Good morning, everyone. My name is Indira Díaz, Cementos Argos IR, and I welcome you to our second quarter results release. On the call today are Juan Esteban Calle, our CEO, Carlos Angarita, our Finance Manager, who is in charge of the Financial VP, María Isabel Echeverri, the VP of Legal Affairs, Bill Wagner, the VP of the U.S. Division, Carlos Yusty, the VP of the Colombia Division, and Camilo Restrepo, the VP of the Caribbean and Central America Division. 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 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. 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 on our web page. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Calle.
Thank you, Indira, and good morning, everyone. The second quarter of 2021 was marked by the continuation of a strong economic recovery in most of our markets. Notwithstanding, we still face some social, health, and political challenges, mainly related to the impact of the pandemic in poverty and employment in some of our territories. As a building materials company with a just cause in society, we have not only learned to navigate through these uncertain times by adapting and overcoming these difficulties, but have also understood the important role that we play in the recovery of all the countries where we operate by providing sustainable solutions to our customers and quality employment to our people. In Colombia and Honduras, we joined efforts with the local governments in the vaccination program and bought around 8,000 COVID-19 vaccines for our employees.
At the end of July, 71% of our employees in Colombia and 77% in Honduras had had at least the 1st dose of the vaccines, contributing to the economic reactivation of these countries and to the health and safety of our employees. We are supporting similar vaccination programs in all of our jurisdictions other than the U.S. Our financial results during the second quarter were remarkably positive along our footprint, even though we faced close to 40 days of marches, road blockades, and social unrest in Colombia and social and political challenges in Haiti during several weeks. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the 1st semester of 2021, excluding the gain in sale from the ready-mix assets sold, reached a record of 20.2%, the highest since 2013. This important milestone is not something fortuitous. On the contrary, it is the result of the consistent execution of BEST and RESET.
Our customer centricity, quest for innovation, and the constant pursuit of excellence and competitiveness in our operations. In that sense, we expect this level of margins to remain and improve in the midterm for our company. In that same line, we are very glad to announce that these outstanding results, together with the $183.8 million obtained from the Dallas ready-mix divestment, allow us to reach the target leverage ratio of 3.2 x net debt to EBITDA experience that we have committed to achieve by the end of 2021. We closed the quarter with a ratio of 3.1 x, the lowest leverage ratio in eight years. Now referring to our consolidated results, the comparisons versus last year have benefited from the low basis given the quarantines experienced during the second quarter of 2020 in most of our geographies.
Adjusted EBITDA excludes for 2021 a $48 million gain in sale from the ready-mix Dallas divestiture. In comparison versus 2019, Adjusted EBITDA and adjusted ready-mix volumes for that year exclude the figures from the ready-mix plants divested at the end of 2019. Cement dispatches reached 4.5 million tons during the quarter, increasing 42% versus the second quarter of 2020 and 9% versus the same period of 2019, driven by solid demand condition across all markets. Meanwhile, ready-mix volumes reached 2 million cubic meters, increasing 1.3% versus 2020 and decreasing 18% versus 2019 on a like-for-like basis, affected by the wet conditions in Texas, which experienced heavy rainfalls during the quarter.
Revenues, on the other hand, increased 15.9% YoY, and Adjusted EBITDA reached COP 522 million, increasing 25.9% versus 2020 as a result of increasing volumes, strong prices, and limited operations associated with efficiencies gained with the execution of RESET. Adjusted EBITDA margin reached 21.1%, expanding 168 basis points versus 2020 and 225 basis points versus 2019. Year-to-date through June, Adjusted EBITDA reached COP 967 billion, increasing 28% versus 2020, and more than COP 178 billion on a like-for-like basis versus 2019. Now to start with our results in each region, I would like to invite Bill to provide more context about the performance of the U.S. region and our view for the market.
