Companhia Siderurgica Nacional S.A.

Good morning, and thank you for holding. At this time, we would like to welcome everyone to CSN's earnings conference for the second quarter of 2025. Today, we have with us the company's executive officers. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded, and all participants will be in listen-only mode during the company's presentation. And through this, we will go on to the question-and-answer session. We have simultaneous webcasts that may be accessed at ri.tsn.com.br where the presentation is also available. The replay of the event will be available after closing. Before proceeding, we would like to state that some of the forward-looking statements made herein are mere expectations or trends based on current assumptions and opinions of the company's management. Future results, performance, and events may differ materially from those expressed herein, which do not constitute projections. In fact, actual results, performance, or events may differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements due to several factors such as general and economic conditions in Brazil and other countries, interest rates and exchange rate levels, or prepayment of debt pegged in foreign currencies, protectionist measures in the US, Brazil and other countries, changes in laws and regulations, and general competitive factors at a national and international level. We will now turn the conference over to Mr. Marco Revello, who will begin the company presentation. You may proceed, Mr. Revello. Good morning, everybody. It is very satisfying to present the results of CSN for the second quarter, 2024. We begin on page two where we show you the highlights for the quarter, showing our strong resiliency. The company had an epic growth in all segments except for mining, impacted exclusively by a drop in the iron ore prices. This performance shows the excellent management of costs and expenses and diversification of investments with synergy and a very assertive commercial strategy. We have had significant increases in competition with imported material. And, of course, we have the reflection of the tariffs increased by the United States. CSN reached an EBITDA of 2.6 million BRLs with a margin of 23.5%, an expansion of 5%, and 1.4 percentage points vis-à-vis the first quarter, 25%. Additionally, we're moving ahead in our deleveraging with a very active management of cash and reducing the growth debt. Only this quarter, the company reduced growth debt by 5.7 billion BRLs, even with the incorporation of new assets like Toda. taking leverage below seven points vis-à-vis last year, making CSN ever closer to its goals for the year. We go for the highlights of mining. The company had volumes that were the second highest sales in history. which shows not only that even in the dry period, we had enormous operational excellence throughout the last few months in the mine and throughout the logistic chain. Now, this increase in production and the diversification of fixed costs had an impact on cash, reaching less than $21 per ton this quarter, putting CSN in a very important position vis-à-vis world mining companies. Despite the improvement in volume, EBITDA of mining drop because of a correction of iron ore prices during the quarter. We go on to steel and we're very proud to show you the performance for this quarter. Perhaps this was one of the most difficult periods in terms of competition in the last few years. with a flood of imported material coming into Brazil. Despite this, we had a very conservative position, prioritizing volume over volume. We want to offer a higher return for the operation, This was a very assertive strategy. Contrary to the local producers that went into that war of prices and volumes, we were able to present a very strong performance, 4.5% higher prices vis-à-vis the second quarter, 24, and a stronger cost control during the period allowed us to have a Cost control results in a 79% increase year-on-year for EBITDA, and we reached 10.8% margin for the quarter. If we look at cement, we can observe that the favorable seasonality in the period points to the incredible resiliency with growing volumes in new launches with a quarterly growth of 8% in our sales volume. If we follow this dynamic, we also had a favorable reaction in prices, with an expansion of 10% net revenue vis-à-vis the first quarter, 25%, Now, this situation offset the cost pressure in raw material, allowing us a 2.3 percentage point increase in profitability with an EBITDA margin for cement of 24% for the period. Finally, and not less important, At the bottom of the slide, we have two great achievements for business and logistics, a new EBITDA record because of two factors, a very strong performance in the real modal And, of course, we have incorporated the TORON numbers, a recent acquisition. Now, the EBITDA reached 519 million BRLs in the first quarter with an EBITDA margin of 41.1%. In terms of energy, the results were extraordinary because of the increase of prices in the period, with an EBITDA five-fold higher than in the same period, 2024. Now, let's go on to the next slide where we show you our EBITDA margins and EBITDA for the second quarter. There's a quarterly increase of 5% for the period and a drop of EBITDA in mining offset with a sound growth in all of the other segments of the group. Once again, it's important to have a diversified operation, granting us greater resiliency and withstanding the pressures in some markets. As a result, the adjusted margin reached 23.5% for the second quarter, an increase of 1.4 percentage points for the quarter. On the next slide, we show you our investment activities for the period. You can see a growth of 18.2% in CAPEX vis-à-vis the previous quarter because of the seasonality of the period and the advance of the P15 infrastructure for the mining sector. Compared to the same period in 2024, CAPEX remains stable. with advances in mining offsetting the lower investment in the steel industry. This shows you a higher concentration since 2025 in expansion and productivity offset with the reductions that we have in some areas. Let's go on to slide number five, where we show you our networking capital. There has been an increase of 25% in the quarter. These are the same quarter last year, and we're trying to offset accounts receivable drop. On the following slide, we show you the adjusted cash flow that was negative by 1.4%. million BRLs, 1.73 million reais previously. Despite the growth during the period, this shows an increase in the volume of investments to accelerate expansion projects and the negative impact of financial expenses, especially the impact of the glass furnaces. the higher consumption of working capital also had a pressure on the cash flow for the period. In the next slide, we show you the net debt and leverage for the company and the debt during the quarter. In the graph to the left, the message is the new reduction of leverage that we have during the period, going from 3.33 times in the first quarter to 3.24 times this quarter. The company has been able to ally in efficient cash management with sound results maximizing volume with a cost control and, of course, an increase in efficiency. This is a continuous effort of the management during this year, reducing its growth debt. Only in this quarter, we had the reduction of 2.1%. 