Usinas Sa S/Gdr

Welcome to the Uzi Minas video conference where the results for the first quarter of 2024 will be discussed. I am Leonardo Karam, General Manager of IR at Uzi Minas. To those that want to follow us in English, free translation of the webcast presentation is available on the Uzi Minas IR website. We also have an interpreter for a simultaneous translation. Please choose a sound channel on the icon at the bottom of your Zoom screen. All participants are connected on listen-only mode and questions can be asked in writing through the Zoom Q&A session. This is the icon below your screen. Participants listening in English can also ask questions directly in this section. This video conference is being recorded and broadcast simultaneously on Usimina's YouTube channel. Please note that this video conference is exclusive for investors and market and analysts. We request that you identify yourself so that your question can be answered. We also ask that any questions from journalists be forwarded to Usiminas Media Relations via email imprensa at usiminas.com. Before we proceed, we would like to clarify that statements made during this video conference regarding the company's business prospects, as well as projections, operational and financial goals regarding its growth potential, are forward-looking statements based on the company's expectations about uzimina's future these expectations are highly dependent on the performance of the seals sector the economic situation of the country and the situation of international markets therefore they are subject to change With us today, we have Marcelo Chara, Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations, Thiago Rodriguez, and Vice President of Commercial Area, Miguel Holmes. Initially, Marcelo will address his main remarks. Then Thiago will present the results. After that, questions from Q&A. The Q&A section will be answered. Now I hand it over to Marcelo. Marcelo, you have the floor. Good morning to everyone. It is a pleasure to be here once again with you to talk about Uzi Mina's performance during Q1 of 2024. We will talk about our progress to gain competitiveness and we will talk about the expectations for Q2 this year. As we mentioned in the last call, the expectations to reverse our results in our steel unit materialized. And this is thanks to the work and focus on improvement in the past quarters. I would like to thank the performance and commitment of each one of our employees. We are taking strides in a number of fronts. The ramp-up of Last Furnace 3 continues evolving according to our plans, and we continue to making progress stabilizing our operation with efficiency and cost reduction. We pursue opportunities in all the operations Benchmarks have created action plans in a number of areas to improve the performance and the consumption of our main equipment and also the improvement of productivity. New management routines are underway, and they continue strengthening our focus on industrial process. An example was the announcement of the decarbonization target for 2030 that is a drop in of greenhouse gas effects by 15%. This matter had been assessed for a long period of time, and fortunately, now we've matured this, and now we've defined this target in line with our long-term view. regarding the markets 2024 started with a challenging safario scenario with pressure on imports under an unloyal conditions and a complicated economic situation in brazil there are positive signals in the automotive area alpha vera projects an increase of six percent in the production of cars of 2024 And during the Q1 presented good sales levels, but we see pressure because of the growth of vehicle imports, which increased 38% when we compare it to the same period last year. There is a strong penetration of import products. We see good opportunities in different sectors where we perform the drop of the Saliki rate. The new pack, the new industrial Brazilian plan can drive the infrastructure sector, industry and civil construction, amongst others. Within this scenario of economics and market, we expect stable sales in steels. The volume of steel imports of Q1 was 18% higher than the past year. This is something that we're paying attention to. March the greatest, the highest monthly value since 2010. This is why Brazil should implement measures like in the U.S., Europe, Mexico, Chile recently in order to foster fair competition. Now, in Uzi Minas, we are stabilizing it for the second quarter. We expect stable sales when we compare it to first quarter. In the long term, we will improve our management model based on operational excellency, interaction with community, with more safety, taking care of the environment. And we want to be better neighbors and approaching more and more our customers. Thank you very much. And Thiago can continue with the presentation. Thank you, Marcelo. Good morning to everyone. So we will start our earnings results of the first quarter this year. I imagine that you can already see our slides. We will start with the highlights of the quarter. We will start a presentation, then we will have a Q&A. The highlights, iron ore, we ended with 2 million tons, slightly above what we expected this quarter. And subsequently, we will comment why this happened. In steel sales, the sales volume was 1 million tons aligned with our expectation. The good