Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We are delighted to welcome you again to the analyst conference in the second quarter. Today, we will cover the performance of the first half and also the second quarter of this year. My name is Sornnarin Bangkedphol from IR team, and I will be your host on this afternoon session. As usual, we will start with the presentation from our management, and we will have the Q&A session right after. Without a further delay, may I introduce and hand over the floor to our SCG Packaging CEO, Khun Wichan Jitpukdee, and SCG Packaging CFO, Khun Danaidej Ketsuwan. Thank you, kap.
Good afternoon and [Non-English content] . Time flies so fast, and to the analyst conference for the second quarter of the year and the first half of this year, 2024. Today, I am Wichan Jitpukdee and I am sitting here at Bang Sue head office alone because our CFO tested COVID this morning just before the BOD meeting this morning. Now, I am staying in the head office in Bang Sue. Khun Danaidej, who is CFO, sits in his home. May I start with the consolidated financial performance in the first half of this year. Look at the revenue from sales the first half of this year. We closed at THB 68 billion , which improved 3% year-on-year and 7% compared to the second half of last year.
This solid revenue improvement both year-on-year and H-on-H, driven by the volume, both in integrated packaging business and also the fiber business. However, this is along with the increased selling price of the packaging paper. As you know that the RCP, the core paper, the price and the cost has been rising in the second quarter of this year. Look at the EBITDA. The EBITDA in the first half of this year is THB 9.7 billion , which improved 7% year-on-year and improved 14% compared to the second half of last year. This will lead to the EBITDA margin still maintained at 14%. In term of the net profit, we ended the first half of this year with THB 3.1 billion , which the profit margin improved to 5%.
This improvement, the profit and also the EBITDA, mostly come from the supply chain management, especially in the whole paper. In addition to that, last year for the energy cost, we said that we used the biomass to reduce the steam and energy cost and also to replace coal. That we achieved last year. Now we come to the point that we use the biomass at the full capacity. This year actually start from the second half of last year. We expand the use the deep learning, machine learning, which is the part of the AI to optimize the process and can reduce the steam consumption. Also, this first half of the year, also the result of that one can help to reduce the cost of the production, especially in term of the packaging paper chain.
In terms of the country, we see that in the first half and also second half, especially second half, Vietnam is because outperform in the four country. Thailand and Philippine business maintain as we expected. However, Indonesia performance in the second quarter are weaker than the first quarter of this year. In terms of the business segment in the first half, both integrated packaging business and in the fiber. May start with the integrated packaging business. You see here the revenue from sale are THB 50.9 billion, which improve also 3% year-on-year and 7% compared to the second half of last year. The EBITDA are THB 7.5 billion, which improved 4% year-on-year and 6% compared to the second half of last year. This the IPB chain margin improvement along with the volume.
However, the cost of the RCP increased, but with the team effort and the supply chain management, we can manage the RCP price and also reduce the energy cost. That for the IPB chain. For the fiber business, revenue from sale are THB 13.1 billion, improve also 5% year-on-year and 7% compared to second half of last year. For the EBITDA are THB 2.3 billion, which improved 20% year-on-year and 27% compared to the second half of last year. So this first half of the year, fiber business show a robust improve compared to last year, which lead to the EBITDA margin 18% compare the IPB EBITDA margin of 15%, thanks to improvement in the fiber business. Go to the business portfolio. Start from the revenue portfolio. Packaging paper chain account for 38%, reduced 1% compared to first half of last year.
In the meantime, the integrated packaging chain in that area include with the polymer and the fiber packaging improved 1% from 36%- 37%. In this here, you see here the downstream, the polymer packaging and the fiber packaging. The figure come closer to the upstream, which is a packaging paper. In the past year, we have been improved the downstream portion a lot. This is to reduce the leaks in the future. By the way, the fiber business and the recycling business still maintain at 19% and 6% respectively. In term of the business segmentation by country, we see here Thailand still the same at 42%. Indonesia still maintain at 14%. Vietnam, as mentioned in the first slide, that Vietnam this year outperform other country, which also drive from the Euro soccer, Euro football, and also the Olympic.
