Klabin Sa S/Adr

Good morning and welcome to Klabin's conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Later, we will have a questions and answers session and instructions will be given at that time. We kindly ask that for the benefit of time, each analyst asks a maximum of two questions. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded and the presentation will be in Portuguese with simultaneous translation into English. All participants will be able to choose the language they wish to hear by clicking on the interpretation button and the language of the presentation by clicking on the presentation screen located above. I'll make a brief announcement for those participants following us in English. Any statements made during this conference call about Klabin's business outlooks, projections, operating and financial targets and potential growth should be understood as mere forecasts based on the company's management expectations about the future of Klabin. Such expectations are highly dependent on market conditions, on Brazil's overall economic performance, and on industry and international market behavior, and therefore are subject to change. We have with us today Mr. Cristiano Teixeira, CEO, Gabriela Vogue, CFO and Investor Relations Officer, and the other officers in the company. Mr. Cristiano and Ms. Gabriela will comment on the company's performance during the first quarter of 2026, and after that, the directors will be available to answer any questions that you may wish to ask. Now, I will hand the call over to Mr. Cristiano. Mr. Cristiano, please go ahead. Thank you, and welcome to our conference call for the first quarter of 2026. We had an important event this quarter, which led to an 80% utilization of our recovery boiler in Montalegre. This is the most important one in the fiber site. And our expected utilization was 76%. Even though we did this without a complete stop, all of the connections were made to this boiler. We were very motivated by this and we expected to start up before it was planned. So this was a very important event. Obviously you can see this in our CapEx, but as a reminder, this is the last year of the transformational CapEx that we've been using in the company, the major investment cycle that we had in the last nine years. And this is the last piece of equipment under that plan. Fortunately, we are above the planned figures. Looking at the performance, Pulp, especially fluff, had 30% higher sales in Asia Pacific, APAC, and also Brazil. So we had an increase in fluff in these markets. That was quite significant for us. And later on, I'll talk about our expectations. It's a great moment for fluff prices as well. When it comes to paper... a major highlight, I don't know if you remember this, but if you have to refer back to our last call, when I talked about the fact that beer had been performing very well in this market, this was mentioned in the previous call, and we were referring about the beginning of the year, that The carrier product, it's a specific product for beer, had been performing very well. From the end of the COVID pandemic, we always saw this product as having a high demand. increase in consumption, then it dropped again, and now we are back to pre-COVID levels, and we basically doubled our sales in the first quarter versus the first quarter of 2025 for this specific product. Another highlight was Kraft Liner, which increased nearly eightfold in our exports to Asia. This product increased as the Americans reduced their production and exports. So clubbing did very well in this market. Specifically in China, but also other markets in Asia. And corrugated boxes continues to be a highlight, without a doubt. It has been high in the last few years and it was not any different during the first quarter. We gained 0.5% in market share despite all of the hardships. We've been focusing on this in Brazil to try to preserve our corrugated boxes portfolio with long contracts, which shows the resilience of our results during the quarter. As a reminder, we're keeping a close eye on the 15 most important paper and pulp companies in the world. And you've been seeing these results. On average, there was a 20% reduction in EBITDA in these companies that we've been seeing on a quarterly basis, 25 versus 26. So this was a difficult period for the industry. And it's not different for us. We are seeing prices recovering across basically all markets. And Of course, we have to pass on the prices of energy and the logistics costs that we all received in the first quarter. So we expect a wave to come. Of course, some companies will be more efficient than others, and Clubbing will definitely attempt to pass on these costs in the second quarter. This has already started. We've seen a few announcements and our commitment to our shareholders remains steadfast in this direction. Thank you. We'll continue with Gabriela and then I'll be back for the Q&A. Hello everyone, good morning everyone, and thank you for joining our conference call. On page 4, I present the quarter's results, which reflect the operational stability of our plants and the continued ramp-up of the paper machines. Quarterly sales volumes reached 1.16 million tonnes, up 12% from the first quarter of 2025, with growth across all businesses. Net revenue for the quarter reached 4.9 billion reais, a 2% increase year over year, driven primarily by higher volumes combined with higher corrugated paper prices, which more than offset the effect of the rial's appreciation against the dollar. In this context, EBITDA for the quarter was 1.7 billion reais with a margin of 34%, reflecting the impact