Arcelormittal SA

Welcome to ArcelorMittal's second quarter and first half 2022 Analyst and Investor Call. This is Daniel Ferkler from the ArcelorMittal Investor Relations team. I'm joined on this call by our CEO, Aditya Mittal, and our CFO, Germina Cristina. Before I hand over to Aditya, I would like to mention a few housekeeping items. Firstly, I want to refer everyone to the disclaimers on slide two of the results presentation that we published on our website this morning. I'd also like to remind everybody that this call is being recorded and is scheduled to last up to 45 minutes. Finally, if you would like to join the queue to ask a question, then as usual, do press star one on your telephone keypad and we will answer the questions in the order they're received. With that, I would like to hand over to Aditya for some opening remarks.

Thank you, Daniel. Good afternoon and good morning, everyone, and welcome to today's call. As you have read we have reported very strong results for the first six months of the year. Eight billion dollar net income and earning per share of approximately eight and a half dollars. These numbers reflect the hard work and commitment of everyone at ArcelorMittal. Together we're taking big steps to strengthen grow and develop our business to position ArcelorMittal for its future as a leader in a decarbonized world. With this in mind, I'd like to update you on the acquisition of the Texas HBI plant we announced in April. The acquisition is now complete. The plant is achieving its rated capacity for the first time. EBITDA is run rating at $200 million, giving us confidence in a normalized projections of 130. The plant is very strategic for us for two reasons. First, it will provide a source of low carbon high quality metallics from a region that offers highly competitive energy and ultimately competitive hydrogen. Secondly, this plant will supply the EF capacity we're building at Calvert and is a key component of our 12 million ton low CO2, highest quality NAFTA sheet franchise. Our agreed acquisition of CSB in Brazil is similarly exciting. It's a world-class, well-invested, modern facility connected to a deep-water port. Plus, we have important synergies. CSP is also an asset with fantastic potential. Like Texas for the U.S., the state of Serra in northeastern Brazil is a focus for the development of renewable power and hydrogen in Brazil. It gets the most sun and it has plentiful wind, both on and offshore. Massive investment is being committed to this region. So looking forward, I see real potential for CSB to be a globally competitive, low CO2 steam making hub. Just like AMNS India, I expect we will look back on the acquisition of Texas HBI and CSB very positively. They represent major milestone in our strategic development. Together, these acquisitions add $500 million to normalize EBITDA. This is in addition to our organic pipeline of approved projects that are expected to add $1.2 billion to normalized EBITDA. Lastly, while we're growing the business, we're also returning capital to shareholders. So far this year, we have generated $3.2 billion of free cash. 70% has been returned to shareholders and 30% invested in M&A. We're increasing the M&A commitment today, but this is balanced by our announcement to repurchase a further 60 million shares. This is the maximum amount under our existing authority. Our intention is clear. We will continue to return capital to shareholders whilst growing and developing our business. With that, we're ready to take your questions.

Thanks, Aditya. So we do have a queue of questions already. If anybody does want to join the queue, please do press star one. But we will move to the first question, please, from Alain at Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead, Alain.