Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for holding. At this time, we would like to welcome everyone to CSN's conference call to present results for the first quarter 2023. Today, we have with us the company's executive officers. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded and all participants will be in listen-only mode during the company presentation. Ensuing this, we will go on to the question-and-answer section when further instructions will be given. Should any participant require assistance during this call, please press star zero to reach the operator. We have simultaneous webcasts that may be accessed through CSN's investor relations website at ri.csn.com.br, where the presentation is also available. The replay service will be available for one week. You may flip through the slides at your own convenience.
Before proceeding, please bear in mind that some statements herein are mere expectations or trends and are based on the current assumptions and opinions of the company management. They differ materially from those expressed herein as they do not constitute projections. In fact, actual results, performances or events may differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements as a result of several factors, such as overall and economic conditions in Brazil and other countries, interest rate and exchange rate levels, future rescheduling or prepayment of debt denominated in foreign currencies, protectionist measures in the U.S., Brazil and other countries, changes in laws and regulations, and general competitive factors at a global, regional or national basis.
I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Marcelo Cunha Ribeiro, CFO and Investor Relations Executive Officer, who will present the operating and financial highlights for the period. Mr. Ribeiro, you may proceed.
A good morning to all of you, and thank you for attending our conference call for the first quarter 2023. With us here, we have the main executive officers, Mr. Benjamin Steinbruch, the Chairman of the Board, who will make comments after the presentation. First of all, the highlights. We were able to enhance the operational situation, although we faced a very difficult quarter in mining and demand because of bottlenecks in transportation. Had we not had these bottlenecks, we would have had considerably better results. The good news is that we hope that the problems will be resolved during the second quarter and that we will have a performance that will be reasonably better than that of this first quarter.
We have taken on one of the largest loans and investments from the Japanese Development Bank, JBIC, NEXI, for a mining business of BRL 1.4 billion, which will guarantee ultra-competitive conditions to accelerate our P15 project. The third highlight is referring to ESG. We have not only one, but now two companies of the CSN group as part of the five best in Sustainalytics, one of the most renowned agencies in the world, with Cemig standing in fourth place and CSN in fifth place. We will speak about financial performance and look at the EBITDA figures below. We highlight the resiliency of our EBITDA based on our diversification. We have had very diverse activities, and of course, we have had the third quarter of growth.
In this specific quarter, we had a great performance in terms of mining, because of price realization and better freight conditions. All of this was partially offset with the problems that we had in steel that limited volume. There was an excellent quarter when it comes to volumes, and we show you the results of the integration of the LafargeHolcim platform, the cross-selling that led to an increase in sales. The profitability pointed to lower prices due to seasonality. We had a growth of 2.6%, reaching BRL 3.2 million of Adjusted EBITDA. Let's go on to the cash. The CapEx was very similar to the same quarter last year, perhaps a little lower vis-à-vis the last quarter of last year. Our forecast is to end the year 2023 with BRL 4.4 billion.
We're going to speed up our CapEx because of the main project, which is P15. In working capital, an important movement, but once again, in line with the seasonality that we had last year. We have an increase in working capital with a cash impact. But as we saw last year, these are temporary effects that will not be repeated during the year 2023. On the next page, we see the cash evolution. We see what happened in the first quarter of last year, and all of this was reverted. Now, in this first quarter, we had a negative cash flow of BRL 2 million, mainly due to that effect. If we look at the details of this, you will see the more negative financial results due to a temporary issue, which was the hedging of iron ore, almost BRL 600 million of cash in this operation.
In line with our strategy to hold on to profitability in opportunity products. If you look at the calendar year up to now, the results have been positive. What we had in terms of financial losses is being more than offset in the second quarter. We get to that negative cash flow of BRL 2 million. This cash flow, of course, has a punctual impact on leverage. This quarter, we reached 2.45x Net Debt/EBITDA, which is something that we had foreseen. We had stronger periods last year when the year began with an increase in calcareous material. As that happened in the first quarter, leading to an increase in leverage, the second quarter will have a contrary effect.
