ArcelorMittal S.A. (NYSE:MT) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Genuino Christino: Bastian, what we have been doing and that was also done last year. So the business — as we know, everybody is short in Europe, right? So companies have different hedging strategies, different hedging books, we have ours. And last year, what we did was, every quarter, depending on the shortage; we were just going out and buying the certificates for — to cover that shortage. And that’s exactly what we continue to do this year. So on a quarterly basis, we measure, we see, what is the shortage, we go and buy. So we are not touching on our hedging position. We have been, to some extent, lucky because, as you know, given the volatility with the energy markets, the new prices have come down. We took advantage of that. So I think we had — we are achieving this year a relatively good average price for CO2 to cover the shortage of the year. But that’s it.

Bastian Synagowitz: Okay. Thank you.

Daniel Fairclough: Thanks, Bastian. So we’ll move now to the next question from Max at Oddo. Go ahead, Max.

Maxime Kogge: Yes. Good afternoon. So, I think, the question was already partly answered, but some clarification is always helpful, I guess. So it seems that you are much more aggressive than your competitors in terms of curtailing capacity. Also, big players in Europe have not announced such plans to multiple furnaces. So, yes, isn’t there the risk that you, I mean, decline now much more significantly in the quarters ahead than competitors? And isn’t there a risk to that you’re late on any potential upturn in demand? And related to that, how much time would you need to bring back those idled furnaces back into operation if demand picked up. So that would be my question.

Genuino Christino: Max, I mean, as I was saying, the organization is, of course, focused on matching production to demand, focused on maintaining our market share, right? And then when you look at the production that for September for Europeans, you can see that on average, September was down by about 17%, and that’s what we are guiding also for quarter four in terms of production cuts. So I think the industry overall seems to be — again, I cannot speak for the competition. But looking at that, it suggests that the industry is doing the same. There can be different types of announcements. In our case, given the size of the operational footprint, we have the flexibility to bring down entire furnace, and then work on reducing the associated fixed costs.

And if you don’t have the flexibility, then you can run your tools at lower levels without necessarily bringing it completely down. So, I think that’s probably what is happening, looking to data that is available. So I think we’re going to be in a position to continue to service the market primarily and again, very much focusing on our market share.

Maxime Kogge: Okay. And just going back to your CapEx guidance, it has been significantly trend down from $4.2 billion to $3.5 billion. So excluding FX that is $0.5 cut. So I mean can you give a bit more specific on the delays you have identified in your presentation? And what’s the share of these delays in explaining the revised guidance? I mean the downward adjustment versus some, I mean, voluntary cuts that you’re undertaking due to the more difficult background?