Good morning, everyone. I'm Amábile, the investor relations manager at CBA. Welcome to the earnings call for the first quarter of 2026. We'll have Luciano Alves present as the Company CEO and Camila Abel, the Company's CFO and Investor Relations Officer. We'd like to inform you that the presentation today will be available on the CBA's investor relations website. We will also provide the recording of the event after the session. At the end of the presentation, we'll begin the Q&A session with the participants, who will be able to submit their questions by audio or send them in writing through the Q&A button on the platform. Before proceeding, we'd like to clarify that some of the statements contained in this presentation may include statements that represent expectations about future events or results, which depend materially on, Sorry.
Some of the information contained in this presentation include statements that represent expectations about future events or results, which depends significantly on general economic, political, and business conditions in Brazil and in the global market, as well as existing and future government regulations, among other factors. Operational data may affect today's future performance and may lead to results that differ materially from those listed in such statements. To begin our presentation, I would like to invite Luciano Alves. Luciano Alves, please, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Amábile Silva. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for participating in one more CBA earnings call. Let's start off with the main highlights for the quarter. Our adjusted EBITDA reached BRL 456 billion, with a margin of 30%, the highest level since the fourth quarter of 2024, reflecting the company's strong performance as well as improvement in the market prices.
We had a sequential improvement also in the cost structure with a reduction of 4% compared to the previous quarter, mainly due to higher generation of our own energy of the [South Chichibu] wind complex into operation. On the ESG end day, we remained as the only primary aluminium company in the world on CDP A List and was recognized for the second year, in S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook for 2025.
Finally, I want to highlight signing of the agreement of the sale of the energy stake in CBA to [Chalco and Ruchi, the capital] at the end off January 2026, and it is still subject to other legal regulatory approval. Now we are going to discuss a little of the aluminium market. So in the first quarter, the company kept intact their price in amore releveant way with a positive balance of market expectations of 27,000 tons, which was mainly to regional slowdowns observed in China due to the Chinese New Year festivities that happen every year and this also reduced the economic actibity temporarily in China.
On the other side, on the demand in China, there was a retraction in primary aluminium consumption reflecting the seasonal slowdown, also that I just mentioned, but also a slow pace in the renewable energy sector. Outside of China, there was a slight increace in demand, which was driven by the cyclical resilliance recoreded at the beginning of the year and an importanr highlight also if the Indian market where the demand would grow at the fifth consequtive year of double digit growth in the market.
In the supply, the level of production remained relatively stable combined with a slower or weakend demand led to this surplus. I just mentioned the CRU adjusted supply year now considering a 0.7% contraction in global production, mainly reflecting supply disruptions in the Middle East as a result of the war.
Now we'll be on to the next slide, looking at the behavior of global aluminum inventories in the first quarter of 2026. You can see the days of consumption, which grows again at 52 days, repeating the level observed in the first quarter of 2025. Despite this one-off increase, due to the reasons I explained through this slide, the levels remain very below, reinforcing the understanding of this still adjusted market with little slack or space between supply and demand, which contributes to sustaining a firmer feeling in the price level.
This movement mainly reflects the seasonal retraction of demand throughout the quarter, influenced by the impact of the Chinese New Year, and it also temporarily reduces industrial activity in addition to greater caution in investment-intensive sectors. The market was supported by segments connected to the energy transition, although a bit slower than in the past. When we look at the official inventory volumes on the LME and SHFE, there is a distinct regional dynamic, right? There was an increase in the inventories in SHFE in China, directly associated to the seasonal effect in China, and also the inventories in the LME dropped.
In general, the combination of inventories that are still low in historical terms and the stability of the volumes recorded reinforce the perception of an adjusted market in the short term, even despite the seasonal effects observed in the first quarter. On the next slide. During the first quarter, the price of aluminum in the LME kept a upward trajectory, which started back at the end of 2025 and reached its highest level in the last four years in April. This is being supported by a favorable environment for base metals, with the LME recording an average price of $3,199 per ton in this quarter.
This reflects the combination of macroeconomic and geopolitical factors, rising tensions in the Middle East at the start of the year, which increased pressure on energy costs and oil related products and also logistical chains, right, contributing to a higher perception of risk and really boosting aluminum prices as you can see here on the graph. Looking at the premiums over the course of this quarter, global premiums continued to advance. The Midwest Duty Paid premium in the U.S. and the Rotterdam premium in Europe re-registered new increases were observed mainly due to the supply disruptions associated to the Middle East, which is a region that is a strategic supplier of metal to both metal markets. This scenario kept premiums at high levels and reinforced regional price support in different markets.
Overall, the combination between geopolitical factors, logistical constraints and a still favorable macro environment supported a quarter of strong appreciation for the LME and also for regional aluminum premiums. Now on our next slide, I'm going to talk about the Brazilian market. We looked internationally now, but in Brazil, even with the restrictive interest and credit environment we're in, and with a scenario abroad globally that is still very challenging, especially with the conflicts in the Middle East and their effects on oil prices. The main aluminum consumer segments in Brazil demonstrated resilience and were able to keep up with demand throughout this period in the first quarter.
In the automotive chain, the production of light vehicles grew 7% year-over-year, reaching 601 ,000 units, with an emphasis on the advance of electrification, which continues to indicate a structural change in the consumption profile abroad and in Brazil. The motorcycle segment maintained a robust performance with growth of 12% compared to the first quarter of 2025, and acceleration of 16% compared to the previous quarter, driven by the strong production in March and also the advances in exports. On the other hand, the production of buses showed a moderate retraction in their annual comparison, while road, highway implements recorded a more relevant drop, reflecting the greater sensitivity to credit. Although in March, we did have occasional signs of reaction, especially linked to agribusiness.