As I mentioned, a better performance in terms of cost and volumes, a strengthening of prices in the market, and this will take this leverage to the levels of our guidance, which is below 2x. In terms of our Net Debt built up, we had a situation of stability, and we were able to offset this increase that we had because of a negative cash with our hedging of iron ore, with greater predictability in sales and more attractive sales with our partners. Now, to speak about liquidity and payments. While this had a very positive effect, we have BRL 500 million in cash, which means we have come closer to our structural goal, our policy of BRL 15 billion. This quarter, we have BRL 13.9 billion, which gives us a very comfortable coverage in terms of our result.
In terms of our indebtedness, what we have to celebrate this moment is the loan that will be disbursed as the plant is being built. We have a very differentiated cost structure and this will of course fund our CapEx. Going forward, we're working with instruments from multilateral banks, from the National Development Bank. We're always trying to remain at competitive levels in terms of our debt. To speak about our businesses on page number 10. In steel, a production of volume somewhat higher than the previous quarter. This is a sequence, but with different performances in the domestic market and the foreign market. We had a good performance in volumes with a robust growth, especially in the United States. After the sunset review, we are able to work with hot-rolled bands, working with slabs, with good results and volumes in Portugal.
In the domestic market, which is our main market, we had a drop in production that we will see when we speak about production with bottlenecks in our steel plant. Of course, this reduced our growth vis-à-vis the fourth quarter in terms of net revenue, a slight drop because of dropping prices, especially abroad. We have observed resiliency. We see an increase in prices domestically, but abroad, there was a drop, especially in Germany, where during 2021 and 2022 the prices were not very normal. They are now becoming more normalized with exceptional margins. The price of scrap, of course, continues to be very interesting. With this, we had a very similar EBITDA with that of the fourth quarter, BRL 54 million. When we look at pro-production, it could have been better because it was impacted by the higher costs.
Higher costs that came from a decrease of costs and bottlenecks in the steel mill and problems with the transportation of ore and problems that were resolved during March, April, and until mid-May. We hope that between mid-May and the end of June, we will have better production situation and resolve this with a positive performance of prices. We already see this happening in May. The profitability per ton in percentage terms is better than the previous quarter. Now to speak a bit about mining. We have a bad taste that we obtained a record in terms of sales in the first quarter. We had the firm sales of our first quarter, but we were not able to dispatch it. We had 1 million tons, but because of bottlenecks, we were not able to do this because of the very strong rainfall.
In March, we increased the inventory, all of this will be sold during the second half of the year. We should celebrate our operational performance. This has helped us to maintain the cost under control, we will make the most of price realization that has increased to 50% with an EBITDA of BRL 2 billion. In the next page, we see how this aided and abetted the results. We can separate the results line by line. Volume was a non-relevant impact. We were successful from buying more iron ore from third parties because of the price, opportunity prices, that gives us a good price ratio with an improvement in the flat's price and a decrease in freight costs. We have a positive adjustment of provision prices of BRL 2 million.
When we speak about cement, if we look at this in detail, we observe a new reality. We see a company working with B2B. The 3,090,000 tons were sold in a fair comparison with the same period last year to show a significant growth of approximately 10% in a market that remained practically stable. This is another way of approaching the market, making the most of synergy between clients, making the most of our distribution network. This only because of a weaker price increase in the quarter. The quarter was somewhat slower in terms of civil construction. Civil construction has proven to be very resilient. Beginning in April, we see new synergies materializing with the use of concrete. The COP will continue to drop. They had already dropped during the quarter.
With energy and oil dropping prices, our margin will increase beginning in April. With this, we end our discussion from the different businesses. I will give the floor to Helena Guerra to speak about ESG.
Good morning to everybody. We're going to present the highlights for the quarter in terms of ESG. You can see that beginning this quarter, we're independently following up on each of these indicators. We also have qualitative cases and some highlights. This is material that will give us greater transparency in terms of our performance in individual areas. Now, in March of 2023, declaration of stability renewed for all of our dams. We're also moving forward, in terms of work safety. We had ended 2022 with a historic rate. Now we have an expressive reduction in the accident severity rate when compared to 2022.
