PARIS (Standard&Poor's) Dec. 2, 2013--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings and outlook on Luxembourg-registered steel group ArcelorMittal (BB+/Negative/B) are unchanged by the company's announcement that it has entered into a 50/50 joint venture with Nippon Steel&Sumitomo Metal Corp. to acquire 100% of ThyssenKrupp Steel USA. According to the announcement, the joint venture would buy the steel plant in Calvert, Alabama, from ThyssenKrupp for $1.55 billion. If the transaction goes through, we expect the impact on ArcelorMittal's credit metrics to be only modestly negative, and it would depend further out on whether joint-venture debt will be recourse or non-recourse to ArcelorMittal and Nippon. At the same time, we believe that acquiring the plant
