COMPANIES Lakshmi Mittal, chairman of ArcelorMittal, yesterday called the bottom of the steel market as he warned that underlying earnings at the world’s largest steel maker could slide by 80 per cent in the first quarter of 2009.
Mr Mittal said that the first quarter of 2009 would probably mark “the bottom of the market” for the steel industry. “After this I can envisage some kind of pick-up in shipments, as customers will find they need to re-order to build up stocks, which have now fallen to very low levels,” he said.