The footwear apparel export from Vietnam has outstanding in the second quarter. This lead to the sale revenues by country here in Vietnam improve from 14%- 15%. The rest almost are the same. But the most important here, we see that the export portion has been reduced from the first half of last year from 19% to 17%. This is mainly the export in the second quarter to China has been reduced due to the demand and also the supply slowdown. This ended with the export to China in the first half of this year at 6%. Last but not least, for the consumer link here. The consumer link, which include on the food, beverage, FMCG, E&E portion, A4, cut size, and other related to consumer link, has been improved to 74% compared to last year, which is the 71%.
In addition to this, in terms of the packaging solution, we have been achieved 35% and 36% in terms of the packaging solution. This help SCG Packaging strong and very resilient in terms of close to consumer and in terms of the effort to improve the solution, which we cross-selling between the polymer and the fiber packaging. In terms of the market movement in the second quarter of this year, we see that the manufacturing PMI in the major country has been improved, evidenced by the graph that are shown in here. We expect that this is slightly recovery. In terms of the export, we see that Thailand and Vietnam, the export has been improved, has been increased, which we see the evidence on the graph. Look a bit further in detail. Vietnam export by industry in the first five months of this year.
We can see here E&E improve a lot at 35%, while the machinery and other improved 10% and 14%. So in the average export, Vietnam improved 16%, which is quite a good number. In terms of the inflation, this inflation continue to reduce a little, but it's different country by country. But we see this as reduce and reduction in terms of the inflation. In addition to that, on the bottom right corner, we make a figure here of the GDP of Thailand here. We say that the GDP of Thailand quite small, 2% to something. But we look inside here, the private consumption, the export and import has been improved except the government spending that reduce. Once again, the SCG Packaging product portfolio, mainly we link to the consumer link that related to private consumption.
That's why we see the domestic consumption in Thailand, Vietnam, Philippine, and also Indonesia has been improved for the second quarter for the domestic consumption, except for the export. So that the portion I start with the business highlight. Next, for the business segment review, may I pass to Khun Danaidej, please, kap.
Yes, thank you very much. I'll start with the demand movement of the key countries. As you can look at the Q1/Q, we have positive growth from Q2 over Q1 in most of the countries except for maybe two, in Indonesia and in Thailand, where there's holidays in both countries. So that affect the demand in the second quarter to be lower in Indonesia from Q1 and relatively flat for Thailand. But if you look at the year-on-year change, we can see that in all the countries the demand has grown. That's a positive sign that it has improved activity, improved demand across all the countries. And we observe the increase to be in the range of 4%-14% year-on-year, depending on the countries. Now, if you look at each of the business units, start from the one closer to the consumer.
For the consumer staples like F&B, FMCG consumer products, that continue to have a good positive momentum in Q2 compared to the previous quarter. That is due to the demand of the domestic demand that was still healthy. Also, as I mentioned, there is a negative impact for Thailand and Indonesia for the seasonality. Moving a little bit into more difficult portion of the consumer product, mainly the consumer discretionary.
That actually has improved also in the Q2 because we see the export order for the apparel and footwear, which generally was weak, has resumed, and that is due to the fact that people are buying more in the U.S. and EU because of the outdoor activities, the summer season, as well as sport events that is occurring. But if we talk about E&E automatic part, it has been down a little bit in Q2, and that is because in Q1, people already purchased quite a bit of E&E in anticipation of the summer in the region. Food service packaging is quite healthy both in term of the QSR segment, which is fast food in Asian market, as in Japan and other countries, is growing in line with how people are spending and demand had picked up.
Also, if you talk about other type of food packagings that we sent over to countries like U.S., U.K., and EU, that has already also picked up because of the outdoor activities for the summer that has increased. For the upstream packaging paper, the demand pattern is in line with the consumers in the sense that we have increased demand in Vietnam and the Philippines, driven by food, fresh fruits, and agriculture and other things. Whereas demand in Thailand and Indonesia was weak due to holidays. Particularly, we have a lower export volume going to China as well, especially from the Indonesian operations, and that is because of the pricing factor is not favorable for the export for the few months within the last quarters.
The pulp, in general, the pulp price remain quite healthy on the high side, and that is in relation to the growing demand in the garment and textile industry. Next, we move to the quarterly performance. In term of sales revenue, we record THB 34.2 billion for the quarter, and that is, if you talk about year-on-year, it is up about 6%. Mainly the volume was up. In most of the segments, all the volume was up, whereas for the price factor, year-on-year was not increases very much. It is relatively flat. But if you talk about Qo Q factor, the revenue growth grows slightly. We have volume that is lower than the first quarter due to the holiday and other export volume, but the pricing has been increasing across the board, so that helps in term of the revenue. Moving to EBITDA.
