Good morning. My name is Indira Díaz, Cementos Argos, and I welcome you to our first quarter results release. On the call today are Juan Esteban Calle, our CEO, Felipe Aristizábal , our CFO, María Isabel Echeverri, the VP of Legal Affairs, Simon Bates, the CEO of Argos USA, Carlos Yusty, the VP of the Colombia division, and Gustavo Uribe, the General Manager of Argos Panama and Central America. Please note that certain forward-looking statements and information during the call or in the reports and presentation uploaded at www.argos.co/ir are related to Cementos Argos S.A. and its subsidiaries, which are based on the knowledge of current facts, expectations, circumstances, and assumptions of future events. Various factors may cause Argos' future results, performance, or accomplishments to differ from those expressed herein.
The forward-looking statements are made to date. Argos does not assume any obligation to update said statements in the future as a result of new information, future events, or any other factors. All the discussions of the financial and operational results held during the call will be based on the adjusted figures, excluding non-recurring and non-core operations. For a detailed reconciliation of the adjustments, please refer to the annexes of our quarterly report. Today, after the initial remarks, there will be a Q&A session. If you have a question, please raise your hand by pressing the icon at the bottom of your screen at any time during the conference. We will record this Q&A session and upload it to our webpage. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Calle.
Thank you, Indira. Good morning, everyone. In line with our commitment of delivering strong operational and financial results with a special emphasis on profitability, we have achieved remarkable results during the first quarter of 2023. The stable market dynamics throughout our regions, coupled with an exceptional execution of our pricing strategy and a more controlled cost environment, led us to achieve COP 3.4 trillion of revenue, 35.2% higher than the first quarter of 2022, and a record high EBITDA for a first quarter in our history of COP 597 billion, 70.8% higher versus our comparable basis of 2022, which led to an exceptional margin expansion of 368 basis points for the quarter.
In terms of pricing, we achieved double-digit increases on a yearly basis for the cement business in the U.S. and in Colombia, which together with the cost efficiencies implemented during the past quarters and operational improvements carried out recently, increased not only our EBITDA, but also our margins amidst a context of stable market dynamics. In the CCA region, as we have discussed on past quarters, we have been focused on increasing the sourcing from our Cartagena plant, allowing us to improve our cost structure and increase the overall profitability within the company. More recently, we have also been strengthening our portfolio of solutions for our clients in countries such as Panama, with important benefits for both our clients in terms of pricing and performance, and for ourselves in terms of profitability and volumes.
Overall, we experienced during the quarter the stable market dynamics in most of our markets, with sequential improvements on cost, especially on fuels, energy, and in some cases, raw materials. With mixed macroeconomic signals that have kept us cautiously optimistic about the midterm trends of the market. Volumes during the quarter were stable in cement, with a mild decrease of 0.6% versus the same quarter of last year, and the ready-mix business experienced a contraction of 2.3%, explained by minor volume affectations in the U.S. and in Colombia. Regarding our corporate structure, I would like to highlight that during our general shareholders meeting, Carolina Soto was elected as a new independent member of our board of directors in replacement of Esteban Piedrahita that served as such for the past 11 years.
Carolina Soto is an economist from the Universidad de los Andes with a master's degree on economy from the same university and a master's degree in administration and public policy from Columbia University, with more than 15 years of experience in both the public and the private sector. To Esteban Piedrahíta, a message of gratitude for his wisdom, strategic acumen, and the selfless service that he has rendered to our company, and to Carolina Soto, a warm welcoming message to our board of directors. Now, continuing with our results, I would like to reiterate our commitment towards the execution of SPRINT, which encompasses our main initiatives to close the gap between the current market share price and its fundamental value. In that regard, I would like to invite Felipe Aristizabal to dive deeper in the latest achievements of the program.