Thank you, Juan, and good morning, everyone. In the second quarter of 2021, we evidenced strong demand conditions in the U.S. due to positive momentum in the residential construction and a progressive recovery in the commercial segment. Consequently, both cement and ready-mix prices increased versus the first quarter of 2021 in 2% and 1.5% respectively. Cement volumes grew 8% YoY, while ready-mix dispatches decreased 13%, with different behaviors across our footprint. The Southeast Zone, for instance, had an outstanding performance in terms of volume during the quarter, increasing 6.6% YoY, with remarkable growth, specifically in the Carolinas.
The South Central Zone, on the other hand, was highly impacted by heavy rainfall in Houston and Dallas, where weather days increased by 100% and 50% respectively, as well as by the Dallas divestiture that was carried out on June 15th, affecting the last 15 days of sales with a lower comparable basis. Both revenues and Adjusted EBITDA remained strong and consistent YoY, posting an increase of 0.2% and a decrease of 1.6%, respectively. The cost efficiencies together with the positive market dynamics allowed us to obtain a record Adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.2% when excluding the $48 million from the gain on sale of the Dallas divestiture. Very similar to the one obtained during the same quarter of last year, when most of the savings from the RESET program were executed in the U.S.
As Juan previously mentioned, this margin is a result of hard work of our people in both maintaining the cost efficiencies and making commercial efforts to improve the margins via better negotiations. In ready-mix, for instance, we have achieved around 17% of sales associated to value-added specialty products, which have an incremental margin of 8% above regular concrete. These products include colored concrete, macro or micro fiber concrete, which adds additional strength with less cracking, and sustainable products such as our pervious concrete, which allows the rain or stormwater runoff to go through our concrete into the subbase, filtering all of the contaminants of the rainwater and sending clean water back into our aquifer. Our backlog continues to be strong in every segment.
Civil projects related to road paving as well as commercial projects such as the third phase of Facebook campus close to Atlanta, which is scheduled to start in November and will consume 300,000 yards of concrete over a period of three years, are currently part of our ready-mix backlog. Regarding market dynamics, leading indicators in the residential segment continue on a strong footing. Despite concerns on availability of land and high prices and supply constraints of materials such as lumber, building permits and housing starts increased YoY 38% and 45% respectively, and were relatively stable compared to the first quarter of 2021. Indicators that track commercial segment also suggest strong business conditions for the coming months.
The ABI, which is an indicator of the dynamic of the non-residential construction in the next nine to 12 months, has been in positive territory since February and reached in May, one of the highest scores ever reported, driven by the robust growth of the economy. In the same line, the Dodge Momentum Index, despite a monthly decrease of 5%, remains near a 13-year high and well above last year, with both commercial and institutional planning significantly higher than June 2020, driven by projects such as data centers, warehouses, and hospitals. On the civil and infrastructure front, all the attention remains over the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework announced by the White House with an expected investment of $550 billion to fund roads, water projects, and power grid.
The bill, which is expected to be fully approved soon, includes $110 billion in new spending for roads and bridges, meaning that we could evidence increased demand of materials by the second half of 2022. We are confident that our unique footprint of local cement production and import terminals, the integration of our ready-mix plants, and our superior value proposition provide a unique opportunity to take advantage of the positive industry trends that we are expected for the coming years. We continue making progress on our strategy to increase profitability by balancing our portfolio mix and asset base and will monitor the external risks associated to the building materials industry to be prepared to face the challenges of a changing market environment.
Thank you, Bill. The strong momentum of the building materials industry in the U.S., together with the positive forecast for the years ahead and the outstanding team that we have in place, reinforce the unparalleled opportunities that our U.S. business has to continue growing and improving its performance and profitability. Now moving to Colombia, I would like to highlight the tremendous effort from our employees, specifically those in supply chain, to continue delivering our products to customers amidst the social unrest experienced during the last week of April and the whole month of May.