1 billion Reais for the quarter. For the year, it is 5.7 billion Reais less. Now, the company will comply with its guidance projected for the end of the year. And of course, this despite the moment of uncertainty and the lack of forecastability, but we continue on reducing our debt. We're working with recycling capital in the group as an alternative to liquidity and for our cash. The main project presently is that of CSN infrastructure, which is in its concluding stages. It will lead our negotiations until we have a more formal response at the end of the year. Consider the debt of CAAA, our debt will drop to 3.2 times and this will represent a reduction of 29 base points for the period. We now go on to slide number eight with our indebtedness profile. You can see that we're still in a rather comfortable position with our short and medium term obligations. we have sufficient money to comply with our commitments for the next three years. We also have a very active management in terms of lengthening the debt, extending the amortization term. focusing on long-term operations and the local capital market. We have begun bilateral contracts, primarily concentrating on amortization flows between 2027 and 2030. With this, we can go on to slide number 10, where we show you the highlights of the steel segment. In this first slide, you see the results of our commercial activity with a reduction of 11.5% in the sales, or 10% when compared to the... first quarter of 25. this is because of the strategy adopted during the period of prioritizing results and margins over volume the market has intense competition and literally a flooding of imported material we did not enter the price war we have lost a bit of market share but we see that the market is being highly pressured And in a consistent way, there is no adequate protection to guarantee a good protection. In the foreign market, it was somewhat lower due to seasonality and the impact of tariff disputes on foreign trade and on seed dumpings. measures throughout the world. When we look at the following slide, steel production, we see that the drop in production is due to the maintenance and shutdown of glass furnace 2. It begins to show the positive results for the cost of slab and performance per ton. To the right, we can see that the cost of production dropped during the quarter, while the reforms per ton create a performance which is almost double than what we saw in the last quarter. This efficiency can only be shown after we improved the operations of our steel product. Now, let's go on to the financial performance of the steel mill. And we see a different anatomy in our results because of the strategy. We have revenues dropping because of the lower volume sold. but offset with an improvement of prices during the period. We have a sound recovery of EBITDA, 79% higher than the same period in 2024, and with an EBITDA margin of two digits reaching 10.0%. This increase in profitability is because of the strategy followed by the company, avoiding the prices and focusing on products with a higher profitability. All of this is even more impressive when we consider what is happening in the market, the flooding of imported material and the measures implemented by other countries, especially the United States. In this context, CSN has been able to deliver stronger epitaphs in 2025, and steel is an important vector of growth for this year. We now go on to the mining segment on slide 14. You see the results of production and sales for the last quarter. There are two extraordinary results here. A record of production, the highest volume produced in the history of the company, and but we also have the operational efficiency that the company has been able to achieve in the last few months, in the mine and in the chain of logistics. This is the second highest volume of sales in our history, with 11.8 million tons sold, reflecting the operations that are excellent and the level of efficiency reaching very close to its capacity limits. regarding the financial performance on slide 15. Even with the operational efficiency that we saw in the previous slide, we are charging $10 less than what we had in the previous quarter. Well, the price of iron ore has dropped during the quarter. In the case of EBITDA, the situation was not different. With a strong volume of sales, the EBITDA in mining had a drop of 36% vis-a-vis the first quarter of 2025. This related to a drop in the price of iron ore, because of the demand in China and the strong impact of the tariff disputes in the United States. In the following slide, we have the EBITDA reconciliation with the previous quarter. We can see that the decline in EBITDA occurred despite the increase in volume, improvement in mix, and cost reduction due to a drop in prices. Let's go on to analyze cement on slide 18. We have the sales volume for the quarter. Once again, we see a very dynamic segment despite the interest rate with the program My House, My Life, and because of the robust volume of launches keeping up the consumption of cement. We have been able to make the most of our logistics network to capture new markets. We had a growth of 8% in the sales. That is proof of this trend. When we compare this with the same period of last year, there's a minor drop of 4% on a very strong comparison base. On the following slide, we have the financial performance of the second month. This year, we have a quarterly increase in net revenue in EBITDA. This result was thrust because of the positive seasonality in the period. We had drier weather, and we also had a sound launch activity, EBITDA an increase of 21%. showing that although the circumstances surrounding us are very difficult, especially because of the interest rates, the sector continues to show strong new launch activity and a robust profitability. Finally, we will go on to our logistics segment, and the main highlight is the incorporation of Thora. We have done this to strengthen our logistics sector and to enhance the synergy with the other businesses of the group. Nowadays, Soda has 75 branch offices, seven enterprises, five multimodal terminals, and three owned and third-party vehicles and a driveport. The company invoiced 319 million reais with an EBITDA of 86 million BRLs and a very interesting margin of 27%. We go on to slide 22. With the financial performance of all of our logistic assets, during the quarter we had an extraordinary performance with a record in results. attaining higher levels of efficiency in the cargo handling and shipment. We had an evolution in net revenue, and we attained 519 million BRLs for EBITDA and an EBITDA margin of 44.1%. Well, the drop-in EBITDA is due exclusively to the acquisition of TORA. This modal, rail modal, of course, has one that is somewhat lower than railroad in general. Now, with this, I would like to end the presentation for this segment, and I give the floor to Elena Guerra to speak about ESG highlights. Good morning, everybody. Well, the results of the last quarter continue to show the strides in our ESV journey. In terms of occupational health and safety, we have consistency. They are 30% lower than the results we had a few years ago in 2020. We are now in another level. We continue to present a lower number of high potential severity events, which has been the focus of our actions in 2025. In the environmental agenda, we have very positive indicators. We have a reduction in water intensity and steel production. And in our decarbonization journey, we had a slight increase in the emissions from the steel plant because of the increase in volume, but we reached a reduction of 11% in GHG emissions. compared to the baseline year 2020, and 3% of THC emissions compared to the baseline year 2020. Now, we want a cost-efficient decarbonization with investments and projects that will increase our operational efficiency and, of course, reduce our CO2 emissions. All of our tailings dams are stable and de-characterization in line with the project we have set forth. In the social and DEI agenda, we have made steps. We have more than 520 women that have been added when compared to 2024. This is an increase of almost 80% of female representation since we began this goal in 2020. We also have a 5% increase in the number of women in leadership. We have received the Hugo Wernick Award for Environmental and Sustainability, and we're working with Garoto Cidadan Project that for 25 years has been changing the lives of youngsters. And finally, we have a protocol reinforcing the quality and transparency of our information, the permanence of the company in Fitzy for Good, We're also part of Pussy Russell because we have consistent practices and a constant evolution when it comes to social and governance indicators. Thank you. Elena, I will now give the floor to our chairman, Benjamin Steinbrook. Good morning, everybody. Once again, the presentation of results of CNSEN. I would like to mention some points specifically that were conveyed and presented by Marcos.

