ArcelorMittal S.A. (NYSE:MT) Q2 2024 Results Conference Call August 1, 2024 9:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Daniel Fairclough - Vice President, Investor Relations
Genuino Christino - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Alain Gabriel - Morgan Stanley
Tristan Gresser - BNP Exane
Patrick Mann - Bank of America
Cole Hathorn - Jefferies
Tom Zhang - Barclays
Ephrem Ravi - Citi
Dominic O'Kane - JPMorgan
Matt Greene - Goldman Sachs
Andrew Jones - UBS
Max Kogge - ODDO
Bastian Synagowitz - Deutsche Bank

Daniel Fairclough

Good afternoon, everyone. This is Daniel Fairclough from the ArcelorMittal’s Investor Relations Team. Thank you for joining this call to discuss ArcelorMittal's performance and progress over the First Half of 2024. Leading today's call will be our Group CFO, Mr. Genuino Christino.

Before we begin, I would like to mention a few housekeeping items. As usual, we will not be going through the results presentation, which we published this morning on our website. However, I do want to draw your attention to the disclaimers on Slide number 2 of that presentation. As normal, Genuino will make opening remarks before moving directly to the Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] Over to you Genuino.

Genuino Christino

Thanks, Daniel, and welcome everyone.

I will as usual, keep my remarks brief and focus on the theme of the strategic progress. Beginning first, with safety. Across ArcelorMittal, our people are galvanized to improve safety and achieve our goals of being a fatality free organization as quickly as we can. The third-party safety audit, which started at the end of December, is on shadow to be finalized this quarter. All the groundwork has been completed and dss+ are now developing their actions and recommendations. Combined with the considerable airports already underway, this will enable us to deliver the safe results we are striving for.

Moving to our financial performance. We have faced our challenges both macro and nickel during the first half of 2024. But our results have shown good resilience and continue to reflect the positive actions we have taken to optimize our business and high grade our asset portfolio. EBITDA/tonne of $140 in the first half of 2024 compares well with our long-term history.

Our operating results for the second quarter were broadly stable with the first quarter, despite the challenges faced in certain segments, this really highlights the benefits of our PSIFs exposure. Free cash flow during the quarter was slightly positive, but let me remind you that this is after investment in our strategic growth projects.