Good morning. My name is Indira Diaz, Cementos Argos, IR, and I welcome you to our Q4 results release. On the call today are Juan Esteban Calle, our CEO, Felipe Aristizábal, our CFO, Maria Isabel Echeverri, the VP of Legal and Sustainability, Simon Bates, the CEO of Argos USA, Carlos Yusty, the VP of the Colombia Division, and Gustavo Uribe, the General Manager of Argos Panamá 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, and 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, and good morning, everyone. During 2022, Cementos Argos achieved new all-time highs in terms of revenues and EBITDA, with a total of COP 11.7 trillion and COP 2.1 trillion, respectively. This result, which is in line with the guidance provided to the market a year ago, was possible due to a successful pricing strategy, cost control initiatives, and the careful and articulated planning of the supply chain within the company. In terms of volume, cement dispatches reached 16.2 million tons, with a slight decrease of 3.7% versus 2021, mostly caused by the affectations of volumes in Haiti because of the challenging social and political environment during 2022 and lower trading volumes to Central America and the Caribbean region.
Ready-mix volumes, on the other side, stood at 7.5 million cubic meters, increasing 6.3% versus 2021, due mainly to the market improvements in Colombia. In terms of leverage, the company achieved a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.8 times, the lowest of the last nine years, following our strong financial results and a solid cash flow generation during 2022. Net income from continuing operations is stood at COP 403 billion, 14.4% lower than 2021, driven mainly by higher interest expenses. Finally, from a cash flow perspective, 2022 was also a very strong year for the company. The consolidated net cash position increased by COP 772 billion over the year, reaching a balance of COP 1.3 trillion at the end of the year.
On a quarterly basis, our EBITDA for the last trimester of 2022 stood at COP 604 billion, with a year-over-year increase of 12.9%. In terms of cement volumes, we evidenced an 8% decrease, mainly due to affectations in the Caribbean and Central America region and unexpected downtime in US plants. On the other hand, ready-mix stayed stable year-over-year with a slight decrease of 0.7%, despite of extreme weather conditions that affected US region volumes. This strong operational and cash flow performance will allow the company to increase its distribution to shareholders by approximately 80% in 2023. In relation to our commitment in sustainability, I would like to highlight the validation by the Science Based Targets initiative of our 2030 goal of CO2 emissions reductions within the Scope 1 and Scope 2.
This acknowledgement by a third independent party recognizes the systems and validity of our CO2 roadmap with specific proven projects that will allow us to achieve the 21% reduction in emissions Scope 1 and 2 by 2030 when compared to 2021. Now, in spite of these strong financial results and remarkable achievements in our sustainability roadmap, the price of our shares fell significantly during 2022. Our common and common non-voting shares fell 41% and 39% respectively last year and have continued to decline through 2023, reaching all-time lows. In this context, we have decided to enhance and improve the initiative for closing the gap convergence between the fundamental value and market price for a company under a comprehensive framework that we have called SPRINT, standing for Share Price Recovery Initiative.
SPRINT is considered as an articulated program that systematically tackles the various leading causes of the abovementioned decoupling. The plan encompasses five lines of work. First, maintain focus on the strong operational and financial results with a special emphasis in profitability. Second, increasing the dividends distribution to our shareholders within the next year by 15% with a total amount of COP 445 billion. Third, supported in our strong results and cash generation, launching a share buyback program for a total of around COP 200 billion. Fourth, enhance the visibility of the value of our operations and continue our work on the listing of our U.S. business in NYSE. Fifth, improve the liquidity of our common shares by designating a dedicated market maker in our stock.
Now, Felipe will provide more details regarding our financial performance in 2022 and will cover in detail each of the pillars comprising SPRINT.
Thank you, Juan. I'd like to start by mentioning that as well as in our last call, we have adjusted our financial and operational figures by excluding all the non-recurring operations related to the divestitures carried out by the company, the costs associated to the listing process of the US business in the NYSE, and the non-cash tax provisions associated with the payment of certain intercompany accounts, all of which affect, to a certain extent, revenues, EBITDA figures, tax provisions, and net income. All the figures discussed in this call have been adjusted in the manner that reflect the reality of our business. Moving on to our financial results, it is important to highlight that, as discussed in our previous conference call, the company generates significantly more cash flow than accounting net income, given certain characteristics of the business.
