Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Amabile Silva, the IR Relations Director at CBA. Welcome to our earnings call for the first quarter of CBA. We have Ricardo Carvalho, the CEO of the company, and Luciano Alves, the CFO and Investor Relations Director in the company. We'd like to let you know that this event is being recorded, and all participants will only be listening during the presentation. Soon after, we'll begin our session for Q&A. If you have any questions in writing, please write your name and company in the Q&A field. Or if you'd like to submit your question by audio, please choose the Raise Hands option. The presentation of this event is available on the investor relations website at CBA, where we'll also provide the recording of the event after it's closed.
Before we continue, I want to reinforce that any forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of the company and the current information available to CBA. These statements could involve risks and uncertainties because they are related to future events and thus rely on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors and analysts must consider that any events related to the macroeconomic scenario, the segment and other factors that could make the earnings be materially different than those presented in the prospectus or statements. Now, I want to pass on the word to Mr. Ricardo Carvalho, and he'll begin talking about the initial highlights of the first quarter of 2022. Please, Ricardo, you may proceed.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I want to start off thanking you for your participation during our earnings call.
The first quarter of 2022 was marked by the advances in ESG, launching a new product line, our follow-on, and a historical EBITDA for the company. The year started off with very positive expectations for the aluminum industry, closing the first quarter with an average metal price of $3,280 per ton, a relevant growth of 56% compared to the first quarter of 2021. This scenario was favorable for the growth of the net revenue at CBA in the quarter by 28% compared to the first quarter of 2021, reaching BRL 2.3 billion. Even with a drop of 10,000 tons in the volume sold in the same period, we closed the quarter with 109,000 tons of aluminum sold.
On the other hand, higher costs with inputs continued to pressure our results due to the global market that was more volatile, with supply chains under pressure reflecting an increase of costs of 29% in this quarter compared to the first quarter of 2021, reaching BRL 1.7 billion. This strong market moment was an important leverage to make CBA reach all-time highs in the adjusted EBITDA of BRL 552 million. It's important to highlight also that CBA registered a net income of BRL 426 million compared to a loss of BRL 133 million in the first quarter of 2021.
Besides the financial earnings, we also completed our greenhouse gas emission inventory based on the methodology of the GHG Protocol, with a result of 2.56 tons of CO2 per ton of aluminum, considering scope one and two, which is five times smaller than the average worldwide. Still reinforcing, since we're really well-positioned in the ESG front, we were able to receive the prize granted by the CDP Latin America Awards, 2021 as a leading company for the climate change program. In the first quarter of 2022, we launched our new product line for CBA, a pre-moldado line for aluminum geared to mid-standard projects to be able to work with steel workers and strengthening the strategy that CBA has in the civil construction market.
Finally, reinforcing our positioning in the capital market, we completed in April the follow-on for CBA with a secondary offering and the sale of stock by the controller, Votorantim, improving our liquidity at CBA with a free float of 32.1% now. Now, I want to invite Luciano, our CFO and IR Director in the company, to provide some more details on the aluminum market and our financial performance at CBA. Thank you very much. Luciano.
Thank you, Ricardo. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Luciano. I'm the Financial Director and IR Director at CBA. I want to start off talking about the main occurrences in the aluminum market in this first quarter. The aluminum market continues to be at a deficit due to the reduction in the demand from China.
On the graph on the left side, you can see that the global balance was deficient with four of the last five quarters, with demand overcoming supply. Stocks are in a drop, and they're already reaching a level of balance, which is about 50 days of consumption. This is a historically low level. On the graph to the right side, you can see how the demand in China has been cooling down in the last quarters. In China and out of China, the consumption of primary aluminum has been keeping healthy levels. China specifically has been implementing a rigid lockdown policy that affected the demand for aluminum more towards the end of the first quarter. Some market players in the downstream market had to reduce their production in logistical challenges and health and sanitary measures, limiting their purchase of primary metal.
