- Pogacar emulates icon Coppi with fourth straight Il Lombardia triumph
- UN warns against 'catastrophic' regional conflict
- New Zealand crush Ineos Britannia in America's Cup opener
- Djokovic to face Sinner in blockbuster Shanghai Masters final
- With medical report Harris seeks to play health card against Trump
- Sri Lanka seeks to match success in W.Indies T20s
- Sinner reaches Shanghai final, will end year number one
- China-EU EV tariff talks in Brussels end with 'major differences': Beijing
- Sabalenka downs Gauff in three sets to reach Wuhan final
- Israel warns south Lebanon residents to 'not return'
- Sinner tames Machac to reach Shanghai Masters final
- Buried Nazi past haunts Athens on liberation anniversary
- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- Hezbollah fires at Israel as wars rage on Yom Kippur
- Analysts warn more detail needed on new China economic measures
- China tees up fresh spending to boost ailing economy
- China says will issue special bonds to boost ailing economy
- China offers $325 bn in fiscal stimulus for ailing economy
- Dodgers drop Padres 2-0 to advance in MLB playoffs
- Alexei Navalny wrote he knew he would die in prison in new memoir
- Last-minute legal ruling allows betting on US election
- Despite hurricanes, Floridians refuse to leave 'paradise'
- Israel observes Yom Kippur amid firestorm over Lebanon strikes
- Trump demonizes migrants in dark, misleading speech
- X says 'alert' to manipulation efforts after pro-Russia bots report
- US, European markets rise before Boeing unveils sweeping job cuts
- Small Quebec company dominates one part of NHL hockey: jerseys
- Comoros shock Tunisia, Salah, Mbeumo strike in AFCON qualifiers
- Boeing to cut 10% of workforce as it sees big Q3 loss
- Germany win in Nations League as 10-man Dutch rescue point
- Undav brace sends Germany to victory against Bosnia
- Israel says fired at 'threat' near UN position in Lebanon
- Want to film in Paris? No sexism allowed
- Ecuador's last mountain iceman dies at 80
- Milton leaves at least 16 dead, millions without power in Florida
- Senegal set to announce breakaway development agenda: PM
- UN says 2 peacekeepers wounded in south Lebanon explosions
- Injury-hit Australia thrash 'embarrassing' Pakistan at Women's T20 World Cup
- Internal TikTok documents show prioritization of traffic over well-being
- Israel says fired at 'immediate threat' near UN position in Lebanon
- New US coach Pochettino hails Pulisic but worries over workload
- Brazil orders closure of 2,000 betting sites
- UK govt urged to raise pro-democracy tycoon's case with China
- Sculptor Lalanne's animal creations sell for $59 mn
- From Tesla to Trump: Behind Musk's giant leap into politics
- US, European markets rise as investors weigh rates, earnings
- In Colombia, children trade plastic waste for school supplies
- Supercharged hurricanes trigger 'perfect storm' for disinformation
- JPMorgan Chase profits top estimates, bank sees 'resilient' US economy
ArcelorMittal profit falls after Kazakhstan mine disaster
Global steel giant ArcelorMittal Thursday posted a tenfold drop in net profit in 2023, taking hits from a withdrawal from Kazakhstan following a fatal mining accident and from its faltering Italian operations.
ArcelorMittal said its profit reached $919 million last year, down sharply from $9.3 billion in 2022.
Sales fell 14.5 percent to $68 billion.
The group slipped into the red in the last three months of 2023, when it was forced to sell its subsidiary in Kazakhstan to the government after a coal mine disaster 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 Kostenko mine accident," the company said in its earnings statement.
ArcelorMittal has commissioned an independent, company-wide safety audit of its operations in the wake of the mining disaster.
The aim of the exercise is "to identify gaps and strengthen safety actions, processes and culture to help prevent serious accidents", it said.
Key recommendations will be published in September, it added.
"Protecting employee health and wellbeing remains an overarching priority of the company," the statement said.
ArcelorMittal chief executive Aditya Mittal said he was "determined" to ensure that 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 steelworks under state supervision.
ArcelorMittal has offered to sell its majority stake or become a minority shareholder of the debt-laden plant, Acciaierie d'Italia, in the southern city of Taranto.
Italian Business Minister Adolfo Urso said Thursday that the state was ready to take over the plant but negotiations with ArcelorMittal were continuing.
The talks underway "could lead to a solution, which in any case must guarantee the relaunch of activity, employment and the ecological re-conversion of a steel plant that we consider to be strategic," Urso said.
P.Santos--AMWN