Thank you, Juan, and good morning. As you just mentioned, during the second quarter, we experienced challenging social conditions all over the country, arising from the economic difficulties from our population that worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic. This social unrest had nationwide effects, but was most severe in the southwest zone of the country, where our Yumbo plant, that accounts for 18% of the sales of Colombia, had to be shut down for 40 days due to the road blockage that prevented our product from being delivered to our customers. The impact of this situation on our results was limited, thanks to the effort and commitment of our employees, who day in and day out gave their maximum effort to be able to safely serve our customers.
Cement volumes grew 74% versus the same period of 2020, benefited by a weak comparison base, and were only 7% lower than the second quarter of 2019, with progressive weekly recoveries after the lifting of the nationwide road blockage and improvements in the market share of the company versus the same quarter of last year. On the ready-mix business, volumes grew 63% YoY, but at a slower pace of recovery in formal construction. A more severe business disruption in the main cities led to a 28% decrease when compared to 2019. Despite lower volumes, we were able to close the second quarter of 2021 with an EBITDA of COP 105 billion, which represents an increase of 143% versus 2020 and a decrease of 7% versus the second quarter of 2019, impacted mainly by lower revenues.
EBITDA margin stood at 19.8%, a strong result taking into account the recent developments. In terms of pricing, the positive momentum that the country experienced during the first quarter of the year was also affected by the social unrest, posting during the second quarter of 2021 a decrease of 0.8% in cement prices and 2% in ready-mix prices YoY. This decrease was also the result of lower sales in the southwest zone of the country that has a better average price in gray cement. In that line, we consider this situation to be temporal and expect the market to regain its inertia given the global dynamics in cement trading and its improving prices due to the reactivation of worldwide economy. The current market dynamics of the country continue to be positive in both the residential and infrastructure segments.
Indicators such as the housing starts, which reached during June 2021, a level not seen since 2018, together with the positive development of the self-construction trend and the bag cement in the country, reinforce this idea. On the infrastructure front, big projects such as the Bogotá, that will start construction at the end of the current year, and the Malla Vial del Valle, that has continued in bidding process satisfactorily, provide positive support for the cement demand forecast during the coming years. Other infrastructure projects, such as the Eolic Park in the Guajira, which is comprised of 11 different projects of eolic energy, support the government's commitment to develop sustainable projects in the country. Our portfolio of green solutions that accounts for 16 different products in both cement and concrete, had an outstanding performance during the first semester of the year.
In terms of volume, the cement and concrete sustainable products increased 168% and 24%, respectively, versus the first semester of 2020, as the result of our comprehensive strategy to deliver sustainable solutions to our clients. For the remainder of 2021, we remain optimistic. Total cement demand in Colombia was 1.07 million tons in June, fairly strong and back to normal levels, showing the resilience of the market and the speedy recovery of consumption after the marches in May. We are sure that housing and infrastructure will continue to play a central role in the recovery of economic activity and employment.
Thank you, Carlos. We believe the fundamentals in Colombia are strong and there is room for more constructive prices going forward, taking into account the significant increases that we are seeing in import parities. Moving on to the Caribbean and Central America region, I would like to highlight the continuity of the positive market dynamics within the region. Camilo will provide additional information on the region.
Thank you, Juan, and good morning, everyone. I would like to start by highlighting the strong demand conditions throughout the region, which led to cement volumes reaching a new all-time high monthly figure during June. Cement dispatches increased during the quarter 73% YoY, and 32% compared to the same period of 2019, driven by the strong dynamics of countries such as Honduras, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, as well as by the strong performance of exports and the trading business. The Antilles and French Guiana also experienced solid demand, and our supply chain has remained robust despite the impacts from the pandemic. Exports from Cartagena to the U.S. accounted for 96,000 tons during the quarter, and together with the boosting local markets, led to the YoY increase of 246% in trading and 9% in exports.
