Good morning, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to the Braskem's conference call, Braskem Day 2023. With us here today, we have the presenters, Roberto Bischoff, Braskem CEO; Mr. Pedro Freitas, Braskem CFO; Rosana Avolio, Investor Relations, Strategic Planning, Corporate Market Intelligence Director; Mr. Edison Terra, Vice President of Olefins and Polyolefins, South America; Isabel Figueiredo, the Vice President of Vinyls and Specialties; Mr. Stefan Lepecki, CEO of Braskem Idesa; Mr. Walmir Soller, Vice President, Olefins and Polyolefins, Europe and Asia. This event is being recorded, and all participants will be in a listen-only mode during the conference presentation. After Braskem's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. At that time, further instructions will be given. Should any participant need assistance during this call, please press star zero to reach the operator.
This event is also being broadcast live via webcast and may be accessed through Braskem's website at https://www.braskem-ri.com.br, where the presentation will also be available. The selection of slides will be controlled by you. The audio will be available shortly after the event is concluded. Those following the presentation via the webcast may post their questions to Braskem via website. They will be answered by the IR team after the conference is finished. Before proceeding, let me mention that forward statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Braskem's management and information currently available to the market, to the company. They involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to future events and therefore are dependent on circumstances that may or may not occur.
Investors and analysts should understand that macroeconomic conditions, industry conditions, and other factors could also cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Today's agenda will be opening business units, geological event in Alagoas, financial results, corporate strategy, final remarks, followed by the Q&A session. Now, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Roberto Bischoff, Braskem CEO, who will open the event. Mr. Bischoff, you may begin your presentation.
A very good morning to all of you. Before we begin, I would like to voice my thanks and my apologies to all of you because of the technical issues that prevented us from beginning on time today. It's a major pleasure to be here to share some of our information from Braskem with you. We'll be sharing our vision and our perspective for 2023. Braskem in numbers. Braskem is a truly global company. We've got 40 industrial units in 4 countries, 14 commercial offices in different continents, and we have customers in more than 70 countries. Braskem has grown quite fast. We produce PE, PP, and PVC resins. We're the sixth largest producer in the world, but the number one company producer in the Americas.
In terms of average earnings, our recurring EBITDA amounts to $2.8 billion, and our operating cash generation is worth $2.1 billion. In the following slide, we can see the big picture. This is where our assets are located. 5 million tons of polypropylene produced, while this production is concentrated mostly in Germany, U.S., and Brazil. 4 million tons of polyethylene are produced in Brazil and Mexico. Our research centers are located in the U.S., Brazil, and Mexico. We have a large amount of offices in the very same continents. On the next slide, we can see the company's evolution and to what extent we've grown since the company was created. This, in terms of resin production, we evolved up until the moment we became the leading company in terms of resin production in the Americas, PE, PP, and PVC....
We became the leading company in polypropylene production in North America in 2022. That came into operation as of 2012, with the Delta project, and then polyethylene production, well, we've been consolidated as the leading player for quite a long time in Latin America. Now, on the next slide, you can see some details of our risk mitigation strategy through diversification. That in terms of raw materials, geographical diversification, and product diversification, this strategy has been the foundation of our company. Braskem moved to a different level. In 2009, our main focus was Brazil and exports, totaling 100%. Our reportable EBITDA nowadays come from different geographies. 8% Mexico, USA and Europe 38%, and Brazil 55%. Now, from the raw materials standpoint, our company focuses mainly in naphtha and propane agreements with Petrobras, and we are diversifying quite a lot.
Naphtha moves from 80%-36% of our raw material matrix for resin production. Propane, 38% of external sources, especially Petrobras and U.S., are the main providers. Yes. Accounting for 23%. The remaining 3% account for ethanol in terms of renewable, our renewables business, and 2% the flexible capacity between naphtha and ethane. There's also strong diversification in our product portfolio. We got more than 100 products, specialties, resins, that account for a larger amount of our earnings, more and more. I would highlight here, growth that made us the leading company in this segment. This growth is based in renewable raw material. We got several products under this myriad, but also in terms of specialty products, that are becoming more and more relevant in our portfolio in the low moments of our cycle.
On the next slide, you can see the pillars to our strong foundation. These are solid pillars that enable our growth. First one is safety. This is a non-negotiable value for the company. The way we measure performance is according to the number of accidents per million of man-hours. We're way better than the market average, which means we're in line with the main market practices. The second pillar is people. We are a human-centered company that promotes diversity, inclusion, and human rights. And this is one of the pillars that is part of the foundation to our growth. And the third pillar is governance. Governance and compliance practices are in line with the best market practices. We've got a robust independent system, and again, governance is on par to staying for the best market practices. These are the pillars that support our path towards growth.
We'll give you more details on that, and we'll have the opportunity of reporting the evolution we've seen over the past years. The foundation is the traditional business. Our vision for growth has to do with decarbonizing our current assets. We want to grow, cut down on costs, and at the same time, cater to the ESG commitments that were made by us, as well as by the country. And that can be seen in concrete terms with the 15% reduction of our emissions, groups one and two. And we also want to grow with high added value products with low emissions. This is where we see the opportunities in our business. Second avenue for growth for us, it is quite known and recognized. It made us the leading company, which has to do with growing with resins and bio-based products.
We want to increase the number of renewable raw material we use. Green polyethylene is quite well known already. We had many initiatives on that, as we are and we are strongly committed towards that. We believe this is the main road for growth. We also see this as the potential we can tackle to reach our environmental goals. We want to have 1 million tons by 2030, and we'll have the opportunity of going into details on that later on. The third avenue for growth has to do with circular economy. We want to grow in circular products using mechanical recycling processes. The products we offer the market will have recycled content in them, and we also want to increase circular processes in our internal processes, considering raw material that can be recycled and where plastic can be reused as raw material in our operation.
Our goal here is to reach 1 million tons of resins and chemical products with recycled material by 2030. During this presentation, you will see that the initiatives we're going to carry out so we can grow in this segment is quite different from what we've done in the past decade. The goal is quite strong here. We want to keep on growing. Now, moving on, I would like to hand the floor over to Mr. Edison Terra, who will be talking about Brazil and the South American market.
Thank you, Bischoff. Good morning, everyone. We'll begin with slide 12. You can use your tablet or laptop to see the slide. Braskem is the largest petrochemical company in South America, with 29 industrial units located in 5 states. We use the integration model.
We integrate the First and Second Generation as we buy new raw material, naphtha, ethane, propane, HGL, propylene, and ethanol, as well as polymers. What we do is we crack this raw material with ethanol, we dehydrogenate it, and in the first... That's the First Generation, basically, and then the Second Generation will be the polymerization process. That's where we produce the PE, PP, and PVC resins, and as a consequence of this process, we can create or produce the product for our customers. Rio Grande do Sul and Bahia states are where our industrial processes are located. We got two crackers, reaching 1.3 million tons of ethane in southern Brazil. We've got the clean ethane that is produced in Bahia. Production is broken down into naphtha and ethane, as well as gas.
In the Bahia state, along with Alagoas, we produce PVC and other chemicals, and in the southeastern region, we've got the ABC Industry Park. That's 100% naphtha production, and we also provide refinery gas. We also have the new industrial complex. We'll be giving you more details on that later on, which is the Rio de Janeiro Park, which is 100% ethane, propane, gas production. We also have another polypropylene production unit. On slide number 13, we can see the main differentiators of our company as we position ourselves in the Brazilian market. We got great scale in this market. We are the leading company in all segments in Brazil. That impacts the relationship we have with the supply chain, and we have great integration with raw material sources, both from the domestic and international market.
It helps us be there in the leading company. We've got quite a widespread portfolio for chemicals and resins, and with that, we can cater to a myriad of downstream markets. In Brazil, 100% of our production is produced using naphtha, 16% gas-based, 5% naphtha and ethane, and then 6% ethanol. They're basically biopolymers and other products that are renewable. We also have great export capacity, which is quite important. Our focus is South America, but Braskem is also present in other regions such as North America, Europe, and Asia, and we do that by exporting products that are produced in Brazil.
When it comes to the relationship we have with our customers, both direct customers and the customers of our customers, during this year, we carried out our traditional survey to measure the satisfaction level of our customers, and we saw an important increase in the satisfaction level, 12-point increase. We moved from 49 to 61 points in our NPS survey results. The survey was sent to our customers, and here we'd like to highlight the main differentials, which is the quality of our product, the commercial service, technical support, as well as the local presence, which provides greater flexibility in customer service. Along with that, considering the growth, as Bischoff mentioned, I'd like to mention the packaging project. We partnered with an innovation hub called Cazulo. We've been partnering with our customers and the customers of our customers, who are the final users of these packages.
On the slide, you can see two examples of packaging cases that were developed in 2023, using quite a large amount of renewable resins, both for liquid and flexible packages. You can see those pictures on the slide. These are agriculture and gardening products that can be packaged in these cases. Now, on the next slide, you can see the list of our products. First generation, we got olefins, ethylene, propylene, butadiene, and butane, as well as aromatics, benzene, cumene, paraxylene, orthoxylene. These are the main products, totaling 7.4 kilotons a year. Part of these products are sold to our direct customers, and part of this product, especially when it comes to resins, are used to source second-generation plants. We're talking about polyolefins, polyethylene, polypropylene, and EVA, and then the line of products that will be presented by Isabelle following my presentation.
She'll be talking about South America. In resins, polyolefins, our capacity goes above 5 million tons a year. On slide number 15, we can see that our business provides input to different markets. It's at the very foundation of the Brazilian economy, and we got great diversity as well. Here you see some examples. When it comes to olefins, well, many sectors are involved, especially in terms of packaging, but also infrastructure, industrial application, and other segments in the Brazilian market. Same thing for aromatics. Automotive industry with butadiene, cumene, and for packaging and textiles for paraxylene. Polyolefins are produced in the second generation, and we see the same diversity on this end. We see very relevant applications in terms of health, safety, in terms of preserving goods with packages, as well as consumer goods. We're talking about primary and secondary packages for different segments.
