World's largest steel company, ArcelorMittal has said on Friday that it has recorded a loss of $345 million during the first quarter of the year from January to March, 2013.

The company believes that the earnings fell from the $92 million profit recorded in the same period of the previous year as demand for steel remained at low levels due to the effects of the global economic slowdown. The company also said that its sales fell 13 per cent to $19.8 billion during the first quarter of the year compared to the January to March quarter of 2012.

The data also showed that the total shipments of steel fell 6 per cent to 20.9 million metric tons during the first quarter. However, the steel shipments rose 5 per cent compared to the fourth quarter of 2012. The sales too rose 2 per cent when compared to the previous quarter from October to December, 2012. The steelmaker, headed up by Lakshmi Mittal, is affected by lower steel demand in Europe and is looking to improve margins by cutting costs.

ArcelorMittal has said that it is aiming to generate about $3 billion or £2 billion in savings till the second half of 2015. ArcelorMittal has said that it would save $3 billion by focusing on improving the reliability, productivity and energy efficiency at its blast furnaces and mills and also by moving to low-cost US gas.