news is the drop of cogs in steel mill 11% of drop of our cogs improving the results of this business unit. The adjusted EBITDA was 416 million reais net profits, 36 million BRLs, and the cash was 5.7 billion reais, a leverage of 0.22, the annual EBITDA. This shows that the maintenance of good cash management and the company's financial discipline, we disclosed our discarbonization target up till 2030. with a drop of 15% is what we expected, stating our commitment in our care towards environment and the sustainability of our operations. Now, our next slide. This is the consolidated result. During Q1... The net revenue was 6.2 billion BRLs. This is a drop of 8% vis-a-vis last quarter because of the effects in the mining unit that we will see on our next slide. The adjusted EBITDA, 460 million reais, a 7% margin. This is a growth of 28% when compared to the last quarter with non-recurring effects. And a reflection in better performance of the steel unit, the net income, $36 million. It was impact because of the dollar appreciation that affected the financial result. Now when we go to the steel unit, the steel sales was stable initially. in the domestic and the international market, even with high volume of imported steel that was subsidized. Marcelo mentioned, but I would like to stress the increase of 18% of the volume of import steel during this quarter when we compare it to the same quarter last year. We continue with this problem impacting all the steel markets. Well, we would like to highlight better sales mix, greater focus on products of greater added value. This is an important effort led by the planning and commercial teams to contain the drop of profitability due to the Unloyal competition. We've been able to maintain a net revenue per ton that is stable in the market, even with a drop of prices in the automobile sector. Well, we expect to maintain the same sales volume and to maintain a net revenue per ton stable with a better mix between export and domestic exports. domestic market and after two quarters with negative results the steel unit not including recurrent event now we have positive results confirming the expectations that we announced during our last call we would like to highlight that 334 million of ebitda with a margin of six percent is the best recorded result since q1 last year this was before the blast furnace three refurbishment and there was a drop here of course here Here we see the quarter of here from quarter four to quarter one. We can see a drop in our COGS. Now the drop of 2% in net revenue, $113 million. This was the drop of COGS quarter and quarter, just considering the non-recurrent effects was 8%. And this is due to the gains of the steel production cost with the return of blasphemous three and lower cost. of raw material and slabs purchased. Now this year represents 350 million Reais in cost decreases. During the next quarter, our expectation is to drop our cost in steel production with the stability and the progress and the stabilization of blast furnace three. Now the exchange rates and highest price of purchase slabs will maintain a stable COGS per ton or perhaps with a slight drop for the next quarter. But there are also factors, and we depend on the evolution of the quarter, like the development or to see what's going to happen with the exchange rate. Now when we see the mining unit, The sales were slightly above. Reduction in sales volume due to seasonal raise at 9 p.m. less than shutdown, partially compensated by higher lump sales volume. We had 1,961,000. This was 1,962. This was higher by the seasonal impact. And something that helped us was an additional sales of granulated. These were market opportunities that appeared in the export. In the second quarter, we expect a stable volume vis-à-vis Q1, and the impact on the result is practically due to the net revenue that was 649 million reais. that was impacted not only by a lower sales volume, but because of the drop of the iron ore that was 28%. And this affected negatively the price of export prices. and higher sale of granulated. And this drop of net revenue, the impact was accountable for the drop of the EBITDA vis-a-vis Q4. The result was 83 million reais with a margin of 13%. Now, our financial indicators the indicators of the first quarter, there was a major impact because of the drop of forfeiture operation. We dropped 700 million reais for fading lines. with the conclusion of blast furnace three and after a riskier area, our four fading operations are back to normal levels. Therefore, we reduced Our operations with forfeiting, not working capital, we still see a drop. Therefore, there was a rigged seduction of 459 million reais in stock, especially because of steel and raw material and accounts receivable dropped 129 million. Now working capital increased 108 million. And this also influenced our operational cash flow, and it was negative by 31 million. Now the capex was 68 million reais. Slow for what we have for the year. We calculate 1.7, 1.8 billion BRLs, and this acceleration All the expenses with investments will be observed during the second semester this year. Free cash flow ended with minus 299 million reais because of the drop of 700 million reais and are forfeiting. And it's important to highlight with this reduction that was on purpose. due to the high level of cash and no net debt and financial liquidity. We carried this out without impacting our indicators. And on our next slide, we can see precisely all of these indicators. Here we have cash 5.7B. This is billion. This is a solid level. 