Arcelormittal SA

Good afternoon, everyone. This is Daniel Fairclough from the Arsenal Mittal Investor Relations team. Thank you for joining this call today to discuss our performance and progress in the second quarter and first half of 2026. Leading today's call will be our Group CFO, Mr. Giammino Cristino. Before we begin, I would like to mention a few housekeeping items. As usual, we will not be going through the results presentation, which was published this morning on our website. However, I do want to draw your attention to the disclaimers on slide 21 of that presentation. And following opening remarks from Giammino, we will be moving directly to the Q&A session. If you'd like to ask a question, please do press star 1 1 on your keypad to join the queue. And with that, I'll hand over the call to Giammino.

Thanks, Daniel. Welcome, everyone, and thanks for joining today's call. As usual, I will keep my remarks brief. Let me start with safety, which remains our highest priority. Acelormittal safety transformation continues to deliver measurable progress. The frequency rate of lost time injuries in the first six months of the year represented was a record low for our company. While we are encouraged by these improvements, we remain firmly focused on driving further progress. Turning now to the business, I would like to focus on three key points. First, we have seen positive near-term momentum across the business. The operating environment has improved through the first half of the year, driving improved results. And with positive momentum across all segments, there is more improved to come. The bid for the second quarter improved to $2.1 billion. This represents a margin of $155 per tonne, which is well above our previous through the cycle averages. Our European segment delivered a bit per tonne of $98, which is three years high and demonstrates the early signs of the improved policy backdrop. Importantly, these results do not yet reflect the benefits of the new TRQ trade tool. which are becoming increasingly evident. Customer engagement is higher, our order book is getting stronger, and prices are bucking the normal seasonal trends. Reflecting this positive dynamics, we have announced production restarts in Spain, Poland, and more recently, France. As we head into August, we have our full suite of blessed bonuses in operation. and as a result, we are guiding to third quarter shipments to be stable to higher than the second quarter, which would represent a powerful counter seasonal outcome. Underlying free cash flow in the first half was strong, annualizing at 2.5 billion, excluding seasonal working capital investments and strategic growth topics. This is a strong outcome at the stage of the cycle, and provides the foundation for continued investments and returns of capital to shareholders. This brings me to my second point, our differentiated portfolio of strategic growth projects and the opportunities that we are developing into growth options. The medium and long-term outlook for our business is supported by a number of powerful megatrends. The steel remains a critical enabler of electrification, renewable energy, and data center infrastructure. At the same time, growing investment in infrastructure and defense is supporting steel demand across many of our markets. India is expected to remain one of the fastest-growing major steel markets in the world, with demand expected to approximately double over the next decade. Asselormittal has the product Thank you very much. providing a clear pathway into structurally higher earnings and returns through the cycle. What differentiates Sa Selormittal is not only the quality of our growth opportunities, but also the breadth of future options available to us. We have unique exposure to India, where we have a long-term plan to grow capacity to 40 million tons per annum. In Brazil, We are evaluating downstream growth opportunities that leverage our low cost asset base and long slab position to create higher value products. In the US, we are advancing studies for potential second EIF at Calvert, building on the successful execution of the first EIF. In Liberia, our extensive resource base and established infrastructure provide further capital efficient growth optionality. As with our capital allocation decisions, growth investments must compete for capital and ensure that we are on course to deliver increasing returns on capital employed. My final point is that we have all the elements in place to continue creating shareholders' value. The steel industry continues to evolve. Markets are becoming increasingly regionalized. The earnings contribution from our strategic group projects The future growth options that we are developing and our exposure to powerful long-term demand trends are key drivers of higher earnings, returns on capital, and free cash flow over time. Achieving our cost of capital is not a goal, but a minimum expectation for our business. We are allocating capital to projects that can generate returns well in excess of our cost of capital. The value we create for shareholders is then amplified via our consistent capital return policy, progressively growing the base dividend as earnings power of the business grows and consistent share buybacks. As I conclude, the message is simple. I would like everyone to take away three key points from today's call. First, we are seeing positive momentum across the business. Our results are improving. Market conditions are strengthening and the benefits of the recent policy change support the outlook. Second, we have a differentiated portfolio of strategic growth opportunities together with future growth options that provides a clear pathway to structurally higher earnings and returns through the cycle. Third, we clearly have the right elements in place to create long-term shareholder values. We are focused on improving returns on capital, value-creating organic growth, maintaining a strong investment grade balance sheet, and delivering strong shareholder returns. With that, Daniel, I believe we can go to our Q&A.

Great. Thank you, Germina. So we have a queue of questions in front of us, and the first one we will take from Alain at Morgan Stanley.