of exchange rates during the period and the Montserrat Allegheny General Maintenance shutdown on the company's costs. Continuing on page 5, total cash cost per ton in the first quarter of 2026, including the effects of the general shutdown, was 3,342 reais, flat compared to the same period last year. This performance reflects the year-over-year reduction in variable costs and G&A expenses, offset by higher fiber costs, as well as the impact of the previously mentioned scheduled maintenance shutdown during the quarter. Moving on to slide 6. Clubbing ended the first quarter of 2026 with a net debt of 24 billion reais and leverage measured by the net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio in US dollars of 3.3 times, a reduction of 0.6 times compared to the first quarter of 2025 and flat compared to the previous quarter. The company remains focused on its disciplined path of deleveraging confirming the consistent execution of its strategy and strengthening of its capital structure. Moving on to the next page, the company's liquidity remains robust, ending December at 11.5 billion reais. This liquidity consists of 8.9 billion reais in cash and the remainder in undrawn revolving credit lines. The average maturity of debt at the end of the quarter was 85 months and the average cost in U.S. dollars was 5.1% per year, a reduction of 0.6 percentage points compared to March 2025, reflecting the debt management initiatives implemented over the past few months. Moving on to page 8, here we have the company's free cash flow. Over the past 12 months, the company generated an adjusted free cash flow of 1.1 billion reais. While in the first quarter, it was a negative by 1.2 billion reais. due to the investments related to the modernization of the Montreal Agri-Boiler and the timing of payments in the first quarter of 2026. Moving on to slide nine, payouts to shareholders over the last 12 months totaled 1.181 billion reais. This amount represents a dividend yield of 5.2%. I would also like to highlight the advanced dividend declaration approved last year in light of the transition rules provided for in the legislation. In the amount of 1.2%, excuse me, of 278 million AI scheduled for May. Finally, I'd like to emphasize that Clubbean continues to act with discipline in executing its business strategy, ensuring consistency in its results across cycles. Now I'll hand it back over to Cristiano. Great, so going over this quickly so we can continue with our Q&A. I'd like to highlight our market thermometer. And the last column shows our expected price recovery in the next quarter. A highlight here are short fibers. We're starting to see average prices above what we had in the first quarter. So we're very confident and we're confident about fluff as well. We expect prices to recover and we are already seeing this happening. And the same is starting in Kraft Liner. We've also been seeing some announcements far above container board. So these are the main highlights of our market thermometer for the second quarter. So let's continue with the Q&A. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the Q&A. If you'd like to ask a question, please click on the raise hand button. If you'd like to remove your question from the queue, you can lower your hand. The first question will be asked by Rafael Barcelos from Bradesco BBI. Go ahead, sir. Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. My first question is about coded board. We saw that sales to the domestic market were good. When we look at the average prices, they weren't very strong. So if you can tell us a little bit about that. When we look at these thermometers, we see that volumes are increasing. I understand that there should be an impact from the downtime in Montalegre, so it will be positively impacted in the future. But if you can tell us a little bit more about how the company is operating in this mix of coated board and craft liner, do you have any updates about the volume of coded board that the company will potentially deliver this year, and what are the general conditions like in this market, since it's a little bit more challenging. I'd just like to get some color on that. When it comes to costs, this is a common point discussed with investors, and recently, we saw all of these impacts from the conflict in the Middle East. And I don't think this will be an exception. So if you can tell us a little bit more about what you expect for the cost to be impacted. I know that there are certain products, papers, where you have price contracts. I don't know what the company's capacity is to pass this on, but maybe we can talk a bit about that. Thank you. Thank you, Rafael. Let's start with Suad. Then Gabi will talk about costs. Good morning, Rafael. Thank you for your question. Concerning coded board prices, due to the exchange pressure, it will remain flat. In the domestic market, the price remained flat. In the international market, most of this has been contracted. So we can't do anything in US dollars. I mean, we might readjust some contracts in the second half of the year, but most of them are signed for the year. So that's why prices are flat. Looking at the domestic market, we announced a price readjustment for the second half of the year. It's a slow process. Obviously, we're going to work in order to get closer to what we announced. And, you know, we're starting this battle. We know that it's not simple. It's a... process that's negotiated on a case by case basis, but the market has been recovering. The last price recovery that we had was in May 2024. So we have an accumulated IPCA that should be negotiated with our