ArcelorMittal publishes 2017 annual review – ‘Shaping the future of steel’

ArcelorMittal (‘the Company’), the world’s leading steel and mining company, today publishes its 2017 integrated online annual review, ‘Shaping the future of steel’. The review marks the completion of the Company’s journey to fully integrated reporting, combining operational and financial performance reporting with progress made against its sustainable development (SD) framework, ArcelorMittal’s 10 SD Outcomes.
 
The review, which can be accessed online at http://annualreview2017.arcelormittal.comincludes videos of several members of ArcelorMittal’s senior management team, including Chairman and CEO, Lakshmi Mittal, and President, Group CFO and ArcelorMittal Europe CEO, Aditya Mittal. Topics covered include:

• 2017 financial performance; progress made in the second year of the Company’s five-year strategic plan, Action 2020; how the Company further strengthened its balance sheet, and its new capital allocation framework; 
• A review of the drivers behind 2017 global steel market dynamics, and the Company’s view on market outlook for the current year;
  The three core sustainable development goals that the Company has outlined:

1. accelerating steel’s role in a low-carbon circular economy, including how ArcelorMittal is addressing its carbon challenge
2. working with customers on product innovation for sustainable development 
3. building trusted supply chains that meet its customers’ needs, by assuring the steel they buy - and the raw material used to produce it – meets credible sustainability standards;

• How the Company is embracing digitalisation and Industry 4.0 to gain a competitive advantage;
• The actions ArcelorMittal is taking to adapt to long-term mega-trends and disruptions and identify opportunities for its business.

Commenting, Lakshmi Mittal, said:

“Last year was a positive year for the global steel industry, and for ArcelorMittal. Global steel demand in 2017 saw the strongest growth since 2013, and with structural supply side reform, this drove higher utilisation rates and improved steel prices and spreads.
 
“The better market conditions and the progress we delivered against our Action 2020 plan helped us to deliver a strong financial performance. Our Ebitda was $8.4 billion. And our net income of $4.6 billion was the highest level since the financial crisis. We also reduced net debt to $10.1 billion – the lowest level in ArcelorMittal’s history. 
 
“Our Action 2020 strategic plan was designed to create a positive competitive gap between ArcelorMittal and our competitors. We are two years into the five-year plan and we are already halfway to hitting our additional $3 billion Ebitda target. We have a lot to be pleased about with our financial performance in 2017. 
 
“Given the strong progress we have made in strengthening our balance sheet in recent years, we have been able to look at other ways to grow our business. A good example of this in 2017 was our agreement with the Italian government to acquire Ilva, Europe’s largest steel production facility. It is an exciting acquisition that will bring a lot of value to our European business. I am confident that the significant investment plans we have outlined, alongside the value we bring through our steelmaking knowledge and experience, will support substantial improvement in Ilva’s performance.
 
“We also need to ensure we are well positioned for long-term success. As the world continues to develop, it will need more steel. And there is no better material than steel to align with the concept of the circular economy.
 
“To ensure long-term sustainable success we must also continue to innovate to meet customer demands and respond to social and environmental trends. Customers are placing an increasing focus on ensuring the steel we produce helps them to meet their environmental and sustainability goals. The work our world-class research and development teams do is critical in meeting their product needs. And the leading role we are playing in the development of industry-wide supply chain assurance schemes has an important role to play in helping us develop a further competitive advantage.  
 
“I am optimistic about the future. Global steel market conditions remain healthy and financially, ArcelorMittal has never been stronger. We have some exciting opportunities to strengthen and grow our business, and I am confident we are well positioned to build on the progress we made in 2017.”
 
Key highlights of ArcelorMittal’s sustainable development progress in 2017 include:

• Considerable progress in lost-time injuries. Overall the rate for the group declined to 0.78 incidents per million hours worked, from 0.81 in 2016.  Several sites demonstrated outstanding safety performance, including Fire Lake (Canada), Princeton (USA), and Serra Azul (Brazil). At the same time, the Company is committed to achieving its goal of zero accidents and zero fatalities. 
• Continued to take a leading role in the development of ResponsibleSteel™, a multi-stakeholder initiative to create a common, trusted, social and environmental certification standard for steel, and the raw materials used to produce it, working to forge links with other assurance schemes, such as Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM). The Company has committed to rolling out TSM standards across its marketable mines over the next four years.
• Recognition of the importance of making substantial reductions in carbon emissions, and the potential to do so. The Company has undertaken the economic and technical analysis to support this workstream and is optimistic about the potential for breakthrough technology to substantially cut the carbon emissions in steelmaking, providing that the necessary conditions are in place
• Responding to the Task Force on Climate-related Disclosures, with expanded disclosures in this year’s integrated report.
• Mapping the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals for the Company’s 10 SD outcomes, and which goals the Company contributes to.
• Continued value creation for stakeholders, demonstrated in the Company’s value creation model, which shows the interdependency of the resources and investments needed to create steel, financial and other forms of stakeholder value. Examples include: 

1. US$68 billion in direct economic contributions to employees, suppliers and other stakeholders, including US$9 billion paid in salaries, over US$50 billion paid to the Company’s supply chain and US$5 billion paid in a variety of taxes 
2. 42 new products launched, aimed at creating sustainable development value
3. 5.8% reduction in CO2 per tonne of steel produced by the group, from a 2007 baseline
4. 46 million tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided due to recycling of scrap and slag
5. 52% less dust, 18% less NOx and 32% less SO2 emitted per tonne of steel since the Company first reported in 2007.

• Transparency over stakeholder concerns relating to the environment, and an outline of a number of related environmental investment programmes. 

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About ArcelorMittal 

ArcelorMittal is the world’s leading steel and mining company, with a presence in 60 countries and an industrial footprint in 18 countries. Guided by a philosophy to produce safe, sustainable steel, we are the leading supplier of quality steel in the major global steel markets including automotive, construction, household appliances and packaging, with world-class research and development and outstanding distribution networks.

Through our core values of sustainability, quality and leadership, we operate responsibly with respect to the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees, contractors and the communities in which we operate.

For us, steel is the fabric of life, as it is at the heart of the modern world from railways to cars and washing machines. We are actively researching and producing steel-based technologies and solutions that make many of the products and components people use in their everyday lives more energy efficient.

We are one of the world’s five largest producers of iron ore and metallurgical coal. With a geographically diversified portfolio of iron ore and coal assets, we are strategically positioned to serve our network of steel plants and the external global market. While our steel operations are important customers, our supply to the external market is increasing as we grow.

In 2017, ArcelorMittal had revenues of $68.7 billion and crude steel production of 93.1 million metric tonnes, while own iron ore production reached 57.4 million metric tonnes.

ArcelorMittal is listed on the stock exchanges of New York (MT), Amsterdam (MT), Paris (MT), Luxembourg (MT) and on the Spanish stock exchanges of Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid and Valencia (MTS).

For more information about ArcelorMittal please visit: http://corporate.arcelormittal.com/