110 million and a leverage of 0.22 times the EBIT of the last 12 months, which is highly comfortable. So our debt profile has no changes and we are monitoring the market to make the best of the opportunities and see what is the best place to carry out an action regarding our bond that matures in 2026. And to conclude, going back to something that Marcel already stated, our decarbonization plan is Our target is to drop 15% of our emissions up to 2030 and divide it by our main pillars that are energy efficiency, the use of biomass, an increase of renewable energy, and the optimization of raw materials. Therefore, Blast Furnace 3 provides us a relevant gain in our pathway. Of course, their other actions will be adopted in the upcoming years in order to deliver our target that is to reduce carbon emissions. Now, I will hand it back to Leonardo for a Q&A session. Thank you, Thiago. Now we go to our Q&A session. Our first question is for Marcelo. Marcelo Cayo-Rivero from Bank of America wants to know about import taxes. He wants an update about possible increase of import tariffs or steel quotas. In what point is this process, and what is your expectation? Good morning, Cayo. Well, here we have public information. I believe this was published one hour ago and the SEC issued its technical opinion regarding this. all points that we have been approaching here and it is clear and visible the damage that brazil has suffered due to subsidized imports that are mainly come from china i do believe that this the technical opinion is explicit this was properly done we we've cooperated very transparently we've provided information and we've showed that we are suffering because of this and this technical opinion provides us positive prospects and we believe that the situation will be will be dealt with quickly. There is high concern. The damage has been and is still deep. Nonetheless, the expectation with this technical opinion shows the maturity that exists to balance this type of unloyal competition. We just learned that Chile is that Chile is applying tariffs. And there is also an additional tariff from China still. This is done by the United States, Mexico, Europe. Everybody is establishing these mechanisms to prevent a flood of unloyal trade. And I do trust. that Brazil, with the technical opinion of the six, will be able to evolve and go through laws and deal with unloyal competition, which is irrational. Thank you, Marcelo. Now, moreover, about this matter, Ricardo Monegagli from Safra wants to know if there is a space to look for higher steel prices in the short term, if we could have the implementation of quotas and tariffs. As we have demonstrated during the past quarters, not only in the steel mill, the entire chain is suffering because of this great volume of imports under unloyal conditions. In many cases, the price is below the cost. So what could happen or what we could expect in the short run would be greater possibilities of new businesses and we could service them with local production, of course. We must regulate the margins of the entire margin. And when all these, as the stocks of these products from unloyal competition recedes, So this should recede, and together with the chain, we should be able to work with new projects with local steel and added value. This should be the impact in the short term. Now, as steel mill gains scale, the margins will improve. Our next question. From Caio Ribeiro to Tiago. Tiago, he wants to know about the Compactus project. Any updates or timing to approve the expansion project and the lifespan of this asset and something about the CAPEX? Thank you, Caio, for your question. No, no updates. We continue, as we had already communicated, the MUSA team is making progress in all their studies and the detailed engineering of the project. We've started the environmental licensing processes. In our view, this is a critical path for the decision-making process. After the approval of the environmental license process, I believe that we should be ready to make the final decision on the project. We calculate that this approval will be around mid 2025. It all depends how the state conducts the process. Now regarding value, we have not been updated. We must see what's going to happen with the studies. And it would be premature to talk about values if the project hasn't been concluded yet. What we can say in terms of reference of value that was communicated years ago, that was around $1 billion in investments, And we do imagine that when we consider that time has gone by from that period up till the day, there should be an increase. Therefore, a reference of 1.5 billion could be something reasonable. But this is still not a value that has been formally communicated to the Usiminas management. Our next question for Miguel. Gabriel Simoes from Goldman Sachs wants to know about the automotive. He wants you to talk about the April negotiation with the automotive sector. What about the prices and the terms? Yes, we ended the contracts. They had update conditions as of April 1st. These conditions were agreed upon similar terms that we had on January 1st. Now these contracts represent about 70% of our