ArcelorMittal, the largest steel maker of the world, today reported $780 million net loss in the last quarter of 2010 against $1,109 million net profit in the year-ago period.
Net sales, however, rose to $20,699 million vis-a-vis $17,434 million in the October-December quarter of the last year, ArcelorMittal said in a statement here.
The net profit of the company for the whole year, 2010, rose to $2,196 million compared to $157 million in 2009. Net sales during the period went up to $78,025 million from $61,021 million a year ago.
Commenting on the results, ArcelorMittal Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lakshmi N Mittal said," Although 2010 continued to be a challenging year, as anticipated, we saw a slow and progressive recovery which enabled us to deliver a substantially improved performance compared with 2009".
"The gradual underlying demand recovery continues and we expect 2011 to be stronger than 2010," he added.