ArcelorMittal Restructures Americas Division Into Four Areas

By Alex MacDonald

LONDON--Steel company ArcelorMittal (MT) announced Wednesday a new organizational structure for its Americas division following the retirement of a senior executive as it seeks to extract more profitability amid anemic steel prices.

The Luxembourg-based steelmaker, the world's largest by shipments, said Lou Schorsch, head of ArcelorMittal Americas, will retire at the end of February following 13 years with the company.

This spurred the company to split the Americas unit into four divisions as it seeks structural improvements in its business that would allow it to boost earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization or Ebtida by $1 billion in 2016.

North America will be split into two divisions: the USA division and the NAFTA flat division. The former will be run by Jim Baske while the latter will be run by John Brett, currently the executive vice president finance, planning and procurement for ArcelorMittal USA. The Nafta unit includes the company's operations in Mexico, Canada and ArcelorMittal's stake in the Calvert, Alabama U.S. flat-rolled steel plant but doesn't include any other U.S. operations.

In South America, Jefferson de Paula and Benjamin Baptista will continue as CEO of South America Long and CEO of South America Flat, respectively.

All four will report directly to the group Chief Executive Lakshmi Mittal.

"We believe this is the optimum structure to ensure each division fully delivers on their business plans and puts in place the necessary actions to respond to current market challenges and capture market opportunities," said Mr. Mittal.

In addition, BC Agarwal, 64, group head of finance, will retire at the end of February to be replaced by Genuino Christino, who will report to ArcelorMittal's group Chief Financial Officer Aditya Mittal.

Write to Alex MacDonald at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 16, 2015 11:40 ET (16:40 GMT)

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