We see quite a close correlation with the Brazilian consumer market, which creates also a close connection with the country's economy's growth. There's also an important connection to infrastructure, housing, water, and sanitation industries. Here we're talking about polyethylene and polypropylene, then we've got mobility systems as well as agriculture and food production. It's not only about preserving food in the packages, but also the increase in yields in the agricultural market. Now, on the next slide, this is all we can see.
We can see that this diversity is important to dilute the exposure of Braskem in several industries of the economy. So aromatics, olefins, as well as in polyolefins, we can see in the charts that there is a important diversity of applications. So in speaking of BRL 7.4 billion in revenue in olefins and aromatics, we have plastics and fiber that goes to customers of Braskem as their main segment, and then other chemical products is the second most important segment, then elastomers and exports of some products, especially butadiene, polypropylene, and orthoxylene. So this is a portfolio that accounts for 40% of the Brazil's EBITDA Braskem. And these products, they have a 13% EBITDA margin, slightly better than the second generation, that have a slightly higher EBITDA margin.
Speaking of polyolefins business, where we have PE and PP, the two main resins in the thermoplastic sector. Here we have another 40% of Brazil's EBITDA, with a revenue of $5.6 billion a year, with an increased diversity. We may say that packaging is an important application, but it is diluted in segments such as consumer goods and food. Food, that is the leader in polyethylene applications. So it's very clear, the relationship between the level of economic activity in the consumer markets and the demand for our products. Now, moving on, talking about our strategy in the slide number 17. Our strategy for polyolefins in the short term, we have a strategy to maintain our market leadership, to continue to innovate in the product portfolio, and to follow the idea of operational efficiency.
We've been trying to increase our share in markets of higher added value. We see that, especially in the longer life cycle applications, plastic is undoubtedly one of the market products that is versatile, competitive, and cost-effective, replacing other materials. Optimization of our cost structure. The way we produce our products in a more competitive way, by optimizing fixed costs and variable costs, especially by renegotiating with suppliers. Here, we're talking about input, logistics, in addition to raw materials, and it's more than 10 million tons of products that are moved, so the impact on logistics or the logistics impact is rather important. So when we optimize costs, then, that becomes an important area as well. So the third group of efficiency initiatives is automation of our logistics processes using data analytics to optimize production lines and improve the process of delivering the orders.
This has been ratified by the perception of quality improvement by our customers. Now, bringing to South America, the avenues of growth measures mentioned by Bischoff in the beginning, we have the decarbonization program. We are implementing decarbonization initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions and create value. This is an important program in order to reduce 15% of our emissions by 2030. This is our goal. Also, we aim to diversify feedstocks. We've been looking for new suppliers of raw materials in Brazil, increasing the share of ethanol with our green ethanol plant, with ethane and propane, with the pre-salt, new opportunities will arise from that, and that makes it possible to increase capacity, which will be discussed in the following slide.
So in the avenues of growth, all the topics related to renewable raw materials and materials obtained in a circular recycling by chemical and mechanical recycling processes. So we've been growing our market share in the recycling market, and this is very important. In parallel to the innovation area, we always look for new technologies, not only by mapping new technologies available, as well as by developing new technologies. We have a center to develop technologies for the future that will increase competitiveness and efficiency of chemical recycling processes. Now, moving on to my last slide, talking about the opportunities in terms of competitive feedstock in the Brazilian market. There is an opportunity to grow selectively in our main areas. Brazil will have a competitive raw material in the future for investment and to grow production capacity.
The feedstock is available with the creation of new conditions that are more competitive. The most recent investment in the petrochemical complex in Rio de Janeiro has a possibility of expansion of 40%. We estimate a CapEx of $500 million-$600 million for that to happen. And but there are materials that could come from the pre-salt, and these materials, they do exist. We have to create the conditions for this investment to be made. The proof that this is the most competitive option, despite the slow cycle of the petrochemical industry, is that it has the highest recovery. And include this investment in these initiatives, Braskem will keep its commitment with the plastics supply chain in Brazil.
The assets we own in Brazil are meant to meet the needs of South America and Brazil. Now, I turn the floor over to Isabel, so she can continue to talk about vinyls and specialties. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning or good afternoon, everyone. I'll continue with the South American segment and talk about vinyls and specialties business. This area that was created to focus more on the business that have a different dynamics from olefins and polyolefins. The goal here is to grow with sustainability. So as you can see, there's a wide range of products in our portfolio. That portfolio includes first generation intermediate products and second generation products. When we look at the products on the left, vinyls and fuels, they are more related to agribusiness and commodities.
When we move to the right, solvents and specialties, these are products that are semi-specialties with a better margin. We'll see that as we continue with the presentation. The total production capacity of this portfolio is approximately 2,800 tons per year. Now, moving on to slide 20. We can see that there are several specific applications of VNS products. They apply to various market segments. When looking at vinyls, we see construction as the main area in which PVC is used, so construction is very important. That's not only pipes and connections, also vinyl floors, PVC flooring, pans, fashion, shoes. Footwear is an important industry for PVC. Health, blood bags, hoses, fires, wire and cables. In vinyls, caustic soda.
Soda is applicable to pulp and paper production, which is one of the main applications, with as well as chemicals, aluminum, glass. There's fuels, automotive gasoline. Very few people know, but Braskem is the third largest producer of gasoline in Brazil. It also includes boosters, for gasoline, propellants, cooking gas, or NGLP, which is a cooking gas. It's the main application. We mainly sell to gas distributors. Moving on to solvents. The main application is paints and varnishes. 60% of our portfolio goes to that segment, but our solvents are also used in the agribusiness for grain crushing, adhesives, especially for the footwear industry, as well as chemicals, cleaning, and several other areas. And finally, specialties. That includes a wide variety of products with several applications. In specialties, we're present in more than 40 countries.
70% of what we produce in specialties are for export, so we have a global reach. The main application of specialties are paints and varnishes, coatings and adhesive, lubricants. Polysiloxane is a product we produce that is very eclectic. It can be used in cosmetics and lubricants, lipsticks, lip gloss, rubber tires and shoe soles and detergents. So with this diverse portfolio, then we move on to the next slide. We have provided a large amount of the profitability of the company. The revenue is $2.4 billion per year, with an average EBITDA margin of 13%. That's the margin for the last 3 years, and we account for 15% of Brazil's EBITDA. It's important to highlight on the chart on the left, that 57% of our profits...
Volume applies to fuels and boosters, another 25% to segments of PVC and caustic soda. So this part of the business, that's more of a commodity business, is not as profitable as solvents and specialties. If we break down solvents and specialties, they account for 35%, or the EBITDA margin is 35%, providing a consistent EBITDA for the company of $150 million per year. So solvents and specialties provide resilient results, and they don't follow the petrochemical cycles as well as vinyls and fuels. So the diversification of portfolio is one of the strategic pillars of Braskem. That's why we have recently added some products that we name as bio-based, that are based on renewable raw materials, because they aim to bring innovation and sustainability to our product portfolio.
I would like to give you two examples. One is wood from PVC and rice husks. Braskem has signed an agreement to bring technology from Resysta. This is ecological wood that looks like wood and has the look and feel of natural wood. It's 100% recyclable. And the fact that it's highly resistant, it's very. It has a very good application in outdoor furniture and decks, because it's very resistant to weather, to the weather. We also launched the wax from renewable polyethylene. We have developed this wax from PE, this PE wax, and we have five regular customers in Europe that are developing this business in a partnership with a toller that is manufacturing this in Germany. And the application for this is in adhesives, pigments, cosmetics, coatings, and other compounds used in thermoplastic resin transformation processes.
So this is a business that's more renewable, sustainable, so V&S captured that opportunity. Now, moving on to the next slide. We also focus on the efficiency of our plants. I would like to comment on some improvements we made this year in three assets of Braskem that were very important to the business. The first was the big, big project that we added 15% productivity. We now have 15% more product to sell. This was a joint development with the process engineering and industrial area. The Maxio product project increased the productivity of low carbon resins plant, improving the product so it can compete in luxury market. And the third example is the productivity of the neopentyl glycol plant that has increased with a record production this year. In terms of optimization of cost structures, we have worked hard to reduce our costs.
In the plant of Alagoas, we're now going to use a new salt that will bring us BRL 8-10 million in recurring gains. We're testing, but we believe that next year, we'll be able to have a good cost reduction. Another example is the replacement of. We're now using renewable energy, wind energy. This will bring a reduction of energy costs, that is a recurring one, in addition to a decarbonization of the Alagoas plant. So we continue on our avenue for growth in the decarbonization program. This is one of the examples. We continue to diversify products and geographies, as well as to expand our portfolio using raw materials from sustainable sources, as well as developing circular products. As an example of circular products, I would like to say that we have four solvents that are circular in our portfolio, that are recycled.
We do have two grades of PVC, PCR, that are recycled, that is recycled, that has been sold in the market. So we have added six circular products to our portfolio. To wrap up, moving on to slide 24, we are prepared to capitalize on current and future opportunities. For the finals, the sanitation legal framework is an important topic. We intend to grow a lot because of this framework. The National Sanitation Program says that the water supply network should increase by 333,000 kilometers, and the sewage network should increase by 252,000 kilometers. That's a lot of pipes and tubes. So we can use 4.6 million additional tons of resins for only for the sanitation legal framework. So these are two resins of Braskem that will be benefited from this.