First of all,

I would like to underscore the operational results that we have been able to achieve in all of our activities. The improvement of industrial performance, a reduction of costs, and an enhancement in productivity. This, of course, is our number one priority at present. We had already presented good results in mining as well as in cement. from the viewpoint of cost and productivity. And we have had significant evolution in steel, in the steel mill, as we have been mentioning through time. And we now see the results of this. We're working with less equipment. We're attempting to increase production. and of course to improve our costs. This is our main priority at present and we are undergoing evolution in terms of the steel mill and the results have begun to appear from the viewpoint of all of our other activities. We have had very good performance and, of course, we have had challenges because of the imported products. In the case of the steel mill, everything is coming in in a highly disorganized and exaggerated fashion. We are the only country that has allowed this literal flood of imported products, and this has a negative impact on the market, of course, as well. We're offering them our domestic demand, domestic demand for imported products. And this has completely disorganized the sector. The import levels are much higher than the CSN production per se and brings about a hostile environment, a disorganized and aggressive environment. which hampers, overly hampers everything that is produced in Brazil. Now, that issue of imported products, something we have been fighting against, we have been negotiating to the government with, and although our conversations are heard by the Ministry of Industry and Development, we have not made any strides. We have been involved in this conversation for quite some time without any concrete measure being taken. We're waiting for the manifestation of the Brazilian government. All other countries have set forth protectionist measures. Now, without mentioning the U.S. to export there, we would have a tariff increase of 50%, which makes any attempt or idea to export there unfeasible for the moment. I hope that at some point in time these measures will come because this sector is suffering much too much because of imported products. Cement has had a good performance, good growth and good demand. We have significant internal competitiveness among the producers of Brazil.

The market is there.

Our price is half of the foreign price for local cement producers, but this has been going on for some time and will undergo adjustment. In the case of mining, we had exceptional performance. We had a drop in the plots, of course, We are competitive. We have a low cost. And we do believe that this market will end up at $100, $110 as part of a technical outlook for the price of plants. But I do think better results will come. As for the rest, we have a very stringent strategy when it comes to our cash. We're adopting all possible measures to be able to work with a lower working capital. and we have obtained results in this field. Our deleveraging commitment is ongoing. We're going to work very strongly to comply with our commitments, and we do expect an improvement in the market as everything has been set up, it's operational, the strategy is the right one, and... We hope that with a price improvement in the market, at some point in time, there will be a reaction, and we will see this in our numbers. The company as a whole is deploying enormous efforts to produce well at a lower cost, and to make the most of the strategy and the market potential. We're working in all segments. We're working in niches and diversification of products. We're doing everything within our reach to get to the market with very good offers, with good products, with high quality. And within what is in our hands, we're doing everything. Now, progressively, we have had an improvement quarter on quarter, and we continue to believe that the coming quarter will be even better than the second quarter of this year. I would like to thank all of you once again for your attendance in the earnings call, and our team is at your entire disposal for questions and answers. Thank you.

Well, thank you.