We also concluded our greenhouse gas inventory. We ended the quarter with 2% of total use of the company water, especially in cement, and a reduction of 5 percentage points in CO2. You see a stride in social and diversity, an increase in the representation of women as part of our personnel. We already have a 45% representation, reaching 21% presently. When we compare this to the same period of 2022, this is important. Marcelo has also mentioned this, as well as Pedro, the environmental management of the company. We have reached the fourth best result in terms of mining companies from among 156 steel companies assessed throughout the world.
We're the only company in the steel sector and in civil construction that were named and elected as Industry Movers in 2023, according to the criteria of this agency. Yes. Now, all of these that are part of our [audio distortion] are a representation of our commitment and o f course, we will try to do better for our stakeholders. After the integrated report that was released in April 2023, we have a full framework, a full list of the indicators or areas where we are active. We also include a great deal of information on our growth. Of course, this will guarantee full transparency and accuracy of our information. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Helena. I will now give the floor to Mr. Benjamin Steinbruch for the final remarks regarding the company.
A good afternoon to all of you. Well, I'm somewhat ahead of myself it seems. Good morning. It's a pleasure to be here with you. Some very brief comments on the presentation for the first quarter of 2023. I begin with mining, as was said in the result release. We had a good quarter. We had a strong production with the quality that we had foreseen. Purchases were also quite strong. The shipments unfolded very normally, which for us is important, the reliability and predictability at the port. Because of the increase of production and the increase of purchase, and because of the guidance that we have set forth, we are going to deliver over and above what is included in the guidance. I would say therefore that we're in a good situation.
We only didn't attain a record due to logistics issues that were hampered by a very strong rainfall. Internally, we are going to have the best month that we ever had at CSN Mining because of the production, the purchases, and also the inventory which we have resolved. We have made the most of the strategy to guarantee sales of our less enriched iron ore, and this is because of the hedge that we proposed. As was mentioned in this first quarter, we had lower results, and this has been broadly offset regarding the hedge that is still open for May up to September. This is due to the financial results and the hedge. Of course, we have already fully covered this drop.
Regarding the mining, we had a coincidence of positive factors, and we're quite satisfied with the results of mining in terms of the medium and long run. We will have the funding already in place for P15. We have a schedule foreseen for P15, and it is quite adequate. I would say therefore that we're quite satisfied with the result of mining. In the case of cements, the same holds true. The synergies are much broader than we had imagined initially with the acquisition of LafargeHolcim, and we also have a nationwide coverage. We're exploring the good things of the three companies that we acquired, and we begin to see the results in terms of the market and growth. We had a nominal capacity of 6 million tons.
At present, we have 16 million, and the idea is to make the most of this and transform this nominal capacity, with a good outlook for cement. We have attained reasonably good results in terms of what we have set forth to do. We have grown considerably, and we truly believe as we do in mining. Something I did not mention, but I believe that because of the price reduction of raw material, along with an increase of production, we will have a cost reduction, which will of course, be reflected in the results, not only for mining, but also for cement. We mandatorily have to reduce our costs. We're going to go through this tide of a drop of cost in diesel and coke and transform this into a greater margin.
Both in mining and cement, we find ourselves at a very good moment with good news. In steel, unfortunately, we were surprised with a problem. We did not have any accidents, luckily enough. It was simply a poor management of logistics that caused us to feel somewhat suffocated. Although it seems incredible, we were forced to reduce production due to a lack of mobility transportation in the plant. This is a primary error. Unfortunately, it did happen, mistake of my team and myself. It took me some time to perceive the severity of this beginning in December. We had a full idea of what had been caused. We began with a different combat strategy for this problem. We went through the first four months of the years at the mercy of this problem, beginning in May now, we will return to a normal production.
I do hope that in May we will be able to revert this situation and that we will have a year working at full steam, returning to our normal quantities and normal costs as well. This will not only be beneficial by the reduction in cost of raw material, but also an increase of production that will return to normalcy. We don't have to invent anything, simply do things correctly, and we're working on this. As we mentioned with the two other businesses, mining and cement. The cost of mining is somewhat high, and we're going to reduce it beginning in May because of a resumption of a normal flow of production at the plant.
