ArcelorMittal

History

ArcelorMittal was created by the takeover of Western European steel maker Arcelor (Spain, France, and Luxembourg) by Indian-owned multinational steel maker Mittal Steel in 2006, at a cost of €40.37 per share, approximately $33 billion total. Mittal Steel launched a hostile takeover bid which replaced a previous planned merger between Arcelor and Severstal, which had lacked sufficient shareholder approval. The resulting merged business was named ArcelorMittal and is headquartered in Luxembourg.

The resulting firm produced approximately 10% of the world's steel, and was by far the world's largest steel company. Total revenues in 2007 were $105 billion. In October 2008, the market capitalisation of ArcelorMittal was over $30 billion.

Plant closings and scale backs

In December 2008, ArcelorMittal announced several plant closings, including the Bethlehem Steel plant in Lackawanna, New York, and LTV Steel in Hennepin, Illinois. After purchase of Kryvorizhstal, Ukraine's largest steel producer, employment was scaled back from 57,000 employees to 30,000.

Price fixing convictions

The firm was part of a 17 steel member groups nicknamed "Club Zürich" that later became known as "Club Europe". For a period of 18 years, the companies fixed the market, prices, and exchanged confidential corporate information. According to Joaquín Almunia, a European Union Commission Vice-President, "It is amazing how such a significant number of companies abused nearly the entire European construction market for such a long time and for such a vital product. This was almost as if they were acting in a planned economy." Fines were particularly high for the firm owing to two prior convictions.

In August 2016 the South African Competition Commission found the company guilty of price fixing following an investigation first launched in 2008. ArcelorMittal was fined R1.5 billion (equivalent to US$110.9 million) to be paid over a 5-year period. As part of the settlement the firm also agreed to invest R4.64 billion in capital over five years.

Arbitration agreement for reneging on contract with Senegal

The firm entered into a $2.2 billion contract to develop an iron ore deposit in Senegal. This included construction of a 750 km (466 mi) railway line. After stalling on the contract and failing to build according to schedule the Government of Senegal sued. In June 2014, the International Chamber of Commerce's arbitration court in Paris awarded Senegal $150 million.

Other history

On 26 January 2011, the Stainless steel division split off as a new company, Aperam.

In 2012 the company had $22 billion of debt. As of 2012, due to overcapacity and reduced demand in Europe it had idled 9 of 25 blast furnaces; in October 2012 it permanently shut down two blast furnaces at Florange, France.

On October 31, 2012, the company reported a third-quarter loss of $709 million as compared to a $659 million profit for the same period a year ago, citing the slow down in China's economy.

In January 2013, ArcelorMittal bid $1.5 billion to acquire ThyssenKrupp AG's rolling mill in Calvert, Alabama, United States. The joint venture with Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation was finalized in February 2014.

In September 2013, the government of Senegal won a court case before an international tribunal to rescind a $2.2 billion deal with ArcelorMittal after the company suspended work on an iron ore mine in the country.

In May, 2014, ArcelorMittal, citing economic self-interest, declared its opposition to sanctions on Russia.

Company structure and subsidiaries

Lakshmi Mittal (owner of Mittal Steel) is the chairman and CEO. His family owns 40% of the shares and voting shares in the company. After a $3 billion rights issue earlier in April 2016, the company by the 21 April 2016 had a share value of 16,616 million euros, distributed in 3,065,710,869 shares.

Board of Directors

Comprised as follows as of February 2017:
Lakshmi Mittal, CEO and Founder of ArcelorMittal (Chairman of the Board)
Lewis B. Kaden, former Vice-chairman of Citigroup
Narayanan Vaghul, former Chairman of ICICI Bank
Bruno Lafont, Co-chairman and former CEO of LafargeHolcim
Wilbur Ross, investor and United States Secretary of Commerce
Vanisha Mittal, former director of Mittal Steel Company Hamburg, daughter of Lakshmi Mittal
Tye Burt, former CEO and President of Kinross Gold
Jeannot Krecké, Member of Parliament for Luxembourg and former Minister for the Economy and Foreign Trade of Luxembourg
Suzanne Nimocks, former Director for Energy at McKinsey & Company
Karel De Gucht, former European Commissioner for Trade and Belgian Foreign Minister
Michel Wurth, former CFO of ARBED
Karyn Ovelmen, CFO of Flowserve

Headquarters

The head office of ArcelorMittal is in Luxembourg City. The building was the head office of Arbed before that company merged with Aceralia and Usinor.

Employees

As of 31 December 2013, the company employed over 232,000 people, of which 37% were in the EU, with a further 16% in non-EU European countries, 17% in Asia, 16% in North America, the remainder split between South America and the Middle East and Africa. ArcelorMittal is also Luxembourg's largest private employer. At the beginning of 2014, it employed 4,600 employees in the Grand Duchy.

Major plant locations

Joint ventures (with Nippon Steel)