We will now go on to the question and answer session for investors and market analysts. Should you have a question, please click on the raised hand icon or send your question in writing through the Q&A icon. The first question is from Mr. Yuri Pereira from Santander Bank. Your microphone has been activated. Thank you very much. If possible, I would like to have more details on your eventual partner in infrastructure. How much could you reduce your leverage because of this? And your sale of steak in Uzinindas, will you reduce your stake to zero? or will you comply with the Cade, the antitrust company of 5%? Yuri, thank you very much. Thank you for the question. Regarding the first question about infrastructure, I am sorry, I was looking at the second question. We have two different compositions. We have seven logistics assets in logistics and infrastructure, two of which are in the final stage of construction, the Transnordestina, and I take advantage to tell you that they are hiring the last two stretches of construction. They will be completely concluded in 2027. In 70 days, these pieces of construction will be concluded. The entire part is available to conclude construction. There are no problems with licensing, no bottlenecks. so until 2027 they will begin commercial production and in 2025 they will begin working with commissioning so we have seven assets two under construction and the discussion with the potential partner will depend on the profile they want for their assets two under construction, three in the southeast, three in the northeast, and one with an expansion in a somewhat larger region that we have just communicated. Depending on the logistic combination, those that have greater adherence or a greater appetite with the investments, both primary and secondary, and the company could vary. We have a stake of 20% to 40% that could be sold in this operation. Now, if we don't take into account the assets that are under construction or if we don't consider the northeast cluster, we could reach 8 billion BRLs in terms of liquidity injection and reduction of leverage in the group in this first phase with the assets of only the Southeast. Regarding the second question of Uzi Minas, so far we have not defined the next step when it comes to selling off our stake of how much will be sold and in which fashion this stake will be sold. Marco, simply to complement this, Regarding the infrastructure, as Marcos mentioned, we have two packages, two under construction, five assets under operation that are quite equivalent. As Marcos said, they represent 8 billion BRLs. This is what we have calculated theoretically based on a value of 25 billion. These five assets represent this amount. We also have similar amounts when it comes to the Transnordestina and NELOC at the Pezen port. We have 1,000 kilometers that have been concluded. They're open for traffic. And you can calculate per kilometer 20 million very broadly, of course. And coincidentally, these packages are more or less equivalent. What we are discussing now is to see if we will offer simultaneous treatment to both of these, or if we're going to prioritize the Southeast first and then the Northeast. Everything will depend on our conversations with interested parties. And for this, we are considering the choice of who will be our advisors. We're in the final stages of this, and we will begin our negotiations immediately. This is simply to complement the... to your question of what we have in our infrastructure package for CSN. Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Ricardo Monegalla from Safra. Your microphone has been unmuted. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking my questions. We have two at our end. Well, in terms of competition, I would like to understand if that recent decision of dumping in pipe has allowed for new dumping coded products and hot rolled products. Now, I was expecting weaker results in terms of margin, so it would be interesting to hear about the trend for following borders, perhaps a margin expansion. Martinez, perhaps you could speak about volumes, prices, and costs. Thank you very much. Ricardo, I will begin with the first question. In truth, as Benjamin mentioned, presently Brazil is facing an issue of imports, something that is quite chaotic and that is leading to a market that is completely different from the one we had in previous years. We have insistently discussed this with the market, face-to-face meetings with the Ministry of Development and Industry. What we clearly perceive is that if the technical issue would prevail, we would have already had to have applied all of the processes for a commercial defense. what we opted to do was to work on the anti-dumping, as you mentioned yourself. Ricardo, in all of them, we saw dumping a causal nexus, and this has, of course, changed the nomenclature that is being used at the World Trade Association. Simply to give you an idea, a metal sheet, we began the process in October of 2023. So far, there is no provisional right enforced. Quite the contrary. They have postponed the decision month after month. And this is also the truth for cold rolling, for coated products, and much more. We expect the government to become more serious, to be faster, and to base itself on a technical response. There are margins varying from 25% to 75%. from the commercial viewpoint, the technical viewpoint. It doesn't make sense for Brazil not to apply these anti-dumping rules. We continue to insist the process is much slower than we had expected, but there is time to recover all this and obtain an enforcement or implementation of rules. Another important point referring to commercial defense, The issue of quotas, one more time, the company worked with the first thing, but with the wrong intensity, so we are still on that track. with the wrong dose. Now, there was 75% from USA. We're working on 7.3%. If we had applied 73%, we would have an import penetration that is not typical to do within the domestic market. We're now speaking of 28% of penetration of imported products as a whole. Now, when we think about CSN, the situation is more dire. We're speaking of penetration of 40% to 50% of tin plate products. and pre-painted government 70% import penetration. So this is the scenario we are facing at present. The issue of anti-dumping, we continue to imagine that the government will approve a process for this in the coming two months. anti-dumping and template, coated galvanized and coated products. Now we're also working with the, basically with a priority on these other products. Now regarding the margins, we have sound results in the steel mill. What we have prioritized, and this was mentioned, here is value over volume. We have worked with product diversification with a focus on the higher added value products. We have prioritized all of the galvanized, pre-painted products in our product mix. And in terms of cost, of course, we had a positive evolution, allowing CSN to have margins of around 11% for EBITDA margin, despite the highly challenging scenario regarding import and competitiveness. with other competitors in the domestic market. What is positive about Brazil, and I'm very optimistic with Brazil when it comes to demand, is that this year we will probably reach a steel production for flat steel slab higher than in 2018, 2019. That was our record year for flat steel. Sorry, I'm referring to the year 2013. We should reach 16 million tons approximately. So there is demand in Brazil. The problem is that it is very difficult to capture margins. And the question of what we foresee for the third quarter, as Benjamin mentioned, we're going to continue to work on operational excellence calls. We're looking at each value chain separately. The imports will have to be combated in a timely fashion. We can't cut down prices and everything. And additionally to that, with a reduction in the cost of raw material, the cost of slab should have