ArcelorMittal Q1 net loss narrows to $205 million

Company had clocked $345 million net loss in the January-March quarter of the last year

Helped by higher sales and less interest outgo, steel giant ArcelorMittal's net loss narrowed during the first quarter at $205 million as the company expressed 'cautious optimism' for the rest of the year.

The world's largest steel producer, headed by NRI Lakshmi N Mittal, had clocked $345 million net loss during the January-March quarter of last year.

"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 optimisation," Mittal, who is also company's Chairman and CEO, said in a statement.

Based on current economic outlook, the company expects global apparent steel consumption to increase by approximately 3-3.5 per cent in 2014.

Apparent steel consumption refers to the sum of net industry shipments within a given country or region, plus its imports and minus its exports.

"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," Mittal said.

The company upgraded its forecast for the European steel demand in 2014 to 2-3 per cent from 2 per cent earlier, buoyed by stronger-than-expected recovery in the region. The US has also shown positive signs of "stronger" growth in the second and third quarters of this year.

EBITDA of the company during the quarter went up to $1.75 billion against $1.56 billion during the period under review.

Total steel shipments grew by 2.4 per cent to 21 million tonnes (MT) during the quarter gainst 20.5 MT in the same period a year earlier.

Sales for the reporting quarter stood at $19.78 billion compared to $19.75 billion in the year-ago period.