Additionally, an increase in freight costs, clinker, and cement costs from Europe and Asia are having an impact on the cost of importers that could materialize in the third or fourth quarter of the year. Ready-mix volumes were significantly higher compared to the previous year, coming from a low comparison base, but are still 56% lower than in the second quarter of 2019, reflecting a slower dynamic of the industrial segment, especially in Panama. The weighted average cement price in the CCA region improved 1% YoY, led by a better pricing dynamic, especially in Honduras and Dominican Republic. Higher volumes and prices led to a revenue growth of 59% versus 2020, while EBITDA increased 88%, reaching $43 million, and EBITDA margin expanded 486 basis points, closing over 31% for the second consecutive quarter.
In Honduras, the construction industry continues to outperform every month, driven by the high level of remittances and the government plans for housing reconstruction following the tropical storms in 2020, which have positively impacted the demand of bag cement within the country. The increasing local demand has been successfully supplied from our integrated plant and our grinding station in Río Lindo, located at the north of the country, where the tropical storms of 2020 had the biggest impact. The higher production has also been benefited from the new petcoke yard in Río Lindo, which allows us to import bigger quantities of solid fuels, reducing costs and guaranteeing the stable quality of the material.
Haiti, with similar commercial dynamics related to the remittances, continued to present an increasing demand for cement used in self-construction, which unfortunately could not be fully captured during the second quarter by our operation due to technical, social, and political difficulties experienced in our operation. From July on, the social unrest arising from the political instability of the country has continued to affect our production due to intermittent blockages that have hindered the entrance from our employees and contractors, as well as the fuel supply of our operation. The market perspective continues to be positive in both Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico as a result of the remittances, as well as the funds for reconstruction of Puerto Rico Island following 2017's hurricanes, Irma and Maria.
The reconstruction activity from tourism, which is expected to resume activities soon in the Dominican Republic, together with the success of the new operational model in Puerto Rico, support a positive outlook for these two countries. Panama, on the other side, remains affected, but starts to show signs of economic recovery and better demand conditions as a result of a slight improvement in private construction, and the construction of the third line of the metro, which is expected to begin in October. We remain optimistic for the Caribbean and Central America region, as there are clear signs of improving demand, conditions across our footprint, together with strong drivers associated to remittances and local recovery plans.
Thank you, Camilo. I would like now to make reference to our balance statement. In terms of debt management, we are proud to announce the disbursement of an ESG loan with Bancolombia for an amount of COP 135 billion. The loan, which was disbursed last month, will have reduced interest rates once the company achieves its targets for CO2 emissions, water consumption in the cement business, and number of suppliers evaluated in sustainability over the tenure of the loan. During the quarter, we successfully closed and received the funds from the divestiture of the ready-mix assets located in Dallas on June 15th, for a final amount of $183.8 million, including the $100 million initially negotiated, plus an adjustment of $3.8 million from working capital.
The funds from the transaction were fully used to amortize debt, reducing our leverage and allowing us to achieve a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 3.1 x at the end of June. We expect this ratio to be below 3 x by the end of the year, the lowest since 2013. Taking into account the positive evolution of the markets where we operate and the continuity of our strategy of de-leveraging.
Given the outstanding results, the strong cash generation during the first half of the year, and the positive outlook of our businesses going forward, our Board of Directors has decided to call an extraordinary shareholders meeting in order to request an approval for an extraordinary dividend of COP 79.97 per share to be distributed in one single payment during the month of September. With this dividend of COP 110 billion, we intend to recognize and reward our minority shareholders, including the more than 10,000 individuals who are part of our investor base, for their support and the trust they have placed in our company during these challenging times of pandemic and economic hardship. I would like to end this intervention by honoring the memory of our colleague and friend, Harry Abuchaibe, who was appointed as Vice President of the Colombian region on October 2020 and unfortunately passed away last June.
We were very fortunate to work side by side with him for the last 20 years. Our company will guard his legacy and continue to develop the outstanding ideas that he had for our future. May his family find the strength they need to overcome these difficult times. Thank you all for your attention. Indeed, we can proceed now with the Q&A session.
Thank you, Juan. We will proceed now 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. I will enable your microphone. Take into account that you need to unmute your microphone before you speak. The first question comes from Juliana Aguilar from Bancolombia.