For the future, we've been having a solid growth since 2018, but we continue to maximize. This is a product that is Octane Plus, that is used as a gasoline booster. We are already producing this and exporting to the United States. This has brought an additional gain to Braskem. And finally, in the joint ventures and partnership, we have created with Sojitz 1.5 years ago, a partnership to create a Green MEG project. We now have a Green MEG that has a disruptive technology developed by our partner. The dextrose from corn goes directly to the production. It's completely disruptive as a technology. Our future business plan is to build three industrial plants. We're just waiting for the technology development that should be completed by the first quarter of next year.
In parallel, there is another project in partnership with the United States to develop our first solvent, coming 100% from renewable sources, 100% ethanol-based. It's being developed in the plant in the US, and soon we'll be ready to send samples to the market and start building new plants in partnership so that we can produce and sell our green solvent. This is what I had to say. I wrap now on South America, and now invite Stefan, Stefan Lepecki, to talk about North America and United States and Mexico.
Thank you very much, Isabelle. Good afternoon, everyone in Brazil and Europe. Good morning to those of you who were attending the session from Mexico and the US. I'll be talking about our international journey. Mr. Bischoff said it really well in the beginning, Braskem went international in 2010, and I'll give you more details on that. Back in the day, we had a clear vision of geographical diversification and raw material diversification. The growth and consolidation of our international business at Braskem and our market share on an international level has been quite consolidated through the company, which proves how assertive our strategy and vision was, and also the success of our business. I'll begin by talking about Europe and the US. We are now on slide number 26.
Braskem is the leading company in PP production in North America, and we have a relevant PP production in Europe. In the U.S., plants are located in five different sites: Texas, Pennsylvania, States. We also have a tech research lab and product development lab, which is very modern and quite important for our market, product, and technology development. That's polypropylene, but also for other products. In Europe, our focus is in two plants, in Wesseling and Kallo. These are modern plants, and they are relevant positions from a geographical standpoint. We also have an international office in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. Similarly to what was said by Edison, these plants produce products that cater to different markets and different industries. Focus here is the second generation, as we call it. These are polypropylene plants that receive propylene from the first generation, the U.S. and Europe.
Polypropylene is then produced, and they'll sell this to a different diversified portfolio of clients and customers, both in the U.S. and Europe. This material is also exported. In the U.S., Braskem is the leading company in polypropylene production, so it's quite a relevant position. Moving on to slide number 27 now. Let's take a look at the U.S. history. It all began as we acquired PP plants from Sunoco in 2010. In 2011, we acquired two plants from Dow. We also acquired the two plants that we now have in Europe. We started expanding as we acquired Splitter in Marcus Hook, also a UTEC plant, which is a very specific product for quite specific markets. We implemented the Delta project. This was quite a large investment in this plant that was opened in 2020, and finally, the export center, as we opened the Delta project.
Because of this higher capacity level, we managed to focus not only on the American market, but also in the export market. It's important to highlight how flexible we are in terms of feedstock purchase. It comes from different sources, refineries, petrochemical complexes, as well as PDH. That gives us great flexibility in different moments of our production cycle. It also allows us to sell to more than 400 customers, which shows our leadership in market share, catering to the automotive, industrial, packaging, and synthetic fabrics markets. Our totally coupled plants in Europe are totally integrated through pipes. These are two plants, and what I would say is that in Europe, I would highlight not only our production, but also the geographical location of our plants and of our headquarters in Rotterdam. It is at the very logistics core. It's got an important point in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Antwerp.
five among the 19 most important chemical players are located in this region, and 170 million consumers are located within a 500-kilometers radius. Not only that, I would say that Braskem's headquarters in Rotterdam is a great Braskem global hub for us, considering the operation synergies in terms of purchase and distribution of raw material and chemical products. It's quite an important geographical location when it comes to developing markets in Europe, Asia, and Africa. It's quite an important asset which makes us have a strategic hub and has greater synergy with other segments. We now move to slide number 28. In this context, the USA and Europe segment makes an important contribution to the company's consolidated results. The first chart, we see the average use rate of PP plants in Europe and the US. We are at an important level.
That's what we see up until 2022. Because of this cycle, there was a decrease in our production average, but in any case, it's quite a consistent, sustainable production level for PP, which brings about relevant EBITDA margins over the past years, accounting for 25% of our total recurring revenue, recurring EBITDA for Braskem, U.S., and Europe. On slide number 29, we see our vision for the future. The concentration in the U.S. and Europe have a clear focus, which is increasing efficiency of the PP business, capturing global synergies, and developing new business models. Same thing we do in Europe, in the Netherlands. Now, we want to have greater initiatives and better efficiency, and to do that, we have to keep on strengthening the competitiveness of our assets.
We want to keep on having greater and greater integration with our customers downstream, look for strategic partnerships and opportunities to create value. We want to develop the biopolymer markets. These are opportunities we see with Braskem, both in the U.S. and market- and Europe, and we know... We want to develop new opportunities in the biopolymer market. As we do that, we also want to develop new business models and capture synergies as we integrate our businesses increasingly more. Growth avenues are to look for partnership opportunities. We want to look for sustainable businesses, especially biopolymer projects. We also want to focus on our decarbonization program, creating positive balance, and also develop our renewable business as we diversify our bio-based portfolio and as we fast-track the development of biotechnologies in Boston, Massachusetts, with a clear focus on renewables. This innovation center is under construction.
It should open in 2024, which shows how committed we are to being close to markets, universities, and our willingness to develop these partnerships at Braskem. This is what I had to say for the U.S. and Europe. To wrap up, I would like to say that we want to keep on increasing global synergies and creating products that add more value. In the U.S., our focus is new products. We're going to look at structural initiatives to increase scale and profitability, going for M&As and JVs, looking for vertical integration opportunities and potential opportunities, so that we can be better and better positioned in the American market. PP, Green PP project is quite important, too. We're now having conversations with partners, and we're also developing studies so that we can produce the first green PP in industrial scale in the world.
In Europe, we're going to expand our portfolio of international customers, develop better products for all regions of Braskem in all regions, using our strategic location in Europe, which provides us with access to the main European, Asian and African markets. Walmir will be talking about our green strategy, and we have created the Braskem Trading and Shipping Company, which will operate mainly in the international supply of feedstock from the main segments of the company, especially naphtha and ethane. Ethane comes from Braskem, Netherlands. Our main focus will be to expand the portfolio of global feedstock suppliers, which will allow us to gain scale and competitiveness. We want to have long-term charter competitiveness, and we also want to have lower CO2 emissions in logistics. Let's take a look at Mexico. Moving on to slide number 32. Braskem Idesa is a JV. It's the largest polyethylene producer in Mexico.
75% Braskem and 25% Grupo IDESA, which is a traditional Mexican group that has more than 60 years of history in the petrochemical industry in the country. Recently, the financial group of Carlos Slim took control of IDESA, which is very important of Braskem. We got two strong shareholders who are quite committed towards the Braskem Idesa growth strategy in Mexico. This is a picture of our plant that was opened in 2016. It's the most modern complex. To your left-hand side, you see the amazing logistics structure we have, not only to ship products through roads, but also through railways, which is quite a competitive option for us. On slide number 33, we see that Mexico has a great advantage. It has the first integrated business model, bringing together first and second generation product production. It's an integrated perspective.
We receive ethane, both from the domestic market and from the international market. Ethane is cracked into ethylene first generation, and then we produce high density and low density polyethylene in the second generation. We got a large scale. This is a modern plant, and then we'll sell this to our customer, plastic transformers, third generation. These are diverse products, quite similar to the ones we have in Brazil. We're located in the state of Veracruz, in a strategic position, close to feedstock sources in the Mexican Gulf and well-positioned for exports, too. Exports to different regions from this site. Moving on to slide 34. The main competitiveness aspect of Braskem Idesa is the way we use ethane. It's the most competitive feedstock in the industry. There are four main pillars to our competitiveness aspect. The first one is the feedstock, ethane.
We're now between the first and second quartile of the global ethylene cost curve. We have access to the Mexican market with consistent growth. Since we're close to the U.S., we also have a consolidated customer portfolio with more than 200 ex-active customers from different segments and also competitive exports. Exporting to more than 50 countries. We've got a differentiated geographic location to access the most relevant global markets. We take advantage of the free trade agreements in Mexico. We have free trade agreements with dozens of countries on a global level. Because of all those factors, our logistics and exports costs to the U.S., Central America, South America, Europe and Asia, are quite competitive, and we can take advantage of this important infrastructure through road, railway, and sea shipping. Slide number 35.
Because of all the initiatives that were implemented since 2021, because of the stability of ethane stabilization, because of the agreement that was signed in 2021, and since we managed to find a temporary solution for ethane imports through a specific terminal, we managed to consistently increase our average use rate. That happened since 2021. You can see the numbers on the chart, and we expect numbers for the following years to be even better than what we see now. That brings about great stability for our sales volume and allows us to have great profitability. On the yellow line, on the chart to your right-hand side, you can see that the EBITDA margin is quite important. That's why we need to be competitive in terms of cost and in terms of market access, both for the domestic and the international market.
Recurring EBITDA for Braskem Idesa accounted for 14% of the company's consolidated recurring EBITDA for Braskem. Moving on to slide number 36, our vision for the future and for growth. We want to maximize profitability, making sure we are financially disciplined. Moments are low in our cycle. We see that on a global level, the chemical industry has been suffering because of the structured margins we now have. We have to make sure we go through this part of the cycle with great discipline, preserving our profitability, and we've been doing that quite successfully. We also want to focus on our organic growth. In terms of efficiency, we want to increase the availability of feedstock. We want to operate with use rates above 90%. We want to preserve our financial health, having disciplined approaches towards capital allocation, CapEx, and working capital.
This is very important so we can face these difficult times of our cycle, and so that we can resume growth. As since we export, we have to think of commercial and logistics synergies at Braskem. We've got great synergies with the U.S. and with other regions in Central America, South America, and Europe, as well as synergies in terms of logistics imports, using our international hub in Rotterdam, which is quite important to increase competitiveness at Braskem.