It's important to mention that the most important factor in this cool down is the lower rhythm in expansion in the civil construction sector. It represents about 29% of the aluminum demand in the country. Moving on to the next slide. We can see that, when it comes to supply, we had a retraction of 0.46% in the primary aluminum production worldwide in the first quarter, mainly because of the closing of the smelters in Europe and volatile prices due to the volatility in the prices in Europe, which started in 2021 and was intensified in the conflict with Russia and Ukraine. Almost 1 million capacity smelters are closed, which represents about 20% of the total in the region.
China also increases production by 0.8% due to an improvement in the energy crisis in the country. It was already an increase in production that was expected due to the fact that it relied on the regularization of the coal and also improvement of hydrology in some provinces. In regards to the first quarter, China increased 27% of its exports of aluminum, improving the LME prices that were higher and the strong demand in other countries. Over 90% of the exported volume are for transformed products. These exports end up representing a strong source of primary aluminum consumption in the short term because the demand domestically in China is weaker.
Even with this increase in exports, the CRU consulting company says that China will continue to be a net importer of metal with the warm-up of the internal demand and the end of the lockdowns with the deployment of some incentives announced by the government. On the next slide, we are going to show you how the behavior of the LME has been taking place in the last months and following the market and the scenario from a macroeconomic perspective. The LME on average was in first quarter $3,280 per ton. It's 56% higher, and it's considerably a peak volume.
In the last quarter, LME reached almost $4,000 per ton, a little bit after the conflict due to concerns that the Russian metal would be directly impacted, and then the LME was reduced. More recently, it's been impacted by the cool down in the demand in China due to the lockdown that they're having there. On the other hand, another important thermometer are the regional premiums that continue to go up, supported by the strong demand in China, lower inventories and greater uncertainties and logistical costs also. In Brazil, the DDP award also went up, but at a lower level than the others due to the lower level of stocks in the local supply chain. Now, I want to talk about costs and margins in the industry.
With the increase of the aluminum prices, this contributed to the increase in margins out of China, but the cost inflation is still a big challenge for the industry as a whole. On the graph to the left, you can see that there's a percentage of the primary global aluminum prices with costs above the price of aluminum. Mostly the Chinese smelters that suffered a lot with the price of energy, aluminum, and other raw materials. In the first quarter, despite the reduction from 11% to 10%, the industry continued to have a cost percentage that's still higher than the price of the aluminum. Out of China, you can see that there's an increase in the margins in the first quarter, influenced by the increase in the LME and also the drops of the hydropower costs.
In China, there was a reduction in the alumina prices in this quarter that benefited our margins, but the Chinese margins are about 30% lower than the same period in the last year due to the strong increase in the energy prices that more than doubled compared to what we noticed in the year. Now on the next slide, we're going to talk about the financial performance and operational performance in the first quarter. On slide nine, we can see that the volume of sales had a reduction of 10,000 tons compared to the same period last year. The segment of primaries had a drop of 9,000 tons this year due to a lower demand for billets and ingots.
On the other hand, there was an increase for the energy sector, and CBA increased the exports for billets. This demonstrates that we have a well fragmented portfolio for customers and consumer markets, and the flexibility that CBA has to be able to adjust part of the production and sales to adjust to the market needs. In primaries, the ingot sales had a reduction, which were offset by the biggest because the premiums practiced by CBA in the internal market in 2022 were greater than the premiums in the international market in 2021.
The sales of the transformed items had a reduction of 5,000 tons compared to the first quarter of 2021, which was influenced by the smaller volume of the plates and sheets and a smaller amount of sheets for packages. Besides this, the packaging market CBA had the smallest drop when compared to the overall market, and we were able to gain market share in imports. It was an important highlight for the core segment for flexible packaging. The recycling segment had an increase of 4,000 tons sold compared to the first quarter of 2021 due to the integration with Alux in February, and that already contributed to 5,000 tons in its two months of operation this quarter. On the next slide, we're going to talk about the financial performance in this quarter.