less than the 1,300 that were presented. And in price, I see a situation of stability. If what is happening in China truly happened, the cost of BQ increased 5% with an improvement of production Because of the premium that we have presently between 5% and 10%, perhaps we could also have a price recovery in the third quarter. We have to be careful not to hand over the Brazilian market to foreigners. This is the concern of Brazil. Brazil has demand. It has markets upstream, the white home products that we have. a very good market, but we need to recover our profitability, recover margins, and not hand over our market to foreigners. And this is what we have been doing in terms of slabs. That was very clear. Thank you, Martinez. Our next question. comes from Marcelo Arazi from BTG Pacto. Your microphone has been unmuted. Good morning. Two questions at our end. First, a follow-up in terms of the steel. You spoke about positive evolution in cost efficiency gains. Could you give us some details on the measures you are adopting to manage that enhancement and how this will evolve going forward. The second question, a provocation, speaking about cash generation, your cash flow is under pressure. Do you have any visibility or idea on the CAPEX flexibility we could observe until the end of the year? And if you will have another sale of assets without it being part of the infrastructure, something more in the short term to gain relief in your cash flow. Thank you for the question, Marcelo, regarding the steel mill. We have shut down the blast furnace on January 19th of this year. Now, this made feasible one of the first actions to work with Coke and others in the blast furnace three. We have changed our... load using a ritual iron ore for the Blast Furnace 3. We also had significant evolution based on investments that were made last year for the production of our own sintering and all of these enhancements on Blast Furnace 3 are leading to excellent performance in efficiency and also from the viewpoint of cost. We saw a cost evolution in our own brand in the last quarter, and the second quarter of this year will be the first quarter where we have the blast furnace 3 fully using these new loads. that we referred to and with this we will have a change in the iron ore so the projection that we have of a reduction of cost in slab for the third and fourth quarters of this year are even more important than what we have seen so far without giving you the figures, though we have a very good expectation in the reduction of cost of our own slab going forward. Now, this about the performance of the steel mill as a whole. We have several other projects that will be implemented leading the steel mill to profitability levels of other areas well above the two digits, much more than we reached in the second quarter of 2025. Now, regarding CAPEX flexibility, the CAPEX for this year is between 0 and 6 billion BRLs. The focus of the company is in the low range of the CAPEX, closer to the 5 billion BRLs. Now, to change that CAPEX significantly will not be beneficial for the company. Most of it is geared to expansion projects and an increase in productivity. These projects were done in the steel mill and for some quarters. They're showing us the benefits of these projects. We have to put them in place. And the P15, once it will be ready in 2027, this will generate another 4.4 billion reais in EBITDA. So this is a project we have to speed up. We cannot hold it back. Now, with these 5 billion reais, it has undergone a very important exercise, a daily exercise in the company in terms of monetizing our assets. Besides infrastructure, we're holding a discussion with the market. We're speaking about energy, bringing in a partner for that segment. It's not of the magnitude of infrastructure, but it will also help us. And we have additional initiatives in a phase of approval, and I hope that in the next earnings call or before, we will be able to mention them but we are working on other initiatives we're waiting for internal approvals to inform the market regarding this that was very clear thank you very much simply to add to this and the first question you asked if there would be faster options more expeditious options that we can propose in terms of deleveraging. All of the options mentioned by Marcos, all alternatives for deleveraging, they're all for the short term, including that of infrastructure. We're hiring our advisors at present and our idea is to move forward at a fast pace, of course. Everything will depend on the market opportunities, but the interest in infrastructure, it's quite different from all of the rest. There is a demand for investment in infrastructure projects in Brazil, especially in railroads and ports. And alongside this, we are also holding some conversations This simply to point to the fact that all of this will be for the short term. We have structured ourselves to work very expeditiously in this option as well as in other options mentioned by Marcos to attain the fastest results towards deleveraging. Thank you. Thank you very much. The next question is from Marcio Farigi from Goldman Sachs. Your microphone has been activated. Hello, everybody. Thank you for taking my question. A follow-up for steel. Martinez, you spoke at length about the market. If you could speak about long steel. There was a price recently. and I believe that the increase was aggressive. Without speaking of imports, the long-scale and which have been your conversations with the government, Benjamin mentioned that at the beginning of the conversation that despite all of the efforts, All of the measures adopted have been insufficient. So thinking about the future with this discussion of tariffs and the coming closer of the government with China, Which is your mindset to think of a more protective measure for this sector? My second point, and do forgive me for insisting on this, you spoke about the sale of a stake to Uzi Minas. Benjamin, I would like to understand if there will be a more aggressive movement towards the sale of assets. The surprise was not only because of the timing, but because of the price at which these shares were sold to the market. There wasn't much choice. simply to understand if there has been a change of mindset to do something more aggressive in the coming quarters and years to clean out your balance. That is it.

Thank you very much.

Hello, Marcio, this is Martinez. In Longsteel, Longsteel was better than a slab lack of coordination of the Brazilian segment. Everything that was done so far has brought about an inch more of a new market or growth in the Brazilian market. So everything was unnecessary. To give you an idea, our sale of long steel in the second quarter fell 12% because the prices reached a level with a base price for long steel cash payment without taxes at $300,000, $300,000, $400,000. This is an extremely low cost, and we have preferred to remain outside of this market and work in other markets. In the long steel market, we're going to increase the price on the first, an increase between 8% and 10% in October. rebar and others, and this is insufficient, of course, to recover our margins in long steel. but this is what's happening in the sector we follow up on what the market is doing as long as it is reasonable and it was not reasonable in the first quarter and we expect a recovery in long steel in the second quarter and a recovery in profitability and because of the need to increase the EBITDA margin of the steel mill as a whole, in the specific case of the conversations we are holding with the government I participated in all of these conversations. What can I underscore? We have a Ministry of Development, Industry and Services that is highly technical. They carry out excellent work in the technical part. They come out with pieces of commercial defense. And as I mentioned previously, all of these without exception, without speaking about damages and causal