ArcelorMittal Europe steel shipments grew 4% on-year in the second quarter to 7.4 million tonnes, driven by a 7% jump in long steel deliveries, Kallanish notes.
On-quarter, flat steel sales fell, but longs deliveries surged 14%, ensuring 2% overall shipments growth.
Crude steel production surged 18% on-year to 8.04mt, also up 6% versus the previous quarter.
Average steel selling price dropped 11% on-year and 2% on-quarter to $929/tonne. Despite higher volumes, therefore, sales fell 10% on-year to $7.8 billion in Q2, although this was flat on-quarter.
Operating income more than halved on-year to $194 million. However, it rose on-quarter as lower costs more than offset lower average steel selling prices, while shipments grew. Ebitda, at $462m, followed a similar trend.
The firm said European steel prices were at below marginal cost in Q2, impacted by excess Chinese capacity resulting in “aggressive” exports from the country.
ArcelorMittal Europe’s first-half-of-2024 shipments inched down 1% on-year to 14.7mt, although crude steel output grew 8% to 15.6mt. Sales fell 12% to $15.7 billion and operating income dropped 65% to $263m.
Europe saw continued real demand deterioration, with weakness across most end-use markets. In January-May, light vehicle assembly was down 3.3% on-year, manufacturing output down 3.4% and machinery output down 6.9%, the steelmaker points out.
ArcelorMittal has lowered its apparent flat steel demand growth forecast for Europe in 2024 to 0-2%, down from the previous 2-4% forecast.
Adam Smith Poland
