ArcelorMittal Europe reports € 58 million in operating profit for Q1 2014

ArcelorMittal Europe generated an operating profit of € 58 million in the first three months of 2014. In the 4th quarter of 2013, operating losses amounted to € 396 million. The restructuring of expenditures, totaling € 302 million, had a positive impact.

The improvement was mainly due to higher supplies and the positive effect of lower costs. ArcelorMittal's steel production in Europe rose 4.3 percent to 10.9 million tonnes compared to the fourth quarter of 2013, following the restart of the blast furnace at Dabrowa Gornicza in Poland.

Supply volumes for flat products increased by 5.8 percent and supply volumes for long products increased by 6.0 percent, driven by seasonal improvement in core demand. Sales in the ArcelorMittal Europe segment also rose 1.6 percent to € 7.5 billion from € 7.4 billion in the fourth quarter.

This was mainly due to higher supplies of steel. Eurozone GDP growth in Q1 was stronger than at the end of 2013. European steel demand remains relatively healthy, supported by improved macroeconomic performance in the region. The manufacturing PMI in Europe was above 50 for ten months, and was the highest in the Czech Republic, Poland and the United Kingdom, indicating continued European production growth this year.

Aditya Mittal, CEO of ArcelorMittal Europe, said that “ArcelorMittal's results in Europe at the beginning of 2014 show a combination of a gradual improvement in the economy and the company's appeal to a new demand environment. We have raised our forecast for European steel demand in 2014 from 2 percent to 3 percent. and therefore we are cautiously optimistic about the outlook for the rest of the year. "