Our vision for growth. Once the ethane import terminal is implemented, we clearly believe that we have enough feedstock to make it feasible to expand our complex with the EBITDA margin, additional volume, and a lower investment. We are working in the decarbonization program. Now, talking about these projects in further detail on slide 37. This is our feedstocks strategy. You all know the difficulties we went through once the ethane production was decreased by Pemex. So we developed a strategy to renegotiate with them and complement the supply with imports. Up to 2024, we have a fast track with a capacity of up to 35,000 barrels per day, and with that, at 65,000 barrels, we operate at a full capacity. Then by twenty. As of 2025, we have ethane import terminal.
That would be very beneficial given the stability of the supply in ethane. This allows us to work consistently at a very high operation rate. Moving on to slide 38. We'll talk about the ethane terminal. In a partnership with the JV, with the Advario, with the JV, between Braskem, Idesa, and Advario, that's an expert in the operation of terminals, we create a company called Terminal Química Puerto México, with a syndicated financing, and that allows with an equity structure of 70%. We have received the first amount that allows us to continue to work, to finish the construction. The entire terminal is based on an off-taking contract that will ensure the sustainability and profitability of the business. And on the other hand, ensure that the operation is sustainable. The capacities of 80,000 barrels above our current capacity, the total investment-...
446 of a total investment of $580 million, with 546 of CapEx. We have some pictures here of the terminal. That is 50% investment is moving well. On slide 39, complete within the avenues for growth, decarbonization, in alignment with Braskem's commitment to have decarbonization by 2030. We also issued a sustainability bond to reduce by 15% in 2028. We have projects of efficiency using our automation capacity that allowed us to reduce 7% already, up to 15%, CO2 capturing project. And another enforceable, important focus on renewable energy in terms of electricity supply for our complex, and also the expansion of current capacity.
With a low investment of $100 million, we expect to have a 20% expansion that will provide a very important added value to the company. This is what I had to say. Now, I turn the floor over to Walmir Soller, that will talk about the Green PE. Thank you. Thank you, Stefan. Good morning. Good afternoon, everyone. So let me give you an overview of our global business of Green PE. On slide 41, you can see that Braskem is the global leader in biopolymers. It has started its operation in 2010. The portfolio of biopolymers is produced based on the ethanol from sugarcane, which is a renewable feedstock, and this is a global business supported by a brand that is recognized worldwide, licensed to many customers that use our polymer.
It's important to highlight that the raw material is originated from a sustainable ecosystem based on our policy of sustainable suppliers. Moving on to slide 42, you can see that Green PE, produced based on ethanol, is much better than its fossil fuel, except for the primary source. You can use carbon-14 to measure the age of it. The advantage of this product is obtaining carbon produced based on renewable sources with a negative carbon footprint. Well, the traditional carbon produces CO2, the polyethylene produced based on a renewable feedstock, removes carbon that was in the atmosphere. It's a stable product that is a polymer used in several applications, as described before in Edison's presentation.
This slide is interesting because it shows how, based on an alternative s-route that is not the fossil one, you can see that based on oil, you start several cracking purification steps until reaching ethylene. And based on sugarcane, you produce ethanol, dehydrate it, and you arrive at the same ethylene molecule, and that produces polyethylene. And the main advantage is that it uses the same capacity, existing capacity. It doesn't require machine adaptation for product packaging or plastic transformation. It can be used with all the machines that are currently available. Moving on to slide 43 now. We see some examples of global and regional brands that use our biopolymer, such as Tetra Pak, IKEA, LEGO, and Allbirds. Asia and Europe together account for around 85% of the demand for the Green PE.
However, the Brazilian market is growing rapidly, and the U.S. market has also become more and more interested in this type of solution. In this year, we opened an office in Japan, in addition to the one we have in Singapore. The Japan branch is more focused on green polyethylene, so we are closer to our customers that seek sustainable solutions, and also supported by a policy to grow the use of biomass in Japan. Moving on to slide 44. On the chart on the left, you can see that our sales volume has grown consistently, attaining its full installed capacity in 2020. That year, we decided to invest to enlarge the plant in order to increase capacity by 30%.
Investment was made, and in the beginning of this year, or in the half, you know, by July, we started the production of a new level, arriving at 630 times on an annual basis. We have been operating above this nominal capacity. This is another important aspect that shows how much we master the technology to perform the project, execute it, and enlarge the plant. This is also important for our future growth plans. We also show the net revenue on the right from Green PE plus ET, ETBE, which is a product for gasoline that was presented by Isabel. So here you can see that there has been an important growth in the products based on renewable sources. Slide 45. This is our responsible procurement program.
This is based on a code of conduct in which suppliers comply to our requirements in terms of human rights, agricultural practices, and the environment. This supply chain is audited regularly by third-party companies, based on the commitments made by Braskem. Our suppliers also go through a certification process. For example, the certification in the sugarcane production process, as well as the custody process for ISCC certification. Now, moving on to slide 46. In addition to the growth in the capacity at Triunfo, with, we also create a project to replicate the project, we've been growing in the Asian market, and that would provide us with a industrial footprint that's closer to the markets that use and develop digital applications.
We've also created an important partnership with Lummus Technology, which is one of the global leaders in licensing of technology for chemical and petrochemical industry. So Lummus is our partner to develop and license the green ethylene technology. This technology is important because in addition to the growth of biopolymers and other chemical products based on green ethylene, Lummus has a technology package that produces even SAF, sustainable aviation fuel, that is a product that many companies seek. On slide 47, I explained the efficiency. We continue with the optimization of our operations, the distribution chain, diversification of market segments, to pave the way for the growth of new capacities that will come, as well as to consolidate a strategy of sustainable raw materials and the development of new ecosystems for the global chemical industry.
We've been also working to develop new value chains for green ethylene, which is using green ethylene in addition to Green PE. Growth avenues, we continue to seek-
... opportunities for growth with strategic partnerships, both for strategic, for geographic diversification, and strategic assets. For example, in Finland, we would use the polymers production assets to produce it, using our local partners. We need to develop new growth avenues, such as the green polypropylene in the U.S. and other chemical products, all from renewable raw materials. And all of this is connected to the market demand that seeks to grow faster with customers that want to reduce their carbon footprint. The biopolymer is an important leverage in this process. Now I turn the floor over to Pedro Freitas to talk about the Alagoas geological event and the financial results of the company.
Thank you, Walmir. Good morning, good afternoon, everyone. So as you may know, after geological event in Alagoas, as of 2019, the Braskem stopped the operation of the south mine it had in that area, and we started to solve all the consequences of the event. On page 49, you see a series of agreements. We have technical cooperation, for example, that have been signed since 2019. And now in 2023, an agreement with Maceió City Hall. These agreements have a list of actions that we are implementing in the area, either the to remove dwellers from the area, allocating them elsewhere, city planning, and the closing of the mine and monitoring of the soil. We have used more than 1,500 professionals from different fields to meet all the requirements.
When we think about the next step on page 50, we can see the status of each front. The main front is the allocation of mobilization of people, the so-called PCF. Here, there is a very advanced status. More than 99% of presidents have been reallocated. We expect that by the beginning of next year, the PCF will be finally completed. We have a plan to close the south mining wells in alignment with the National Mining Agency. It's 70% done, and we expect to finish it by 2025. We also have stabilization and draining projects for the mountains or for the walls. We expect to finish it by 2024, and the social action plan also is expected to be completed next year. So we're quite advanced in the actions we agreed to, and we continue with the measures to implement the initiatives.
On the next slide, you can see some of the pictures of our work. You can see that the walls are being closed. Some of them are being filled with sand. You see the belts transporting sand to be injected into the soil. We've got a great work to stabilize the slopes. It's the largest infrastructure work to stabilize the slopes because of rainfall. We've got high-tech equipment that is used to monitor the area. We've got dozens of sensors of different kinds to monitor the area, and this is monitored by a civil defense agency, so we got a central site to monitor geological events. We also have this project to promote professional training, and you can also see urban mobility initiatives to benefit drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians in Maceió. On slide number 52, you can see the status of our provisions.
Total provision was above BRL 14 billion, out of which we have spent a little more than BRL 9 billion already. So in our balance sheet, you saw the provisionings in the end of the third quarter. It was the amount of BRL 5.6 billion, and by September 2024, we should spend BRL 3.2 billion, and the rest of that amount should be spent in 2025 and 2026, according to the plan that was previously shown. In terms of relocation. Well, relocation and compensation accounts for the highest amounts. We still have BRL 1.4 billion to be spent, and then you see the other front, closure and monitoring of salt wells and social urban measures, including mobility initiatives and also additional initiatives, which includes the agreement with the city hall.
So this is the status of the Alagoas geological event, and now I will be giving you the information on our financial results. Our profitability is built considering the demand we have, therefore, the sales volume. On top of that, we'll apply the price that follows international benchmark. This benchmark is defined by marginal producers in the chain of costs. So we'll look at the region that has the marginal pricing and in regions where we operate, resins are usually priced with international parity. That happens in the Mexico, in the U.S., Europe, and Brazil. Of course, there are some variations around that, but this is the main reference we have. For basic chemicals, they'll follow another standard because international parity is not applicable. Variable costs, well, they all depend on feedstock, mostly.
60%-70% of the total production costs come from feedstock, which is the key element for our business competitiveness. Then fixed costs. Fixed costs, well, as we grow in scale, fixed costs are more and more diluted, and this also has an impact in our competitiveness level. The way I see our business has to do with the volume demand, times the spread of our profitability and the cost, and then minus fixed costs. Since we have competitive assets located in our curve, since we've diversified assets, products, and feedstock, and because of the scale we gained, we are well-positioned in terms of competitiveness. That's on a structural level. Now, there's a low cycle in the petrochemical industry that has been created some challenges that are being addressed by us, and I'll be giving you more details on that. On slide 55, you see the results.
