ArcelorMittal said it had lost nearly $8 billion last year, and that it planned to seek $3 billion in new capital from shareholders to shore up its finances. Shares of the world's biggest steel maker fell more than 5 per cent last week in Amsterdam. The company is one of the big producers that has been hit by lower demand from the slowing global economy. It said its loss, including a $6.7 billion retreat in the fourth quarter last year was mainly down to falling steel prices that were depressed by a surge of Chinese exports, and to write-offs in the company's large mining business. In the fourth quarter of 2014, ArcelorMittal lost $955 million.
China's economic slowdown has upset many commodity producers, including steel makers. But they, instead of importing steel, have ramped up their own capacity, which now accounts for about half of the global production of raw steel. The only logical antidote to the Chinese economy slowdown and domestic producers' reluctance to cut production had been to unleash exports that undercut rivals globally. Lakshmi Mittal, the company's chairman and chief executive has called the results “rather sobering” and “disappointing”.
Mittal also forecast that his company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a widely cited financial metric, would be “in excess” of $4.5 billion in 2016, compared with $5.2 billion in 2015.