In mining, therefore, despite this primary error or problem that occurred, and because of the errors that we committed, we are redressing this, and we are already on our path to normalcy in May, and we will see the results in the second quarter. Regarding the ESG, as Helena just mentioned, we were awarded at CSN, and CSN Mining were extremely satisfied. Miners were delivering what we had set forth to do, and this is our priority. This is the guidance of our business. Now, in terms of the leverage, I think that I would like to reiterate our commitment that we will remain at less than 2x Net Debt EBITDA until the end of the year. We have a normal drop that is foreseen in our budget for the second quarter.
We had a high disbursement last year with the acquisition of the hydroelectric plants, the CEEE and LafargeHolcim. It's natural, therefore, that the leverage increased. The synergies that we have obtained with that investment are well known, and they will be recorded beginning in the second quarter. Our commitment is there. It will be maintained, and we're deploying all possible efforts to reduce costs. We do hope there will be price stability. We're not counting upon anything extraordinary to reach this goal. Simply continue working normally in terms of production in our three businesses. We also have that option at the right time to ensure that the energy business that we have created will become strategic for the market so that we can continue on with this fourth business, which is our energy business.
We understand the concern that you may have with leverage, but you can be sure that it is our obligation to reduce it according to guidance below two times net debt EBITDA. We're counting upon an improvement of margin in the three businesses as of this moment and, market prices, and more specifically because of cost reductions, which is what we will have to work on. I'm convinced, therefore, operationally, that we will deliver what we have set forth to do, and consequently, we will obtain the results that we have committed to, not only operationally, but also through the use of the assets that we have acquired.
Of course, going to the market to have a better market structure, also to grow, which is what we have set forth to do. Especially in the energy business that we deem to be highly complementary to what we would like to do. This is what I wanted to share with you. I would like to thank all of you for your attendance at our call. We are at your entire disposal for questions that you may have. Thank you very much.
Well, thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session for investors and analysts. Should you have a question, please press star one on your touchtone phone. If at any point your question is answered, you may withdraw from the queue by pressing star two. When you pose your question, please pick up your handset to provide optimum sound quality.
Our first question is from Edgard de Souza from Itaú BBA.
A good day to all of you, thank you for taking my question. Well, my question refers to the steel business. Last year you commented that if the production improved, you could raise prices beginning in April. Well, there has been a drop in the domestic market. Therefore, what will happen with the price dynamic? If you could share with us the level of parity that you are thinking of for prices. My second question refers to cement. Last quarter you spoke about a gradual recovery of margin, but we have seen a drop in margin, especially because of the lower prices explained by the seasonality. Is there room to recover either margin or prices?
Do you expect a continuous reduction of price in cement, which will be the price dynamic for cement therefore, and which will be a reasonable margin in the medium and long term for cement? You have already incorporated Elizabeth and Lafarge Holcim and what will happen to prices going forward. These are my two questions. Thank you.
Hey, Edgar, this is Martinez speaking. First of all, regarding the results of steel in the first quarter, I'm quite comfortable. I won't say satisfied because you cannot be satisfied with that situation. To calm down the market, everything that we have here depends entirely upon ourselves. It no longer depends on the market. These are controllable variables, and it depends exclusively on production.
To give you an idea, I have a portfolio of orders of 680,000 tons, already placed orders, which gives us a certain tranquility to say that we have a sufficient portfolio of clients for at least 2 or 3 months to be able to service the market. This is a one-time situation that is happening now. Regarding the prices, and I mentioned this in the last call, I said I wanted to increase prices and distribution in civil construction up to 7.5%. We are at a somewhat lower level. We are at 7.5%, and in some cases I was more surgical, taking into account the premiums we have on the higher added value products. We were more selective, smarter to capture more value.
In April, this is real information, we had our average price increased by 4.5%, which is good news, 4.5% for April. To go back to the first quarter to offer you even greater comfort about our strategy. In January, to give you an idea, we shipped 120,000 tons. In February, 177,000. In March, when we in fact began to work and enhance production, reducing inventory. To give you an idea, in the quarter we reduced inventory by 100 and some tons. We went to 200,000 tons in March. We have already begun this operation and it will continue during the second quarter. Another important point shown by Marcelo, we lost 200,000 tons of production in slabs.