Our EBITDA was THB 4.6 billion, slightly lower on the year, but a drop about 10% QoQ. This is the result of the volume in the second quarter that was lower, plus the cost factor, mainly the RCP cost has risen also in the quarter. That reduced our EBITDA as well as our EBITDA margin, which dropped to 14% in the last quarter. Similarly, for profit, net profit was THB 1.4 billion, a slight drop from last year and about 16% drop for the quarter. That is mainly from the EBITDA that was lower in the second quarter. Next will be on the by business chain. We look at the integrated packaging chain. Revenue was THB 25.5 billion. Year-on-year was increased by about 6%, and that is due to higher sale volume from most of the segments.
If we talk about QoQ, the revenue remained relatively flat. If you look at some of the sub-segment, polymer packaging QoQ was actually increased in term of revenue, and that is because of the healthy demand and sales volume for F&B and FMCG, in the domestic market, the ASEAN market, as well as some of the export market. Also, we have implement some synergy across for the flexible packaging that we produce in Vietnam with the sales channel that we just acquired in the Law Print in the U.K. So we have increased that synergies to help the volume flow. Also, the medical supply labware has improved QoQ. Talking about fiber packaging, the box in general, the demand in Vietnam and the sales in Vietnam has improved, basically because of the consumption, agriculture, and other things. But demand in Thailand and Vietnam has reduced.
For packaging paper, the volume QoQ dropped by about 5%, and that is mainly from the export from Indonesia or from other countries to other markets, particularly to China. But selling price has improved. If you talk about packaging paper overall, the price factor has increased by about 3% across the board. If you talk about Indonesia, it has improved 4% QoQ. So EBITDA for the quarter for this business chain is about THB 3.6 billion, and relatively flat compared to the last year. Packaging paper volume was up year-on-year, but the price was down. If you talk about QoQ, it dropped by about 9%, and that is due to the volume that was dropped. But the price actually increased, but the cost also increased. So margin for this business chain reduced from 16% to 14%. For the fibers business, revenue record about THB 6.6 billion.
Year-on-year is increased by about 3%, and that is attributed by the increasing volume of our food service business, which has higher sales in this quarter, as well as the pulp price that was higher compared to last year. But in terms of QoQ, the revenue remained relatively flat. Food service was doing quite well in term of QoQ. Volume was up, revenue was up in most of the segment, but the down was coming from the volume of paper, particularly the paper that we sell because of the maintenance activity that we have in the Q2. If you look at the specialty grades, it actually has increased. For pulp, QoQ revenue was relatively flat. So EBITDA for the period is THB 1.1 billion. That is slight increase on the year and a decline of 12% on the quarter.
The decline was mainly due to the volume that was reduced from the paper. That is the recap of the Q2 performance. Next, we move to the financials to reconcile net income, core profit, and net profit. We do not have many special items in the year, so the figures remain a little bit close. Our core profit was THB 1.479 billion, whereas our net profit was THB 1.453 billion. Next will be on our balance sheet. You can see that the net debt remained relatively stable at THB 32 billion. So our net debt to EBITDA at the end of the quarter, at the end of the first half was at 1.7x . We have cash about THB 24 billion and debt of about THB 56 billion. Our capital expenditure for the past six months is not very large.
It is about THB 3 billion, and we have one M&A that was done, but it is not a very big one, so that has not yet contributed to the high CapEx on the growth segment. We still do budget CapEx for the whole year was about THB 15 billion. We anticipate to have some additional transaction or some deals before the year-end that would come into this growth CapEx section. As you already know, we already have anticipate the use of CapEx about THB 23 billion for the acquisition of the additional remaining Fajar shares, and that would be most likely completed within this Q3. That is funded out of the THB 8 billion from cash and THB 15 billion of debt. That includes already the debenture that we have already issued.
Also today, the board has approved an interim dividend payment of THB 0.25 per share, and that is consistent with what we have paid for the past three years. This will be paid out in August. That is on the financial review. Next will be business update by Khun Wichan CEO. Thank you.