Our EBITDA margin in U.S. dollars for Braskem over the past years. That's what you see on the slide. And in gray, you see the figure of the past 12 months, a third of the worst amount that we had four years ago. So we see that the spread is quite flat in the industry because of an excess of global offer that created an excessive amount of product in the market, and therefore, margins dropped, and this is the result you see on the chart for 2023. On your right-hand side, you can see that despite this challenging situation, we're going through the worst cycle of global petrochemical companies, while Braskem can still keep up with cash generation that is close to neutral. In 2019, we had a strong cycle, and we managed to keep that cash generation positive.
Now, in the worst cycle in history, we are close to breaking even. But if we consider cash disbursements from Alagoas, then of course, we are using quite a relevant amount of our cash in the past 12 months. Moving on, in such a scenario, it's important to mitigate and manage financial risk, rather. Here are some financial risk elements that are followed up by us for quite a long time. Our financial policy dates back to 2010. It was created after the 2009 crisis. It's quite a conservative financial policy. In moments of extreme low, what we do is we benefit from this policy, which is quite conservative, to make sure the company is stable. In the financial policy, we forecast a solid minimum cash, which is quite solid and conservative to avoid liquidity risk.
We also have foreign exchange risk approach. Since Braskem is highly dollarized, our debt is also indexed to dollar prices, so the company's price is dollarized somehow. We also have costs in BRL, expenses in BRL, so we've got a natural hedge that protects us in terms of overvaluing of the Brazilian currency. And we believe that in terms of commodities, we have to take what we call risk. That's what we're here for, and there is a strong correlation between feedstock costs and product costs. So we've got both a natural hedge over time, but sometimes there may be some mismatches, and then we have to hedge these commodities. But we're not talking about a large volume that is part of that strategy over the past years. And finally, our risk is mitigated by the credit rating system.
Nowadays, our default rate is very low, roughly 0.1%, sometimes it's even below that. So this is evidence that shows the quality of our credit risk management. These are all the mechanisms we have in place that help us hedge the company's risks at this point. On slide 57, you see how we apply that in practical terms. In terms of liquidity, you see that our cash flow is quite strong at $3.4 billion of cash, with an additional $1 billion worth of a credit line that hasn't been used yet, but it's been contracted with a union of 12 banks. It is at our disposal if we need it, and the level of that we are at is enough to cover the debt for the next six years.
So this is our cash position, which is quite strong considering the moment we're going through in the cycle, which is a moment of low. So we thought about having some strategies to reinforce our cash and have solid foundations in this month. Our investment grade by S&P and Fitch was changed, and because of the moment low in our cycle, but as we talked to them, we realized that they understand that this is a cyclic movement in the industry and that they understand the dynamics of our market all throughout the years. We are still committed to being disciplined in financial terms. On slide 58, you can see our capital allocation strategy in the past years. Since 2015, you can see the blue bar showing the net cash generated by operating activities, and then how this cash is allocated. Maintenance, CapEx, strategic CapEx.
In 2019 and 2020, you see when the new line was created in the US, and then dividends paid, which is important for our shareholders. In 2021, for example, when we had great cash generation, we allocated a great part of this result to dividend payments. We also paid our debts to a great extent. That's what you see on the gray bar. A large amount of that was paid in 2021, so we reduced gross debt in 2021. Braskem is therefore quite balanced in terms of our cash flow because of the way we allocate the capital. Now, return on investment capital is what you see on the right-hand side. This is a dividend flow in the past years in millions, in millions of BRL. You can see the numbers throughout the cycles, so it's quite a great level.
Now, to wrap up our financial management presentation, I would like to say that our main goal is to generate value to all shareholders and balance out our cash generation as we create positive impact to all the stakeholders. Our main principle is to have a robust cash generation and cash position. Our leverage target throughout the cycle is of 2.5 times supporting our EBITDA in U.S. dollars, not considering Braskem Idesa. We believe that is what is going to support the high level of investments we make. We also have maintenance investments that amount to $500 million-$600 million annually. That's the average in between cycles. Sometimes these figures were lower. For example, next year, our expectation is to not have any shutdowns, so the amount of investment we should have next year will be lower, amounting to $400 million, except for Braskem Idesa.
We have to calibrate that according to the moment we are living. The main objective we have here is to have a cash conversion percentage in line with the industry. Again, being responsible and balancing out growth and return to our shareholders all throughout the cycle. With that, I'll hand the floor over to Rosana. She'll be talking about our corporate strategy and what we've been doing in this regard.
Thank you, Pedro. Good morning, good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be here with you today. Today, I'll talk about the corporate strategy. As Pedro mentioned, and as my colleagues made their presentations today, I'll make a consolidation and present the global strategy of Braskem. Naturally, on slide 61, I start by talking that our foundation is the basis for everything. We actually make our decisions based on our foundation. Safety is people and governance, which is in line with our strategic pillars. As we attain our goals, internationalization and growth, we revise the strategic pillars with the main revision or review done last year. So productivity and competitiveness, we have to try to drive our top, top quarters results, knowing that some assets will be increased and others are already in that stage.
As we mentioned today, competitiveness of raw material is important to be a first quartile producer. In terms of sustainability, in 2020, we have renewed our macro goals for sustainable development. It has become a strategic pillar of the company, and we have this pioneer policy in terms of bioproducts. So we want to continue to be a benchmark in the chemical and petrochemical industry. And now I move to the growth and diversification. Diversification was key in our path since the company was created, and here it includes our entire portfolio of bio and circular raw materials and portfolios of products. Innovation, finally, has been and will be key to meet our goals. I have some slides to illustrate that. So in... We have growth evidence in line with the strategic pillars that will happen according to these avenues.
In the traditional business, our goal is to be carbon neutral by 2050 and reduce carbon emissions by 15%. In addition to that, we continue to grow our bio-based business in a selective way. We're talking about high investments that improve the profitability of the company. The bio-based product is our main differentiation point when compared to the rest of the industry. It reinforces our pioneer spirit, and our goal is to expand the production of bio-based products to one million tons by 2030. In terms of recycling, we have a robust portfolio, and in 2018, the company defined its position in terms of circular economy. We are aware of our role in this topic, and our goal is to grow this portfolio in terms of products and using recycled raw material by 2030.
So the pillars align with growth avenues, where the main goal is to create value for our shareholders. Now, moving on to slide 62. We talk about the strategy, but we do acknowledge that our business is cyclical, so we'll operate in the resilience and financial health. This is a way, something that has started some time ago. We have the goal of maximizing cash generation, and this will be balanced with business growth. The additional cash contribution is the goal of that. All of that supported by the global strategy that I just presented. On the following slides, I'll talk about this resilience and financial health. I'll also speak about the business growth. On slide 63, we have the main resilience and financial health strategies.
The goal is to maximize cash generation, so that we can have enough cash to support traditional assets as well as the avenues of growth. In the operational side, we've been trying to leverage this position of leadership, as Edson and Isabel presented, to use our commercial strategy and prioritize sales to customers that identify the quality of Braskem service. In addition to that, we want to have a global optimization of fixed and variable costs. So this involves raw material supply contracts, imports of raw materials. The company imports a large volume of raw materials, so we want to optimize that front. Moving on to the financial side, is to keep everything that Pedro presented, that is very much in line with our conservative financial policy and our principles, to keep a robust cash position and an extended debt profile.
Of course, with continuous initiatives to optimize working capital from accounts receivable suppliers with inventory levels to overcome the cycles that are typical of our business. This continuous operation of our industrial assets according to demand, we have weekly discussions to define our short-term sales portfolio, as well as a more long-term view, and a review of the industrial team to review the downtime or the shutdown schedules. In the investment front, this continuous prioritization in a downturn cycle or downward cycle is important because we have to prioritize investments. On the strategy side, I will start talking about the second point, is the asset portfolio optimization. We analyze the cash generation of each asset globally. This is something we're doing now in order to define the action plan for coming years.
But I would like to reinforce the agenda of the Brazilian chemical industry competitiveness. This is an agenda that's been very important for Braskem, as well as the entire industry. I would like to remind you of the importance of the chemical industry of Brazil. This is so important because all the companies account for 11% of the industrial GDP of Brazil. So yes, there is the discussion of how to be competitive globally. It's important to reinforce the on these first nine months of the year, of 2023. In all these fronts that I presented, we have had an increase in EBITDA of $300 million. Some of these initiatives change the pri...
We talk about the price of raw materials and the change in the cost structures, and we've had an additional $350 million in cash generation, especially when we think about better use of working capital, prioritization of CapEx. Now, moving on to slide 64, I'll talk about the business growth. Before detailing each one, each avenue, our main goal with each project, I would like to talk about the how this business will grow. You may have noticed recently, we made several investments, either in new business models or partnerships. We believe that we can do more with less by leveraging on the competence of our partners. So I give an example. This way of working will continue in the future. So let's talk about Oxygea and Lummus.
Oxygea is a hub that will have an investment of $150 million from Braskem in the next five years. We've made a round of investments with, we have received 150 business stage with cases we have invested in some startups. In Lummus Technology, we'll be key to attain the strategy in terms of product development. This is about developing and licensing Braskem green ethylene technology. Braskem wants to extend the reach of this technology to have more revenue and partnership with new technologies. In terms of electricity and natural gas trader, there is Voqen. We have created this business recently, and the goal is to accelerate the sustainable energy transition of Braskem, as well as of the industry and our customers. Kazulo is a packaging design, circular packaging design lab.
