Eregli Demir Celik Un/Adr

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Vassilios, your chorus call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Erdemir conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the first quarter 2024 financial results. All participants will be in a listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by question and answer session. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your telephone. Please note, Ergli Demir Celik Fabrikalare Tease may, when necessary, make written or verbal announcements about forward-looking information, expectations, estimates, targets, assessments, and opinions. Erdemir has made the necessary arrangements about the amounts or results of such information through its disclosure policy and has shared such policy with the public through the Erdemir website in accordance with the Capital Markets Board regulations. As stated in related policy, information contained in forward-looking statements, whether verbal or written, should not include unrealistic assumptions or forecasts. It should be noted that actual results could materially differ from estimates taking into account the fact that they are not based on historical facts but are driven from expectations, beliefs, plans, targets and other factors which are beyond the control of our company. As a result, forward-looking statements should not be fully trusted or taken as granted. Forward-looking statements should be considered valid only considering the conditions prevailing at the same time of the announcement. In cases where it is understood that forward-looking statements are no longer achievable, such matter will be announced to the public and the statements will be revised. However, the decision to make a revision is a result of a subjective evaluation. Therefore, it should be noted that when a party is coming to a judgment based on estimates and forward-looking statements, our company may not have made a revision at that particular time. Our company makes no commitments to make regular revisions which would fully cover changes in every parameter. New factors may arise in the future we may not be possible to foresee at this moment in time. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Idil Onay Ergin, Investor Relations Director. Ms. Ergin, you may now proceed.

Thank you very much, Vasily. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our conference call and webcast of Erdemir for the first quarter of 2024. Today, our CFO, Mr. Seyder Başoğlu, and our Financial Control and Reporting Director, Mr. Ulaş Cimeveç, are also joining the webcast. First of all, I will go through our master presentation, which you can find on our website, and you can also follow it through the webcast. Then, at the end of this presentation, there is going to be a Q&A session, as usual. Before starting the presentation, I will hand over to our CFO, Mr. Serdar Başoğlu. The line is yours.

Thank you, İdil. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our First Culture Conference call and thank you for joining us today. As we leave 2023 behind, which was a difficult year due to the earthquakes, We return to our hysterical averages, 95% crude steel capacity utilization ratio, 2 million tons of sales, and 124 US dollar EBITDA per ton in the first quarter. When looking at financial and operational results of our company, it's worth remembering that 2023 was an exception and makes evaluation of 2024 Although there was a decline in steel sales prices in the first and second quarter, we expect to see positive impact on gross profitability since the decrease in raw material prices was probably higher. We reached an agreement on İSTEMİŞ insurance claim advance payment of 155 million USD in addition to the 100 USD advance payment received. This amount was reflected as income in our first part of financial statement and will be paid until the end of the Q3. The total payment amount has not been clarified yet, but we plan to complete the negotiation process and collect the claim payment within 2024. When we look at the Turkish steel markets, the increase in flat imports continues. On the applications made by our company, a dumping investigation has been opened against the heavy plate originating from South Korea at the beginning of April. In addition, the process regarding the dumping investigation against the HRP originating from China, India, Japan, and Russia, that our company and our subsidiary East Image are among the applicants, continues. It is expected to complete within the year. We expect that as a result of both investigations, final decisions will be made to protect the domestic producers and prevent dumping in Turkey. China is still one of the most important players in the world's film industry. China's HRC capacity continues to increase. Two new hot rolling mills with a total capacity of approximately 10 million tons per year were put into operation. Although Chinese steel demand from the manufacturing industry has shown healthy times so far. HRC productions and inventories are also increasing with additional capacity. This situation supports the view that steel exports can remain strong. According to first-quarter data, Turkey is the fourth country to beat China exports to the most in HRC. In 2024, we focus on cost-cutting, self-sufficient investments aimed at increasing our internal efficiency. We planned to commission the new blast furnace at İstemir in 2024. We still aim to achieve 8.2 million tons sales in 2024. Thank you again for listening to me. I will be with you at the end of the presentation, so now I would like to hand over to Mike to do this.