Thank you, Juan, and good morning, everyone. In relation to the recent developments of our SPRINT program, I'd like to go through each of its pillars. Regarding the first one, we achieved an all-time record EBITDA for our first quarter of COP 600 billion and an EBITDA margin expansion of 368 basis points. As Juan mentioned earlier, reflecting our commitment to continue delivering strong financial and operational results with a special emphasis on profitability. Additionally, in terms of adjusted net income, we reached COP 118 billion, which is 10 times higher than the same quarter of last year. In relation to the second and third pillars of the program, which are associated to the distributions to shareholders, our first portion of COP 128 billion was approved and effectively paid last month.
Regarding the additional dividend payments and the share buyback program, we would like to reaffirm our commitment with our shareholders to distribute these funds before our 2024 general shareholders meeting. We continue to work on these objectives and expect to release an update in the near future. On the fourth pillar of the program, which includes the listing of the U.S. operation in the New York Stock Exchange, as we have discussed in previous calls, we continue to deliver strong results in the U.S. region and remain ready to tap the market as soon as the conditions are appropriate. Finally, on the fifth pillar, we are glad to announce that as of April 17th of this year, our common shares are once again eligible for repo operations on the back of improved liquidity. Consequently, our shareholders will once again have access to this source of financing.
As Juan mentioned earlier, we intend to continue monitoring closely the development of the plan and make the necessary adjustments to achieve the objectives of the program.
Thank you, Felipe. Now moving to the regions, I would like to invite Simon to discuss the result of the U.S., where as mentioned previously, we experienced important improvements during the quarter.
Thank you, Juan, and good morning, everyone. To start, I'd like to announce that Kathleen Phelps joined our executive team as our new Chief Financial Officer in April. Kathleen joins us from WestRock, a leader in the paper and packaging industry. She is an accomplished finance leader with significant experience in global publicly traded companies. Kathleen's background and qualifications include a degree in international business from the University of Georgia and an MBA from Columbia University. Her expertise in connecting strategy to financial outcomes, FP&A and financial systems, and building strong teams will be an incredible asset to our business as we continue to advance the organization by supporting healthy growth. I'm also delighted to introduce Charles Van Zoeren, who was recently appointed as the new President of our ready-mix business. Charles joins us from CRH, a leading provider of engineered solutions for the construction industry.
Charles has over 25 years of experience and an impressive track record of improving businesses. He has a BS in mechanical engineering and an MBA. Now moving on to Q1 results. As you may remember from our last earnings call, we discussed the margin erosion our business faced throughout 2022. Last year, the significant cost inflation in our business outpaced our ability to raise prices across both our cement and ready-mix businesses. Our primary focus for 2023 has been to improve our EBITDA margin by carefully managing both costs and pricing. For the first quarter of 2023, we saw that our North American revenues grew by 22.2% when compared to the same period in 2022. This was driven by both price and volume expansion.
As a result, our EBITDA margin was 15.7% for Q1, an expansion of 483 basis points versus the first quarter of 2022. Our EBITDA for the first quarter of 2023 reached $65 million, which is a year-over-year improvement of 76.6%. During the first quarter, the average selling price improved by 15.2% in the cement business. Volumes also improved by 7.1%. Our production in Q1 was constrained given planned outages at several of our facilities. We were able to supplement our domestic production with imports. About 6% of our 7% growth in Q1 came through imported cement. We consider our extensive port and terminal network a significant strategic advantage that enables us to meet customer demand when domestic production is constrained.
In our ready-mix business, we saw slightly softer demand in Georgia and Texas, with volumes declining on a like for like basis by 2.5%. Average selling prices improved by 21.3% year-over-year. Regarding our cost matrix, during the quarter, we experienced lower inflationary pressures than the ones we observed during the last quarter of 2022. On a sequential basis, our unitary costs in the cement business decreased 3% in fuels, mainly due to gas and 10% in power. On raw materials, we continue to experience inflationary pressures on a sequential basis. We expect some stabilization in fuels, power, and raw material costs to continue.