customers now. Thank you, Soares. Gabi? To answer your questions on costs, of course, there is an impact. But what we're assessing for Caribbean is the impact of diesel, especially to the domestic market. Forestry, transportation, logistics, logistical costs. And of course, this depends on the price policy that Petrobras will adopt and the impact that this will have for us. When it comes to international transportation, there's also the price of oil because it's being transported in containers. When it comes to costs, right now, we don't see any risks of running out. And from the beginning of the year, we've been negotiating with customers to minimize these impacts. And some of this was done before the war. So we are sustaining the numbers we had foreseen in our guidance. There are mitigation alternatives for these costs. The company is aiming to reduce variable costs in G&A. And this has already been reflected in the results we had for the first quarter. And of course, we can always pass this on through the prices, as Cristiano mentioned in the beginning. The good news is that 40% of the tariff is diesel. We know that Petrobras' policy is not to pass this on immediately, and we'll have to see what Petrobras' diesel policy will be. It's an election year, so this might not be fully passed on. This is just a side note, but of course we're paying attention to that. So I'll refer to Figuera coming in. We started in mid-2024, we operated the company in all of 2025, and we increased our client's portfolio and also increased... the volume of corrugated paper with clients that already did business with us. We gained in market share, not only in Figueira, but we also had a capacity increase in Serra in the Orizonche unit. So this also happened in a very difficult environment. Clubbing is gaining market share. We've been able to improve our service level for the main exporters in Brazil. They're very close to clubbing the food industry as a whole, especially protein. So yes, we are passing this on and we are confident that our service level is being valued by our customers. Thank you. Thank you, Cristiano. Just as a follow-up question, my understanding here is that even with these cost pressures, you still believe that the cost can be close to the guidance you proposed in the beginning of the year. and a follow-up in coded board. Do you have any idea of what we can think about in this area for the rest of the year? So yes, we remain confident in our guidance. I'll let Suarez talk about this. I just want to make a brief introduction about a coded board. We have the 28 machine. As you know, it can produce a craft liner volume, but it's been important for us But we're still assessing the market, so I will talk about this. But just as a new thing that we haven't mentioned in a long time, we're starting to see... I know that your question was about coded board, but as you know, Craftliner is very close to it. So we're starting to see... in the exercise we do recurrently, our commercial plan, we're starting to see craft liner prices reaching internal transfer prices. We've been working for years on the assumption that it is more attractive domestically than the marginal sales of Kraftliner. So we're starting to transfer these prices. And this is great news because now Clubbing is going back to the market to buy paper. And this hasn't happened in at least two years. So this is a structural factor that is recovering the market. When it comes to paperboard, we've been seeing a slight improvement, especially in the US, which has remained flat in paperboard. In Europe, we're seeing small signs, still very small. And in the rest of the world, especially Brazil, we're seeing a slightly better scenario. Of course, in the second half of the year, this is when volumes grow a lot in Brazil. But this year, since we're helped by the weather and the beer market, the first quarter has been stronger than usual. We're also expecting an improvement in the demands in the domestic market. And we're ramping up in the international market with LPD paperboard. We have several clients that approved these products last year. And this year, for the international market, except for traditional customers. New customers are starting to ramp up their volumes much more than before. So the 28 machine is gaining share as these new clients join this portfolio and as volumes grow. Thank you. Great, thank you. The next question will be asked by Marcio Farid from Goldman Sachs. Go ahead. Thank you, and I apologize for the background noise. A couple of points. First, when it comes to leverage, Obviously, there are some market conditions that get in the way of your cash generation this year, costs, a foreign exchange. You gave us some information about that, but in any case, when we run the numbers here, considering dividend payments, there doesn't seem to be much left for the EBITDA. So do you expect any changes to the dividend policy, leverage? And what has been the potential for new asset sales, the leasebacks they had in the past? Do you still have capacity for that? And also, when it comes to pulp, how have you seen the market change? If you can talk about the next quarter, of course, there's some carryover, but the last few price announcements, at least for short fibers in China, were more challenging. So I'll let you answer, Cristiano, if you could tell us a little bit more about this market. Thank you, Fareed. So to talk about leverage, Gabi is here and she'll add to my answer if they have anything to add. When it comes to leverage, we need to see the context behind this. if we can give a retrospective analysis, the company