Our depreciation on amortizations, for instance, stood at COP 1 trillion during 2022, which is significantly higher than our maintenance CapEx that accounted for COP 500 billion during the same period. As a consequence, we consider it important to run a careful analysis of the subject to provide all analysts and investors with the sufficient information to properly assess our financial performance. In that order, I'd like to walk you through, first, a reconciliation of our financials with our cash flow generation. To start, our net income, after excluding all the non-recurring operations and non-cash tax provisions, stood at COP 403 billion, an amount significantly higher than our accounting net income, given the materiality of the non-recurring transactions carried out along the year. After adjusting the interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, we achieved a total EBITDA of COP 2.1 trillion.
That, as Juan mentioned previously, is the highest in our entire history, accompanied also by a record figure of revenues that reached COP 11.7 trillion during the year. Moving on to our cash flow statement. From the total EBITDA generated by the company, COP 792 billion were destined to working capital, maintenance CapEx, and taxes, leaving us with a total of COP 1.3 trillion of free cash flow generated by the operation, which implies a 63% conversion ratio from the EBITDA. Additionally, if we exclude the interest payment, payments made during 2022, we obtain what we call the economic net income that accounted for COP 803 billion.
After the economic net income, we have the net proceeds from the divestitures, as well as the debt disbursements and other expenses to achieve the cash flow available for reinvestments and dividends, which accounted for COP 1.4 trillion during 2022. Finally, after excluding the growth CapEx and the dividend payments, we end up in a net cash generation of COP 772 billion during the period, which leads to a final cash position of COP 1.3 trillion, including short-term investments. It is precisely on the back of this strong performance and solid cash position that we're launching SPRINT, an articulated plan aimed at closing the gap between the fundamental value of the company vis-à-vis its market price. As previously mentioned, the plan is initially comprised by five lines of work.
When additional initiatives are added to the program, they will be promptly disclosed to the market. In relation to the first pillar of the program, which encompasses our ambition to constantly improve our operational financial results with an emphasis on profitability, we achieved an adjusted Return on Capital Employed metric of 10%, standing in line with the guidance provided to the market during our Investor Day of 2022. This ratio is calculated based on the operational EBITDA minus the maintenance CapEx, divided by the capital employed, which is defined as the total assets minus assets under construction, deferred tax, and other non-operational assets. In relation to the second and third pillar, and as previously communicated to the market, we intend to make significant distributions to our shareholders in 2023.
Between dividends and a COP 250 billion share buyback program, the company is expecting to distribute close to COP 700 billion to shareholders, an 80% increase versus 2022. These distributions are expected to be formalized in two phases. In the first phase, a total of COP 128 billion of common dividends are to be declared at the upcoming shareholders meeting. In the second phase, a subsequent shareholders meeting shall be convened promptly after the first one. In this meeting, shareholders are expected to declare an additional amount of COP 317 billion of common dividends and approve a COP 250 billion peso share buyback program.
The need to convene a second shareholders meeting arises from the necessity to approve a new set of financials with a cutoff date of March 31, 2023, that include COP 670 billion of realized profits coming out of the OCI as a result of an assignment of 17.2 million shares in Grupo Sura, held by Cementos Argos and transferred to a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company. This assignment will unlock future distribution to shareholders on the back of the solid cash balance held by the company at the end of last year. Regarding the fourth initiative, I'd like to emphasize once again the importance of a listing of our U.S. business in the NYSE within our strategic plans, and our willingness to top the market once the conditions are appropriate.
On the fifth pillar, we have signed a local market maker contract with Credicorp Capital, with the specific aim of achieving again the minimum threshold required to make our common shares eligible for repo operations within the Bolsa de Valores de Colombia, giving the importance of this financing mechanism for our minority shareholders. We will closely monitor the impact of the SPRINT program along the year, we'll make the necessary adjustments and additions to make sure that the stock price is positively impacted by all of these initiatives.
Thank you, Felipe. Now to start with our results in each region, I would like to invite Simon to provide more context about the performance of the U.S. region and our view for the market.
Thank you, Juan. Good morning, everyone. I want to start by reviewing our consolidated results for 2022. For the full year, total cement volumes increased 4.4% when compared to 2021, and ready-mix volumes increased by 1% year-over-year. Demand conditions remained strong throughout the year, except for the Q4, which we believe was mostly weather-related. In terms of financial results, the full year EBITDA accounted for $256 million, decreasing 4% versus 2021 due to cost inflation exceeding price in our cement business and higher than expected maintenance costs in our ready-mix business. Margins contracted slightly. That will be a focal point for us going forward. During the Q4 , overall market conditions for our cement business remained relatively strong.