We have created this hub to promote new applications for our customers and brand owners, bringing the circular economy ecosystem as a solution that is a quality solution that could be part of people's lives. And finally, Terminal Química, in ports in Mexico, where this is a logistics terminal. It's a 50/50 investment because it's a partnership, and we leverage on their competencies in logistics. So this is a new way for Braskem to grow, not only with individual traditional investments, but also with partnerships and creating new businesses. Now, on slide 65, each growth avenue is mentioned and, the examples of projects that are ongoing. Starting with the traditional business. On the strategy pillars, I mentioned that Braskem wants to grow in its traditional business.
This brings an important cash generation for the company, so we continue to look into high value projects, but we have to decarbonize the fossil business to attain the goals that we established in the past. So in the decarbonization front, in 2022, there was a major advance, which was the creation of the marginal abatement cost curve. Today, we have a goal for 2030 and 2050, but for 2030, we continue to focus on contracts of energy purchases that are renewable energy, as you can see on the left of the slide. We're working with partners here, partners that provide renewable energy to the company and several other projects under construction.
This is one of the fronts for decarbonization, and the other fronts are energy efficiency projects that not only reduce the reduction under Scope 1, but also have a positive result. These are projects that will create value regardless of the prices of carbon. In the future, when the carbon market is discussed, and the prices are established, this will be even more profitable for the company. Now, let's talk about opportunities to generate value. As we had already mentioned, we do believe a lot in the potential of competitive raw materials in Brazil, and this will come from the pre-salt. We do have a plant that is in Rio de Janeiro, started in 2066, and we've had additional raw material. We want to think about a new investment for Brazil, maybe to increase the production of this plant.
It's necessary to have a change in the legal framework to regulate the natural gas market, to make petrochemical industry and Brazil more competitive. When that happens, the company is ready to expand the plant. As a reference, if we look at the difference from the differential cash cost to produce 1 ton, it is a fraction of natural gas. We're talking about a differential, competitive differentiate advantage of $400 per ton. In terms of bioproducts, the goal is to expand their production. Braskem is currently the largest producer of biopolymers worldwide. We want to keep this leadership position and all the knowledge we have of the market. This is a business we've known since 2010 for 13 years, so we want to expand.
When we defined the polymers by 2022, in 18 months, we have increased Brazil's production by 18%-20%. This year, we have announced a JV with SCG Chemicals, to have a green ethylene produced in Thailand. The investment will be made in 2024, but there are other projects. Sustainea is the project that uses the raw material from monoethylene glycol from renewable feedstock. So this is a new product for the textile industry, but it's also a new technology, so innovation is key for our strategy implementation. This year, we have also launched studies to produce green ethylene. We think about the new drop-in ethane products. We expect to capture value. We expect to have an incremental EBITDA generation of $600 million-$800 million per year.
Finally, for recycling, we have established a goal to increase portfolio sales with a recycled content, resins and chemical products. This will take place by mechanical recycling and chemical recycling, advanced recycling. Being aware of the challenge or the challenges we face to find the raw materials to develop the technology. Anyhow, the company continues to advance. Today, we have announced capacity in terms of 99,000 tons, in terms of mechanical recycling and chemical, Brazil and Europe. Finally, on the next slide, we talk about global advocacy. We do believe in these products, and we want the chemical industry to be a major link in the recycling economy, and that there are public policies that help to boost this business in Brazil and globally.
In the first slide that I mentioned, this strategy, the innovation, innovation is a key element. So I would like to say that innovation has been key to meet our goals. The main innovation has been the innovation platform. This is very much in line with the avenues of growth. The first platform is decarbonization. We're talking about technologies, biomass to chemical products, so we are talking about disruptive technologies. And the second platform is biomass into chemical products, totally in line with the biochemic or the bioproducts growth, developing green ethylene, biochemicals, biomass. We do it. There is a lab in the U.S. to attain this project. And finally, recycling.
The name already says that we're talking about seeking products with added value, either in mechanical recycling, increasing the quality of these products to make it competitive with fossil products, to be a natural choice for society, and also development of technology for recycling, improving the efficiency of raw materials, not only of existing technologies, but developing new technologies. This leading role, as you can see on the right side of the slide, can be illustrated by the investment in innovation. Historically, Braskem dispersed BRL 250 million per year. As we define the strategy being playing a leading role in innovation, we exponentially increase our investments in innovation. From 2022 to 2021, there was a growth of 70%. In 2023, when compared to 2022, we expect to have a growth of 20% in these initiatives and projects.
So naturally, we have the recognition of several players, as you can see in the lower part of the slide. Now, the next slide, 69. Conversion of CO2 into chemical products. Electrification of crackers are part of the decarbonization portfolio. We have to develop competencies not only abroad, but in Brazil as well, with several projects. We're talking about the University of Chicago and the University of São Paulo, and routes to capture CO2 and make chemical products. This is disruptive, even when we think about our goal after 2030. Electrification of crackers is the replacement of thermal energy derived from fossil fuels to a renewable energy sources after 2030, and recycling, either mechanical recycling, we're talking about product quality, and chemical recycling, that is to convert products into raw material. And finally, Oxigen.
Oxygea, there was an annual round, and we identified several institutions and selected six of them. Now moving on to my final remarks on slide 70. I would like to remind you of everything the company has done since our last Investor Day. In 2020, we started the start of our product propylene plant in the USA, reinforcing the Braskem leadership position. In 2021, we had the boom of spread. So this advanced movement of Braskem regarding the industry was very good. We accelerated this investment to look for opportunities in a visionary way. In 2021, we signed two purchase agreements for renewable energy, green PE locks, and we started our operation in mechanical recycling in Mexico, in partnership with Alcamare.
In 2022, we developed our MAC curve and our decarbonization roadmap. So of course, there are different maturities and risks in order to reach the 2030 and 2050 goals, but we continue to sign other wind power agreements and power based on biomass. In 2022, we advanced in a partnership with Lummus. That's important, especially in green ethylene, that maintains our leadership position. And we have created a JV that's called Sustainea. And finally, we've acquired a minority interest in a U.S. company that operates in advanced recycling. In 2023, more recently, we have Advario. We continued to sign a long-term purchase agreement of renewable raw material with a cost benefit. We completed the ISCC of PE in alignment with our goals to grow the portfolio.
We created the uncertain, and in terms of recycling, we finished to acquire the majority shareholding in Wise Plásticos, and created the JV in Netherlands with Terra Circular, a company focused on converting solid waste into final products. And more recently, finally, we've announced the contract for the supply of pyrolysis oil produced through chemical recycling with Vitol. Thank you all very much. And now I turn the floor over to Bischoff for his final remarks.
Thank you, Rosana. For our final remarks, I think we have to comment that the year of 2023 has been a year of challenges, given the international scenario. Braskem, even in this context, has made important deliveries, very much focused on the initiatives to preserve its finances, but also to create value.
If I had to highlight the concentrations in 2023, I have to mention the optimization of asset operations that are now operating in a, at a lower rate with different operational strategies, capturing very relevant operational results, and also the focus on the cost discipline. This generated, as many of you mentioned in these presentations, a capture of EBITDA $300 million in the year, based on well-mapped initiatives and that were developed and implemented during the year. The strategy to have our preservation of our finance and create value for shareholders was a very well-implemented strategy that has led to important funds and additional cash generated in the amount of $350 million.
We prioritized investments in a selective ways, concentrating on the important ones, and also investing in the initiatives to eliminate plastic waste, fighting climate change that are medium and long-term goals of the company. We also invested on initiatives related to social responsibility and human rights. Continuing, we continued to invest in technology. We, in terms of revenue growth, prioritize our strategic pillars, and we also prioritize the digital transformation as a way to configure new business models for the company, the industry, and to implement significant operational improvements that lead to cost reduction in the short term. A clear example of these allocation of funds were the comments made regarding Braskem Idesa. By allocating funds to renewable energy, renewable sources, ISCC technology, with an investment made on circularity of plastics operations.
And Alagoas, we dedicated ourselves to meet or to deliver on the commitments regarding geological event of Alagoas. We progressed in every front, especially the financial area. On the following slide, regarding the cycle, we believe that the year of 2023 possibly has represented the worst moment, and as of 2024, we expect a recovery in the international scenario. Based on a better balance between global supply and demand. This recovery will not happen in an accelerated way, in our point of view. It won't happen equally in all products. There are some products that are more resilient and have suffered less in our portfolio. As I mentioned, some products were more impacted. Likewise, the recovery will not apply in the same way to all products.
There will be different speeds, different dynamics, according to the supply and demand balance in the global market. We do understand that the year of 2024 is an evolution, and on slide 73, we have a view in which basically the profile of Braskem sales is kept constant, just changing our expectation of spread in the product. So the bar size represents graphically the result or view. Moving on to the following slide, I try to summarize what we believe to be the competitive differentiations of Braskem to capture opportunity in the petrochemical industry. The first significant point is the fact that we are a global company with industrial units located in four different countries, a global commercial network with offices in several continents that serve various segments of customers worldwide.
We are the leader in markets in the Americas, in the resins market, we're the sixth largest producer of thermoplastic resins worldwide, and the only integrated petrochemical plant in Brazil. In basic chemicals and polymers, we have an effective compliance and governance system. We are classified at level one of corporate governance in B3. We are a company that makes concrete contributions to sustainable development, when we're the world leadership in biopolymers and clear goals to grow this business, and many initiatives already being implemented. We also have goals regarding the circular economy of carbon neutral. These are important contributions to ESG, as shown by our strategy and initiatives. We are a customer-focused company, a future-oriented company, and our commercial strategy is very different because we focus on partnership, on being close to our clients and understanding the supply chain.
We implement digital initiatives, trying to optimize this business model and the chain to optimize the operations, reduce costs, respond quickly, and therefore create new business models that can be useful for the chain. We operate in risk management in an integrated way into the corporate strategy. A strategy that focuses on the diversification of raw materials and the geographic diversification to mitigate risk and volatility in this cycle. We also focus on a portfolio that is more robust. We are clearly a company with a robust financial strategy and strong liquidity position, as Pedro mentioned. To wrap up, now, moving on to the last slide. We'll clearly continue to focus in two time horizons. In the short term, in this cycle, that 2024 will still pose some challenges, focusing on resilience and financial health to maximize short-term cash generation.