Hi. Good morning, everyone. Congrats on the great results. I have two questions. The first one regarding margins. Do you think the U.S. operation has reached the desired margin levels, or do you see room for further improvement? In Colombia, when do you expect to reach the 25% EBITDA margin you have previously mentioned as your midterm target? My second question is regarding ready-mix volumes in Colombia and Panama. When do you expect these volumes to reach pre-COVID levels in these regions? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Juliana, for the questions. We're extremely happy with the performance and the results of the U.S. business, but we still think that there is room for improvement. We have close to 115 basis point margin expansion in the cement business during the first half of the year in the U.S. However, the margins in ready-mix were flat compared to last year. They were flat because volumes were impacted by the challenging weather that we experienced in most of the half of the year. Even though margins were above 20%, we still think that there is room for continuing improving our margins and the performance of the business in the U.S. Similarly, in Colombia, we're expecting way better margins during the second half of the year. We're expecting higher volumes, as most of our major maintenances in Colombia were during the first half of the year.
We are expecting to hit that 25% target during the second half. Regarding the normalization of volumes in Colombia and Panama, the industry has been very strong in Colombia after the marches in April and May, we are foreseeing a full recovery of the market for the second half. The reality is that we even think that the industry will end up growing in 2021, normalizing our volumes in Colombia. In Panama, we think that volumes will improve starting in 2022, most likely will normalize in 2023. We are not foreseeing a significant improvement in the dynamics in Panama for the remaining of the year.
That's great. Thank you very much for your answers.
Next question comes from Rodrigo Sánchez from Davivienda Corredores.
Yes, good morning, and thank you for the presentation and congrats on the results. My first question is if you could please comment on your dividend policy strategy going forward, especially considering this year you reduced your dividend on offer to receive the dividend in shares, that currently you have maintained a payout above 100%, which is well above the MSCI COLCAP average. In line with this previous question, I would like to know what's your target debt level for the coming quarters or years, since you have significantly reduced debt, but you have also announced new credits. My last question is, if maybe considering the conditions that look a lot more stable than when the pandemic began, if you could maybe provide any guidance on EBITDA for the remainder of the year. Thank you.
Thank you, Rodrigo, for the question. We are extremely happy with the current leverage of the company. It is a significant milestone for us to end the Q2 below 3.2 x. That was the target that we set at the beginning of the year. Going forward, our goal is to be below 3 x by the end of December. We will continue with the stronger momentum that the company has. We are fairly positive that we will continue deleveraging the company and regaining financial flexibility. In terms of our dividend policy, a significant part of our investor base are individuals. The reality is that it is important for us to continue paying dividends going forward. We will do so as long as we continue with the stronger cash generation that we are showing.
We are completely sure that we will be able to continue deleveraging the company, but at the same time rewarding our loyal investors that have been a part of the company for quite a long time. In terms of guidance for the second half of the year, we are not providing guidance, but we are expecting a better second half of the year than the first half. For sure, we will have a very strong 2021.
Thank you, Juan Esteban.
Next question comes from Adrian Huerta from JPMorgan.
Hi. Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Juan , for taking my question. It's on Colombia. You did mention that you expect pricing to start to recover. Can you give us a little better sense of who's your peers? Are they operating closer to full capacity? What I've seen is that peers, excluding also Cemex, are selling now close to a little less than 1 million more tons than what they were selling back in 2019. I wonder who's gaining market share, and if they're close to a full capacity that could allow for better pricing. If we could see better pricing, is that something that we could already start seeing in the second half of this year?
Thank you, Adrian. In our opinion, the fundamentals are there to continue with our price recovery strategy. Demand is strong, we are foresee the demand will continue being strong going forward. On top of that, import parity prices have been increasing in a significant way. Just to give you an example, import parity has increased close to COP 30 in Colombia. FOB prices are close to COP 80, and import parity prices on the northern part of Colombia are close to COP 80 now. Close to COP 80. Import parity prices in general, overall in Colombia, should be closer to COP 120, COP 115. The reality is that all the fundamentals are there to continue with our pricing strategy recovery. I would like Carlos just to give you a little bit more color about the outlook in Colombia going forward.