Obviously, this would generate 180,000 of products and I could sell 80% or 70% of this. It's completely the opposite of what happened. The drop of volume in the first quarter of 10 would probably 10% above what we presented. Why am I explaining all of this? Because I have the portfolio, I have the clients, and in truth, we had a problem. A problem that is up to us to resolve. It's not something due to the market. We have the market price, portfolio and clients. The rest is in our hands. Regarding the market dynamic, we need to further understand what is happening. In truth, the world is very different. In China, regarding the last call, there is still some volatility, somewhat different, perhaps.
In China, we always speak about growth of 5%, strong investment, infrastructure work that should be finished, civil construction. I remember I said that the BT was 530. Nowadays it is pointing towards 580, which means there has been a reasonable drop. We're going to have to manage this. If you look at the result of Chinese steel companies, they all have very poor results, they won't remain that way. They will work with higher value. The inventory, the positive side, are under control. From the viewpoint of China, they're operating with steel, iron ore. They don't let iron ore shoot up to 125. They work with 106. Once again, they've gone up to 580 or 560 in terms of steel.
In the United States, everything positive is happening there. The location, the chips are coming back, domestic manufacturing. From the price viewpoint, there is a slight drop in PQ. Minor drop, $40-$50 for PQ at $190. I'm going to prioritize exports therefore, because the premium and profitability will be better. Nothing therefore that will impact us. Nothing that will shake our position in the United States. In Europe, a mature market, Turkey with some scrap, but Europe has that stability. If we have this as a backdrop of the world market, the premium here in the domestic market, when we think of the Chinese coil at $560, $580.
In the Brazilian market, with a price that I increased in April, this premium is between 15% and 17%. Relatively high, but still sustainable from the viewpoint of the market. We have a competitor, an international competitor, that is supplying the plants in Europe, and we have another domestic competitor that is undergoing maintenance and has problems with slab. It's not a problem, therefore. What is difficult is in the portfolio of zinc or galvanized products, where the premiums are much higher and where imports could grow. The price dynamic, as Benjamin said, we have an increase of 4.5% for April, but they will remain stable. Regarding the sectors, and I'm answering all the questions at once, if you allow me. Sectors that are positive. In the industry, 5%.
The industry is referring to 3%. Civil construction, still positive with 2%. Automotive, depending on how you look on it. Some say the glass is full, others say the glass is empty. From the viewpoint of production, it could still be positive because it had a very low level in the past. Distribution market with a highly controlled inventory at 2.2% growth. The white line with a drop with a growth of 10%, we're considering only 6%. Sectors which last year and last quarter were growing like trucks with anticipated purchases because of the EUR at 5% or 6%. This is on the drop, buses and trucks, and this will impact the agribusiness. This is not a considerable problem with the steel market. Now, we're working with a scenario of stability for the market.
For CSN, a growth of 5%-6%. Some are speaking about a drop in this scenario and our guidance for this year is a domestic market of 3 million tons, practically. This is what we had last year as well. This is the scenario where we think about prices, market, and strategies for this year.
Well, thank you. Cement, of course.
Cement is a very interesting business. I was surprised. I didn't imagine this business would be so good. We are eight months away from the acquisition of LafargeHolcim, and we had a volume growth that was very expressive. The market remained stable, had a drop, but we're growing 6.5%. We're not being aggressive towards the market. That's not our intention. We're adjusting production with three plants.
We're working on operational excellence on the topic of cost, as mentioned by Benjamin, also in logistics. It's very difficult. It's like a crossword puzzle of where to deliver which other regions. We were a company focused on the retail segment, 85% retail. We're now working bulk, 40% bulk. Although it may sound incredible, for the first time in history, bulk has a higher price than the bagged product. That is our portfolio. In terms of volume and positioning, in terms of channeling, in terms of positioning per channel, whether it is bulk or regional, so far, so good. In terms of prices, I think we've been quite resistant. The first quarter is always the worst quarter of the year. We got everything bad. Even the problem of the MRS impacted us, the railway transportation to regions such as Mauá, for example.