However, we did see some softening in demand in our ready-mix business, most notably in the Carolinas. Because of the reduced activity in the construction of single-family residential units, we have refocused our sales efforts to the stronger commercial and infrastructure segments, which we expect to account for more than 55% of our volumes in 2023. We believe that our sales in the Q4 of 2022 were more impacted by wet weather and freezing temperatures than by underlying demand. We also experienced some unplanned downtime in our cement plants in the quarter, which also impacted sales. As a result, cement and ready-mix volumes decreased by 1.9% and 9.2% respectively versus the same period in 2021.
It is important to note that in Q4, prices were 16% higher in cement and 18% higher in ready-mix when compared to Q4 2021. EBITDA for the quarter accounted for $64 million, decreasing 21.6% versus the Q4 of 2021 on a reported basis. On a like for like basis, excluding accounting adjustments for properties held by the company and non-recurring maintenance expenses, the EBITDA for Q4 2022 decreased by 2.6% when compared to Q4 2021. However, as we already mentioned, margins were compressed compared to prior year because of higher energy, materials, and maintenance costs that were not completely offset by price. We remain confident in our ability to improve our overall performance in 2023, despite continued headwinds in the residential segment.
This outlook is supported by our exceptional geographic position, our full conversion to PLC cement, and our efficient logistics network within the country. We will continue closely monitoring the market in order to adjust our commercial and operational strategy according to the prevailing demand conditions.
Thank you, Simon. In Colombia, the total market during 2022 reached 13.5 million tons, increasing 3.6% versus 2021, despite some slowdown during the last quarter. Carlos will now provide more context on the region.
Thank you, Juan, and good morning. To start, I would like to highlight that the positive results evidenced throughout the year continued during the last three months of 2022. EBITDA stood at COP 182 billion, posting a double-digit growth versus the last year of 16.5% and an EBITDA margin expansion of 217 points.
Reaching 26.2% during the quarter. The solid market conditions in the country, the continuation of our pricing and cost control strategy, and the constant quest for profitability were the main drivers of this strong evolution. On a full year basis, EBITDA reached COP 605 billion during 2022, which accounts for an overall increase of 5.7% versus 2021, and a year-to-date EBITDA margin of 22.3%. In terms of cement volumes, exports during the quarter increased 23.3% versus last year, supported by a 29% growth in the exports to the U.S., and an 81% growth in the exports to our operation in Puerto Rico. Nevertheless, the EBITDA attributable to exports remained flattish due to the increase of costs associated to this business.
The local market, on the other hand, experienced a 12.7% contraction year-over-year, following our strategy to prioritize more profitable products such as gray cement over other intermediate products such as clinker. Indeed, if we analyze only the changes in the volumes of gray cement sold during the quarter, we obtain a decrease of 7.7%, which is significantly lower than the one associated to our entire product portfolio. Full year cement dispatches reached 6 million tons, remaining stable with a slight increase of 0.8% versus 2021. In contrast, the ready-mix volumes continued to improve, growing 10.2% year-over-year during the last quarter, mainly supported by a continuing expansion of the local market and our strong presence in the industrial segment of the country.
Full year ready-mix dispatches reached 2.7 million cubic meters, increasing 13.6% versus 2021. Local cement prices grew 19% year-over-year, while ready-mix prices rose 13% year-over-year, following the price increases carried out along the year. Within our portfolio of solutions, I would like to highlight the beginning of operations of our modular solutions plant in Cajicá during October, which increases the profitability of our clients by reducing construction times by 40% and employs a more sustainable construction mechanism. The plant that was in the commissioning and testing phase since May had a total investment of COP 17.5 billion and holds a total building capacity of 4,000 homes per year. Last November, we signed our first contract with PRODESA, an important construction company in Colombia, to build 288 houses.
With our modular solution, the construction time of these houses will be improved by at least six months. For 2023, we expect to produce and assemble around 1,400 houses, equivalent to 60 buildings, and continue to position ourselves as a leading and disruptive supplier of technological solutions in the construction sector. Regarding the local market dynamics, the main driver of the total volume growth at a country level during 2022 was the residential sector in both formal and informal construction, and more specifically in social housing, boosted also by the government subsidies. For 2023, we foresee stable volumes in terms of formal construction, encouraged mainly by the record sales of 2021 and to some extent 2022, that will be built during the present year.
