Operating loss for the quarter was $158 million, compared to operating income of $2.36 billion in the year-ago period.

Operating loss for the quarter includes $0.9 billion of impairments, comprising $0.3 billion related to the remedy asset sales for the ArcelorMittal Italia acquisition and $0.6 billion impairment of the fixed assets of ArcelorMittal USA following a sharp decline in steel prices and high raw material costs.

The prior-year quarter's operating income included $1.1 billion of impairments.

Sales for the quarter declined to $19.28 billion from $20.00 billion in the prior-year quarter.

Crude steel production rose slightly to 23.8 Mt from 23.2 Mt last year. Total steel shipments in the quarter were at 22.8 Mt, up 4.8 percent from the same period of the prior year.

"After a strong 2018, market conditions in the first half of 2019 have been very tough, with the profitability of our steel segments suffering due to lower steel prices combined with higher raw material costs. This has been only partially offset by improved profitability from our mining segment, but I am pleased that we have generated healthy free cash flow demonstrating the improved robustness of the business thanks to our Action 2020 plan," Lakshmi Mittal, ArcelorMittal Chairman and CEO, said.

Looking ahead to 2019, ArcelorMittal still expects its steel shipments to increase year-over-year, which should provide support for the Group's Action 2020 program.