customers from the automotive customers, and January was around 12%. Our next question for Thiago. Now working capital. What about forfeiting in the upcoming quarters? How do you see working capital when you think about forfeiting? Ricardo, we see no significant variations in the upcoming quarters, but the next quarter, this forefading reduction was planned. We intended to go back to normal levels. These are the levels before Blast Furnace 3 retrofit happened. We thought that we could do it in a more diluted way as the improvement of working capital was better this quarter. We reduced this already to a reasonable level. So today, around 800 million reais in for fading. This is a historically... medium level for Uzi Minas. So I believe that this is at a normal level. Of course, we will have slight fluctuations and variations, but always along these values, that would be 800 million reais. So the working capital expectation is stability, and we will use this to accommodate any relevant oscillations in working capital. There was a question from Igor. Exactly. Igor Gedges from Genial. So it's already been answered. Now, Thiago, Lucas Lager from XP wants to know about the free cash flow. Which measures could the company adopt to mitigate the free cash flow effects for the year? Is there flexibility in your capex from 1.7 to 1.9? This year, Lucas, for starters, we see no need. Therefore, our CapEx is stable. The main projects underway are important projects, and we are interested in maintaining this timeline. Once again, the effect on the free cash flow. was on purpose because of the cash level and the leverage of the company. Therefore, currently, we see no need for any type of mitigating action in addition to the normal actions that would be control. We control better our working capital, pursuing a gain of profitability and cash generation with our operations. Thank you, Tiago. The next question here is, here we have Daniel Sasson. Everybody wants to know about costs. Gabriel Simões for Goldman Sachs, Leonardo Correio, BTG, Ricardo Bonegavi, Safra, Rafael, Safra, Bradesco, Igor Guedes, Genial, Rafael, Araújo Evolves, all want to know about costs. Although the cost of the steel has dropped during the first quarter, what can we expect during the second quarter because of a slight increase because of the exchange rate? How do you... What also led to a better mix of products? And this reflects on higher price costs with the stability price. Well, if it costs more to produce it, don't you believe that the price should be higher? Oh, this is a complex question with a number of variables. I am going to explain this so that you can understand and Miguel and Marcelo can jump in. It's important, number one, to remember the operational configuration of Usimin. As I said, today we produce crude steel in Ipatinga and we're on our way or we're there already. of producing all the necessary steel that is laminated in ipachinga we depend on steel slabs that are purchased what is well in ipachinga we continue with the expectation of a cost reduction As Blast Furnace 3 stabilizes itself and as it delivers everything that we expected to deliver in terms of cost reduction, this expectation is maintained and we believe that this will. And this is happening now. Now the laminated material in Coubaton, or that is rolled in Coubaton, is purchased. I don't know if you saw the market indicators. We buy slabs at market values. You will see that there was a significant increase in the price of the slab between the end of last year and the beginning of this year. And when you see the negotiation to negotiate, to receive it and to sell it, Now, this effect will touch the results of next quarter. And the negotiation of slab purchase are in dollar. The depreciation also impacts. this entry that is cost. This is the main vector you should consider. Of course, the drop of production impacts part of our cost, but not everything. But there is another side that is exposed to the purchase of our slabs. We want to stable our volumes, let's say 1 million by 50,000 millions. One third of the sales have a direct impact on the cost. And we have to see also the depreciation. And now when we talk about margins, a greater mix represents a greater price and a greater cost. And this is why we see the possibility of maintaining A net revenue per ton, which is stable, although there has been a negotiation of cost drops in the automotive center. We said if one third of our sales is the automotive sector, 20% would be impacted by 12%. That is being offset by a better sales mix. In terms of costs of our own production, the ramp up of our blast furnace is evolving and it's aligned with our plan. Today we have a productive setting with both furnaces, blast furnace three that has already been mentioned and we also have a smaller furnace this productive scenting is compared to three blast furnaces and And with this relining, we've totally updated our operation and we're already being able to produce in certain periods between 80 and 90% of our productive capacity. This is a positive prospect. Thank you. Our next question about the same subject, still on the same. Rafael Barcelos wants to know about historically Cox follows similar trends. Could you give us details? While this movement didn't take place during the next quarter, can this affect C with a greater lag during