Infrastructure will also continue to play an important role as 4G projects continue to be executed and 5G projects continue to be structured and awarded. To the date, 7 of the 14 projects of the 5G's first wave have been awarded and should start construction during the current year. In the first wave, we estimate a total consumptions of at least 2.5 million cubic meters of ready-mix concrete that will be consumed over the lapse of 3 years. Finally, with the Bogotá Metro and other important projects in the region, we expect positive demand conditions for this segment to endure on the midterm.
Thank you, Carlos. Moving to Central America and the Caribbean. During the last quarter, we saw modest improvements in local volumes and in the overall market conditions, which positively impacted our results in the region. Gustavo will now provide more context.
Thank you, Juan. Good morning to everyone. We continue to observe a positive financial performance during the last quarter of the year, with increases in both EBITDA and EBITDA margin versus the same quarter of 2021. EBITDA stood at $31 million, increasing 22% year-over-year, and EBITDA margin reached 24%, expanding 411 basis points versus the same quarter of 2021. This positive performance was due to a continuation of our aggressive pricing strategy, together with the increase in the sourcing from Colombia, which replaced cement and clinker bought to third parties, and a partial volume recovery of some local markets within the region. Average cement prices increased 29% on a year-to-year basis, supported by the high level of import parity prices in these countries.
Ready-mix prices, in that same line, increased 14% versus the last quarter of 2021. Influenced by this recovery of the Panamanian market that consistently improved its volumes during 2022. Local market cement dispatches were 5.6% lower when compared to the last quarter of 2021, it is important to underline that variations throughout the regions are lower in magnitude when compared to previous quarters of 2022. Panama continued to improve its volumes, other countries such as Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Honduras experienced declines that were less severe than the ones observed in previous quarters. Regarding the trading business, volumes decreased 46.1% year-over-year, supported by our vision to capitalize the usage of our export capacity from Colombia and maximize margins.
Total volumes stood at 906,000 tons during the quarter, decreasing 17.5%, mainly as a result of the decline in the trading volumes. In Panama, cement volumes continued to recover satisfactorily with a 17% growth compared to the same quarter of the last year as we evidence a lagged recovery from the pandemic. In Honduras, pricing remains with strong dynamics, reaching high single-digit improvements year-over-year. However, cement dispatches for the quarter were 6% lower versus the same period of last year due to a lower demand caused by the transition of the new government. The Dominican Republic pricing dynamic led to a 26% year-over-year growth and remains in historic highs. Nevertheless, cement dispatches were 5% lower year-over-year due to our dispatch capacity.
Demand conditions continued to be positive, mainly driven by tourism, housing dynamics, supported by government incentives and a strong competitive environment. Haiti, as we have disclosed along the year, has been heavily affected by a difficult social and political situation, in which roadblocks, fuel availability, and protest across the country have led to a decrease of 67% in cement dispatches in the Q4 of 2022 versus the same period of last year. However, we evidenced an upward trend during the last three months of the year, considering that dispatches from December were 4 times higher than the dispatches achieved in October 2022. We intend to adapt to a continuing condition of public order and develop a new operating model, which will enable us to adapt to a new normality of the country, while prioritizing the safety of our people.
Regarding the short-term outlook, we expect the market dynamics of the last quarters to remain, with our efforts fully dedicated to maximizing value through the integration with our operations in Colombia and covering the impact from inflation via pricing and cost control.
Thank you, Gustavo. For 2022, we successfully attained almost every goal that we had set at the beginning of the year in terms of guidance, except for CapEx that was underexecuted due to the worldwide logistics constraints, generating delays for some of the projects that we had planned for last year. For 2023, we expect EBITDA to be between COP 2.3 trillion and COP 2.4 trillion with a positive expectations in terms of pricing accompanied by cost inflation pressure that will probably remain at least for the Q1 of the year. In terms of leverage, we expect to be below three times, supported by a strong cash generation that will likely be affected by increases
...interest expenses due to the continuation of high interest rates. In terms of CapEx, we expect to deploy resources by a total amount between $200 million-$220 million, of which 55% will be related to maintenance and 45% will be attributable to growth. We are aware of the big challenges, but at the same time, of the big opportunities ahead that we have in terms of profitability, which is why we would like to provide, again, a guidance for return of capital of between 10% and 11% for the current year. Additionally, we are setting a new goal for our midterm consolidated EBITDA margin that we expect to be between 20% and 21% over the next three years.
With this positive track record in terms of results, our firm commitment to continue improving both our operational and financial performance, our SPRINT program designed to recover our stock prices, we expect not only to continue delivering record financial, but also to see these achievements reflected in the market price of our company. Thank you all for your attention. Indira, we can proceed now with the Q&A section.
