Steelmaker AM/NS India's Ebitda up 161% on higher shipments, lower costs

Shipments were 11.6% higher at 1.9 million tonnes compared to 1.7 mt in the previous quarter

ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS India) on Thursday reported a 161 per cent year-on-year (YoY) increase in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) at $533 million in the July-September quarter on the back of higher steel shipments and lower costs. Ebitda was $204 million in the year-ago period.

Sequentially, Ebitda was 5.3 per cent lower compared to $563 million in the previous quarter due to lower average steel-selling prices.

Steel shipments were 11.6 per cent higher at 1.9 million tonnes (mt) compared to 1.7 mt in the previous quarter and 14.7 per cent higher compared to 1.6 mt a year ago.

 

Crude steel production increased 8.4 per cent to 1.9 mt compared to 1.8 mt in the previous quarter and 16.8 per cent compared to 1.7 mt in the year-ago period (impacted by planned maintenance).

The numbers were published as part of ArcelorMittal's results for three- and nine-month periods ending September 30, 2023. The global steel company follows a January-December financial year. ArcelorMittal has a 60 per cent equity interest in AM/NS India.

ArcelorMittal said AMNS India’s Hazira plant expansion to 15 mt capacity by 2026 was "progressing well".

ArcelorMittal’s renewable energy project (975MW nominal capacity) in India was "on track for completion in 1H 2024". Once completed, the project is expected to provide over 20 per cent of AMNS India’s Hazira plant electricity requirements.

ArcelorMittal, the world’s second largest steelmaker, reported an Ebitda of $1.87 billion in the July-September quarter, down by 30 per cent YoY. Sales were down 12.44 per cent at $16.62 billion. The performance reflected weak steel demand and selling prices.

The company forecasted global ex-China apparent steel consumption to grow 1 per cent to 2 per cent in 2023 compared to 2022. It expected Europe to be at the bottom of its previous forecast range (-0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent) due to weak demand for long products given weaker construction activity. India is expected to be above the top end of the previous forecast range (6 per cent to 8 per cent).

Kazakhstan

About coal mine disaster that claimed 46 lives in Kazakhstan in October, Aditya Mittal, chief executive officer of ArcelorMittal, said that the only course of action was to ensure “that we take a hard look inside our group, identify the gaps that exist and strengthen our safety actions, processes and culture to ensure that we prevent all serious accidents.”

“For this reason, we are commissioning a comprehensive independent third party safety audit, the key recommendations of which will be published in due course. We are committed to learning from this tragedy and taking the appropriate action so that we emerge a better, safer company,” said Mittal in a statement.