nexus, what's lacking? Courage on the part of the government to clearly enforce, without thinking about anything connected to politics, the isonomy of competition. What could be done immediately, nothing. that is very different from the regulations of the World Trade Organization is a provisional cost for all products, tin plate and other galvanized products, something that should be enforced immediately because through time we see that China decides Well, it's also facing a commercial defense in other countries of Asia. It exports to Vietnam, to Korea, the European Union, and to Brazil, 1.2 million in flat steel. So what we're lacking is courage and that will to take the industry to another level in Brazil. What is more important, Marcia, is that we do have demand in Brazil. We have sectors that are making do regardless of what is happening in terms of politics with the USA and China and what we truly need. is a quick implementation of measures. We don't want to hand over our market to foreigners, which is what we're doing now, a non-hedge market being handed to players, and the largest of these players, of course, is China. Now, this is the scenario we will be facing in the coming months. Perhaps in the third quarter, we will have the enforcement of one or two provisional anti-dumping rules. Thank you. Thank you very much. To complement what Marcos has said, despite all of the conversations held with the government, warning them about the growing volume of imported products in the steel sector. And despite the positive conversations we have had with the Ministry of Development and Industry and with Vice President Alkemin, we have always been treated very courteously with high-level technical discussions. But as we have mentioned, In one of those meetings, what we are lacking is the will of the president of the country. This goes beyond the government. We need to have a clear manifestation of the president, his concern about the industry, what we're doing in the industry, what we're doing for employment in the industry. We're literally being run over by the volume of imported products. in a highly chaotic fashion. And we need the action of the president to decrease this imminent risk that we are running of losing employment and the industry itself in general, not only the steel industry, but the industry as a whole, because of the strong attacks we are under. And some of the exporters have no cost. They try to make exports feasible. They're not concerned with cost or price. I believe that we need a presidential action signaling how the industry will be treated going forward, what they're going to do with the employment of industry, and what they're going to do with investments, because we find ourselves in a highly critical moment from the viewpoint of our assets, our sale of assets. We're always going to proceed in an organized and structured fashion. The goal, of course, is the deleveraging, and it's not worthwhile having great figures. We have good epitaphs, we have a margin, even though we have lost. significant margin in the last few years. The margin continues to be reasonably good between 25 and 30%, but we do have that commitment towards ourselves to de-leverage, and we have several assets to work with. It's not only infrastructure as a whole. That's, of course, our largest package in the southeast and the northeast, as I mentioned previously. And Marcos gave you the idea of a billion for each package. I am convinced that we have that will, we have the determination and the need to carry out these sales of assets Notwithstanding this, we have to wait for the right moment with the right partner. We're working strongly on this. This is our highest priority, along with a reduction of cost and enhancement of productivity. Now, the issue of deleveraging is our great priority, and we will work with it in an intelligent and rational way. and in the shortest period possible. Thank you very much, Benjamin. That was excellent. Our next question comes from Daniel Sasson from Itaú BBA. Your microphone has been activated. Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. My first question comes from that slowing down of capex and oh sorry the increase of pace and investment because of e15 in mining what is happening with the mind the milestones that you presented on csn days and your expectations in terms of expansion If you could also speak, and I'm referring to Martinez about the cement business. Martinez, vis-a-vis our numbers, I think it has become very clear that you have diversified your business. You have diversified the flexibility. Well, we are speaking of cement and logistics. The cement market in Brazil has recovered from the lows a decade ago, but we're still falling short in terms of the use of capacity, and the prices continue to be the lowest in Latin America. If you could discuss with us the main levers to add value to this business. Thank you for doing that. This is Marco to speak quickly about P15. Now, what is still missing is the infrastructure that is proceeding at a very fast pace. We just closed a huge package of civil work that will begin subsequently. Everything referring the packages of equipment, and May equipment of B15 have already been contracted, some of which are already at the site or at other sites awaiting for their setup. What we're missing are small assembly works, accessory works that will have to be mobilized the second semester of the coming year and therefore will be contracted in the future. Now, the forecast for delivery is the fourth quarter of 2027. Hello, Daniel. Thank you for your question regarding cement. You're one of the few that cover this sector, and we love to speak about this. New sector, I have Edivaldo beside me. He's responsible for the operational part. I will respond for him because he's somewhat hoarse today and in the market. I spoke about steel where we have the priority value over volume. In cement, it's volume and volume based on our platform that is highly competitive because of our operational excellence, logistics, the commercial strategy, the distribution centers, and much more. We have reached our maximum potential in the business. We grew 8% in the second quarter vis-à-vis the first quarter. It could have been a better growth. but we had some operational problems in the northeast. They have been fully retressed in price. A recovery of 2.5% for the second quarter. What you said is important. Brazil has an enormous opportunity to increase prices. To recover prices, it does not make sense. in a market like Brazil to work with price levels that are lower than those of Latin American markets and China as well. Our efforts in cement will be ever more geared to look for each ton with a higher value using our market coverage, the increase in number of customers, and based on the commercial strategy that so far has been quite successful in terms of operational excellence, we see that raw material for steel have a tendency to go through a drop. In the second half of the year, we hope to be able to see a drop in costs as well, especially for raw material, for pet coke. At the end of the third quarter and fourth quarter, we imagine we will have materials and an inventory with a somewhat higher cost. Now, additionally to this, we are maximizing the production of all of our assets of our 13 operations. We continue to increase the fragmentation by setting up new distribution points, distribution centers, reaching an ever more lower ticket. This is our strategy to look for this. profitability of 25%. And the Brazilian market is doing well presently. For example, let's talk about the Minha Casa, Minha Vida, My Home, My Life sector. It's doing very well. We have... Construction for the higher bracket, the middle class, doing very well. And there is some work in infrastructure in the southeast that are leveraging our volume. So once again, CSN has fantastic assets in cement. We imagine that we will reach a total potential with the synergy that we have Lafarge in the coming six months in terms of operations and logistics as well. And Soda Transportation that we acquired recently will be an important leveler to work on freight transfer and with the end markets for cement. as a whole to speak about Brazil. What we foresee for the second half of the year is the continuity of this growth in the cement market. And for the coming year, we're working with a very positive scenario imagining the carryover of works we have in the real estate market as well as in infrastructure. The main challenge, as you mentioned, is to recover margins. CSN has done its part, but faced with very strong competition in the market, we're going to continue fighting, but working with the best margin in the sector, which is our goal. Thank you, Daniel. