ArcelorMittal Posts Wider Q1 loss

reported a wider loss for the first quarter. The company posted a quarterly net loss of $728 million, or $0.41 per basic share, versus a year-ago loss of $205 million, or $0.12 per basic share. Its revenue slipped 13 percent to $17.12 billion. Sales in the NAFTA segment declined 3.2 percent to $4.78 billion, while sales in Brazil slipped 10.2 percent to $2.12 billion. Sales in Europe dropped 16.7 percent to $8.60 billion, while ACIS segment sales shrank 14.4 percent to $1.72 billion. EBITDA declined to $1.38 billion in the quarter, versus $1.75 billion last year. However, EBITDA in Europe climbed 15 percent. Its steel shipments rose 3 percent to 21.6 million metric tonnes, compared to 21.0 million metric tonnes, in the year-earlier period. Crude steel production climbed to 23.7 million metric tonnes, versus 23.0 million metric tonnes. For the full-year 2015, ArcelorMittal now projects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $6 billion to $7 billion. The company had earlier projected EBITDA of $6.5 billion to $7 billion. ArcelorMittal also cut its capital expenditure budget to around $3.0 billion, versus prior target of around $3.4 billion. "We faced a number of headwinds in the first quarter, including a declining iron-ore price, a stronger dollar and surge of imports in the United States," Chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal said. ArcelorMittal shares fell 5.64 percent to $10.20 in pre-market trading.