Well, our net revenue consolidated at CBA reached BRL 2.3 billion in the first quarter of 2022, a growth of 28% compared to the first quarter of 2021, which was influenced mainly by the increase in the aluminum business revenue, an increase of 56% in the aluminum and the LME, offsetting the reduction of the volume sold in the quarter. Another factor that also contributed for this was the increase of the premiums practiced by CBA in all of the product lines and primaries and transformed items following the trend internationally and affected, with the physical market more affected, and some increases in inputs and freight costs. Besides, it's important to highlight that the integration for Alux from February first has already contributed to BRL 79 million in the recycling revenue for the period.
In this quarter, we still have the negative effect of the strategic hedge, representing BRL 121 million. The reduction of the volume hedged of 12,000 tons till January, which is about 7,000 tons per month, from February onwards. This hedge started being executed by the company in June 2021, but we still have some valid contracts till May 2022. The net revenue for the energy business just involves the commercialization and trading of excess amounts of energy had a reduction of 18% in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the first quarter of 2021, due to reduction in the spot market, prioritizing the use of the energy for internal consumption.
In regards to the cost of the product sold, there was an increase of 29% in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the first quarter of 2021, influenced by an increase of BRL 220 million in the cost of the aluminum business impacted by the inflation of the cost in the global industry. Besides the inclusion of the Alux costs of BRL 62 million with the increase in the average price of the aluminum production costs were 26% influenced by the increase in the cost of alumina, as well as the soda and gas costs. There was also a reduction in the anode paste. The cost of the electric energy commercialized in the first quarter had an increase of BRL 185 million.
The main factor in 2021 being the repatriation of the GSF, which was a non-recurring event with a positive impact of BRL 141 million in the first quarter of 2021, due to the fact that it involved a recovery of costs incurred in previous years. It's important to mention also that if we were to exclude the effect of these a hundred and ninety million reais and the inclusion of these sixty-two million reais with the integration of Alux in the first quarter, the average price of the increase in cost compared to the first quarter of 2021 was about 12%. Now about the adjusted EBITDA, it's important to mention that we can reach the quarterly records with an increase compared to the first quarter of 2021.
This is leveraged by an improvement in the aluminum business due to the increase in the prices of aluminum in the LME and the premiums practiced by CBA in all of the product lines and primaries and transformed metals. On the other hand, SG&A had a variation of 25% in the period due to an increase in the personnel group from the second quarter of 2021 to the IPO and also the growth of the company. This effect was slightly offset by the positive variation of the operational results, especially related to the impairment for the Michelangelo in the first quarter of 2021, which is something that did not repeat in the first quarter of 2022.
In regards to the net margin, we reached BRL 426 million compared to the net loss of BRL 133 million in the previous year. As a consequence, there was an increase of BRL 150 million reais of income tax and social contributions in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the first quarter of 2021. On slide 11, we're going to talk about some of the investments at CBA. In the first quarter of 2022, 45% of the CapEx is related to growth and modernization projects, with the main highlights being the activation of the kilns and also the restarting of the furnaces. We anticipated the startup from 2023 to 2022, and we're already operating 36 from 78 units.
We have the conclusion foreseen for the third quarter of 2022. This investment will increase our capacity by 30,000 tons till the end of the year. On April 20, we had the approval by our board of the investments to restart the kilns, with the startup foreseen for 2025, and this should reflect the increase in capacity by 50,000 tons. It's important to mention these two projects add up to about BRL 1 billion until 2025. Great. In the next slide, we're gonna talk about our free cash flow.
We had a consumption for our cash of BRL 198 million in the quarter due to a CapEx of BRL 149 million and also the payment for the acquisition of Alux in the value of BRL 130 million, which is already net from the existing cash at Alux, and also a working capital adjustment in the closing of the transformation of the operation. This variation was negative due to the reduction in the trading of ingots and less attractive in the current scenario for premiums. The reduction of the trading impacted the resale operation by BRL 285 million, but it also reduced the volume of imported ingots, and that was the main reason for the reduction in the accounts receivable by BRL 57 million.
