By Joshua Kirby

ArcelorMittal said European measures to protect domestic steel production could boost its market share on the continent, as the company looks to arrest the decline in earnings booked last year.

The steelmaker said Thursday that it is confident of netting greater market share in Europe over the coming year due to European Union measures designed to protect an industry that has struggled in a sea of high global steel capacity, especially among Chinese competitors.

The measures will "enable European producers to recover to sustainable utilization levels, and generate healthy returns on capital," ArcelorMittal's Chief Executive Aditya Mittal said.

"We are very well positioned to benefit from this direction," Mittal said.

The European Commission in October proposed measures including a 50% tariff on steel imports above a certain quota, with tariff-free volumes to be cut by half.

The bloc has also put into place a carbon-border adjustment mechanism, known as CBAM, that aims to blunt the competitive edge given to external producers not subject to Europe's more stringent caps on carbon emissions. Some industry associations, including the main European auto lobby group, have warned, however, that those measures go too far, and risk piling extra tariff and administrative costs on EU exporters.

Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, Europe's largest steelmaker, made earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $6.54 billion in 2025, it said in a results update. That was slightly ahead of analysts' expectations, but marks a drop from the more than $7 billion in Ebitda it booked a year earlier, with fourth-quarter Ebitda slipping on year to $1.59 billion. Crude steel production dropped to 55.6 million metric tons from 57.9 million tons in 2024.

Analysts had expected ArcelorMittal to make Ebitda of $1.53 billion for the quarter and $6.47 billion for the year as a whole, according to a consensus of estimates compiled by the company.

But rising global demand and European safeguarding measures should ensure an increase in production across all regions in which ArcelorMittal operates in 2026, the company said, with its European operations benefiting above all.

"ArcelorMittal is expecting to benefit as domestic mills progressively regain market share from imports with the combined effect of CBAM and the new [tariff-quota] mechanism strengthening through the year," it said.

Other trends, including greater investment in Europe's defense sector, the boom in data centers and the energy transition, will also drive demand and production for the company, CEO Mittal said.

The positive outlook should underpin expectations for a rise in Ebitda this year to around $8.6 billion, analysts at Morgan Stanley wrote in a note after the update.

Write to Joshua Kirby at joshua.kirby@wsj.com; @joshualeokirby

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 05, 2026 02:41 ET (07:41 GMT)

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