Going forward, we will only be in a good position. We need to sustain our volumes. We're going to fragment evermore. There are regions where we have little activity. We're interested in traveling further with our cement, with our distribution panel. We have good coverage in the Northeast. We should reach the Center West. We're going to impact the South a bit more. We have competition working alone there. With the reduction of costs that Benjamin mentioned, we should be able to increase profitability. Now, regarding prices, on May first, I announced a new price increase. We're the first company to announce this in May, and we have been leading the market. We don't tend to leave these opportunities on the table. Obviously, we are leaders, and we hope the market will understand that there's the opportunity to increase margins. We only lose to China.
The trend is for stability. A price stability this month, a slight increase of price in June and July. Going forward, respecting the seasonality of cement, an increase in volumes. We will use more cement with the return of My House, My Life, Casa Minha Vida. We hope that the work in infrastructure will be resumed until the end of the year. Thank you.
Well, thank you, Martinez. That was very clear.
Our next question is from Caio Greiner from BTG Pactual.
A good morning to all of you. Thank you for taking my question. The first question is about costs looking at the coming quarters. You mentioned that in May, we should have a return of normalcy, which will be the cost of slabs for the second quarter. There are several variables, so what can we think about costs for the second and third quarters? You said that there would be a drop beginning in the third quarter. The second question, your volume had a significant drop. Of course, it should have been much higher. You had a drop of 10%. Now, which will be return of CSN? Will you be ever more aggressive in price? Will you go for market share? Will you base yourself on a more gradual strategy? Thank you very much.
To begin speaking about costs, and this is Marcelo speaking, they will be marginally better in these quarters because of two effects. Significant enhancement in the second half of the quarter, especially. It won't be an effect for the entire quarter, but the raw materials will help us. Iron ore, coke, coal. There will be a drop in prices. What is more important is that the 3rd quarter will show us completely different levels. The increase in cost of slab that we don't see for a year and a half. As we return to the production of slab, 1 million tons, which is what we did in the 3rd quarter last year. In terms of volumes, Martinez will give you the answer.
Caio, in truth-We still don't know what we're going to do.
We're going to do what we have always done, to work, to sell everything that we produce. If you see what we did in the first quarter, we reduced the inventory. Although we lost 200 tons of slab in the first quarter, we didn't purchase any slabs. We used them all in the fourth quarter. I haven't purchased slabs in the second quarter. I have to count upon the production that we have. I have 160,000 tons of material that is delayed in production and 640,000 tons in orders. We're going to catch up on this order portfolio. The orders have already come in. It's not about acting on price or volume. It's what I always say. We have a fragmented customer base. We have a strategy that is very different from that of the competition.
To give you an idea, our competitors gave a 12% discount for the automotive segment. An international competitor gave 10%. We only gave 5%. I increased the price in April by 4.5%. Our portfolio will award the distribution product, the civil construction product. Since we have a portfolio that is fragmented, we're going to do what we have always done, sell and go to market with our product. We're going to act on added value. We're going to have to work strongly against imported material. There's something shameful that is happening in Brazil, the commercial agenda of Brazil. I had the opportunity of speaking with some local authorities about this. Unfortunately, we're receiving material from China, enormous dumping, the metal sheets, the galvanized material. This material comes with specifications that are out of line, and we're forced to compete with this.
Regardless of what is happening in the market, we're going to have to act upon all fronts. This is where we're stronger in CSN, in civil construction. In the automotive part, we're quite limited. We work with spare parts, with some assembly plants that are quite focused in our portfolio. And I truly do not believe there will be a huge supply in the domestic market, something that will lead to a fight in market share. This is happening now in the long steel market because new players have entered the market. Some years ago, in long steel we had Gerdau, Arcelor. We're now speaking of CSN, Aço Verde, and Nobras, and the dynamic is very different. And you will see that the prices have had a more significant drop.
We're going to keep working as we have always done, preserve our market share and grow. We are going to grow. The second quarter is for recovery and the third and fourth to put together our heads and regain the market leadership.
Thank you, Martinez.
Our next question is in English from Carlos de Alba from Morgan Stanley.
Yeah, thank you very much. Just a couple of quick questions on the financials. One is, you know, how do you see selling expenses? You know, for the second quarter, they remained elevated almost twice the level that we have seen in prior quarters. Fourth quarter and first quarter, a little bit of a significant bump. I wanted to see how do you see the trend going forward. On the other operational expenses, there was a BRL 400 million loss on stocks or inventories. I just wanted to understand a little bit what happened there and what is it related to.