The reduction of the imported ingots inventory softened up the increase of BRL 24 million in the balance of the total inventories due to the increase of some of the input prices. The negative impact on the direct cash flow of the strategic hedge in the first quarter was a BRL 174 million, with BRL 121 million in EBITDA and BRL 53 million in working capital. On slide 12, I'm gonna talk about the debt profile at CBA. Well, CBA's debt continued to be majority denominated in dollars, 87%, including the swap contract for funding together with BNDES, considering the IPCA rate in reais to the fixed rate in dollars.
The availability for the financial investments reached BRL 1.6 billion in March 2022, with 82% in reais, which guarantees we have the payment of the debt until part of 2026, without considering the rotational credit line, available at a total value of $100 million with maturity in 2026, strengthening our liquidity position. Our net debt reached BRL 1.2 billion, and our financial leverage at CBA, measured by the net debt to EBITDA ratio adjusted for the last twelve months, reduced from 1.08x in December 2021 to 0.67x in March 2022, ending the quarter with a very comfortable capital structure. Well, now I'm gonna invite Ricardo to talk about the ESG results.
Thank you so much, and see you in the Q&A session. Thank you, Luciano.
Well, now we're gonna talk about some important highlights related to ESG. This is a topic that's really relevant for us at CBA. We've been working on a very consolidated ESG strategy with an institutionalized agenda and a long-term, well-designed programs with high levels of commitment from the entire organization we call the ESG 2030 strategy, with the main objective of guaranteeing the offering of low carbon aluminum and sustainable solutions for worldwide problems till 2030. In order to do this in this quarter, we continue to evolve with projects and initiatives in the environmental, social, and governance pillars. Now we're gonna start off with the next slide, where here you can see the issue with the environmental pillar. We had some important highlights in the quarter.
In the first quarter of 2022, CBA completed the audit process for the inventory of greenhouse gas emissions based on the GHG Protocol methodology, and we had results of 2.56 tons of CO2 per ton of liquid aluminum for the year of 2021, considering Scope 1 and 2. This value is five times lower than the worldwide average, which is about 12.4 tons of CO2 per ton of liquid aluminum according to the International Aluminium Institute. It's important to mention that this is an important advance of the results we had in 2020 of 2.66.
Another important initiative is that we have for the second year consecutively been acknowledged as an important highlight among the companies assessed by the Climate Change Program and the CDP, one of the main ratings for sustainability in the world, considering the gold standard for environmental reports in the market. We received the A- score, which represents a leadership position, and we were recognized as one of the leading companies in the Climate Change Program for 2021 by the CDP Latin America Awards in 2021. Now on this next slide, we also had some important highlights from a social and governance perspective. We're gonna start off with social, where we reached 15.3% women in the total group of employees in the company, going from 14.3% in the first quarter of 2021.
We're advancing quarter-over-quarter. In 2018, when we started this process for maturity, considering a better diversity at CBA, we had 7.4% women only in our group of employees, and leadership is indicated about 90% this quarter compared to 17% in 2021. In regards to social projects, CBA has 51 planned initiatives for deployment in 2022, and these are in a phase where we're signing with public partners and hiring suppliers. We're mostly working in education fronts, support for public power, economic dynamic initiatives, and also other projects connected to the core business of the company with studies geared towards multilayer packaging and post-consumption. We also focused on a long-term sustainable supply system with the incorporation of our sustainability factor inside the purchase and procurement processes.
We advanced also with the process for critical supplier registrations. Until this moment, 96% of our strategic suppliers have already gone through this process that's in line with our sustainable criteria. In regards to the ESG ownership program, we defined some ESG targets related to variable compensation, where these targets are connected to different areas, where each executive is connected to these specific areas. For the specific targets, we also had a workshop to share these targets, where all the leaders in all the areas assessed targets that are possible to be shared among different areas in the company. In this program still, in March 2022, CBA completed the phase for the internal audit for the recertifications of ASI and ISO 14001.