Now, in civil construction, cement sales grew about 2% year-over-year, supported by the increase in income and the Minha Casa, Minha Vida government program. There was a 5% drop compared to the previous quarter due to the seasonality of the period, which is natural. In the packaging segment also had a bit of a stability at the beginning of the year, but there's a positive outlook for the coming years, mainly because of the World Cup and also possible increases in temperatures associated with the El Niño projections in the market. Finally, in the energy sector, the transmission continues to play an important role in the demand for aluminum in Brazil with a robust pipeline of investments and options for that are scheduled or planned for 2023. I think that's what I had to share.
Now I'm gonna pass it on to Camila as she talks about our financial performance, and I'll get back to talk to you at the end as well.
Thank you, Luciano. Good morning, everyone. Starting here with the total sales volume in the first quarter. This year we sold 122,000 tons. This volume affects the typical seasonality, but also a more resilient mix with a greater share of higher value-added products. In the primary segment, we had total sales of about 64,000 tons, which is a better performance also of products with higher added value, such as the ingots and alloys. In the processed products segment, we had kept a volume of 34,000 tons. With recycling, where we had a drop.
The drop in sales are mainly related to our credit environment that's more restrictive with high interest that we still experience here in Brazil, and even the LME quotes that are higher that also influence the dynamic of the demand, right? Especially for do it yourself products or construction segments. We're prioritizing the segment of primaries to take advantage of this good moment. On the destination for the sales, we had an improvement in the domestic market and the electrolytic aluminum production was pretty much stable at 92,000 tons, even though there was a smaller amount of days in this quarter. That reinforces our operational strength, right?
Now on the energy balance in the first quarter, we had our own generation reaching 739 average megawatts in the quarter, mainly due to the startup of the Serra do Tigre wind farm into our portfolio, which we disclosed in the last quarter, 60 megawatts on average. Then in 2026, we'll have the full year with this effect and this additional volume in our portfolio. Energy consumption and the volume under contracts were pretty stable. The average cost of the contracts dropped 5%, mainly due to the exchange rate variation and appreciation of the real, since our contracts are mainly in U.S. dollars, right? In general, the increase in our own generation strengthens our energy balance. It increases cost efficiency and gives us more operational flexibility.
In cost, the cash cost of electrolytic aluminum production ended at BRL 12,000 per ton on average. That represents an improvement of 6% compared to the fourth quarter of 2025. Mainly due to greater energy generation and also the rain period and also the operation of the Serra do Tigre wind complex. We also had gradual gains in operational efficiency in the refinery improvement in the mix of the inputs and an emphasis on the effect of better prices of soda already that we had already seen in our inventories. In regards to the CPV or the COGS this is a reflection of the actual cash costs and with the normalization refinery. In the energy segment the COGS of BRL 149 million grew but that was a good reason right?
We sold more with very attractive prices in the market, because we have a bigger exceeding sales volume since we had the beginning of the wind complex entering our portfolio. We always trade the excessive energy generators. In the first quarter, our consolidated net revenue added up to BRL 2.2 billion, especially due to the higher prices of aluminum in reais and an improvement in our mix and better contributions in the energy segment. The adjusted EBITDA reached BRL 466 million, which represents a significant increase of 45% compared to pro forma that we had presented in the first quarter of 2025, which excluded a non-recurring effect of reclassification of CapEx. The EBITDA closed at 20%, which is the highest level ever since the fourth quarter of 2024.
Now, on the CapEx, the investments were BRL 183 million in this quarter, which basically represents continuity of our funds. About 70% of the CapEx was directed to maintenance and sustaining, the rest is kilns and furnaces refurbishing. The other 10% are one-off projects for expansion and modernization that we're advancing with. Now on the free cash flow. The increase of the other needs brought in a strong EBITDA due to the other factors I already mentioned. This increase in prices also generates a negative impact that's natural in the working capital. Besides this, we also had an increase on consumption of some non-recurring items in the business. That led to working capital investments required with the reduction of the forfait program profit-sharing payments.
These impacts were partially offset by the reduction in the stock. This is work we are gonna be doing throughout the year. In this case, we are talking about prebaked anodes, the alloy ingots and other processed products. We also have the use of tax credits. Besides the highlights for working capital here on this chart, it is worth mentioning the net fundraising of BRL 230 million with the release of financing from BNDES to fund part of these investments, and in March, which was BRL 250 million, which reinforced the strong liquidity that we had already had pretty strong, became higher with this additional cash. With this, the gross debt of BRL 4.4 billion reflects this increase due to the release from BNDES.
Our net debt dropped, so we dropped to $3.1 billion, benefited by the cash generation and the reduction of the mark-to-market on derivatives as well. And all of this is due to the appreciation of the real, since 90% of our debt is in dollars. With this, our leverage dropped, reaching 2.7x net EBITDA. We had an optimal profile with an extended average maturity of 5.4 years, an average cost of 5.9% per year in dollars. I'm gonna pass the floor back to Luciano as he talks about our final remarks and messages, and then we'll get into the Q&A.
Thank you, Camila. Well, to close here, I wanna reinforce three key messages about this quarter.
The aluminum market continues to have favorable dynamics in the short term, with prices supported by low global inventories as represented, especially in China and the Middle East, and gradual demand recovery. At CBA, we've advanced consistently for the net liquid aluminum, which is levered by the main generation of energy and also efficiency gains, and that leads to relevant recovery, the EBITDA margin that reached the best levels. We have been keeping up this and also the preservation of our liquidity. These advances really reinforce our trust in the execution and the creation of value over the next quarter. Thank you so much. I'll pass this back on to Amábile Silva.
Thank you, Luciano Alves.
As we do not have questions, we've reached the end of our earnings call, for the first quarter of 2026. We wanna thank you all for your participation, and we're available for any additional clarifications through the.