Cementos Pacasmayo S.A.A.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Cementos Pasques Mayo third quarter 2020 earnings conference call. After the presentation, there will be a question and answer session. If you should require assistance during the call, please press star zero and an operator will assist you. At this time, it's my pleasure to turn the floor over to Ms. Claudia Busamante, investor relations manager. Ma'am, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Tom. Good morning, everyone. Joining me on the call today is Mr. Humberto Nadal, our Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Manuel Ferreiros, our Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Nadal will begin our call with an overview of the quarter, focusing primarily on our strategic outlook for the short and medium term. Mr. Ferreiros will then follow with additional commentary on our financial results. We'll then turn the call over to your questions. Please note that this call will include certain forward-looking statements. These statements relate to expectations, beliefs, projections, strengths, and other matters that are not historical facts and are therefore subject to risks and uncertainties that might affect future events or results. Descriptions of these risks are set forth in the company's regulatory fight. With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Mr. Humberto Nadal.

Thank you, Claudia. Welcome, everyone, to today's conference call. We hope all of you and your families continue to stay safe during these difficult times. This quarter's cement shipments have accelerated strongly, leading us to reach historical record levels. The 14.2% year-over-year growth in cement sales volume is remarkable, and we hope it continues for the next month. This significant increase in sales also resulted in an unprecedented quarterly EBITDA level of $120.6 million, as increased sales were matched with sustained savings in selling and administrative expenses as part of our commitment to operational efficiency. As you probably know, the Peruvian government gradually began reopening its economy in the third quarter, reaching phases three out of four with more than 90% of the economy currently operating. Although GDP has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels, the fall has been decreasing month by month. We hope to continue seeing some recovery as the remainder of the economy reopens. Semen shipments have recovered well throughout the coming quarter, but the northern region has fared much better than the rest of the country, reaching pre-pandemic levels as soon as July and historical records during the quarter, as I already mentioned. We are aware, of course, that this growth level may be difficult to sustain in the future. But we do believe that even if demand for bad cement decreases in the upcoming months, the demand for ready-mix and precast materials should increase as the reconstruction-related projects accelerate its execution. Although these marked differences between regions cannot be denied, we do strongly believe that our actions and strategies have played a key role in our increased sales volume. We have been working steadily in the past years to focus on our clients' needs, to go beyond just selling products to providing solutions. These efforts have proven valuable during these challenging times. The self-construction segment has been the motto behind the volume growth this quarter. We have focused on several fronts to enhance the customer experience and to facilitate access to our solutions. We have thus developed Mundo Experto, which is an ecosystem made up of digital solutions that join supply and demand and offer a superior purchasing experience leverage on the intensive use of technology to generate more value for our users. The digital solutions are targeted and customized for the different users, such as foremen, hardware stores, and the self-builder. We are convinced that being at the forefront of digitalization for these customers will bring even greater opportunities for future development and growth. On the other front, we have Pacasmayo Profesional, a division that offers construction solutions for the more formal construction segment. Our strategy here is to offer a portfolio of comprehensive solutions and include technical assistance throughout the building processes in order to provide a superior user experience. Our portfolio of building solutions looks to maximize our value-added offer, distinguishing clearly ourselves from traditional cement sales and consequently strengthening our market position. We have developed targeted solutions for different types of customers, looking to expand our customer base beyond construction companies of any type to also include foremen and self-builders. We have developed both adapted ready-made solutions for structural needs and pre-roll-track solutions for non-structural purposes to better fit these customer needs. We believe that there is an important potential market for ready-mix concrete in this segment and are therefore working on adapting the value proposition to generate greater value for them. Finally, I would like to highlight that both our current achievements and the development of our future strategy would not be possible without our people. The health, safety and well-being of our workers will continue as our top priority. we have implemented a variety of systems to communicate, inform, and support the physical health of our people, resulting in a lower than average level of COVID-19 cases among our workers. We continue to operate our plan with as little workers as possible, and those that have to go follow strict guidelines for social distancing, hygiene, and regular take-ups by our health and safety team, as well as a strict protocol for accessing all of our facilities, not only for workers, but for contractors and visitors as well. All of our administrative staff continues to work from home and we plan to continue working this way until we are certain that the benefits of returning to the office outweigh the risks. We also want to emphasize that emotional health is extremely relevant these days and we are making sure that the work-home balance is adequate and more importantly that our people feel well supported by the company. We are convinced this is the only way the company will achieve growth and development as empathic leaders who generate the commitment and engagement needed to navigate these uncertain times. I will now turn the call over to Manuel for a more detailed analysis of financial results.