Source: AFP
Global steel giant ArcelorMittal has posted a 10-fold drop in net profits in 2023, hit by its withdrawal from Kazakhstan following a deadly mining accident and faltering operations in Italy.
ArcelorMittal said its profit reached $919 million last year, down from $9.3 billion in 2022.
Sales fell 14.5% to $68 billion.
The group slipped into the red in the last three months of 2023 when it was forced to sell its Kazakhstan subsidiary to the government following a coal mine disaster that killed 46 people in October.
It was the worst accident in the Central Asian country’s modern history.
ArcelorMittal said its withdrawal from Kazakhstan cost the company $2.4 billion.
“Performance in 2023 was severely impacted by the tragic accident at the Kostenko mine,” the company said in its earnings statement.
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ArcelorMittal commissioned an independent safety audit of its company-wide operations following the mine disaster.
The aim of the exercise is to “identify gaps and strengthen safety actions, procedures and culture to prevent serious accidents,” it said.
Key recommendations will be published in September, he added.
“Protecting the health and well-being of employees remains the company’s top priority,” the statement said.
ArcelorMittal chief executive Aditya Mittal said he was “determined” to ensure the recommendations “will make us a safer and ultimately accident-free company”.
The Luxembourg-based group also took a $1.4 billion hit in Italy, where the government has moved to place a struggling steelmaker under state supervision.
ArcelorMittal has offered to sell its majority stake or become a minority shareholder in the debt-laden factory, Acciaierie d’Italia, in the southern city of Taranto.
Italian Business Minister Adolfo Urso said Thursday that the state is ready to take over the plant, but negotiations with ArcelorMittal are continuing.
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The ongoing talks “could lead to a solution, which in any case must guarantee the resumption of activity, employment and the ecological re-transformation of a steel industry that we consider strategic,” Urso said.
Source: AFP