It seems that it's related to steel, but or at least in Presidente Vargas Steelworks. I just wanted to make sure, if it is, yeah, if you can give us some color there as to what happened. Thank you.
Thank you for the question, Carlos. When it comes to sales, there has been a great volatility. Our sales in mining are quite high, and they change quarter after quarter. There is no structural variation. As I mentioned, the freights have gone in the right direction. There has been a drop of $2. It's more about volume.
Sorry, Marcelo. [crosstalk] I was talking about selling expenses.
Distortion in cement. There are significant rates. Last year, when we did not have the volumes at [LATAM], they grew substantially. This quarter, we had a record production of cement, this had that effect. I don't think it's something that will reduce our profitability. We wanted to clarify this. You have to look at the mix between the businesses. Regarding those BRL 400 million, there are two main effects here. They both refer to steel. BRL 150 million-BRL 160 million were lost because of the bottlenecks that we have at the steel mill. We had a product, pig iron, that was shown, thrown into the well that we're going to use in future production. We don't account for this stock, it generates an expense. In the future, it will be reduced.
It was an operational expense, a loss of inventory, but it's not really a loss because we're going to use it in other quarters. I'm referring to pig iron that will be used in the third and fourth quarters. The second question, the BRL 100 million, is a provision for a decrease of inventory. We were exporting to Luzia mainly, during a period of higher prices. In certain periods, they have to carry out a comparison of the market price compared to the inventory price, and there will be a write down of that inventory. They're gonna sell them with a higher margin. In this quarter, we had a provision with a drop. These are non-recurrent events without an impact on cash.
Thank you.
The next question is from Carlo Barcellos from Santander Bank.
Sorry, I think there was a mistake. My name is Rafael from Santander. Thank you for taking my questions. First of all, I would like to congratulate you for your new ESG structure. I do have a question regarding that topic. In the program for the characterization of dams, we have a program for the Vigia Dam for the second half of the year. I would like to know if this remains unchanged, and how can this impact your current operations? I know that the dam of Vigia is in a processing complex. Could there be an operational impact on this complex? My second question refers to capital allocation. If you could explain the company priorities in terms of growth, this would be interesting. We are aware of the projects in mining, but besides that, would the priority be in cement, in the steel business? Your timing, especially.
We know that the company is very attentive in terms of leveraging. How are you thinking about this timing for more significant and new investments? Thank you.
Thank you for the question. Regarding the Barra do Vigia, the characterization, it has been maintained for the second half of the year. What is pending is the regulations, ANM, that we're working on, and we think that we will have the backup of these two agencies to conclude the characterization of the Vigia Dam. This does not impact production. It's part of the investment portfolio of the company to work with the tailings. This is what will be done going forward. What we're doing is piling up the tailings for future processing.
Now, regarding capital allocation, to repeat what Benjamin said a short time ago, everything goes through maintaining our commitment with the deleveraging to attain our goal. Now, given this as a backdrop, we do have other priorities that we share with the market. In the case of mining, the project, the P15, which is underway, especially with the loan from the Japanese bank, we're gonna speed up. In the case of cement and steel, we have a mission of becoming international. We're always in the quest for opportunities, especially in the U.S. market, which is not easy. There is enormous competition, consolidation. It's not something that we can, you know, say we're going to do, but it's something that keeps us very attentive to opportunities. From the viewpoint of significant movements, therefore, there is nothing that might happen very soon. We're focused on operational performance.
We do have a second half of the year with better results. Significant improvements in house, for example, the energy sector, bringing in a partner to guarantee that the leverage will be only 2x . If we see a very good opportunity, as part of these priorities, we will do our homework and make the most of this opportunity, always respecting the self-imposed limitations. There's no priority that is mature now. Our priority, of course, is to internationalize. In terms of dividends, this has already been communicated to the market at the end of the year. They are being paid out now. We're moved away from our recent historical standard. Beginning in the second semester we will be more in line with our historical payouts, maintaining interest in remuneration for the shareholders, perhaps for the lower value, to ensure that the leverage remains at 2x .
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Our next question is from Caio Ribeiro from Bank of America.
Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking my question. My first question is about potential M&As, especially in terms of energy assets. You mentioned that CSN as well as other players will be interested in these assets. Could you be quick about this asset if in fact you are interested, if you're assessing it, and how can this business complement the assets you already have in Europe? About leverage. It is 2.4x Net Debt/EBITDA. Is there any level that you would consider to accelerate your level of investments in 215? Which would be the minimum level of CapEx you would run with? Thank you.
Hello, Caio. About M&As. We're always attentive to opportunities, especially with differentiated assets in markets that are very important, such as Europe and the United States. I don't think it's worthwhile remarking on this specific situation. There is nothing concrete. Good assets that come to the market are rare and few in between. When they do come, we will be attentive. Presently, we have nothing to comment. Regarding the leverage, we're very far away from a point where we would change our investment costs, especially in Cemig, where we have a large project, which is the P15. Our capital structure has been planned for this and complementary projects for the processing of tailings, for example, that are very interesting. The decharacterization of dams also makes sense to take these away from their present-day schedule. We're speaking about the group as a whole.
We're going to look at mining as we did in the IPO, perhaps bring in partners, bring in outside capital to keep a strong balance. We have the cement IPO, so we have sufficient levers therefore to guarantee that our leverage will be consistent. All of these projects of course are of interest. Thank you.
Thank you very much. That was very clear. Thank you, Marcelo.
Our next question is from Vanessa Quiroga from Credit Suisse.
Yeah, good morning. My question is the following. Your line of suppliers and working capital, if you could refer to this, and can we expect that the reduction that we saw in the first quarter will be maintained during the year? My last question. What is that one-off event that you are referring to in the release? Thank you.
Vanessa, last year we had a situation in terms of raw material. This was reverted in the second quarter. This year we had a change in suppliers between the fourth quarter and the first quarter of this year. This ended up in a rupture of the average term. Our planned purchases will return to the average that we had in 2022. We will be recovering our working capital levels and this will help the operational cash flow during 2023.
Well, thank you. Thank you very much.
The next question is from Thiago Lofiego from Bradesco BBI.
Well, thank you. Just one question. Most of the questions have been answered. Let's go back to cement. Do you believe there is potential for greater consolidation, regardless of the players?
What do you think about the competition of cement in the coming two years if there's a change of mindset? Still speaking about cement, EBITDA per ton normalized, given that you're in the process of incorporating Lafarge with very good results. Thank you,
Thiago. Now the consolidation. I don't think it's worthwhile referring to specific names, but we compare the Brazilian market with markets elsewhere. It's still a fragmented market and a market where we have players with isolated plants, players who don't have the scale or the cost of other plants. Besides having players who are undergoing financial difficulties and that are going to seek a solution. All of these are factors that lead us to thinking that this market will have a great deal of activity in the good sense, a higher level of consolidation, which is healthy for the market.
Regarding EBITDA per ton, there is potential to more than double that EBITDA per ton that we see in this first quarter. Not differently of EBITDA per ton that we delivered in the past, especially with the acquisition of LafargeHolcim and a potential for cost and competitiveness that will, of course, increase our level. Marcelo, if the price remains at that level, which would be the normalized EBITDA per ton, if you could give us more color. Doubling it is reasonable, in line with the synergies that we will have to attain, and they will come from logistics, from energy, from greater volumes. We're convinced that we can double this. Thank you.
Thank you, Marcelo.
Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to remind you that should you wish to pose a question, please press star one. As we have no further questions, we will return the floor to Marcelo Cunha Ribeiro, CFO and Investor Relations Executive Officer for his closing remarks.
Thank you all for your participation. We close with a self-assessment of the first quarter, which operationally was not a good quarter. We have our glass that is more than half full. We have clear opportunities for improvement. They will appear during the second half of the year. Whatever we can in CSN, we will do. We are already doing it. That is why we are highly optimistic, especially in the steel part. Mining and cement have also delivered results. There will be a significant difference in steel beginning in the second half of the year. 2023 will be better than 2022, which was our second-best year. This is the message that I close with. I thank all of you, and I hope to see you in our next results release. Thank you very much.
The results conference call for CSN is concluded. We would like to thank all of you for your participation. Have a good afternoon. Thank you.