From this year on, audits will be integrated between all of the different units in the company. Before we reach an end in our presentation and begin the Q&A session, I just wanted to mention some relevant key messages on our earnings for this quarter. Starting off with the aluminum market, the fundamentals for the supply-demand inventories continue to be favorable considering the prices. There was a reduction in the pace of the growth in the demand influenced especially by China. Still the supply was set back more than consumption, reaching a deficit in the market with levels and inventories that are historically low. The expectation from the consulting company CRU is that the global balance should have a deficit of almost 1 million tons. Last year, the deficit was relevant, 1.6 million tons.
On the other hand, we've noticed the volatility in the global markets very much related to the conflict with Russia and Ukraine and the lockdowns in China, with the potential to affect the supply and demand of aluminum in the short term. Another important point on our radar for the industry as a whole is the growth in cost inflation. In this context, CBA has an important advantage with our integration, our supply chain producing the bauxite all the way to the transformed products, as well as energy assets that are 100% renewable. The integrated producers normally suffer a little more with the pressure in the external costs. When it comes to financial results, the first quarter of 2022 was once again a highlight for the history of CBA.
We had a strong EBITDA with an increase in margins, set back in some of the losses, and reduction in leverage. The good results are a reflection of the peaks in prices and premiums and also the management of CBA to really take advantage of the market opportunities. We're going to continue to be focused on our strategy for growth in the business, accelerating our projects in the primary aluminum area, recycling, energy and sustainability. We advanced a lot in this quarter, anticipating the restart in the kiln and furnace rooms three, having approval for room one, and also perform the integration with Alux do Brasil. To be able to keep up with our competitive advantage in the market, keeping the strong pace in the ESG initiatives and searching for constant evolution in all three fronts.
In this way, we'll be able to create solid bases and really guarantee the long-lasting capacity at CBA. Thank you for your attention, everyone. I'll pass on the word to Amabile Silva.
Thank you, Ricardo. Well, now we're gonna start with our Q&A session, and I wanna remind you that if you have any questions, you can write them by the chat with your name, the name of the company, and the question in the Q&A feature. If you wanna use audio, please select Raise Hand, and if your answer is answered, you can just lower your hand after and leave the queue. The first question comes by audio from Leonardo Correa at BTG Pactual. Leonardo, you may proceed.
Hello. Can you hear me?
Yes, now we can. How's it going?
Can you guys hear me?
Yes, we can hear you now.
Okay, great. Good afternoon, everyone.
I hope you're doing well. I have two questions. The first one is related to the overall aluminum market. We've seen you brought some different graphs with an analysis also for the discussion. We look at the aluminum pre-war was negotiating or trading at over $3,000, which was the average that you registered in the first quarter. With the levels of interruption we've noticed and more of a tightening in the market, then we saw aluminum going to about $4,000, and now it already went back to basically returned to basically all levels. We're also seeing a bit of a weakening that's quite difficult to understand going to about $2,800/ton. We wanted to know about the market.
With the inventory dropping, but at the same time, we've seen that there is a return in capacity with a smelting that had been turned off in China in the last few periods, and now it's coming back. How are you looking at the supply picture that's so relevant for aluminum historically? Have you seen a change in posture with the supply in China really concerning you, or do you consider that this is still a demand through the lockdowns? Well, the second point, Luciano, is that there's no way out. One of the biggest surprises in the quarter was the working capital. That was really something no one was able to map out very well.
It's always a difficult, very volatile line, but it really did surprise us in a negative way, when it comes to the analysis, which is always very difficult to map out. If we could look ahead and see how are you considering the evolution of this line ahead? Will working capital continue to be a detractor? Can we neutralize this or offset this ahead? How would you suggest that we look at this line ahead? These are the main questions. Thanks.