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Caio Ribeiro from Bank of America. Your microphone has been activated. Good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. My first question is on the... evolution with China, which is the mindset of the company on the policy that will have an impact on Brazil and iron ore. Now, the second question for mining, there are lower grades of iron ore. How has this impacted your commercial decisions? How are you selling the product in the market? Some players are reducing the sale of this lower-grade iron ore. So how have you adjusted to this present-day market moment? That would be very helpful to us. Thank you. Caio, I'm not sure I understood your first question, if you could repeat it. The question is about the policy that China is mentioning about resolving the oversupply problems and in some sectors and of course the steel sector is one of the goals so which is your mindset on the impact on brazilian steel industry and the iron ore markets i'm going to speak very generally of what is happening in china at present an important point kayo is that we already clearly perceived that the price has had a result. We see the BQ cost increased 5% the last week. Now, another interesting piece of information, something that did not happen, the Assessa, the Chinese Association of Steel, has been working on the coordination of those industries, of all the steel plants in China. Nowadays, in terms of occupations, we have a use of blast furnaces of 087, 89, but only 55 to 60% of these plants have a positive margin. Now, obviously, in China, the greatest use is employability, and, well, when the problem hits, they try to occupy production further. We're working with a scenario of reduction in production in China in the next three to four months, and this could have a positive impact for Brazil when it comes to the premium. In Brazil, the premium vis-à-vis a Chinese PQ is between 5% and 10%. And if there are $20 or $30 more, which is the price of the Chinese domestic market, the price of BQ in China is $500. Now... We can imagine neutrality in premium in Brazil or a price recovery in the country. All of these reductions in production are being better coordinated by the Chinese Association of Steel Producers. This is an important piece of information. Now, despite this, the exports from China continue at a pace of 90 million per year. The government has also acted on the environmental issues. They're incentivating modern plants to use cleaner technologies at present, and they could increase the use of the assets that have higher productivity, closing down capacity that has a higher cost. Now, the impact for Brazil, in my opinion, speaking honestly, Caio, will be very positive, and that is why I'm positive. This is what we were missing for the steel plants in Brazil. We have a market, we have demand, as Benjamin mentioned, perhaps The presidential decision will be to work with protection or isonomy. That would be important for Brazil. And finally, in this world scenario, China could help us in terms of profitability in the Brazilian market, exporting at different levels. For iron ore, I will give the question to Marco. But in my iron ore, you have already observed that we're working at somewhat higher levels. This is an opportunity for the Brazilian market, as we will be able to capture, based on the price of PQ, a higher profitability for the third quarter. regarding the question on iron ore. Now, the price of China is strong. The volumes have also hit several records. We have focused ever more on the low-grade iron ore produced in China. They're working with higher volumes of low-grade iron ore. Because of quality issues, last quarter it was at $14, presently it is at $15, and should remain at that level until the coming into operation of P15. This will change the quality of iron ore, and we will have a completely different impact due to loss of quality, of course. Our next question comes from Tatiane Cangini from JP Morgan. You can ask your question. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking my questions. I simply have some follow-ups on previous questions. I begin with a sale of steak at Uzi Minas. the sale of assets, the idea of carrying out partnerships in the segment. I think all of this has been made very clear. I'd like to understand more about your sale of stake. This is a moment in which the industry has suffered considerably. We see the industry, we see the shares dropping, I would like to understand if the rationale of that sale of stake was based on a decision of the antitrust agency, the CADI. Which was the rationale? The second question, something that has already been discussed, refers to the steel segment. It was the positive highlight of the quarter. We have seen industries with lower margins, but you delivered a very sound margin. The question is that over volume, Now, how do you look upon your strategy for the long term? Can you continue following this rationale for much longer? Can you maintain that strategy in the third quarter? What will you do in the long term, however? Thank you. Thank you for the question, Tatiana. First, regarding the sale of steak from Uzi Minas, It's not very frequently that we're able to find a buyer that wants a volume of shares from Uzi Minas as we transacted this week. The liquidity of shares, the common shares and preferred shares is very low. If we carry out a sale of all shares through the stock market, it will take us years to sell all of those shares to the market. To find an investor at present is not something that you will find very easily. And clearly, we're following the agreement that we have with Acadia, the antitrust agency. Tatiana, once again, thank you for your question. It's what you said in the report. CSN, among the Brazilian companies, industries, is the one that suffers the greater pressure because of the imports. This is doubtless because nowadays practically 50% of what we do is linked to higher quality products. And, well, this is the one that has the highest import rate in Brazil. And in this scenario, CSN, as you mentioned, in the second trimester, quarter was the only industry that hiked up its prices if i take away the long steel for our from our balance where the drop of prices was greater we increased the price to the three percent in the second quarter two to two point five percent working with that over volume in the third and fourth quarters What do I believe will happen and what will help us maintain our profitability with a two-digit margin? First of all, the operational excellence, the issue of cost. endless work in cost optimization of our assets we're working with one blast furnace less despite this we have complemented production with a regular purchase of pqd and slab this is helping us to maintain our costs now additionally to this the cost level of slabs will go from 3 300 to 3 000 BRLs per ton, which offers us a comfortable position. Now, still speaking about cost, we have worked broadly in terms of coke and centering to attain the maximum output to buy as little as possible of pellets and coke.

Is that your pillar?