has gone through a relevant investment cycle. The company modernized basically all of its plants, especially the ones that have recovery boilers, digesters, and so on. So we renewed our plants the Monchalegre boiler, if you know the site, in the last three years, we've removed a lot from the site. The site is lean, light, and we are starting off a boiler this year with a much better performance, and that will add 40 years to that site. So we're modernizing our plants and this is now one of the most modern in the world we have when we look at product mix craft paperboard we have the only fluff machine designed for this product so we're very happy we've been getting price benefits The company has reached all of its volumes, especially machine 28. So we expect many good things for the next years. And this is the last part of that investment cycle. We're making transformational investments. And I'm referring to the recovery boilers. So the company's CapEx perspective, as I always say, we don't have any transformational studies in the company. So no CapEx or any kind of discussion about M&A. but the company is prepared to generate a lot of free cashflow starting in January, 2027. We're still finishing the year with a significant expense that will consume part of this cash generation. And of course there's a leverage effect. We do have a poor price cycle in several of the company's products, as you know, but we're seeing a recovery cycle. Of course, this level will depend on the market, but we do believe it will recover. We expect the company's productivity to go up, significant equipment, and this will generate free cash flow and deleveraging next year. So we don't expect our policy to change because it's working very well. Debt maturity has been safe. There's no risk of... changing our dividends policy, and we're very confident about deleveraging the company. And I think that it's important for you to look at the company's model, and you'll start to understand what the risk rating agency understood as well. Marcia, thank you for your question. To talk about the short fibers market, from our perspective, it remains constructive for the short term. Support for prices is coming from a more disciplined offer. We have restricted production, but this was a one-off, and we have some Factors that will sustain our price policy for the next quarters. I mentioned in the fourth quarter that we're also expecting an increase in transit time for ships since maritime companies have reduced the speed due to fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Some of these ships are older, so that reduces the offer in the short term. Obviously, China continues to be an attention point. But as you know, our exposure to China is small. From our perspective in the first quarter, we had a high level of sales to China, but given the opportunities due to prices or logistics costs, we've been keeping a close eye on China, understanding that our main clients, our mature markets, are in Europe and the US. And of course, we have a relevant position in Brazil. In long fibers, this scenario is challenging, but this is basically inexistent. It exists in Brazil in niche markets. So Inventories remain high, price levels have a gap in short fibers, especially in China, but in Europe, we see a more relevant gap, which is why prices in Europe and in the US have gone up more consistently. So in general, we're seeing a more balanced market for short fibers without a super cycle scenario, but a healthier scenario that's more sustainable for the industry. About fluff specifically, We started seeing this market recovering earlier this year. Price increases have been taking place without any kind of resistance. Demand remains solid. Obviously, there are impacts about the supply. We had the CoSupply's plant closing in the US, and that created a significant impact for the industry. And we're seeing this being reflected in the second half of the year. And there was also maintenance downtime in two major lines in the U.S., which reduced the supply and made the market, as Cristiano said, have higher prices in the second half of the year. Thank you, Cristiano. The next question will be asked by Danielle Sasson from Itaú BBA. Go ahead. Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. The first question is for Nico. Your pulp prices this quarter was a positive highlight, so congratulations to you and the team. You mentioned in your release that Clubbing used its geographic flexibility to add volume to markets in better commercial conditions. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? I think Abhi mentioned this in her opening statement, the logistical advantages that make clubbing able to access these niche markets more efficiently and also you mentioned this in the previous quarter that you did some very good uh transportation contracts with containers so Maybe that was a more structural market. What was a one-off opportunity? I think that would be an important part to understand. We don't usually go into details when it comes to logistics. Now, Gabi, if you can tell us about the Monchalegri boiler. You mentioned that you might advance this startup versus the target, which was the fourth quarter. But since we're getting closer to commissioning it, what are the concrete gains in energy efficiency and emissions reduction, the operational capacity? Is there a potential to de-bottleneck paperboard in Montalegre? What will be the impact of this new boiler to your cash cost in 2027 versus the current cost? So that would be important to understand because like Chris said, it seems like you are at an important inflection