arcelormittal said thursday that its firstquarter sales and earnings declined but still exceeded analysts expectations as market conditions showed improvement the luxembourgbased steelmaker reported 11 billion in quarterly net profit compared with 412 billion in the first quarter of 2022 on sales that fell 15 to 1850 billion its quarterly earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization came to 182 billion the result compares with analysts expectations of 694 million in net profit and 164 billion in ebitda according to a companyprovided consensus analysts polled by factset had expected 174 billion in quarterly revenue total steel shipments declined 58 to 145 million metric tons while crude steel production fell to 145 million tons from 163 million tons a year prior the company said its quarterly sales were affected by average selling prices the were 13 lower and lower steel shipments but that it expects a further increase in profitability in the second quarter market conditions improved as anticipated in the first quarter with the end of customer destocking supporting apparent steel consumption growth and a rebound in steel spreads the company said