and in the commercial pillar, and this means enormous movement. We have never done anything this strong in the last few years. We have worked the most on our strategy of selling more products for less, not putting all of our eggs in the same basket. We're selling in all sectors. We have increased the number of customers 50% in this first half of the year, and we're looking at added value, quality, and those who truly care about quality. This is something we do day after day. Now, in terms of prices specifically, I'm counting upon a recovery of prices in some markets, because of that level of equivalence of premium compared to the imported nationalized product. Now, to work with those prices in China, we could slowly recover, slowly. It's not a strong movement, but we could recover in strategic sectors, and we're going to work ever more on our portfolio. work with pre-painted zinc or material, galvanized material. And we're also working with a tin-plate market in Brazil, where our margin is much better than in other products. Now, the last point, a focus, a complete focus on the domestic market. That drop that you see in the volume of total shipment is linked to the drop in exports. that we had because of the carbonized material in the USA. Finally, I would like to underscore the good performance of our units in Portugal, Germany, and the United States, where we have stocked up in material to be able to compete in the second half of the year. The results have been positive and will contribute so that in the third and fourth quarter, we can maintain our two digits or perhaps have a slight increase vis-à-vis the second quarter. This is our strategy so far. Now let's speak about the vertical integration we have with the strategic clients and users with our partnerships working hand-in-hand with distribution. This maintains a healthy business vis-à-vis our competitors. Unfortunately, our competitors are working with a wrong strategy, taking away value from the market. Thank you very much. That was very clear. Our next question comes from Gabriel Barra from Citi. You may proceed, Gabriel. Hello, Benjamin and everybody else. Thank you for taking my question. We have some follow-ups and I will be quick. I'm sorry to be so insistent, but a very direct question. To understand if the sale of steak is because of the antitrust agency, Kadir, beyond what you have done, you have to continue doing something simply to have more clarity. Now, in terms of anti-dumping, there is a discussion of the Brazilian industry, and, of course, this is of the utmost importance. There has been a predatory situation. Now, regarding anti-dumping, this week there was a discussion of the government introducing a... lower tariffs that would have an impact on the automobile industry, which represents an important part of the demand for Brazilian steel. I don't know if you can pressure the government if you're part of that discussion, if it's important for you. What is your vision in this anti-dumping situation, if there are other ways of going around this problem? And finally, you speak about deleveraging. You have spoken broadly about investments, that trend of having a three-time net debt EBITDA until the end of the year. I would like to gain an understanding for the medium term. You have a disinvestment, a focus on deleveraging. How could we imagine that deleveraging for the coming year, which will be the path that it will follow and where it should stand in mid-2026? These are my questions. Thank you very much. Gabriel, thank you for your comments and questions. I'm going to refer to Uzi Minas. Of course, there's an agreement with CADI, the antitrust agency. There's also a certain level of confidentiality at the level of justice. Now, this sale that was done now is a very important, relevant, and material part of our compliance with the agreement with CADI, but it doesn't refer exclusively to them. It's an incredibly important step in our commitment with the Antitrust Agency now regarding the leveraging Besides the infrastructure and logistics that we spoke about at length, we have improvements in our operational results that will deleverage the company in all segments. Logistics is growing considerably with record results at present, not only because of the acquisition of Thora, but because of the results of its other assets. Well, cements, the steel plant with all of the investment, two digits with an EBITDA margin growing, going forward, and mining, which is also part of our projects, the P15 generating 4.4 billion in EBITDA, and relevantly helping us to deleverage the group. Besides this, we have the sale of assets. So besides the infrastructure in the coming months, we will have other novelties for the market. Now, in the long term, the company always wants to work with a leverage of two times or below two times net debt EBITDA, We would like to go back to being investment grade, but this doesn't depend exclusively on the company. It depends on the market and the sovereign rating of Brazil. We've already given you guidance of this year being below 3.0 times, and going forward, we want that guidance of the year to remain stable. The market should perceive that all of the enhancements and results that we will, well, the projects we will deliver in 2027 depend on the investments we are making. We're going to balance out good investments and a reduction in leveraging. This is a daily exercise for the company. So in 2026, the year you mentioned, The leverage should be around 3.0 times. This is a challenge for the company. Gabriel, this is Martinez. Once again, thank you for the question. I'm going to speak about another side of the commercial defense issue from the viewpoint of commercial defense. Practically everything that could be done in Brazil in terms of instruments has been done. In the specific case of CSN, we focused a great deal on anti-jumping. We have been working on this for a year and a half, and the Ministry of Industry itself has received us very well. The Vice President Alckmin has lent ears to everything we say. He loves the process, but we don't see any results. A year and a half to discuss this is much too long. First of all, we need to have courage to make the decision to implement what the ministry should do in technical terms. to set forth margins, they have to have courage. As Benjamin mentioned, this is something connected to the President of the Republic. And in terms of the third point, the government needs to focus more on the industry. This is a sector that has been left aside in Brazil in the last two years. So there's an important focus for industry. We're not speaking of direct imports. There's also direct imports coming to Brazil in terms of products. and this makes the production chain rather uncompetitive compared to other countries. In the automobile industry, an interesting fact, they have no imports practically. The level of services, the quality we have delivered to assembly plants in Brazil so far has been sufficient to compete in the domestic market. The problem is that the competition with the Chinese is unloyal competition, completely disorganized, and the government has to work towards the balance between imports and competitiveness of the automobile chain. This is the problem. not having protection, having isonomy, and something more reasonable so that the Brazilian industry can enhance its competitivity vis-à-vis other industries in the world. As we have no further questions, I will return the floor to Mr. Marco Rabello for the closing remarks. I would like to thank all of the members of the CSN group who have contributed to our deliveries. I thank all of you for attending our earnings call. At this point, we would like to end the call, wishing all of you a very good weekend. Thank you. The earnings call for CSN ends here. We would like to thank all of you for your attendance. Have a very good afternoon.