the third quarter? Rafael, the difference between the production setting of Ipatinga and Cubatão And this possibility of the cost of the slab or steel may follow different trends during a period. Although the cost of steel production drops, there will be an increase in the price of slabs. And here you see the difference and a greater detail. And I won't go into the ropes, but the turnover of the inventory in Ipachinga is different from that in Cubatão. These effects are not always matched. Now, from cost to result, Gabriel Simões from Goldman Sachs wants to know, because of the drop of the cost production, We would like to see the stable EBITDA on the second quarter because with this, I believe that you will improve the EBITDA. According to what I just said, the steel production costs drops because of the stabilization of blast furnace 3, but the slabs that will be stripped will increase because of the effect of the dollar. We always have to Take into this account one-third and two-thirds. This is when we use our own production, when we use purchased slabs. Although the production cost has dropped, the increase of the price of the slab offsets. This is why we trend to see a stable COGS and not a reduction in our COGS. now about minute mining volume gabriel simmons chrome gold goldman sachs and igor get to say the following we expected a lauren a lower iron or volume during this quarter there's a problem that we didn't see on q1 with volumes increasing year on year How do you see this and what are your expectations? Do you believe that you will resolve this during the second semester? I don't know if there is another thing. And how this parallelization of the... of this iron or treating unit how did this impact your production the volume of the quarter was slightly above as we expected it this is a quarter always impacted by seasonal rains which hampers the operation of our plant now we've been able to maintain this volume in part because of the use of inventory. This was material in our inventory, and there were opportunities that emerged during the second half of the quarter. This was the sale of granulated material, that lump that has a lower specification, and the market not always is interested in it, and an opportunity emerged. and the international opportunities emerged to sell this opportunity. Now volumes for the rest of the year. Our view is still lower volume than last year precisely because of the paralyzation of some areas and the new Runs are within our timeline. Runs of operation, we will see an improvement of volume as of the second semester, not next quarter, but throughout the year. Our expectation is to have volume levels lower than last year. Well, I would like to highlight The important capacity and flexibility of our team that adapts to market conditions means mainly what they do is they look for more efficiency in costs to enable operations. And this was one of the key factors from our team. to leverage this business window that Thiago mentioned. And we had positive results when we take into account the important volatility that iron ore suffered last quarter. Our next question. From Daniel Sasson from Itaú BBA. He wants to know about Musa prices and how prices impacted the results of the division. Could you tell us how the mechanism prices impacted this? How to see this throughout the year? Is there room for improving? The situation, one, regarding the impact of prices, there was an important drop during the quarter. And for exports, the final price of the sale is defined by the month when the material arrives during Q4 last year. We turned with a relevant amount of material in transit, and these prices were remarked during January and February at a lower IODEX. The transit volume was about 100 million tons of iron ore that were remarked in addition to all the material that was shipped throughout the quarter. Now, material that was in transit during the end of this quarter was around 700,000 tons. And Leo can correct me if I am wrong, but that this was around 700,000. So it is important to bear this in mind. So you see the impact what was sold. This quarter was sold last quarter and was remarked in terms of quality. During this quarter, there was a lump opportunity sale. This was a material with greater discount, and this impacted the realized average price. And this also depends on the volumes that we will realize during the next semester. The improvement of quality, we expect an improvement of quality once we enter in the new areas. And we will see this stronger during the second semester of this year. During the next quarter, we do not expect an improvement. in prices of materials sold. I don't know if I answered everything. And the volumes are right. Now, Musa, Daniel Sasson and Leonardo Correa, they want to know about the cost of production per ton Increase 17% quarter on quarter. Should we expect an increase of CPP during the second quarter? Cost of production returned. How to see the dynamic of cost throughout the year? And Leo Correio completes asking about the China break-even point, if there is space of a drop in the future. now regarding cost of production per ton there was an increase and and part is because of the paralyzation of terminalis that has a good processing cost. And once you stop, there is an increase because you are processing material in other area. In addition