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| Statement |
|---|
| For the fourth consecutive quarter, we had growth in the domestic market |
| In our case, the beauty of all of this is that our cost and our production director, Divaldo, was also able to maintain the cost at a good level, maintaining margins at 24% |
| Second highlight, a strong cash generation, R$ 387 million, which enabled us to reduce our indebtedness |
| Our businesses very generally did very well with a greater focus on steel as you know in cement, we worked very well almost 3 million tons with a margin that is once again going back to what it used to be Marcelo mentioned that we had 30% before we acquired LafargeHolcim, we are resuming to those levels |
| We have 24% of margins and of course we will continue to seek out the 30% and because of the maturity and the growing synergies of our businesses, we will be able to continue recovering these margins working fully and has always been our purpose to work at full steam and to intelligently work with the distribution of cement throughout the Brazilian territory, logistics and infrastructure with a very good performance, MRS, Tecon, Tecad and the North East Railroad and the [inaudible] Railroad at a somewhat more accelerated pace at present |
| We ended the year with the strongest EBITDA margin, R$ 3.6 million, a growth of almost 30% sequentially, thanks to the excellent performance of mining |
| We believe that 2024 will allow for better readjustments as we have a better demand |
| And it will enable us to resolve this problem in a period of two to three years and have a good operational excellence one again |
| Well, when I joined CSN 22 years ago, we represented the first cost quartile in the world and I'm very convinced that the measures that we are adopting here are for the short term, for the recovery of operational excellence, we can already see the results, and this will take us to the right level of the cost of slab, very close to the R$ 3, 000 this year, perhaps in the second half of the year in the third quarter |
| And they have proven to be very good businesses, important for the future of the CSN group |
| Regarding cement, we continue to have a very robust sales volume which testifies to our capacity of distribution through the new platform |
| In net revenues, we had a positive evolution |
| For many years, CSN was the winner with an enormous competitive edge, with a very low price, with verticalization |
| It's a combination of a strong cash generation in mining and a more difficult year in steel, where the margins are tighter and, of course, significant CapEx for the projects |
| Now we had a strong EBITDA of R$ 3.6 billion in the fourth quarter, confirming the robustness of the CN model of diversification, integration, and verticalization, reaching an EBITDA margin of 29%, even in difficult moments for the production of steel, and because of the prices that are dropping |
| What is going to make CSN more positive in terms of recovering margins and market this year is the price recovery |
| So the industry for automobiles has maintained a very positive scenario compared to previous years |
| In energy, the prices have been reacting quite speedily and with increases, which allows us to believe that the year 2024 will end up being a very positive year for energy business |
| So we had margins above 54% and EBITDA of R$ 2.7 billion because of a lower cost not only because of operation but because we had a greater amount of our own iron ore and all of this has benefited us with these high margins |
| The central plant is working better, we increase this steel content and we're also at a very positive moment because the Chinese steel is seeking iron ore that has a lower quality and low margins |
| The unit price increased more than 20% not only because of a good level of iron ore prices internationally but due to our quality that has had a good evolution |
| As you know, we have extremely good assets |
| So this is the path of a continuous lengthening and efficiency in management of the indebtedness besides a reduction of our debts, of course, this should allow us to materialize this positive outlook to have a good new upgrade at the end of the year |
| And because of our very strong growth and investment plan that we have in mining, it would allow us to do this |
| We will now speak about mining that had a very strong year, almost perfect operational performance that was truly very good throughout the process beginning with the mine, the central plant, filtering, loading at the port and that is why we had these production and sales records going beyond our guidance for the year, a growth of sales of 28% which is quite atypical in an operation of our size |
| We're convinced that throughout the semesters we will have a sequential enhancement of this indicator |
| In the case of mining, not only P15 has progressed steadily, but we have a more robust sustaining, showing good results in the short term, a better result at the port |
| We have reached 6% and we had a positive evolution in costs |
| With all of this done, I am convinced that we will continue to grow, we will continue to deleverage, pay out dividends and enhancing the longevity of our businesses |
| It continues to have an excellent performance, where on the growth, not only in terms of quantity but also quality |
| Statement |
|---|
| We see that the steel plant is below the potential it could deliver |
| The fourth quarter ended at 7% lower than the fourth quarter of 2022 |
| So you will agree with me that these are very challenging goals |
| Domestic sales dropped because imports were out of the curve |
| Despite this, we had a drop of 5 % during the year due to this issue and due to perhaps hyperbolic and un-loyal competition of imported steel |
| This hampers your margin |
| But of course, we have the problem of imports and competition |
| And we always have an enormous challenge set forth by the Chairman, growing volume, growing prices, work in a fragmented way |
| Imports had a drop of 40% |
| We have a growth year-on-year of 7%, a market environment where the market had a retraction |
| We ended the year at R$ 11.9 million, a decrease vis-à-vis 2022 because of the more difficult moment in the steel sector |
| Reduction in the price of electrical energy |
| And these are areas of challenges |
| This has a clear impact that is measurable as this will happen at the end of March the big step you should expect now for the second quarter, there will be drops, but there will be a more significant drop in the second quarter |
| We accompanied your problem with dumping with steel sheets |
| But unfortunately, in the fourth quarter, we had to follow the strong trend of competition, especially in markets where we do have higher competition, like São Paulo, so as not to lose out on volume |
| There is a very short term issues, the normalization vis-a-vis the operational problems we had last year and the maturity of investments for the mid and long term, the battery, the hot rolled laminators so this figure of R$ 3 ,000 |
| And a scenario of increase in sales, 7% growth of sales, vis-à-vis a drop of 1.5% in the market |
| And of course, this has a relevant impact on your margins, besides the issue we are aware of, competition versus imported products, and low purchasing power |
| It's not a reaction to this more difficult year that we had in our investor days, cement days |
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