ArcelorMittal Q1 Loss Reduces; Backs 2014 EBITDA Target - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Steel and mining company ArcelorMittal (MT) posted a narrower first-quarter 2014 net loss of $205 million, or $0.12 a share, as against the prior year's loss of $345 million, or $0.21 a share.

For the quarter, EBITDA of $1.8 billion improved by 23% year-over-year on an underlying basis. EBITDA/t increased in all steel segments with the exception of NAFTA which was affected by extreme weather, the company said.

However, sales for the recent quarter remained almost flat at $19.79 billion, versus last year. Quarterly total steel shipments were 21.0 million metric tonnes, as compared with 20.5 million metric tonnes a year ago.

Commenting on the results, ArcelorMittal Chairman and CEO, Lakshmi Mittal, said: "Today's figures continue to show the improved year-over-year performance of our business driven by recovering steel markets, the expansion of our mining operations, and the continued benefits of our focused cost optimization. The prospects for growth of our core markets in Europe and the US are encouraging and overall we remain cautiously optimistic about the business outlook for the rest of 2014".

Looking ahead, ArcelorMittal still projects EBITDA to be around $8.0 billion for 2014, assuming Steel shipments growth by nearly 3% in 2014, as compared with 2013. In addition, the company maintains its medium term net debt target at $15 billion.

For 2014, net interest expense is likely to be nearly $1.6 billion, and capital expenditure to be approximately $3.8 billion - $4.0 billion.