During the first quarter, we experienced strong demand overall with year-over-year growth in volumes and revenue. Demand in the states we serve remained positive despite some short-term sector slowdown, uncertain macro indicators, and the bad weather conditions experienced specifically in Georgia. In terms of segments, industrial and infrastructure continue to gain traction, partly explained by our commercial efforts to further diversify our portfolio away from residential construction. We expect the positive effects of the Inflation Reduction Act and the work associated to the IIJA to have an impact later in the year. Our backlog remains stable. We do not foresee any substantial change in this trend. I'd like to reinforce once again our positive view for the U.S. market, supported by our latest results and by the recent improvement in some macro indicators surrounding the U.S. economy and the building materials industry.
Thank you, Simon. In Colombia, even though we are seeing an important deterioration on the sales of housing, we are not experiencing yet any significant impacts on the overall country consumption of cement, nor in our dispatches. Carlos Horacio will now share more detail on the region.
Thank you, Juan, and good morning. During the first quarter, we continued executing price increases to offset inflation and regain profitability, resulting in a year-over-year increase of the average cement and ready-mix prices of 24.2% and 24.4% respectively. As we have mentioned in the previous calls, we have been very concentrated on improving our end-to-end processes, and particularly the profitability of our ready-mix and aggregates business by optimizing our client portfolio segments and distribution logistics. In consequence, our financial results for the quarter are remarkably positive, with an EBITDA of COP 181 billion, which is 39.4% higher than last year's figure.
In terms of profitability, we have also experienced significant improvements with an EBITDA margin for the quarter of 25.4%, which implies an expansion of 488 basis points versus the same quarter of last year. Regarding our cost structure, even though inflationary pressures in the country have not completely ceased, it is important to highlight that during the first quarter, we evidenced an important slowdown in terms of unitary fuel cost, with a sequential decrease of 3.4% in the cement business. Together with sequential stability on power and raw materials, we expect this trend to continue in the following quarters of the year.
In terms of volumes, the overall market in Colombia experienced during this quarter a contraction of 5.3% on a year-over-year basis, particularly due to a strong comparable basis for last year when we had all-time highs in terms of cement consumption in the Colombian market. Also due to affectations on the informal residential segment that has been impacted by inflation and the deterioration of the other macro indicators. Our total cement volumes decreased 4.6% year-over-year, resulting from the combination of our local market dispatches that decreased 9.8% and our exports that increased 15.9%.
In relation to the local market, I would like to highlight that in terms of gray cement, which is a product that is fully comparable to the cement dispatches published by the DANE, the decrease was 8.8%, caused by the overall market affectations, the closure of the road between Popayán and Pasto that affected our dispatches in this region where we have an important market share, and also due to some domestic markets lost during January that was rapidly regained in the following months. In terms of exports, the increase is mainly caused by the increase of 81% of the sales to the U.S. region. Finally, on the ready-mix business, volumes also decreased by 4.3% on a year-over-year basis in line with the market trends.
Regarding market dynamics, we expect a similar behavior for the remainder of the year on the basis of a strong formal housing infrastructure and commercial sectors and some headwinds arising from the informal housing segment. We will continue to deploy further strategies that will allow us to be more efficient and to capture more profitability from the current market conditions.
Thank you, Carlos. Now moving to Central America and the Caribbean. During the first quarter of the year, we continued to evidence good traction of demand dynamics for the local markets, especially in Panama, where solid economic conditions prompted the recovery of volumes. Gustavo will give more detail on the region.
Thank you, Juan. Good morning to everyone. The continuation of adequate pricing dynamics across the region and positive market conditions in Dominican Republic, as well as the recovery of the Panamanian market were the highlights of our financial results for the first quarter of the current year. Despite lower cement dispatches, which were mainly due to the trading business. A positive balance in the price cost dynamics led to positive evolutions in terms of EBITDA and margins versus the same period of last year. EBITDA reached $30 million during the first quarter, with a year-over-year increase of 2.2%. EBITDA margin remains stable in 20.6%. Average cement prices increased 8.2% when compared to the same period of the last year.