Thank you, Juan. Hi, Adrian. No, I completely agree with you, Juan. Besides that, I think that we need, as well, to take into account the increase in the internal freight that we are suffering. That is in the case of Colombia. At the moment, because of the blockage, the freight has increased by about 15% versus the month previous to the start of marches. As well, the impact that we are having in the energy cost because of the internal freight as well. For that reason, because of that and because of the demand, we are seeing a very good second half of the year internal prices as well. More optimistic in the 2022, Adrian, because in the 2022 probably, there are rollover in the contract for the import cement. There is a new contract for the import cement better.
Great. Thank you, Carlos and Juan Esteban.
Okay, Adrian.
Next question comes from Alejandra Obregón from Morgan Stanley.
Hi, good morning, and congratulations on the numbers, Cementos Argos team. Two questions on my end. First, on the DOT funding in the U.S., I was just wondering if you could provide some color on what you have seen on the behavior of the states in which you operate, particularly on revenue management and the backlog as the states prepare for a greater match thing to the infrastructure package. Then second, on the Cartagena exports to the U.S. and the economics here. If you can help us understand first, where they are booked in the volume and sales numbers that you reported, and how has profitability of your exports compared to that of your domestic production at this point. Thank you.
Thank you, Alejandra. I would like Bill to start by answering your question about infrastructure in the U.S.
Yeah, Alejandra. Thank you for the question. We feel like the estimated impact, I think, will be good. The local DOTs, I think, are still struggling a bit to comprehend what's going on. Where we've exceeded in our own position there, we've taken a pretty strong approach with the local DOTs, and we've improved our share fairly significantly in the last four or five years of that market. We want to continue that approach. I think if the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework passes the White House at the $110 billion that was previously spoken about, I think that we're looking at maybe 3%-5% increase in volumes through that segment by 2023, 2024, perhaps. The states, I still think, will have to wrestle with their own involvement in those programs, and it's pretty undetermined right now. I think we're monitoring okay.
It's a little bit of a mixed scenario, depending on the states that we operate in. One's a little bit closer to working things out than maybe others. In general, I think there's an open-mindedness about everyone trying to work together to get this moving forward. We have a positive outlook on that, and we're prepared to take advantage of that situation.
Thank you, Bill. Regarding the economics of our exports, we book the exports in the Central America and Caribbean region. Our Cartagena plant is as competitive as you can get when you compare it with our global peers. We have a freight advantage to export not only to Central America and the Caribbean, but also to the U.S. Prices are recording everywhere, the reality is that we think that we have an extremely positive competitive advantage to continue increasing our exports out of Cartagena. We are planning to export close to 1 million tons out of Cartagena in 2021. For 2022, with the increasing capacity that we have in Cartagena, we are expecting to increase exports by at least 50% going forward.
Understood. Very clear. One additional question, if I may. It's on capacity in the U.S. You once mentioned in the past that the adoption of blended cement in the U.S. was perhaps a strategy that could be considered to liberate capacity in the U.S. So just wondering if it's too early for us to think about that, and if you are implementing something linked to this already.
Yes, Bill, please answer the question as well.
Sure, Alejandra. Given that the capacity is certainly high, building additional type of greenfield operations is not really practical, and it takes an awful long time in the U.S. because of permitting issues and things that go on. I think in the midterm, we still want to continue looking at finding ways to improve our marginal capacity at our plants, and that's kind of our focus right now. We also want to continue working with regulatory bodies to support the use of SCMs, which is the supplementary cementitious materials such as slag and pozzolans and things like limestone addition and clays. That's kind of our primary focus right now. We've had some success with that, we can also look at maybe potentially increasing imports from Cartagena.