The main example, as Rosana mentioned, we have captured $300 million, and we expect to maintain the run rate. Without, we expect to maintain that strategy without losing focus on the business growth strategy. There are very well-defined opportunities for the growth strategies, and we have a potential to add another $800 million-$1.2 million. This is what Braskem looks like. This is Braskem's way. This is how we see the company, and now we can continue and open for the Q&A session. We can answer the questions you may have. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen.
We'll begin our Q&A session. If you want to pose a question, please dial star, star one. If you want to remove the question from the list, please dial star two. Our first question comes from Rodrigo Almeida from Santander. Over to you, Rodrigo.
Good afternoon, Roberto, Pedro, Rosana, and everyone who's attending this session. This was a very good presentation. We have learned so much about the company, so this is quite a different earnings release. Congratulations. I have three questions. I wanted to look at biopolymers and ask you a bit more details on some aspects of your presentation. I wanted to better understand your investment approach.
Brazil is an exporting country from a traditional aspect, but I wanted to ask you about product differentiator in the niche markets, so I can better understand how that connects to the final use products, being self-sustainable in terms of petrochemical production. The China factor, how can that affect pricing of our products, especially biopolymers? How does that connect, you know, sustainability in China and pricing of biopolymers in Asia? It will be interesting to understand that as well as different markets. We know that the demand may be a niche market because it's quite small. Can you give us some more color on that? And what other colors in the region, and what other countries in the region can impact? Also, you mentioned $800 million in value capturing for bioproduct.
I wanted to advise that a bit more precisely, and to what extent this project could go ahead on the polymers. The question has to do with actual allocation. Things right now, moving away from this difficult phase of the Alagoas plant. As you look back, I mean, the Delta project in the U.S. had a great timing. You went into production at the peak of the cycle, which was good. Now we're going through tough times in the industry, naturally. So I wanted to ask you, what you see moving forward in terms of CapEx and investment? As we look at this valley in our cycle, one, which is part looking into this new initiative, and if you have the opportunity now of having a new Delta project or maybe a new plant, so you can capture this turn, this turning point in maybe for 25 or maybe 26.
At what point in the valley is this particular new scenario investment, especially after these difficult times, the Alagoas plant? How is capital allocation under this context and at this point of the cycle? Third question: the Mexican scenario was quite clear, but I wanted to ask you to quickly summarize the Mexican project. What is the ROI of the project? Is it what it was before because of the terminals? Markets may have come down a little, but now is that your strategy is more self-sufficient in terms of stock. How do you compare Mexico to the situation you had back in the day in the country?
Thank you very much. Rosana? I can begin. I can talk about our green strategy, and then following that, I may turn it to you. Is that okay? That sounds good, yes. Okay, let me try and address your questions.
This is quite a complex, comprehensive question. I'll just give you some elements so you can better understand the whole situation, what happened in Thailand, for example. First and foremost, in Europe and Asia, we account for 85% of the green market, and this market has been on the rise. It's been growing consistently in these regions. Now, since this market is biomass-based, there's something important we have to consider. We need geographical diversification so we can mitigate geopolitical risks. That's because we're talking about biomass. When we looked for a position in Asia, because we wanted to be close to the market and also because we wanted to have local support as we advocated for this new product, then Thailand emerged as an opportunity.
Quite an interesting opportunity, you see, because they also grow sugarcane biomass that we're used to handling, that we know pretty well, and also because we needed a first-line partner that had the right assets, considering the polymerization of green ethylene. So this was—these were a number of factors that led us to moving forward with the JV in Thailand. And like Rosana said, this decision should be made next year. With regards to the market, in terms of biopolymers in China, this is how we see it. When it comes to biopolymers, we've got an extensive portfolio of opportunities and possibilities. In China, they have some starch-based solutions. They've been investing in other materials as well, as well as biopolymers and alternatives. We still believe that we've got a competitive path ahead.
And besides that, there's another important aspect that sets us apart from the petrochemical industry. In that case, there is a specification, and when you meet that specification and you meet market prices, then you can move your product with no further restrictions. In this specific case, when it comes to biopolymers, you have to analyze the life cycle. That happens in many customers of ours. They've got documents on their carbon footprint, and we have to abide by this documentation as well as traceability. We have to know what plant we bought this feedstock from. That's why ISCC was mentioned. This is a certificate that ensures the whole product supply chain. It's not only in this case, about competitiveness, it's about delivering the value our customers expect.
All throughout last years, we managed to develop quite a diversified customer base from a geographical and from a market segment standpoint. These customers follow the same values we do, such as respecting the environment, having good working conditions, social responsibility, abiding by the best ESG practices. In this case, customers are buying way more than polymers. They are buying, in this case, the reputational guarantee, so to speak, of the product and of the brand as well. When it comes to growth, when we compare biopolymers with traditional polymers, we still see a very low percentage, 1 million tons in 2030 for polyethylene. Outside this market for polyethylene, the numbers should be way higher. We still have a long way to go and many opportunities for growth. We talked about Japan.
Well, Japanese market has grown quite mature in terms of the use of biomass, especially because of their goal as a country of meeting the requirements and commitments that were made so as to be net zero by 2050. Japan has created this whole conversation and the regulatory framework to use biomass as their energy matrix, as they replace fossil fuels, at least on a partial level. So the Japanese experience for us is very important, because like in Europe, regulations have been developed quite positively to support growth. Customers are committed. There's a clear intent in having low carbon footprint products, but the regulatory framework also provides us with security in the mid to long run. So geographical diversification and the fact that we're closer to our final market. And also because we play a relevant role advocacy-wise for this specific product.
Well, this is all part of our strategic plan in terms of biopolymers. But again, it's not only about increasing supply, it's about increasing supply based on a sustainable ecosystem. In Thailand, even we're bringing about responsible procurement requirements, and we're discussing those with associations, with government stakeholders. So they also see this as an opportunity to improve. Opportunities to have the best sugar and ethanol production practices. So it's a whole ecosystem. It's not only about the product, we're talking about the reputation that goes along with it. I'm not sure I could cover all the questions you asked, but I'll turn the floor over to Rosana. I think I can talk about Mexico, Rosana.
Well, for Mexico, the original business case, naturally for the year in the country, was based on the ethane supply from Pemex, and that changed.
Only because of that, there were some other external variables that changed. I think we managed to go through this scenario quite well. When Braskem was created, they produced 150 million barrels of ethane a year. Nowadays, they produce maybe 47 or 50. There was an important reaction of Braskem looking for new alternatives to supply ethane. There's no alternatives. They became quite competitive after the shale gas phenomenon in the U.S. Shale gas made natural gas and ethane prices go down. Ethane that was not a tradable feedstock because it was not transportable, there was no technology to ship it, well, it became shippable. We managed to renegotiate with them. We got to a temporary solution for imports and the definitive solution, which was very competitive in the terminal. Bottom line here is that we still have competitive feedstock.
It's less competitive as compared to the original project. We usually say that the logistics cost of a terminal is $170 per ton, but still very competitive. So in the second quartile of competitiveness of feedstock, more competitive than roughly 70% of the worldwide inst alled base. So this is a very competitive edge for market access and for exports because of the geographical location we are at, and also because of the scale of our business. There was a decrease in competitiveness as compared with the original project, but we adapted quite fast to the different market variables. And we did that to keep up with a high competitiveness level of Braskem versus in this specific moment in time. I hope that answers your question.
Our next question comes from Gabriel Barra.
One second. I still have some comments to make. Just wanted to add to what Rodrigo asked. Rodrigo asked about our EBITDA and what this new green ethane production would account for. This green ethane plant should account for $150 million-$100 million a year. Number two, investment strategy in the U.S. For 2022, 2023, the market was no longer a net importer of PP and became an exporting country, so there is an overcapacity in the U.S. We announced that we would hibernate one of the plants in Marcus Hook because of the lack of availability of competitive feedstock under this scenario, and we did it because we see that plant as a great asset that can be used in our renewables strategy.
So straight to the point, we don't see investments in fossil fuel PP, but we're working on a project that we announced to the market... trying to make the first green PP plant possible in the U.S. So we're working on partnerships, customers, and new business models to use current assets that we already have to invest in green PP in the U.S. With that, I expect to have answered all your questions.
That's great. Thank you very much, everyone.
Our next question comes from Gabriel Barra from Citi. Please continue.
Hello, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. Congratulations on the presentation. It's great to learn more about the company. I have two questions. First one has to do with M&As. I know you can't say much, but can you give us an update on your ongoing conversations for M&As? I know that you talked about it during the earnings call, but can you give us some more color on it? That would be great. Number two, I wanted to ask you about leverage. We know that the company's liquidity level is a bit concerning. I mean, we don't see that big of a concern, but the petrochemical industry is quite challenging as we look at next year's scenario. So leverage seems to be something that will take longer to be mitigated compared to what we thought last year.
How can we understand that? I mean, as investors, how should we see it? Is that a concern of yours? How can we sort that out? Is that a concern for the short term and for your credit ratings as well? Final question, it's actually a follow-up question on the Green PP project. When you showed your revenue and capacity, is that the price of Green PP has been increasing over the past years, which is the opposite as compared to the traditional PP. Can you talk about prices then? Seems that there is a mismatch. When you look at recurring margins with the mid to long run, we see that the prices have variated in the past years because of the decrease in the PE prices last year. Can you talk about it a bit?
What can you think of premium in the next years, comparing Green PP with the traditional one? Thank you very much.
