Arcelor Mittal, a merger between Arcelor and Mittal Steel Company, has posted profits of $7.97bn for 2006.
The combined group, which should become a single legal organisation in July, said the results were down 3.5 per cent on Arcelor's and Mittal Steel's combined earnings in 2005.
Full-year turnover jumped 10 per cent to $88.57bn.
Arcelor Mittal, the world's largest steel producer, made a fourth-quarter profit of $2.37bn on sales of $23.2bn.
Lakshmi Mittal, the group's president and chief executive, said: "I am pleased to report a strong performance in 2006 for Arcelor Mittal.
"This strong set of pro-forma numbers clearly demonstrates the benefits of the merger between Arcelor and Mittal Steel."
Looking ahead, Arcelor Mittal said the market was "stable" and that it was anticipating performance for the first quarter of 2007 to be in-line with fourth quarter 2006 levels.
The firm also announced plans to return $2.4bn to shareholders through dividends and a share buyback.
Arcelor-Mittal's shares rose 0.6 per cent in early afternoon trading in Paris.
Last July, Mittal Steel announced that it had agreed to buy Arcelor for $33bn.
Mittal Steel beat off strong competition from Russian rival Severstal to secure the takeover.
Arcelor Mittal controls about 10 per cent of the world steel market and has a steel-making capacity of 120 million tonnes per year.
The combined firm, which is based in Luxembourg, has more than 330,000 employees in over 60 countries.
source:www.999today.com
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