Cementos Pacasmayo S.A.A.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Cementos Pagas Mayo Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode, and the floor will open for questions and comments after the presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Mrs. Claudia Bustamente, Investor Relations Manager. Claudia, over to you.

Thank you, Jenny. 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, trends, 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 file. With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Mr. Humberto Nalae.

Thank you, Claudia. Welcome, everyone, to today's conference call, and thank you once again for joining us today. This quarter's results show our ability to sustain profitability even in the light of a slowdown in demand. Even when there has been a slight acceleration in terms of volumes, consolidated EBITDA was 120.5 million, a 33.9% increase when compared to the same period of last year, achieving a margin of 24%. Moreover, our net profit increased 74% year-over-year, reaching 48 million. This is especially relevant considering the current context with the significant decrease in coal and energy prices and overall inflationary pressures throughout the global economy. We have been able to achieve this by focusing on operational efficiencies, prioritizing the use of our own clean core, and implementing an accurate pricing strategy across both bagged cement and concrete. We are certain that this approach and a sustained focus on efficiency will continue to reap benefits in this extremely difficult environment. The most significant action we have taken to decrease our exposure to these external factors is the optimization of our current capacity in our PacaSmile plant. As most of you know, at the end of last year, our board decided to invest to add 600,000 metric tons of annual clinker capacity in this plant, allowing us to stop almost completely the usage of imported clinker. Despite some bureaucratic delays, I am very happy to announce that we are very much on track to finish this optimization as planned in the second half of 2023. We are currently in the civil works phase, finishing the pre-heater, and will soon begin the assembly phase. As this is a brownfield project, and the KIN will be part of an already established sign-up for action, we expect the ramp-up process to be smooth and relatively fast. Besides the obvious benefits in terms of profitability, this new kiln will also lead to a reduction in overall CO2 emissions because of the new state-of-the-art technology involved, aligning this investment with our long-term goals of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. During this quarter, we'll launch an initiative that highlights our ability to adapt and align our client needs with our company's long-term goals. As you all know, Peru is a market that still sells mostly bagged cement. Throughout the years, we have constantly focused on reducing the clinical cement ratio by producing blended cements and making sure these are most widely used cements in our portfolio. As of this date, our blended cements make up over 80% of our total sales. In the same quest to continue promoting eco-friendly cement, we have developed and launched what we call the Eco-Saco. This is a new technology that allows the bag to disintegrate completely within a concrete mix, achieving zero waste. This product is completely aligned with our vision and our intentions as a company, as we are able to provide a lower impact on the environment and dispose of less waste. Moreover, it takes us one step further towards creating a culture that values and demands eco-friendly cement, which is crucial in order to achieve the significant reduction in emissions that we are extremely striving for. Finally, I'd like to proudly, extremely proudly mention the substantial positive evolution we have had as a company in the MERCO talent ranking. MERCO is a corporate monitor reference in Latin America based on a multi-stakeholder methodology composed of six evaluations and more than 20 information sources. In 2020, we were ranked on the 88th position. We have now climbed 66 positions to achieve the 22nd place in 2022. This is undoubtedly a sign that we are on the right track and encourages us to challenge ourselves to improve even more. As you have mentioned many times before, our people are the most valuable assets we have and the driving force behind our current and future success. I will now turn the call over to Manuel to go into more detail on financial analysis.