Thank you, Leo. For the first point about the industry, it's really a lot of uncertainties at this moment. You've seen what's been going on recently, as you mentioned.
Let's forget a bit of the recent occurrence, but this is an industry that for a few quarters has been in deficit, especially due to China and with dropping inventory. It was in a scenario that was quite restricted. In a commodity market under deficit and inventories dropping, it's naturally a more restrictive scenario. Then you have the conflict that intensified the volatility even more. More recently, the biggest impact would probably be in the demand, and I think it's still too early to foresee anything. That's why the market's trying to understand what's going on.
Even with this drop, we've been seeing this in the last quarters. What's really gonna define a bit of the balance in the market and the pricing is how the behavior of the supply will be. As you've mentioned, they've added back some offers that were temporarily closed in the past. Part of this was already expected. On the other hand, all of the reduction in the offering in Europe did not get back to operating. What will define the dynamic in the sector up ahead is a bit of this equation.
Maybe in the short term now, there is a bigger concern related to what had happened specifically in China, the biggest consumer and producer of aluminum in the world, about 65%-55% of the supply in the world. That's why you see this biggest volatility in the long term. What happens in the future will really depend on how these variables behave now. We continue to see the previous scenario or not, and that's a bit of this uncertainty in the current moment. About the results in the working capital, we had a occasional effect, and you can say that it's also non-recurring with the reduction of this operation with risk operation. We reduced this exposure to have a relevant level of reduction. The impacts were very much concentrated in this quarter.
For the next quarter, we don't provide guidance obviously, but how should we consider this impact, unless we go back to importing and selling in the internal market. Then you'll see an opposite or a positive effect if this happens. Now, if you naturally evolve in the business, this will depend on costs and prices. Obviously, with more cost inflation, you have an increase in your accounts payable and accounts receivable when it comes to prices. In our vision, this impact we had in the first quarter was stronger than we should see normally in an operation with CBA due to this shutdown with this resale operation due to the reduction in the imports of ingots.
Great, Luciano. Thank you. That's perfect.
Now we have another question here, that's also coming in by audio. Isabella Vasconcelos from Bradesco BBI. You may continue, please.
Can you hear me all right?
Yes, we can.
Great. Good afternoon, everyone. I also have two questions on my side here. The first one is related to cost. When we look at the cost per ton of liquid aluminum, this performance, it was actually better than what we expected for this quarter, supported of course by the issues with energy, but also a bit of a lag effect that we thought would already go up due to the increases in the coke, petroleum coke costs. I wanted to know what you're looking at when it comes to cost evolution per ton in the next quarters.
If we've already reached a peak or close to a peak. I know this is difficult because there's a lot of volatility in the cost of inputs, but just to understand what you're expecting when it comes to the evolution in the cost in the next quarter. And then the second would be about the demand in the domestic market and what the situation is with the inventory, the demand in the field, and this would really help us.
Well, thank you, Isabella. About the costs, I just wanna split this answer a bit. We have cost inflation in the industry that should already be impacting for a bit, a few months or quarters. The example of the natural gas with an important cost component. For a lot of these inputs, we can still see growth.
There are still impacts that are gonna happen if these continue to grow from now on. I wanna remind you that between buying raw material at high costs and producing product with that raw material and then selling it, there are a few months of preparation. The raw materials we're buying now are gonna impact our costs in a few months. There's a natural lag in any business, especially when it's integrated like CBA. This could still happen. I wanna remind you that these are important imported inputs in dollars that of course depend on the variation of the currency in our costs. When we look at electricity costs and electricity, we mentioned this in the last call, we have a behavior with costs very similar from year- to- year.
In the first quarter, it's normally a quarter where we have more energy generated in our own plant, which is why you have an average cost that's lower, more energy generated. The second quarter, you still have more generation and we're still leaving the rainy period and then the second semester normally is when we have the drier period here in Brazil, in the south and southeast where most of our plants are located. In the second semester, we normally have lower generation in our own plants and more use of the long-term contracts we have for energy and even procurement in the market as a whole, as we had last year with the crisis. We should expect a higher exceeding amount, and in the second semester a lower amount. That's why the cost behavior kind of follows this logic.
