BRUSSELS (Reuters) – ArcelorMittal (ISPA.AS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s largest steelmaker, defied fears of a profit warning on Friday and kept its earnings forecast for this year, helped by deep cost cutting in Europe.

Shares in the firm, which makes 6-7 percent of global steel, jumped as much as 7.5 percent after it posted a smaller-than-expected fall in first-quarter core profit and said the cost savings and its mining activities would help earnings improve in the months ahead.

LUXEMBOURG, May 8 (Reuters) – The world’s largest steelmaker
ArcelorMittal suffered in the first quarter from “very
weak” demand in Europe and falling iron ore prices, its chief
executive said on Wednesday ahead of results due on Friday.

The company, which makes some 6-7 percent of the world’s
steel, has said it sees global steel consumption up 3 percent
this year, but European demand falling by between 0.5 and 1.5
percent after a 9 percent drop in 2012.

BRUSSELS, April 30 (Reuters) – Anheuser-Busch InBev
, the world’s largest brewer, cut its sales forecast for
Brazil, its second-biggest market, in part because rising food
prices are reducing the amount of money that consumers there
have to spend on beer.

Shares in the maker of Budweiser, Stella and Beck’s fell
around 3 percent on Tuesday after it missed first-quarter profit
forecasts and said Brazilian sales volumes were likely to be
flat or down by a low-single-digit percentage this year. It had
previously forecast low-to-mid single digit growth in Brazil.

BRUSSELS, April 24 (Reuters) – Heineken, the
world’s third largest brewer, said austerity-hit Europe and
inflation in Nigeria had lowered its expectations for growth
this year, after its beer sales fell in every region except Asia
in the first three months.

The Dutch brewer, which along with rivals is looking
increasingly to Asia for growth, said on Wednesday that sales
volumes and revenues would grow this year, but probably at rates
lower than in 2012.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Companies would race to profit from a free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Union and the United States, bringing a near instant boost to both economies, the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said.

“If they made a deal tomorrow, U.S. and European companies are sitting on a boatload of cash and they’d be moving this thing up as fast as they can move,” Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said after a EU-U.S. trade conference in Dublin.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – France said on Thursday it would block proposed negotiations on a free trade agreement between the European Union and the United States unless cultural sectors, such as television and radio, were excluded from the talks.

Trade ministers held an unprecedented informal meeting in Dublin on Thursday on the negotiations, which the Commission and most member states want to launch by the end of June. The talks are likely to last two years.

DUBLIN, April 18 (Reuters) – France said on Thursday it
would block proposed negotiations on a free trade agreement
between the European Union and the United States unless cultural
sectors, such as television and radio, were excluded from the
talks.

Trade ministers held an unprecedented informal meeting in
Dublin on Thursday on the negotiations, which the Commission and
most member states want to launch by the end of June. The talks
are likely to last two years.

DUBLIN, April 18 (Reuters) – A growing number of EU
countries do not want the European Commission to launch an
investigation into Chinese telecoms equipment makers Huawei
and ZTE, Sweden said on Thursday.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, has been
collecting evidence to prepare a possible case against the two
companies over alleged state subsidies that would allow them to
undercut European competitors.

BRUSSELS, March 30 (Reuters) – Belgium agreed to make 1.4
billion euros ($1.8 billion) of savings and to sell 1 billion
euros of state-owned assets on Saturday, as it strives to meet
EU budget targets and avoid being drawn into the euro zone’s
debt crisis.

With debt approaching 100 percent of national output (GDP),
Belgium has some of the weakest public finances in the euro
zone’s northern “core”, partially due to an almost two-year
political stalemate that was only resolved in late 2011.

BRUSSELS, March 27 (Reuters) – Belgian chocolate makers
believe their renowned pralines should have similar protection
to that enjoyed by French champagne or Italy’s Parma ham.

They want the term “Belgian chocolate” to be their exclusive
preserve and also want to crack down on foreign rivals dressing
up their products as “Belgian style” or of a “Belgian recipe”.