point to generate cash. So maybe CapEx will be lower and EBITDA will be higher. If you can tell me a little bit about the gains that you expect from this new boiler, that would be great. Thank you. So I'll hand it over to Nico, but to talk about the boiler, of course, it will significantly increase our yield in Montchalegre. When things are mature, if we can confirm that it will be concluded early, when we have new forecasts, we will share it with you. It's important to say that EBITDA gains specifically due to the boiler, if you look at the entire company, it will be marginal because it will improve the prediction in that unit and it won't provide for any larger capacity gains. That's not where the leveraging is coming from. It's coming obviously from the end of the capex cycle. So the company can generate one and a half to two and a half billion in capex at a regular pace, depending on the EBITDA. And this will happen next year for that specific reason. So this will improve, of course, CO2 emissions in that unit. Very soon, we'll invite you to see it in Montalegre. And you'll see exactly where it was built. We have a new administrative area there, and the site is renewed. As soon as we have these figures, we'll provide them, but these gains are marginal. EBITDA gains are still to come, of course, and the main point is the ramp up in machine 28. And this deleverage will come especially from the end of the capex cycle. Hi, thank you for your question and your comments. It's a combination of factors, structural and market opportunities. As you know, we have two pulp lines at the same site, short and long fiber. And that gives us significant flexibility to redirect our mix according to the demand and attractiveness in each market. We had a... Differentiated logistics structure. We're the biggest exporter of dry containers in Brazil. And this expands our access to more niche markets and with higher added value customers, especially the ones that have lower volumes. We have a very diversified base of sales. So that allows us to access more niche markets, deliver more frequently, and we're more confident in our logistics. So this added to commercial discipline, managing our revenue well, And this combination of factors is what allows us to prioritize some markets that have better margin returns. We've been seeing this, especially in fluff. So it's a combination of factors that is providing these results that you saw. Great, thank you. The next question will be asked by Guilherme Rosito from Bank of America. Go ahead. Hi, good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. My first question is about Kraft Liner. I know that you've talked about this, but To understand that dashboard, were you expecting to increase Craftliner and increase Paperboard from MP28? Also... You mentioned that you don't have any CapEx expenses for the long term, but the Santa Catarina project has been discussed for a long time. And recently we got news of a project in Argentina that has a very similar design and capacity that we expected in Santa Catarina. So does this change anything for the future and how you will design this in products and capacity? Thank you. Thank you. I'll answer about CapEx, and then Suarez will answer about Craftliner. About building the new site, about the fluff project in Santa Catarina, it's absolutely on hold. We're not discussing this project at all. As you know, paper and pulp needs studies in the pipeline, but... we are not expecting to discuss this uh for the year it won't be taken to the board this year so we're very confident and this has been discussed with the board we're continuing to deleverage the company and we're not expecting to invest we won't propose anything to the board this year And we're very confident with that. So I'll just go ahead and answer the Kraft liner question. Guilherme, thank you for your question. Looking at the Kraftliner indicators, you saw a reduction in volume. So for the quarter, we had an increase of our internal transfer. Our box market has a higher demand for paper, so we are reducing exports. We have a very robust portfolio. We are basically at 50 days orders per and we need to bring this to a more comfortable level. The market is tight. We have a big demand across all geographies except the Middle East for obvious reasons. So we're reducing volumes to improve our service level and also to supply our corrugated paper business. So this transfer will be higher in the boxes market. Just to connect between these things, I mentioned that the marginal sales, so the lower craft products that are being exported, when these prices start reaching the transfer prices, that's when we expect to go to the market to buy paper so that we can use our recycled corrugated paper and then continue exporting at the levels we have been having. And the trends we're seeing are that, but this depends on the performance of the boxes market and the marginal craft lander. So we expect this to happen. With the contracts we have in corrugated paper, they make us need to meet these volumes. When Soares says that the market is tight, he's saying that we don't have enough paper in the chain. If we don't solve this, then, of course, we're going to prioritize contracts with major Brazilian exporters. Just adding to that, the other factor is that the 28 machine is gaining space. So we have less craft available in machine 28. So that adds to everything we mentioned. So strong demand, but we're having more craft with fewer internal transfers. So that's good news as the marginal prices for Kraft is improving. So this is all good information. That was very clear, thank