We normally have a lower cost of energy in the beginning of the year that's gonna go up till the end of the year. Then, of course, it depends on the rain and the energy market. It's basically how we should consider our costs. I wanna mention also that when we go back to normality, then it's important to remember that the energy contract through even our operational costs in the plants have an impact also from the Brazilian inflation. You should go back to more of a normal level of costs, but with the inflation, of course.
Thank you. That's clear, Luciano. What about the demand in the domestic market?
Well, demand in the domestic market is very difficult because what we can say is that there was a higher inventory in the supply chain ever since the end of last year to the beginning of this year that we expect was already reduced. We feel there's a bit of an improvement, but there's nothing that relevant for us to mention. Now, what's important to mention is that for CBA, since we are a company that produces a lot of products in very diversified markets, then we quickly can migrate a production from one product line to another and mitigate possible effects and from one segment to another. As you mentioned now, we moved on to exports when we felt the domestic market was not responding, especially in the civil construction sector.
It really depends on the behavior of these variables, so it's still really uncertain to foresee anything. For us, we continue to have production in the kiln, furnaces in full capacity, and we're gonna be splitting this production based on the markets where we feel a bit more of a demand. When you look at the year overall, we could see a change in the mix, but eventually, well, there wouldn't be that much changes in the overall volume production. One quick follow-up about the startup for the furnace room three. I think there are 30,000 tons in total. You imagine that the contribution of the volume this year is gonna be more geared towards exports.
Do you expect that you can allocate these volumes in the domestic market, excluding the imports?
Well, it's always gonna be the domestic market, Isabella, because we would send this to exports just in a scenario where you really don't have a demand in the internal market. That's pretty much how we're foreseeing this. I just wanna remind you that we still have about half of the furnace room started up, and this is gonna be done soon after. I'd say we're kind of ramping up this at a pace about 30,000 tons more towards the end of the year.
Very clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Isabella, for that question. I wanna remind you that if you do have any questions, please write your name and company and the.
Put in the question in the Q&A. If you have any questions by audio, then please raise your hand. We have another question, coming from Q&A from Leonardo from Bank of America, and he actually had two questions. We've already gone through them, but if there's anything you wanna add on. The first one is related to cost. He just mentioned that the questions were already answered. Follow-up here, but what we're seeing about trends with realization of pricing up ahead, if we could expect a positive effect from the lag in the second quarter due to drop in prices.
I don't know if I got your question right, but what happens is that the prices kind of follow the market that you see on the screen.
Our sales, most of them are based on the average LME from the previous month, which means that most of our sales this month are referenced according to the LME in the previous month. For a smaller amount of the sales, it would be the quarter before or the four months before. On average, it's a lag of about 35-40 days between having an average LME and that impacting sales. This is something that's gonna continue. This should not change. Along with this, you have the premiums that are pretty much the same equation. They kind of follow the premiums as they're presented on the screen. Maybe one of the differences that eventually with the reduction in volumes, we would maybe have bigger sale of export, which is what we mentioned.
This is something that happened in the first quarter. The premiums abroad are continuing to be high due to a demand in the market. In our vision, there's not much of a difference between if we're gonna sell on the internal market or export.
Well, thank you, Leonardo, for your question. If there's anything else, we'll be available to answer. We have another question here about coming from Caio Greiner from BTG. You may proceed.
Hi there. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Amabile. Two quick questions. The first one about the premiums. One of the questions we had, well, now we're already seeing a level of premiums that seem to be a little more normalized. Primary is already above $500 per ton. If our calculations are right, if not, please correct us.
