ArcelorMittal SA is likely to follow the same trend in its year end results announcement next week as global steel makers, who have reported lower earnings for last year but an improving outlook for this year.

Mr Hennie Vermeulen, steel analyst at Kagiso Securities, said that he
expected ArcelorMittal SA would report a headline loss of 96 cents per
share for the year to December compared with earnings of ZAR 21.28 in
2008. This would suggest the company had made positive earnings of 115
cents per share in the fourth quarter to offset the loss of 211 cents
for the first nine months.

He suggested reasons for the huge fall in
earnings included an estimated 30% drop in the average steel price in
dollars realized by ArcelorMittal SA last year against 2008, while the
strength in the exchange rate was not positive to the bottom line.

SA’s
November steel production rose by 43% above November 2008, but for the
eleven months was down 16.1%. While steel exports had fallen in almost
every country in the first nine months of last year, the exceptions
were SA, where exports rose 29% and Argentina up 11%.

Source: Bdfm

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