you. The next question will be asked by Guilherme Nippes from XP, go ahead. Hi everyone. I have a couple of questions. The first one is about cost, especially fiber costs. You mentioned in your release that costs went up, especially due to the weather events that happened over last year. And obviously there was an impact from global logistics issues. if you can tell us how much of these impacts were due to operational issues and when we should expect these costs to normalize. Still on that point, how much of it was due to the war and higher diesel prices? My second question is about packaging. you mentioned that your expectation was a significant increase in sales volumes. And we saw that the results of this quarter were more resilient. So that suggests a slightly higher drop, but you were able to offset it with share gains this quarter. So my question is, how do you see the demand for the future? And on the price side, is the container board price plus prices for shavings, could that pressure corrugated paper prices? Great, let's start with Gabriela, then Douglas will answer. Thank you for your question, Guilherme. Fiber prices, we've been seeing that we faced last year, especially some weather issues in forestry, which elevated fiber costs on a comparative basis, if we compare to the previous quarters. And this stabilized at a higher level. In forestry, all cycles are very long. So weather events at the end of the day have been surpassed, but we still expect some consequences of that. So that's why costs remain high on a yearly comparison. The impact of the war we recently mentioned, especially for forestry. Given the logistics cost, diesel in Brazil has a significant impact. We had an impact that was still limited in the second quarter, and this will depend on what happens from now on. It's hard to quantify this, but we expect a higher impact in the second quarter than we saw in the first. In any case, we're seeing some of the cost being offset to sustain the cash cost guidance. So we will try to offset this through reducing other costs or through passing costs on, as we mentioned before. Adding to that, we are going to go into details about this at clubbing day. This is usually in October or November. We're going to have a lot of information on future productivity at Club B. We're very optimistic about this and other regions in the world, opportunities, threats. We're going to talk about forestry and weather events and Specifically last year, we had a problem related to wood moisture. Our units need to be stored for some time. There was a disbalance there due to this complex logistic operation. We're paying attention to this, but we are expecting rain. And this will also make clubbing have to get ready as our inventories go up around the plant to ensure that the company remains operational. On average, this can have an impact to our cost. It's still not material in our assessment, but we are keeping an eye on that. The most important thing is that we're very confident the average radius in our region after the Arauco acquisition is in the most productive area of the world of both fibers, eucalyptus and pinus, at a moment in which the entire world is having a lower pinus capacity, as you know. Our productivity will go up safely in the next years with a very low structural radius, but circumstantial occasions having more or less rainfall will have an impact. But the structural effect will basically be null. Hi, Guilherme, thank you for your question. We're coming off of some very good years in corrugated paper, especially after the COVID pandemic, we've had structural changes. Corrugated paper is the sixth largest market in the world and Brazil has one fifth of that market. And this performance is doing well, especially after the COVID pandemic. We don't see anything changing that. In the first quarter, the market behaved very well, close to 12.5%. And for Club B, this was even better. Clubbing has some advantages in this performance. We've mentioned a few of them, but when you look at protein and fruit, these are markets that are growing above the average, above the market average when it comes to exports, and Clubbing has virgin fibers that also stand out. So with high market participation and with this performance, we have above market level growths. We also saw in some areas like food and drinks, the performance has been strong due to macroeconomic factors and we're growing above the market levels there as well. We saw major brands and brand owners growing more than last year and Clubbing has a high share of them and that boosts our volume. We also grew in new customers with Figueira and Horizonte with new capacities, with better service levels. Our customer base has grown. So the market did well and we are above the market average. So that was where the performance came from. For the future, we expect our performance to do well. Our estimation as the market will grow two or more That's our estimate and our performance was slightly higher than that because of the factors I mentioned before. When it comes to price, we expect prices to continue aligned with inflation. So we have factors like contracts, strategies that make Club B do well because of the mix and because of the better margins that we have. So our prices are more aligned with, the price increases are more aligned with inflation. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, since there are no further questions, we will hand it back over to Mr. Cristiano Teixeira for his closing remarks. Thank you, everyone. See you in the next call. This concludes Club BSA's conference call. Thank you and have a good day.