to the drop in fixed cost, there is an impact in cost because of the geographic situation of the mines. and the need of transporting or shipping material. This is a situation that will not improve significantly during the next quarters. By and large, we see the CPT-Burton-Ramosa at this level. It may oscillate. when ITM comes back to normal activities. Now, breakeven, I really didn't understand this question. I didn't understand the objective of this question. I believe in the possibility of a lower cost that impacts the breakeven up till the end of the year. Well, we do not see... We don't have a strong reduction cost until the end of the year. And what affects actually sales variation would be the price of iron ore in the market and freight. That has been an important component when we see the margins of our mining unit. OK. Thiago, Rafael Barcelos wants to know about cost. He wants a follow-up on the cost question. Can we talk about cost expectations during the second semester? No, the second semester is a bit distant to say anything about it. During the next quarter, during the next call, we will talk about our expectations regarding steel production costs. If we are at a level that we consider normal or stable, in terms of the cost of steel production, or if we will have an improvement during the second semester. And this will also depend on the development of the market prices of the slabs. Currently, it would be speculating. I would be speculating if I would talk about this. Our next question for Miguel. Romadi Silva from Bank of Brazil. Now sales, the steel unit now, sales per segment in the domestic market. What can we expect for the second quarter? Greater representation of the automotive sector will continue. Yes, we had a better share of the automotive sector during Q1. What we've also said that the automotive sales represent one third of sales in during Q1. This percentage added up to 35% or difference or variations of one or two points. are connected to the dynamic of the inventory of the chain. We could expect, yes, the same share of the automotive sector during the second semester. And now the distribution, well, we can maintain one third in the automotive sector, give or take one point. We have the industrial sector, we have spot and the industrial sector. I would like to clarify that we expect a stable sales volume for the second quarter. But yes, we should see the seasonality and the demand of the domestic market and a drop in the export market. We can have better mixed export and domestic sales, and we could have domestic sales representing 90 or 95 percent of our total sales. Miguel, a question. Exports from the steel unit. Marie Silva is also asking. She wants you to elaborate on the strong increase of the North American. market, Uzi Minas, we're always looking for business opportunities in the national and the export market. U.S. has import quotas or different quotas for different products that come from Brazil, and throughout the first quarter, we were able to capitalize important businesses that according to the quotas of the American market, every time here we have cold coils, hot coils, galvanized products. So whenever it is possible, we will capitalize on these opportunities. now more details about the the price dynamic of flat steel after depreciation do you expect an increase of price in the upcoming month rafael yes the depreciation put pressure on our cost in addition to the depreciation There is pressure because of the increase of slab purchase conditions because of the increase of international markets. So this determines our prices. There are possibilities of adjusting prices in the upcoming months because of the cost pressure that we're feeling right now. Thank you, Miguel. Now our last question for Marcelo from Igor Guedes from Genial. He asks, I'm going to read it because it's elaborate here. He says that in December we disconnected Blast Furnace 1 because of the increase of Chinese imports that were stealing our market share with the ramp up of Blast Furnace 3 and the gradual increase of production and we... And with the prospect of stable volume, will you decrease utilization rates of other blast furnaces because your competition is laying off personnel and it's disconnecting equipment? Will you do something similar? Igor, as you just mentioned, We disconnected blast furnace one because of the flood that we felt of imported steel. And we have evolved in our blast furnace three ramp up. And we will continue evolving because our objective that has already been tested, the production of two blast furnace two and three with them, We can do what we did years ago with three glass furnaces. This is a gain of competitiveness. Of course, we want to capitalize ourselves in the upcoming months. In a nutshell, our objective is to maximize our productivity. We want to improve our efficiency and cost and to be more competitive and to improve our efficiency plan. to be more competitive in our market. So I would say that for the time being, our vision is to continue growing or increasing our competitiveness, maximizing production and following the market conditions. Thank you, Marcelo. So we're bringing our Q&A session to an end now, and we would like to thank all of you for your participation. And should you have any questions, our team is at your disposal. We wish you an excellent day.