Hello, Gabriel. Thank you for your questions. I'll address the two first questions. After that, Mr. Walmir will address your third question. With regards to M&A, we don't have that many news. Some weeks ago, we published a non-binding offer. As far as we understand, we now have to understand for the response, and we have to wait for the response of the banks. We haven't heard that. I mean, it's a confidential process. They might have responded, but we might not even know it. We don't know what's going on, we don't know what has been done yet. What we do know and what we can share is what Braskem is involved with. We're opening up a deep due diligence in the future.
That hasn't started yet, but we are close to that, I think. Also, there were some questions that were posed in the chat on the structure of the offering. It was made for Novonor and for banks. BRL 37.29 was the price, if I'm not mistaken. Half of that will be paid cash, half of that will be paid using a bond that will be issued by ADNOC, with a 7.25% yield in dollars. The term is seven years. This is the information we have on the offering. We don't have more details on it. There was discussion on the structure of the offering, but there's no additional information we can share, so we can answer questions on the offering. We have shared a letter with all the details on it. So that's what I have to say with regards to M&As.
We have no great news. In terms of leverage and liquidity, of course, the scenario is challenging. Rosana mentioned that the scenario is quite uncertain for the petrochemical industry. We always try to plan using a conservative approach in our forecast. As we look at the forecast, we have no reasons for concern, but we also captured $850 million in the international market to reinforce our cash and to be prepared for a stressed scenario that might be worse than the current scenario, which already follows a conservative approach. From the liquidity standpoint, what we see is that the situation is under control. In terms of deleveraging, well, that is indeed a point of attention for us.
Been implementing a number of actions that we have shared in detail in the latest earnings call, you know, revenue, costs, CapEx, and so forth, so we can fast-track our deleverage process as much as we can. In the rating agencies report, they've got their expectations, so by the end of next year, they post what their expectations are when they kept their investment rating and when they decreased it. So there's no reason for us to believe in anything different than that. You can see what is in the agency's reports, and we're trying to implement the actions we need to deleverage. With that, I'll turn it over to Walmir to talk about the green PE.
Thank you very much, Gabriel. That's a smart question. The past three and a half years, that is exactly when we started to change our value proposition.
Because of that, our benchmark also changed. When the business started 13 years ago, this was an alternative to fossil polyethylene at a premium price. So we've always had a close correlation between fossil polyethylene and green polyethylene. Also, PE has a clear connection with the change and cycle and offerings variation. In recent years, we haven't sold to those who are looking for PE. We've been selling this to those who are looking for biopolymers. When it comes to biopolymers, well, we won't price it as a fossil product. The benchmark here will be other alternative biopolymers. And what I will tell you is that this is the most competitive biopolymer there is with the lowest carbon footprint. Besides that, this product is a drop-in product. Customers who use this product may use the same transformation equipment with no adjustments or changes needed.
They don't even have to invest in new equipment. When you look for alternative biopolymers, most of the times, the equipment you have will lose in productivity, or you will need CapEx to invest in new equipment so you can process that material. The main advantage of our material is that it is drop-in, so it behaves exactly the same way fossil materials do. However, it delivers values on values that fossil materials can't. So why there is this mismatch? Because we no longer price the product as compared to fossil materials. Our benchmark are alternative biopolymers.
Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Andre Vidal from XP.
Good afternoon, everyone. First and foremost, congratulations on the presentation. It was very interesting. It's great that you could disclose some information we haven't had access before. I have three questions. First one, you talk about the expansion potential in Rio. It seems to me that the condition for you to expand the complex was the volume of feedstock or the availability of feedstock, or maybe new gas platforms. Again, as I listened to Rosana, it seems to me that that was not enough. Was there any change, any regulatory aspect that impacted that for this project to advance? What are these elements that are necessary for the project to be expanded? And also, what is the most likely timeline in terms of beginning construction work? Can you give us some color on the tiers you expect for this project as well? Are we talking BRL, U.S. dollars?...
Also, can I talk about conversations with government on the challenges of the chemical industry? There were some recent changes to it, but when it's understood, what is your expectation in terms of new initiatives beyond what was already announced? Finally, Rosana talked about using your portfolio of assets. We talked about this topic in the third quarter's earnings release. The figure might be wrong, but I think that non-core asset sale was impacted because of depreciation and because of the higher taxes. But it's better to understand that. Has anything changed since then? So what changed? Was that part of the macro or micro scenario? Thank you very much.
Andrea, let's talk about the Rio de Janeiro a bit. There is a study, a clear project on the potential of Rio de Janeiro. It's one of those projects we call DBN, with a low incremental investment per ton. It's very attractive. The assumption is a competitive raw material when compared to shale gas, U.S. market. The inconvenient or the fact that is related to regulation, how does the U.S. market of gas, ethane, and propane work for petrochemicals? This is something that comes with natural gas, and it's extracted because the regulation establishes limits for the content of these products in the natural gas, so it has to be removed. So it generates liquidity, volume of ethane and propane available to be purchased by the industry. Secondly, natural gas is highly competitive, so the incremental value on that also adds competitiveness.
In the Brazilian market, this is not a liquid market. We still have problems of excess infrastructure. Route three now bringing gas separately. We do have a requirement of some ethane content, not like in the U.S., but there is still a discussion on flexibilization of ethane content on natural gas, so that could lead to lower volumes of ethane. And this also, we do have a gas in Brazil that is expensive when we talk about $2-$3 per million BTUs in the U.S., and here it's $7-$8. So the fact that there are some established limits would add, we need some higher liquidity in the market and more competitiveness. So there is an equation to be solved regarding capacity of extraction and regulation that in the market.
But there is a clear opportunity to grow, and the raw material is available. It... The infrastructure will be laid soon for the gas and to extract ethane. From the project point of view, that would be an enlargement that would take three to four years, starting on the finance decision, on the funding decision. Pedro, could you answer the second question, please? Well, in terms of optimization of portfolio and assets, I'd say that there are three scopes to work on. One is the weekly, daily production plan, in which we try to optimize the contribution margin of the entire business of Braskem, defining the production volumes that will come from each asset in order to reach that, let me say. This is a short-term decision.
The second decision is more of a medium-term that could lead to the hybridization of an asset, like we did recently, and in some cases, shutting down plants as we did in Bahia two years ago. So these are business decisions that are usual. In the last 20 years, Braskem shut down some plants that became... They were not competitive anymore, or were not technology updated in terms of technology. This is a, an analysis that is not done so frequently, and we look at the sustainability of assets....The last round was done in the U.S. this year, that led to Marcus Hook hibernation of one of the production lines. This plant is, we expect to operate it again when we have more propane, especially green propane in the U.S.
The third discussion of assets has to do with whether non-core assets, most of them have been depreciated, so there is a tax aspect that's important, a capital gain that would generate a significant payment of income tax. So, so far, our decision is not to continue with that because we did not get the funding in September. We don't have any urgency. So this may change according to the cycle evolution. In the core assets, you may have noticed that Braskem has made some joint ventures, the first one in Mexico, and since then, Thailand and other ones. So when we talk about capital allocation and growth, Braskem is more open for partnerships, and we could make a partnership that involves existing assets. This is a possibility as well.
We could discuss this as something that would be interesting for the company strategically, but right now, we don't have anything in progress to report to you. The advances we have are Sustainea acquisitions. So right now, there is no scenario to sell assets, at least in the short term. But we are discussing the possible potential associations in other business area s.
Our next question comes from Tasso Vasconcelos from UBS. Go ahead, Tasso.
Hello, Roberto, Pedro, Rosana, everyone else. Thank you for the presentation. There was an additional disclosure level that was quite interesting to help us on evaluating the company. Now, there are two questions on my side. Petrobras has been a critic in investments. How is the positioning of Petrobras regarding investments of Braskem? And how would a change in the structure, corporate structure, would make invested?
The second question is to follow up on the first one, in the last event of Petrobras, it was mentioned that Braskem was not the only option for it to continue to invest in the industry. There's Propegi in Rio. So what do you think about having this additional competition? Is there room in the national industry for that, and whether there is any non-compete clause under Petrobras? These are my two questions. Thank you.
Thank you for your question. With regards to Petrobras' investment policy, in Braskem, we have our own governance, and the company strategy has been approved by the board of directors, of course. At this moment of the cycle, there are many projects, tens of projects, smaller or larger, but Braskem has a very strong bias on generating ideas and business opportunities.
Since we are in the frontier of renewable energy, renewable biomass, renewable sources, and an important players in biomass, there is a set of opportunities to be pursued. Unfortunately, we have to be responsible regarding our cash discipline, and many of these projects are on hold. Regarding the ethane Petrobras and how this may develop to the future, obviously, we would have to have the support of shareholders to accelerate the development of these projects. So it will depend on them. Petrobras publish its investment plan, but we, we're not aware of ethane's strategy. So right now, we have to be responsible and comply with the investment policy of the company, and let's wait for the new developments of this process, and certainly we'll show or we'll advise those stakeholders if anything arises.
In a process like this, it may be a leverage to capture, increase the value of the company for our shareholders. As for the investment strategy of Petrobras, if Braskem is an alternative or not, I think that depends on Petrobras. We don't have a say in what they do, and we cannot influence their decisions, also. Just to follow up, Pedro, in terms of non-compete for the partners of Braskem, you don't consider this as an impediment for Petrobras to compete? Well, the non-compete is in the shareholders' agreement between ADNOC and Petrobras. That is valid until October next year, if I'm not mistaken. So this is in our shareholders' agreement. It is a public agreement, but there is a non-compete clause of Petrobras in the chemical industry until October next year.
Thank you.
This concludes the Braskem Q&A session.
Now, I would like to turn the floor over to the company for their final remarks. Well, actually, I would just like to thank you all for attending and for your interest in the company. I wish you all a merry Christmas, and we will see each other in the next call. Thank you all, and have a good day.
The video conference of Braskem has now ended. We thank you all for attending, and have a good afternoon. Thank you for using Chorus Call.