Yes, Bill, we will complement that with the close to 5 million tons of import capacity that we have in our terminals in the U.S.
Understood. That was very clear. Thank you very much, and congratulations again.
Thank you, Alejandra.
Next question comes from Alberto Valerio from UBS.
Hi, gentlemen. Thank you for taking my questions. It is about pricing in the U.S., if I may. We heard that August and September might have some price increase in cement in the U.S. My question is, if this is happening, how has been the adherence to it? Thank you.
Alberto, it is happening in our footprints, and I would like Bill to give you a more specific answer.
Sure, Alberto. As we've mentioned, I think before, we put a price announcement out in April, and at this point, we've had very good traction. We've announced those increases across our entire footprint. Given the actual conditions in the industry right now, it's pretty tight in terms of supply. I think all the fundamentals are very strong. Our goal, as always, I don't like to talk specifically about pricing, but our goal as always is to cover all cost inflation that we have out there that we see, and then also try to focus on improving our margins. In that sense, we continue to monitor, and we're trying to balance those decisions as we go forward. That's kind of the way that we operate.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Next question comes from Vanessa Quiroga from Credit Suisse.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. It is regarding the outlook for capital allocation, given that this year you expect to reach leverage ratios below 3 x. Do you plan to invest more maybe in bolt-on acquisitions or expand in terms of products within your regions? Thank you.
Thank you, Vanessa. What we want to do going forward is to light CapEx investment in our current footprint and in our current assets. Some upgrades, some to increase capacity. Other than that, we will continue just trying to improve our ROIC and our results, taking advantage of the very good assets that we have in place.
Thank you. Do you have specific targets regarding the return on capital employed?
Sure. We still have a gap to close in our ROIC, and our goal for next year is to be at least at the level of our weighted average cost of capital.
Okay. Thank you very much, Juan Esteban.
Next question comes from Yassine Touahri from On Field Investment .
Jesse, good morning.
Good morning, Jesse.
Jesse, you are on mute.
Can you hear me now?
Yeah, perfectly.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. A couple of questions. Could you tell us what was your energy cost inflation per ton of cement in H1 2021? What is your expectation for energy cost inflation per ton of cement for the full year 2021? In this respect, we've seen a big increase in maritime freight, fuel prices, power prices. Do you see a risk of margin pressure in the second part of the year in some region? That would be my first question. My second question is on Colombia. You suggested some second-year price improvement. Have you been able to increase prices, secondarily, since the beginning of July, despite the ramping up of Ecocementos? If you have been able to increase prices secondarily in Colombia, could you tell us what was the magnitude of the price increase?
Thank you for your questions, Jesse. We are seeing some cost inflation in energy, for sure. The good thing is that we were mostly contracted in most of our markets. The more significant price increases we have seen it in pet coke, and we don't use pet coke in the U.S. We don't use pet coke in Colombia. We only use pet coke in Honduras, and we were contracted for the year. We were kind of able to mitigate that price increases. We have seen a significant increase in rates. In our opinion, that is extremely positive for our company. It is positive for our cement business in Colombia. It is positive for our cement businesses in Central America and the Caribbean, and it is positive for our cement business in the U.S., because we have a lot of local capacity.
That means that the import parity prices are increasing everywhere. I don't know if Bill, Camilo, or Carlos would like to give a little bit more color on the impact of the cost inflation in energy in each of our markets.
Juan, for example, in coal, I was looking at the coal prices in Colombia. It's nearly double what it was last year. I'm just wondering, when could we see an impact of that on your margin?
Hi, Jesse, this is Carlos. In the case of Colombia, really more than in the energy, because like Juan Esteban mentioned, we have long-term contracts in energy. We are having some impact because of the energetics increase, like the coal. Yes. Specifically the coal, probably this year, we have More than the price of the coal itself is because of the freight of the coal. Because of that, we are having an increase about 15%, versus the inflation in Colombia for the year could be very close to 4%. It is pretty significant, yes, in the case of Colombia. Converting that into dollars, it could be about $4 million for the whole year.