Thank you, Juan. We will proceed now with the Q&A. 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 will enable your microphone. Take into account that you need to unmute your microphone before you speak. First question comes from Felipe Barragan from BTG Pactual.
Yes. Hi, good morning. It's actually Gordon here. Thank you very much for the call. Two questions regarding the SPRINT program, and I was wondering maybe if you could repeat the portion of the explanation that had to do with the Sura shares. It wasn't very clear to me what how that plays a role. The second question or related question is, if you rewind maybe a quarter or two, the expectation was that you would be restricted in your ability to distribute dividends or buy back shares because of tax constraints, and that seems to have been overcome or seems to be no longer the case. Could you explain what changed or how you were able to circumvent that issue? Thank you.
Thank you, Felipe, for the question. Remember that, a few years back, we did a significant recapitalization of our reserves in our balance. From then on, we have some restrictions in terms of distributing dividends to our shareholders. With the SPRINT program, we found a way to basically untap the significant cash flow that we have on hand. What we will do is just a transfer of our Sura shares, half of the shares that we hold in Grupo Sura, to a 100% subsidiary of the company, which is called CI Marcarib.
With that, what will happen is that there will be a reclassification from the OCI account in our net worth, in our balance, to basically an account that will allow us to do the distribution of the cash that we have to our shareholders. It's basically an accounting reclassification of, you know, of an account that we already have in our balance. That is basically the idea with the transfer of the shares of Grupo Sura. At the same time, I mean, we will be able to optimize some of our financing strategies in terms of lowering our interest cost. Because we will be using those shares as collaterals for some of our financing. Felipe can provide more color on the rationale of this operation.
Of course. Thank you, Gordon, for your question. Regarding your second question, I'd simply like to mention that our impossibility to distribute, to make higher distributions or to fund a repurchasing program was due to the lack of accounting reserves. It was necessarily, it wasn't necessarily related to tax restrictions. It was more related to accounting restrictions. The fact that we didn't have enough reserves that could be distributed to shareholders. This Surá transaction allows us to transfer part of the reserves from the OCI to another account within the equity portion of the balance sheet that can be distributed to shareholders.
Perfect. That's super clear. Just one final question just to clarify. From a consolidated level, when we look at your accounts, your investment in Surá will not change. You will continue to own the same amount of shares. It will just be distributed differently within the company. Is that correct?
Correct. On a consolidated basis, I mean, this transaction has no impact.
We're just reclassifying. We're gonna own directly half of the stake in Sura, and the other half is gonna be owned by a wholly owned subsidiary of the company. On a consolidated basis, nothing changes in that regard.
Perfect. Thank you very much.
Of course.
Next question comes from Francisco Suarez from Scotiabank.
Thank you so much. A follow-up on Gordon's question. To understand it correctly, it is an equity swap, what you are doing with Sura? If so, can you give us the exact amount of shares involved in the equity swap? Secondly, also on your SPRINT strategy, I think it makes total sense. My question relates with the dividends. How we should be seeing the dividends going on a forward-looking basis? I mean, are we going to see the company shifting toward committing distributing dividends on a more frequent way along the year, perhaps even eventually doing it by a quarter? Are we have...
Do we have to think about this dividend strategy about some sort of a one or two times a year kind of strategy? Thirdly, questions on your ESG strategy. Congrats for the validation of your Science Based Targets. It is my understanding that in under this two degree, well below two degree scenario, you will not have considerable amount of CapEx to meet your goals for 2030. Can you elaborate a bit of what may happen to your overall CapEx by 2030 if you plan to switch to a much more stringent scenario like a 1.5 degree? Thank you.
Paco, would you please repeat the CapEx portion? There was like an interruption there, and we couldn't hear properly the question.
Oh, apologies.
Thank you.
Apologies for that. Yes. The CapEx to make that goes along with your plans to meet your overall cuts in emissions, in carbon emissions. The question is that the way that I understand it is that well below 2-degree scenario, it seems that it won't affect much your overall CapEx for 2030. What may happen to your overall CapEx going forward if you plan to aim for a 1.5-degree scenario? Will the overall CapEx will be considerably increase over this period? Of course, this has to do a lot with the fact that your overall balance sheet now is, has much more flexibility.
Nevertheless, you have to decide between giving back to stakeholders and perhaps invest in your sustainability strategy.
