Arcelormittal SA

Good afternoon and good morning, everybody. Welcome to ArcelorMittal's third quarter analyst and investor call. This is Daniel Feigler from the ArcelorMittal investor relations team. I'm joined on this call today by our CFO, Giannino Cristino. Before I hand over to Giannino, I would like to mention a few housekeeping items. Firstly, I want to refer everybody to the disclaimers that are on slide two of the results presentation that we published on our website this morning. I'd also like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded and it's scheduled to last up to 45 minutes. Finally, if you would like to ask a question, then please do press star one on your telephone keypad and we will answer the questions in the order in which they're received. With that, I would like to hand over the call to Jen Wiener for some opening remarks.

Thank you, Daniel, and thank you and good afternoon, everybody. I will make some very brief remarks before we move to your questions. I have basically three main points to make. Firstly, on the current market situation. So real demand headwinds are being exacerbated by the stocking through the value chain. The stocking impact on apparent demand is very significant, but we know from experience that it won't last. This gives us confidence that the apparent demand conditions will improve once the distorting phase reaches a maturity. My second point is on our response. We are responding effectively by adapting our capacity for quarter four and reducing six costs on the impacted tons. At current spot levels, variable costs, and by that I mean raw materials and energy, on a per ton basis are expected to decline in Q4. The improvements we have made in recent periods are being tested by this difficult market environment, but results should demonstrate that our business is stronger and more resilient. My final point is on the outlook. Significant cash has been allocated to working capital investment in recent quarters. This is now at peak, we believe, and the expected working capital unwind should support free cash flow in a lower EBITDA environment. Our balance sheet strength and expectation of consistently positive free cash flow underpin the continued execution of our strategy to grow and develop the business, to be a safe leader in low-carbon steel, and capture the growth opportunities in faster growing markets. With that brief opening, we are now ready, Daniel, to take the questions.

Great. Thank you, Ginovino. We will take, therefore, the first question, please, from Elaine at Morgan Stanley.