Local cement dispatches were 4.9% higher when compared to the first quarter of 2022, supported mostly by volume increases in Panama and Dominican Republic that were partially offset by Haiti, which continues to present a very challenging social and political situation that has been deteriorating since the beginning of April. Trading volumes on the other side decreased 31.9% year-over-year, which as well as in present quarters is explained by our aim to maximize margins and capitalize the usage of our export capacity from Colombia. Total volumes for the region decreased 5.2% when compared to the same period of last year. In Panama, cement volumes recovered satisfactorily with a 21.3% growth when compared to the same quarter of last year, with monthly volumes in March being equal to those evidenced in 2019.
We expect positive market dynamics to continue throughout the year, given the optimistic changes in the growth perspectives for the country. Currently, Panama leads the growing prospects for the year in the region, according to the International Monetary Fund, that projected real GDP growth for 2023 to stand at 5%. We intend to capitalize this positive environment by expanding our portfolio of solutions, which provide a wide range of products for self-construction, aiming at offering cost-affordable, practical, and higher performance products that generate improved efficiencies for our clients and increase margins for our business. In Honduras, we evidenced a stable trend in market conditions for the quarter that led to a mild decrease in volumes of 1% versus the same period of the year. Pricing remained steady, reaching mid-single digit improvements year-over-year.
Guatemala, which is currently a trading business sourced from Honduras operation, has been rapidly expanding. The total volumes sold during 2022 were around 65,000 tons and were doubled versus the present year. We intend to achieve a similar growth for the current year. The Dominican Republic, on the other side, continued to exhibit strong pricing dynamics with 13% year-over-year growth in terms of cement prices, remaining in historic highs. Demand conditions continued to be solid, which result in an increase of 14% in volumes versus last year. In Haiti, the challenging social and political situation continues to be the main setback for the operation, affecting cement dispatches that were 20.9% lower than those observed during the first quarter of 2022. Nevertheless, it is.
important to highlight that for the first time in the last three quarters, EBITDA was positive. Notwithstanding that political situation has deteriorated significantly since the beginning of April, and volumes are expected to be further impacted in the second quarter. We remain confident about our capabilities to capitalize the strong momentum observed in most of the countries of the region and to carefully navigate the challenging situations that are present in some of our operations.
Thank you, Gustavo. Now referring to our balance statement, the net debt to EBITDA ratios to that 3.1 times during the quarter, increasing versus last year in a context of stable debt and increased EBITDA, mainly caused by a sharp Colombian peso revaluation experienced at the end of March. In terms of financial expenses, during the first quarter of the year, we started to experience lower refinancing costs, especially in Colombia, where we have found lower interest rates with banks, post Basel III implementation, which together with our hedging program focused on IBR, Colombian CPI and SOFR, prevented our financial expenses from increasing further. We are aware of the importance of optimizing our capital structure and improving further our financial expenses, and will continue to work on that for the remainder of the year.
We continue to monitor all the market variables and remain confident about our positive performance for the months to come. I would also like to reinforce once again our commitment towards the execution of SPRINT and the value generation for our shareholders. Thank you all for your attention indeed, and we can now proceed with the Q&A section.
Thank you, Juan. We will proceed then with the Q&A session. Please remember that in order to ask a question, you need to raise your hand using the icon that is at the bottom of your screen. I will say your name and company, and we'll enable your microphone. Take into account that you need to unmute your microphone before you speak. The first question comes from Alberto Valerio from UBS.
Thank you, Indira. Thank you all team from Argos, congrats for the results. My first question is about the guidance. Usually we have a first quarter weaker than the remainder of the year in terms of EBITDA. This year, if you take in a linear base, we already reached the guidance for the first quarter EBITDA. My question is, how conservative is the guidance? If not so, what we can expect in terms of second quarter and fourth quarter that it could be a challenge? This would be my first question.
Thank you very much, Alberto, for your question. I mean, we're extremely happy with the results of the first quarter, but we are keeping the guidance that we provided to the market of COP 2.3 billion-COP 2.4 billion of EBITDA for the year. We will have more staying with the same guidance.