Thank you, Paco. First, regarding the transaction with the Grupo Sura shares, I mean, it is a real transaction that allow us not only to optimize our financial strategy, but at the same time, free up a significant amount of cash that we have in our balance. We will transfer half of the, more or less half of the stake that we have in Grupo Sura. It's probably a little bit less than 3% of the total shares of Grupo Sura, of the co-voting shares of Grupo Sura, which is close to 70 million shares.
I mean, this is something that we are doing this year because, as Felipe will explain later, because of the listing, of the preparation for the listing in of the US business, we included some non-recurring, non-cash expenses in our income statement that lower net profit, which restricted our ability to do the distribution of cash to our shareholders. So it's part of our financial strategy. In terms of our dividends, we have tried to increase our dividends at least by inflation to our shareholders. We have a significant base of individual investors in our company, and we want to reward their commitment through the years with Cementos Argos. So we will continue going forward with a similar kind of dividend policy to our shareholders.
In terms of ESG, we are fully committed to hitting our target for emissions, Scope 1 and Scope 2, through 2030. We will continue reviewing our plan to comply with the 1.5 degree scenario. In our opinion, we have all the levers and the CapEx in our roadmap to 2030 to be able to comply with that 1.5 degree scenario, moving our main levers, which in the case of Cementos Argos are a significant improvement in the use of alternative fuels, in which we are expecting to make significant progress in 2023, continuing to lower our clinker ratio and, in the case of Colombia, you know, closing the kiln 3 in Cartagena before 2030.
As you know, we reopened that kiln because of the significant increase in demand in the market. It is something that we need to solve going forward.
Very clear. Thank you so much. If I may, just one more question on the, on the modular solution that you planned that makes total sense. Are you planning to roll out, also solutions on the infrastructure side on this modular solutions? If you can walk us a little bit on the payback of these investments, which I believe they are quite compelling. Thank you so much.
Sure, Paco. Extremely happy with that Modular Solution value proposition in Colombia. I would like Carlos to give you more color on the.
Okay
... on that new line of business.
Excuse me. Paco, can you repeat the question?
Yes. Of course, Carlos. Yes, for sure. Good morning. The question.
Hi
... I had is on your modular solution that makes total sense. Can you walk us a little bit on the payback characteristics on these investments because I have in my mind this idea that these are quite compelling. If you are actually aiming to provide other solutions on the infrastructure front perhaps like, you know, prefab bridges, and other, and other heavy components.
Starting with the last one, Paco, no. Far we are just thinking in the, not in a heavy precast. We are more in the light precast like you are mentioning. We are. Obviously, this is a very comprehensive solution because it's. It is like you precast all the building inclusive the stairs and every part of the building. The payback that we have in our business model is really approximately five years.
Great. Very clear. Thank you so much. Congrats for this.
Okay, Paco. Thanks.
Next question comes from Nikolaj Lippmann from Morgan Stanley.
Hi. Good morning. Thank you very much for the for the call and for taking my question. I have two questions. First, on the maintenance or downtime that you experienced in the Q4 . Can you comment on the nature and duration of this? Should we expect more or less downtime and maintenance into 2023? That's question number one. Question number two, you know, and also maybe a follow-up on that or an additional question on the US. Can you talk a bit about if you're experiencing any kind of bottlenecks in terms of imports into the US, any markets?
I think you're expanding capacity in Texas, but if you can comment a little bit on how you're seeing the available import capacity in your markets in the US. Question number two relates to pricing in Colombia. You see this very strong export to Puerto Rico, to the US, clearly a negative supply shock for that market. Your cash stock. Can you talk a little bit about how you were thinking about pricing strategies into 2023? Some of the risks, both upside risk and downside risks to that. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Nick. Simon will answer your question about the US.
On the first question of the downtime we experienced in Q4, I think in simple terms, no, we wouldn't expect it to repeat. Just to provide you a little detail, there were three plants that were impacted by separate events. One unfortunately was human error. The second at a different site was due to the failure of some key equipment, which was most unusual. Thirdly, another plant was impacted by being obligated to make numerous switches in energy source in a period in December because of the incredibly low temperatures that we experienced during the month of December. In simple terms, I wouldn't expect it to repeat.
If we were to look at the uptime, that our plants have averaged over the five years, last five years, we've continued to improve each and every year. Unfortunately, Q4 was an aberration for us with those three events, and we wouldn't expect it to repeat. On the subject of imports, our capacity utilization is still relatively low, but what we have experienced is with a very significant demand for cement last year, the percentage of our imports almost doubled last year, and that is a very useful valve for us to have in terms of satisfying customers. Indeed, in December, when we had the unplanned downtime, there was the ability to really meet customer demand by increasing our imports.
