Arcelor Mittal sound confident about earnings

Brussels, Feb 21: Arcelor Mittal, the world's largest steelmaker, forecast on Wednesday it could keep first-quarter core earnings steady at late 2006 levels despite patchy market conditions.

Reporting full-year figures for the first time since Mittal Steel's acquisition of Arcelor last year, the group posted a 2006 core profit of .3 billion, slightly below market expectations but in line with its own forecast.

''Looking forward, the market is stable and we are anticipating performance for the first quarter 2007 to be in line with fourth quarter 2006 levels,'' Chief Executive Lakshmi Mittal said.

Analysts polled by Reuters expected 2006 EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) on average at .4 billion. The steel giant previously told investors it saw core earnings coming in between .2 billion and 15.4 billion.

Arcelor Mittal said first-quarter core earnings would reach between .0 and .2 billion, in line with the last quarter of 2006, when it made .12 billion ''The numbers are exactly in line with my expectations. What I find very positive is the outlook for the first quarter,'' said analyst Jutta Rosenbaum at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.

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