ArcelorMittal, the globe’s largest steel manufacturer, registered a sharp decline in its net profit for the first quarter, declaring earnings of $11 million as against $1.069 billion for the corresponding period of the last year.

But, the outcomes were an improvement over the fourth quarterly period of the last year (2011), when the company registered a loss of around $1 billion.

In a declaration, Mr. Lakshmi Mittal, ArcelorMittal’s chairman and CEO, stated that the demand in North American market continued to surge, driven partially by the automotive division and white and yellow good sections.

White goods are heavy consumer durables comprising ACs, fridges and stoves.

Yellow goods are materials for building and earth-moving tools.

Mr. Mittal added, though, that, “Europe remains the biggest challenge, and during the first quarter we announced the extended idling of a number of facilities in line with our strategy of meeting demand from our more competitive sites.”

Mr. Mittal stated that mining stayed a key region for development and said ArcelorMittal decided to augment production in 2012.

Mr. Mittal added that ArcelorMittal had made good improvement in divesting itself of noncore assets, and would take further actions along these lines in the remaining year as part of a plan to lessen net debt.