We have a number of import sites where we plan to invest to be more efficient. Indeed, Houston is one of those facilities. We would consider it a competitive advantage, the number of ports and terminals that we have and our ability to supplement domestic production.
Thank you very much.
Nick, in terms of pricing dynamics in Colombia, we were extremely happy with the evolution of our margins in the last quarter of the year. We saw a very interesting margin expansion. We are seeing a continuation of our traction to continue recording prices in Colombia in 2023. We are expecting the company to continue expanding margins in Colombia into 2023. So far demand is strong. Housing starts are at record level, and they will continue at record levels for 2023. Housing sales are decreasing since the H2 of last year, but we don't foresee an impact in demand until 2024. Hopefully by that time, infrastructure and the commercial segment and the retail segment most likely will help to mitigate that impact on housing sales.
In terms of demand, in Colombia so far, we are seeing a very good outlook. Similarly in all the other markets, I mean similarly in the U.S. and similarly in most countries in Central America and the Caribbean, including Haiti, when we are seeing a recovery of the market after the significant challenges that we faced last year.
Thank you very much.
Next question comes from Justin Duari from Anfield.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. A couple of questions on the U.S. Could you give us a little bit more color about what do you expect in terms of demand? I think some of your competitor in the U.S. mentioned they're expecting demand to be up 2%. Some other are believing that you could see a decline of up to 6%. Would be great to get a sense of what you're integrating in your guidance in terms of volume. In terms of pricing and margining in the U.S., is it fair to assume that you will be able to increase prices by more than 10% in cement and concrete? Just wanted to get a sense of where do you see margin evolving.
Is it fair to assume that you could recover some margin in cement because energy prices are lower, but that it might be more difficult in concrete because the cost of aggregates and cement are rising. Really a question on volume and a question on price versus cost for cement and ready-mix.
Thank you, Justin. overall, I mean, as part of SPRINT, main priority for the company in 2023 is the expansion of margins, the recovery of margins. Simon will give you more color on the, on the U.S.
Well, I know if I was to forecast what our US volumes might be, I'd probably be wrong, because most economic forecasts are wrong. I think what we are seeing is a very strong backlog, which built up in Q4 and remains very strong in Q1 and gives us good visibility through August this year. Despite the slowdown in residential, we're seeing a very strong backlog and there's definitely an increase in some commercial and industrial activity. We aren't seeing so much on the infrastructure side yet, but at this point, we feel positive about the demand for cement and ready-mix this year. If we think about the differences between our cement and ready-mix businesses, obviously the geographic footprint of our cement business is a lot larger than our ready-mix business.
Likely, our ready-mix business would be more impacted by the slowdown in residential as compared to cement. At this point, we feel good about the underlying strength of the US economy and the demand for our products.
On the margin of cement versus concrete, is it fair that it's going to be easier to increase your margin in cement than in ready-mix concrete?
You know what? It's interesting when we look at our 2022 results, we actually did a better job in our ready-mix business, on pricing and covering cost inflation. You know, the impact to our ready-mix business was the unplanned maintenance costs. The unfortunate situation in cement in 2022 was the inability to fully offset all cost inflation, and therefore we had that contraction of margins. Our one focus for our cement business in 2023 is restoration of margin and ensuring that we get pricing over cost inflation this year.
The price increase that you have that you've implemented at the beginning of the year are successful so far?
Successful so far, yes.
Thank you very much.
Next question comes from Juan Camilo Dauder from Bancolombia.
Hi, good morning to everyone. Thank you very much for the call. I just want to ask you a little bit about the purchases you mentioned earlier, what kind of scheme it will adopt in the local stock exchange? You know, there are two schemes, one which is gradual, the other one that simulates a tender offer. What are you planning to use? Just a follow on the latest question if you are seeing for this year that infrastructure investment increase in the US could offset the declining of the residential market. That are the both questions. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Juan, Felipe can take the first question.
Of course. Juan Camilo, thank you very much for your question. As you mentioned, the exchange allows for these two mechanisms. We would expect. I mean, depending on market conditions, we would use either one. Given the fact that, I mean, we still have to go through an approval process, we would be vigilant of market conditions, depending on those, we will decide which mechanism to use. In any case, we would expect to commit to these repurchases in the very near term.
Regarding your second question, Juan Camilo, first I will take Colombia. Once again, we continue seeing a strong demand. Yes, the residential segment, as I was saying before, specifically in terms of sales, it has been suffering the impact of high interest rates, but housing starts are still very strong, and we see that they will continue being at that level for the remaining of 2023. We are still not seeing any red flags in terms of a slower demand in Colombia. Similarly, in the U.S., January and February so far have been very strong months. As Simon was explaining, so far we are still seeing a very good demand in the U.S.