Thank you, k ap. Khun Danaidej , and thank you for your spirit. Even the COVID, you still help to explain. Thank you very much. Come to the next session four, about the business update here. As you know that we disclosed the merger and partnership with VEM Thailand, where the company situated in Rayong. Before I go to that, may I come back to the T-profile business model and the competency that we believe and we are going to new business beyond the core and adjacency. Look back and talk about the T-profile business model here. So we use this already four years since we IPO the company. We say that we are the company that deep vertical integration and also really wide horizontal expansion in the customer portfolio. In term of the integrated packaging business, it starts from the recovered paper.
We have the recycling station across in ASEAN. We also collect plastic. In the past, we collected only the paper, but in the past 5- 10 years, we started to collect the plastic. That is the key raw material. Now for the paper, we usually recycle more than 99%. Plastic, we are 30%, 40% like that. From the RCP recycled paper, we manufacture the packaging paper in all kinds of grade. However, on the top of that, in terms of the wide horizontal, we focus all types of the packaging, starting from the primary, secondary, and the tertiary packaging. The primary packaging, mostly this is direct contact with food and goods. Mostly the material for this primary is a polymer packaging. We see that in the past few years, we started entering through the healthcare business.
That is something to explain in the next page of the information. In terms of the display packaging, we have the printing for the beautification of the packaging and the tertiary packaging which is used for the logistic and transportation. This covers the very wide range of the packaging material. We focus on the paper and the plastic, which glass and metal we have not entered into in that kind of material yet. For the right side about the fiber business, start from a plantation which we call renewable resources. Each year we plant eucalyptus and sell the seedling and the young tree, about 40 million eucalyptus trees a year. These we harvest in both our own plantation and from the farmer to manufacture pulp, both the chemical pulp and semi-chemical pulp. This also is used as a material to produce printing, writing or fine paper.
In the past 4 or 5 years, we entered into the food packaging. This is going to improve a lot and help to transform the fiber business. That makes the fiber business really healthy as this year, as evident by the result of the first half of this year. Next information. From this information, you see on the left-hand side, the column in the light blue color. We prepare two columns. The first column is the product of SCG Packaging that are produced today. The second column we call this is the manufacturing competency. Another word is that the competency of making those products. For example, for the rigid plastic packaging, the technology and the competency that we are having, we call the injection molding, blow molding, even thermoforming. For the flexible, we call film extrusion, molded pulp molded and coating.
Paper and carton, this is we call the fiber modification. We use recycled fiber, we put nano, we put the starch to make the strength of the paper in the quality of the grade. Display packaging, R&D, and the services. That is the product and the competency. I pause here with the product and the competency. We see on the top on the light yellow that we call the healthcare supply sub-segment. We summarize here for the six sub-segments, starting from the healthcare packaging, healthcare equipment and supply. For the first two, which the first two that we are focusing for pharmaceutical healthcare service, biotechnology, and healthcare technology on the right side, which we see the opportunity in the future. By mapping between our competency and the sub-segment of the healthcare industry, we see that the healthcare packaging and healthcare equipment and supply, which use our competency.
Number one here we call injection molding medical device and equipment. We know how to inject polymer. We know how to produce the labware by blow molding. That is why we enter into this because we have competency. The difference of the normal polymer and plastic packaging compared to the medical and healthcare is about the cleanliness and the certification to produce medical and labware. Number three, we call the flexible medical bag. Now we already produce this but in terms of the packaging. But in terms of the primary packaging which produce the saline bags, things like that, we are entering into that in coming soon. By these three competency lead us to draw the T-profile business model that we enter into the healthcare by using our manufacturing competency. Next information is about VEM Thailand.
This I explained two information before here is that because we think that VEM Thailand has benefit to expand the medical and healthcare supply in Thailand and in ASEAN, I mean in the future, Thailand is now. As we enter into M&P Deltalab into Spain, now we want to produce that product in Thailand. If we construct a new factory, it might take one to one and a half years. The most important is that if we produce medical and healthcare supply, we have to certify the ISO 13485, which is ISO for the medical devices. But VEM, they already certify ISO 13485. In addition to that, VEM Thailand also having the ISO clean room, ISO Class 8 and Class 7, which help to fabricate the assembly of those component for the other medical and testing machine.
This [PMV] take share 90% and the old owner will keep it at 10%. Look back into the right side for the circle graph. Sell by destination. VEM Thailand sell all those product in Thailand only at 43%. The rest 57% they do export to U.S., China, and a small portion to other country. But look back into the segmentation of the industry of the customer. Of course, the automotive and aerospace is number one and number two. Medical and medical DIY is number three, which share is 21%. This is we see the opportunity to move and bring some product from Deltalab to produce in Thailand and start to market that product in Thailand.