Juan, could you repeat the last part of the answer? I believe the sound was interrupted there.
Okay. I was just saying, Alberto, that we are keeping the same guidance. We will wait until having the results of the second quarter of the year to have more visibility. So far, we are very confident with the guidance that we provided to the market of COP 2.3 billion-COP 2.4 billion of EBITDA for 2023.
Thank you, Indira. Thank you, Juan. Yeah, it's clear for me as well. My second question would be about energy costs. How should we expect Argos cost on this line for the remainder of the year? I know that you guys have some contracts of long-term, major term, and we already saw some inputs on this line, like coal and natural gas price decreasing during the past 12 months. If you could give some details, how should we see this line for the remainder of the year, it'd be very helpful. This is my 2 questions. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Alberto. We are seeing a slowdown, a significant slowdown in the cost of fuels and energetics, and we expect to continue seeing a margin expansion in the remaining quarters of the year. I mean, the reality is that the expansion that we saw in the first quarter, we are sure that we are building momentum to deliver on the first pillar of our SPRINT program, which is precisely to continue expanding the profitability of the business. With the work that had been done already in the execution of pricing, plus the slowdown in inflation, we remain very confident that we will be able to accomplish our targeted improvement in margins for 2023.
Fantastic. Thank you.
Next question comes from Gordon Lee, from BTG.
Yes. Hi. Thank you very much for the call. just a couple of. Well, one question really, which in a way is a follow-up to the previous one, and this is really more related to the U.S. business. I was wondering if you could tell us, give us a sense of sort of what % of your regions or your footprint is covered by price announcement increases that you have already made. More or less what % of overall business that covers. The second one is related to that, is given the environment that you just described in terms of costs beginning to sort of decline or at least the headwinds declining, how easy will it be to implement those price increases?
At what point do you fear that you might start getting some pushback from customers? Thank you.
Thank you, Gordon, I will ask Simon to answer your two questions.
Yeah. I think, first, a quick answer is that 100% of our business is covered by price increases that were announced in January and in April. That would be a simple answer to the first question. I think the second thing that, you know, we tell our customers is that we want to be able to invest in our business, and therefore, when we look at the margin erosion of last year, it's crucial for us to restore our historic margin position. I think that's a simple response to our customers. We are still experiencing cost increases, both in energy year-over-year. For the US, it's a particular situation. We were very well hedged with some great historic agreements that ended about halfway through last year.
When we look at energy and fuel costs year-over-year, our costs have increased, but we see that that rate of inflation has slowed significantly, and in some elements it is decreasing. I think another thing to remember, and this is particularly relevant for our Ready-Mix Business, we are still seeing some fairly significant year-over-year material cost increases, in particular for aggregates, and hence our reasoning and our need for further price increases.
Perfect. That's very clear. Thank you very much.
Next question comes from Steffania Mosquera from Credicorp.
Good morning. Thank you very much for the presentation. My question is regarding the risks or if you see any risks from the banking turmoil that we are seeing in the U.S. in terms of financing for the commercial sector. Also if you see any midterm risks for the Colombian dispatches from the perspective of a lower social housing sector?
Thank you, Stephanie. I mean, so far, demand in the U.S. continues to be very strong. The U.S. economy has proven to be very resilient, and we are not foreseen like any impact on our volumes in the second quarter of the year. We will continue monitoring all the macro indicators for the remaining of the year, with the visibility and the information that we have so far, we remain very optimistic about the result of the U.S. business for 2023. In Colombia, I mean, there is a reality. Sales of new homes have decreased in a significant way in the last several months and housing starts are still very robust.
With the declining new home sales, what we are foreseeing is probably an impact on the volumes in the last quarter of 2023 and in 2024. We're optimistic with the latest announcement of the government of the addition of COP 1 billion for Mi Casa Ya, for subsidies, and the commitment as well to disburse 75,000 subsidies in 2023. Those signals, in my opinion, will start to help the trend that we have been seeing in the market.