We have the offer of imports that, if there is some slowdown, I mean, we will be able to adjust our volumes, starting with imports. One of the main levers to increase the profitability of the business and to expand margin in the US in 2023 is going to be the increasing production of our own cement plants. So far the signals are still very positive and very constructive in all of our markets.
Thank you very much.
Next question comes from Vanessa Quiroga from Credit Suisse.
Hi, and thanks for taking my question, and I hope that you can hear me well. A question about US Infra First infrastructure projects. When do you expect to start seeing your order books or your backlog of orders already reflecting incremental infrastructure projects coming from the different programs sponsored by the US government? The other question that I have is another one on the share buyback and how it works in Colombia, specifically, are you obliged to cancel those shares once they are repurchased in the market? Or are you allowed to, you know, put them back in the market depending on market conditions?
The other on that is if there's a maximum as a percentage of your capital that you can execute on the share buyback program in Colombia. Thanks.
Thank you, Vanessa. Simon will answer your first question.
When it comes to the Inflation Reduction Act and the impact on infrastructure, it requires the coordination of the federal, state, and local governments, which inevitably takes time to coordinate projects and funding. Our expectation is simply that would be more likely in the second half and the impact to be more in 2024 than in 2023. As I indicated earlier, what we are seeing is very strong commercial and industrial segments that at this point is offsetting that slowdown in residential demand. As I mentioned, the backlog going out through August and September looks good.
Regarding your second question, we have no obligation to cancel the shares once they are repurchased, so there's no obligation. As we said in SPRINT, we will start with COP 250 billion for the program. I don't know, Felipe, if you want to add some more info.
I'd simply add that, I mean, if the shares are in treasury, I mean, they are for all purposes they are considered as canceled, but it could be the case that the company... I mean, based on the current law here in Colombia, the company could eventually resell the shares in the future. For the time being, we're simply expecting to repurchase these shares and maintaining them in treasury. Regarding the limit for repurchases, according to Colombian law, you can only commit capital to make repurchases as long as you have enough legal reserve in your balance sheet.
Okay, that's great. Yeah, just about the dividends, the 445 billion COP are already committed. I mean, they don't depend on market conditions. That's. Is that correct? They are part of the committed guidance in terms of dividends for this year?
That's correct. These dividends are not subject to market conditions. They are subject to approvals by shareholders, but they're not subject to market conditions.
Excellent. Thanks very much, Felipe.
Of course.
Next question comes from Rodrigo Sánchez from Davivienda Corredores.
Yes, good morning, thank you for the presentation. I've got two questions, and the first one is a follow-up on Juan Camilo's first question. If you could please confirm if your target is to execute the full buyback program in a 12-month timeframe after it is approved. Also, are you, like, if you could comment about the timeframe you're expecting to achieve the listing of your U.S. operation in the New York Stock Exchange. Also, could you please share some of the assumptions you have used to build your EBITDA guidance for 2023? If you could maybe mention some of the assumptions on FX rates and pricing strategy in the Caribbean and Colombia, especially in Colombia, considering the small market share loss you faced in 4Q. Thank you.
Thank you, Rodrigo. Yeah, the expectation is to execute the buyback program in less than one year, and that is the target and that is the expectation. In terms of the listing of the U.S. business, the only thing that we can add is that we remain fully committed to executing the listing. That is at the top of our strategic priorities. It is depending on market conditions, I mean, we cannot comment any further. In terms of the guidance for 2023, I would like Felipe to provide with the main assumptions.
Sure. Regarding the guidance for FX, we're basically considering the current market conditions. Currently the peso is trading at close to COP 5,000 per US dollar. This is the level at which we are expecting the FX to remain throughout the year. Regarding pricing in Colombia and Central America and the Caribbean, we're expecting double-digit increases in all major markets in local currency. In Colombia, I mean, we have increased prices significantly over the past 12 months, and we do expect to increase prices further during 2023. In the Caribbean, the story is the same. I mean, we have to go market by market to determine the increases that we're considering.
In the case of this region, probably price increases are slightly in domestic currency, are probably slightly below, the price increases that we are expecting for Colombia.
Thank you.
Juan, we have no more questions.
Okay, no. Thank you very much for joining our call. We look forward to having you all in our next conference call for the first quarter of 2023. Have a great day.