In terms of the bottom right corner here is the sample of the product that we plan to produce here in Thailand at VEM Thailand in the Rayong province. That the latest M&A that we announced in this month. Next is the Fajar improvement and going forward the strategy. As you see that in the second quarter of this year, the soft demand sale volume from the seasonal effect and also the weak export to China due to the demand and also weak price in China. However, the domestic volume has been improved, and also the price has been about 4% quarter-over-quarter as committed. However, the raw material price also increased in the second half of the year due to the demand of the RCP very strong in the second quarter due to the domestic demand.
The strategy for the company into second half of this year. The first thing, we will optimize the product portfolio by concentrating on the high-value segment and streamline operation, I mean, cost reduction of those, and also increase the supply chain efficiency. The second, we will do a strategic enhance of the RCP sourcing. We will balance between the local RCP and also the imported RCP. We prioritize on the partner to get more RCP from the domestic. Number three is that we drive into the operational excellence and also the supply chain excellence by improving productivity, of course, cost reduction, especially the freight cost that we are planning to reduce. Also the synergy and the leverage of the SCGP capability, especially from the deep learning, machine learning and AI together to help in term of the energy cost.
Last but not least, we expand market reach and capability by forging strategic alliance, especially for the Chinese importer. This is the key that we will maintain the volume to China. Next is a good news for the first half of this year, especially in the second quarter. SCGP certified CFP, so-called the Carbon Footprint of Product. In the past, we also disclose and we talk about the CFO meaning Carbon Footprint of Organization. We have targeted that by year 2030, we reduce Carbon Footprint of Organization by 25%, which base year is 2020. Now four year passed, we reached more than 10% of the reduction here. The second quarter, we received the certification from the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization in term of the product in pulp, printing writing paper, food, service packaging paper, fiber packaging, printing and paper packaging process also.
We summarize here we have 109 product in pulp and 19 products in the copy paper, and also 16 processes involve printing and also paper packaging. This lead to our SCGP to be a pioneer. I would say pioneer, but in fact, we are the first one who get certified from the TGO in Thailand. As you know that the licensing requirement of the Carbon Footprint of Product and help to reduce low, medium, high figure, it doesn't matter. But if we commit, it mean that we can reduce the CO2 emission in the future. Come back to the next session outlook and the key takeaway here. Look at in the internal commitment here, of course, the strategic execution of the Fajar turnaround. That's a key to improve the financial performance, is something like if we play golf, bogey and birdie. We are pushing hard.
We are brainstorm to improve the financial performance of Fajar turnaround. In term of the supply chain excellent through the RCP sourcing management. We will increase the utilization of all the packaging paper facility while we emphasize on the synergy across operation. In term of the expansion, we also expand in term of the organic and also M&A. This year we already finished one M&A. Mostly we have one, two or maximum three M&A each year. We improve in the innovation and packaging solution and of course, we get the Carbon Footprint of Product certification from the TGO in Thailand. In term of the external, we see that ASEAN and global are slightly recover slowly in term of the PMI. However, in term of the ASEAN, we see the export and the domestic growing is very strong.
RCP price are still continue to be high side due to the demand in Europe and in this Southeast Asia. The increase the price of the paper and the box will be continue until end of this year. Last but not least, the emerging geopolitical risk. Also one of the key at this weekend, we see that there was a change in the election in the U.S. and in other Europe. We see that the way that we diversify the product portfolio and also the location, that help a lot of SCG to be a resilient company in the future. I summarize today in three key takeaways that Indonesia is still important and this we will improve and enhancement the financial performance, especially in Indonesia and also synergy in term of the ability across region, across company.
In term of M&A, we still growing in term the core adjacency and also in term of the new business as evidenced by the M&A with VEM Thailand in this month. In term of supply chain excellence and operational excellence, we use the data analytic driven to improve these efforts. Also now we prioritize ESG and CFP. This will help to improve the competitive advantage over the competitor. We talk to the multinational customer, multinational company. They are really happy to do this, and this seem to be will be a strengthen between the supplier and between the customer who are those multinational who use the benefit and who use the Carbon Footprint of Product in their product. That is all the result of the second quarter and also the result of the first half of this year.
We would like to thank our participant for the joining of our virtual conference today. We look forward to see you again in the next quarter and today. Thank you.