Great. Thank you very much.
Next question comes from Vanessa Quiroga from Credit Suisse.
Hi. Thank you for the call. I have a couple of questions. The 1st one about the U.S. and the high import volumes. Do you expect this trend or share of imports to continue, and how does that impact your margins in the U.S.? The 2nd question is regarding margins in Colombia. Do you expect to continue with these levels that you achieved in the 1st quarter going forward? What are the risks or the specifics to that 1st quarter that could lead to some volatility in margins in the following quarters in Colombia? Thank you.
Thank you, Vanessa. Simon will take your first question about our volume mix in the U.S.
I think overall, we would prefer to sell our domestically produced cement as opposed to imported cement, because we earn a higher margin from our domestically produced product. However, in times of significant excess demand, as we experienced in the first quarter, 3 of our cement plants were going through their annual outages, and we simply had no choice but to import cement to meet the strong demand. We consider it a strategic advantage that we have that ability to turn on and off the imported cement to meet our customer expectations. Overall, and in conditions where we'd see softening demand, we would switch to domestically produced products.
Thank you, Simon. Now, Carlos Horacio will give you more color about our margin expectations in Colombia. Carlos?
Thank you, Juan. Hi, Vanessa. I hope you are great. In regarding the margin for Colombia for the next coming quarters, we are expecting a pretty similar margin because we are not just working at the level of the price. We are as well working at the level of optimizing the portfolio, as well optimizing the logistic network in this business is pretty important. As you know very well, the logistic cost, as well, we are working very hard in the reliability of our cement plants. As well, we are very focused in the between quotes, the turn around in the Ready-Mix Business. For that reason, we are very confident for the margin for the next coming quarters.
Thank you. That's very interesting, Carlos. If I can follow up there regarding the product mix, what are you doing in terms of this mix?
We are increasing our participation in the general use cement in Colombia. That is really important because it's more added for the clinker. The factor clinker is we are using less clinker, for the reason the profitability in that cement for us is higher than other kind of products. It's very important, the logistics, because we are deploying a very robust strategic of go-to-market. For that reason, we are moving less the cement from our plants. That is the area. We are putting less logistic cost in our cement. For that reason, we are increasing our FOB price.
Thank you. Excellent. Congrats. Thanks, Carlos and Simon.
Thank you, Vanessa.
Next question comes from Juan Camilo Rauder from Bancolombia.
Hi. Good morning. Can you hear me well?
Yes, perfect.
Okay, thank you very much. My question is in regards to taxes. We saw an increase in the before tax profit. Also, we had in the context the start of a new tax reform in Colombia. How was the case for such a great de-reduction in taxes provision? What can you tell us about that? Is that lower levels in comparison to 2022 going to continue this year? I would like more color on that. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Juan Camilo, Felipe will answer your question.
Juan Camilo, thank you for your question. I mean, indeed, we, during this quarter, our tax provision was lower than last year. As we explained in the previous conference call, a vast majority of tax provisions included in 2022 results were associated to the transition of the business before going public in the U.S. Most of the tax provisions that were recorded in our results last year had a neutral effect on cash. Now this year, we do expect to perform or to deliver an effective tax more in line with what has been our history.
We would expect a effective tax rate to be below what we saw last year because as I said before, most of the transition and all of the special operations prior to the IPO have already been performed, and we're not expecting significant special transactions taking place this year.
Okay, thank you very much.
Next question comes from André Reis from MFS Investment Management.
Hi. Thank you, guys. I just wanted to ask about the $35 million incremental demand from the Infra Bill that you guys mentioned. Is that through which period of time, meaning 3, 4 years? How many years? Is that your estimates? Thanks.
Thank you, André. I think that Simon can give you more color on the infra impact on our volumes in the U.S.
Yeah. I would say simply, the impact to date has been small, and we would expect an impact to be more evident later this year and next year. I think we're looking at expenditure over a time period of up to 7 years for the total funds of the bill to trickle through the states and the local authorities, before it's allocated.