I wanted to know if this is pretty much the level we should expect up ahead. If we're already at this adjusted level and if we're not seeing any other kind of non-recurring factors with a high concentration with LME M-3. If you could help us with this modeling aspect, that would be great. The second question is also just to understand what your mindset is about the performance in the energy sector. I think this is a bit lower than what we were expecting. I just wanted to know if you could help us understand these results of BRL 50 million negative in the energy unit and how we can look at this unit up ahead. That would be great. Thank you. Thank you, everyone.
Thank you for the questions about the premiums.
Yes. We're already in this more normalized scenario. I just wanna remind you all that in the fourth quarter of 2021, we've had sales with the exports of ingots that were made in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic with lower premiums, which impacted our results, where you had part of 2020 and part of 2021. Then, of course, some other non-recurring effects as well for that quarter when it comes to a price reference that was a little different. When we look at 2022, we've already kind of turned pages because the contracts for sales are pretty much annual. Most of them are annual, and it starts, like, from January to January.
We've already started the year with new contracts and references of premiums that are very different. Now we're really in line with what we see as the premiums in the market. That's why you see this impact. We also have a bit of a difference in the quotational period. This is always different due to the 35-40 days that I mentioned, as I mentioned in the previous question. We should see this more normalized up ahead. If we're gonna have premiums that are similar or not, that will really depend on the behavior of the premium. If we imagine that the premiums are gonna continue at the same levels, it would be natural, then you could expect a premium component that's relatively similar, unless we change the sales mix.
As depending on how you work on the mix. It's important to monitor this, and the numbers that the market uses. This would kind of reflect in our sales. As I mentioned, just to make this clear to everyone, energy for us, while we have energy that is related to sufficient capacity to service us, but we always have long-term contracts that provide a bit of an excess energy that is valid for supporting us during volatility moments, as we naturally see in the second semester as well, where you have lower generation from your own plants, and we can use these contracts more or less depending on each phase.
This means that the results of the energy business for CBA will always be a ratio between what I had, for energy traded and only considering the exceeding amount, with what I had compared to what I was not able to generate or use in the aluminum production. By definition, this is the concept for the results in the segment. Normally in this segment, you have the commercialization or trading of contract, and these contracts can normally disclose the numbers and the results, and it's normal that you would have a loss, depending on the volume that we would be working on.
Once again, this is part of our results that are a little more difficult to foresee because it depends on the generation of our own plan.
It's always gonna be a consequence what we generate versus what we have for procurement or energy generation. It's a bit of a dynamic. All right, Luciano, thank you very much.
Thank you, Caio, for the question. We have one more question through Q&A coming from Fabio Colares from Caixa. He wanted to resume the topic on the supply of aluminum in China. One of the thesis there is that it would not give up on the commitments with the decarbonization targets, which would limit the increase of the supply. Do we consider this thesis could lead to some short-term changes, or would it be possible even with this decarbonization thesis, would there be an increase that's relevant in the supply of the aluminum?
Thank you, Fabio, for the question. This was a very difficult question to answer.
A lot of uncertainties, but maybe we could think about the dynamics in the market. When we look at this more long-term vision and the fundamentals in the industry, it becomes a little more difficult to expect that China will go against this trend that's already been followed for a few years, where they would maybe reduce the production of aluminum and the generation of coal-based thermal energy. From a longer term vision, this trend should be complete. At least this is what the market believes in. On the other hand, maybe for to supply a occasional gap, this would be the vision. I don't consider this to be recurring or consistent, where they would have to increase their emissions, which would be against what they've announced, but maybe to adjust some kind of a gap, this could occur.
The market at this moment is super volatile, and also due to the uncertainties we have at the moment in regards to China. Monitoring what's going on, when it comes to the supply and the demand is really important for us to be able to see what should be going on in the next months. Thank you once again for the question and response. I will pass on the word to Ricardo now for his closing remarks. We have no more questions. Thank you so much for your participation, and we'll see you in our next quarter.
Thank you, Amabile. I wanna thank you all for your participation in our earnings call. We'll always be available to answer any questions about the market and CBA and what we've been doing. Thank you so much, everyone, and see you all during our next call.