Steel giant ArcelorMittal Thursday reported sharp losses year on falling prices, weaker demand and a depreciation of assets. The world's biggest steel maker said its net loss for 2019 was $2.5 billion (2.27 billion euros), against profits of $5.1 billion for the previous year.
Sales came in at $70.6 billion, down 7.1 percent, primarily due to lower average steel selling prices, which declined by 9.6 percent, the group said in a statement. That drop was offset only in part by steel shipments that edged 0.8 percent higher. "2019 was a very tough year, clearly reflected in our significantly reduced profitability," CEO Lakshmi Mittal was quoted as saying in a statement.
"However, our cash generation remained strong helping to reduce net debt to the lowest ever level." Looking to the future, he said that "although market conditions remain challenging, there are encouraging early signs of improvement particularly in our core markets of US, Europe and Brazil."
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