From the U.S. perspective, it's basically what you said. We have negotiations that are protected through the year. We do see some inflation next year, especially in coal, and we'll just have to take that into consideration when we're managing our costs and our margins. For us this year, we're okay.
Thank you.
And just-
Yeah, Camilo.
From the point of view of the Central American Caribbean region, Juan mentioned it already from the contractual side, we had also put an increase in petcoke in the budget. Additionally, we also had an efficiency out of a larger petcoke handling area that we built in the north of the country, which allows us to have bigger size vessels, which had a reduction in cost. With respect to budget this year, we're okay. We'll see what happens for the remainder of the year in petcoke and freight prices.
In terms of your question about prices in Colombia and the impact of Ecocementos, I would like Carlos to give you the answer.
Jesse, we are analyzing that. We are analyzing how is the competitive environment in Colombia. All of these things, what is happening, we have seen a better environment for the second half of the year, and for sure for 2022. We're analyzing what could be the magnitude of the increase. For sure, the cement price in Colombia, it has to increase because we are having a lot of pressure in our costs, on the cost side.
The reality is that currently, prices in Colombia are the lowest prices that we have in our footprint. There is a significant gap. Vis-a-vis import parity prices, demand is strong. The reality is that we see a much, much better and constructive price dynamic in Colombia going forward.
That's very clear. Thank you very much.
Next question comes from Carlos Enrique Rodríguez from Ultraserfinco.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for the conference call. I have two questions. The first one is in the U.S., and I was wondering, what was the reason for not having better margins in the U.S. with the cement dispatches increasing and the ready-mix decreasing, and taking into account that cement has better margins than the ready-mix business? We didn't see any operational leverage of the cement business there. My second question is in Colombia, and if you could share with us an estimate figures without the social unrest in Colombia. What level of revenues, EBITDA, and cement and ready-mix would have been reached without the social unrest in Colombia? Thank you.
Thank you, Carlos. We saw a very good margin expansion in our cement business in the U.S. The margins were close to 26.5% in cement. That is an expansion of close to 115 basis points vis-a-vis last year. The reality is that we saw a very good margin expansion. Just take into account that all the major maintenances and especially the kilns data we do in the U.S., they happen to be in the first half of the year. The reason why we didn't see a larger margin expansion in the consolidated results of the company was because of the lower volumes that we experienced in the ready-mix business. Unseasonal rain in the U.S. during most of the quarter, that was the reality that impacted our margins. We are seeing an expansion in both the cement margins and the ready-mix margins going forward.
In terms of the impact of the marches in April and May in Colombia, we estimate that we lost close to 100,000 tons of sales in cement. Similarly, probably 50% of the sales of ready-mix during the month of May. The impact was very important. Carlos probably will give you additional color on the figures.
Thank you. Carlos. Yes, like Juan Esteban was mentioning, we could lost in a range between 80,000-100,000 tons because the southwest of the country was totally closed, and we shut down our Yumbo plant for very close to 50 days. The EBITDA from that market for that amount of cement could be between COP 15 billion-COP 20 billion. Really, if you put that as an extra EBITDA in the quarter, probably the margin EBITDA will increase in 2 percentile points. That's approximately the effect that we had because of the blockage in the southwest of the country.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Juan Esteban and Carlos.
Okay, Carlos.
Thank you, Carlos.
Next question comes from Francisco Suárez from Scotiabank. Okay, Francisco, it seems like he's no longer asking a question. Next question comes from Andres Soto from Santander.
Good morning, everybody. Thank you for the presentation. My first question is a follow-up about Carlos Enrique's question just now. Carlos, you mentioned a significant volume lost during the quarter due to social unrest in Colombia. I would like to understand now that the situation is a little bit more normal, have you seen some pent-up demand recovery or is just the regular recovery that you were delivering before that?
Hey, Andres. No, we are really seeing very close to normal market right now with a really strong demand in all of our different regions of Colombia, in the.