Next question comes from Marcelo Furlan from Itaú BBA.
Hi, guys. Good morning. Can you hear me?
Yes, Marcelo, we can hear you well.
Okay. Okay. Thank you so much, you guys, for taking my question. My question is related to leverage. I just would like to understand here with a little bit more color why leverage grows slightly to 3.1 times in the first Q, even you guys had a stronger EBITDA in the quarter. I know you guys mentioned that this was mainly due to the sharp basis revaluation in the Q, but if you guys could give a little bit more detail, I would appreciate. My second question is related to leverage going forward. If you would expect leverage to decline below the company's target of 3 times over the next quarter? That's were my questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Marcelo. Felipe will answer your question.
Hi. Good morning, Marcelo. Regarding your first question, the reason for the slight increase in total leverage or net leverage has to do with the end FX rate for the period being slightly higher than the average exchange rate. Basically that increases slightly our leverage ratio going forward, but we do expect our net leverage to remain below 3 times. We're not expecting a significant decrease of this metric over the next quarter. In the medium term, though, as we have
Already announced, we do expect net leverage to remain closer to 2.5x.
Okay. Thank you so much, you guys.
Of course.
Next question comes from Alejandra Obregón from Morgan Stanley.
Hi. Good morning, Agustin. Can you hear me?
Yes, Alejandra, we can hear you well.
Thank you for taking my question. I actually have one on your demand dynamics in the U.S. I was wondering if you can elaborate what are you seeing in, with regards to the different segments. Meaning, what are you seeing in terms of backlog for infrastructure, non-resi, and residential in your different markets? Is there any meaningful change of trend, perhaps in any of these three that stand out with the visibility that you have for the remainder of the year? Thank you.
Thank you, Alejandra Obregón, and Simon Bates will answer your question.
Yeah. Thank you. I would say, demand in the U.S. is remaining robust. It's a combination of factors. I think first and foremost, although we're seeing a slowdown in single family residential or had seen a slowdown in single family residential, which we experienced in Texas, the Carolinas, and Northern Florida, the commercial and industrial segments are remaining very strong. In commercial, we would put multi-family residential in that segment. We see demand overall remaining robust across our whole geographies. We're cautiously optimistic that that'll remain throughout this year. You know, it's a very interesting dynamic we're currently seeing, where single family new construction is actually increasing again because of the lack of inventory and sustained strong demand despite higher interest rates.
Overall, despite some initial weakness in single family residential, industrial, commercial, and infrastructure remains strong.
Thank you. That was very clear. Perhaps if I can ask the same question for Colombia. We saw that you are facing some share losses in the quarter. Wondering if that is a correct appreciation or if there is perhaps some mix effect behind that that I might be ignoring. What are you seeing in the different segments in Colombia? Thank you.
Carlos, would you like to answer that one?
Okay. Juan, Alejandra, thank you for your question. In Colombia from now, we are seeing a very robust demand for the housing projects. We are seeing another robust demand from the retail segment, that is very well-known for everyone that the inflation in Colombia has been very high. Probably we are competing with the foods, with the prices of the foods. In general, since the second half of March, of April, excuse me, we are seeing a big recovery in the day-to-day demand in all of the segments. We have increased the daily sale volume. That is very good for us.
In infrastructure, we have a very good backlog of projects in infrastructure in the case of Antioquia, the Túnel del Toyo. This is a very important project in this area. Remember that we have a very good market share in that kind of projects. But in general, we are seeing a very good demand. The loss of market share that we have in the first quarter was because we lead the price increase in the market. That is very common. January was a very low month. In combination with the price increase, well, our market share in that month was not very good. But we recover pretty fast in February and in March.
Thank you. That was very clear. Thank you again.
Okay. Yeah.
Juan, we have no more questions.
Okay. We appreciate, all of you for connecting to our second, for our first quarter conference call, and we look forward, to talking to you again after the result of the second quarter. We are extremely happy with the performance of the company, and we appreciate your interest in Cementos Argos. Have a great day.