Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for holding. Welcome to Dexco's conference call, where we will be discussing our earnings for the fourth quarter and for the year of 2021. We'd like to inform you that all participants will be in listen-only mode during the company's presentation. Following that, we will have a question and answer session when further instructions will be given. Should any of you require assistance during the conference call, please request the help of an operator by dialing star zero. Before we begin, we would like to clarify that any statements made during this conference call about the company's business perspectives as well as its projections, operational and financial goals, are simply beliefs and assumptions that the directors have based on currently available information. Remarks about the future are not a guarantee of performance.
They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, as they refer to future events that therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not come to pass. Investors should understand that the general economy, industry conditions, and other operational factors may affect the company's future results and may lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. Now, we'd like to pass the floor to Natasha, investor relations manager at Dexco. Natasha, please, continue.
Hi, everyone. Good morning. This is just a message. Unfortunately, Henrique Cademartori will be unable to be on this call, but we invited Francisco Semeraro, who will be representing him. Francisco, over to you. Hi, everyone. Welcome, and thank you for being in this call.
I'm here with Antonio Joaquim, our CEO, Glizia Maria do Prado, Head of People and ESG, Raul Guimarães Guaragna, our Head of the Wood Division, and Marcelo Izzo, Head of the Deca and Coatings Divisions. We're going to begin talking about our results on page three. 2021 was an important year for the company with a change in our brand to Dexco and as we announced a new growth plan. We're very happy to wrap up this cycle with our best results ever, overcoming all records and reaching a recurring EBITDA of BRL 2.2 billion, 70% above 2020. This was only possible due to the evolution that the company had in the last years, which has allowed Dexco to reach high occupation levels, productivity records, lower production costs, even despite a challenging inflation.
Of course, there was strong commercial work which allowed our core products to be at a better position and allowed us to implement price hikes across all the divisions, as you can see in our 40% net revenue growth. This led to a high increase in our EBITDA margin, reaching 27% this year versus 22% last year. To tell you a bit about the fourth quarter, we reached BRL 588 million in EBITDA, a growth of 14% versus the same period in 2020, even with a reduction in sales due to lower inventory and due to a maintenance stop for some wood clients, which didn't happen last year.
Before we talk about cash, we'd just like to say that we are 60 days or fewer than 60 days away from our new dissolving pulp unit, which has currently reached 95% construction work done and has over 8,000 workers involved. Moving on to slide four. Our record results were also reflected in our strong cash generation, a total of BRL 892 million this year. This was due to our strategy of managing working capital as our revenues were pressured, especially managing suppliers which offset our higher expense in inventory and accounts receivable, which led our cash conversion cycle to be negative at -3 days, significantly lower than 2020. Our working capital to revenue ratio was low at 10%.
Regarding our expansion projects, we have invested this year BRL 483 million, out of which 113 were in the panels mix improvement project. The first line started in November last year, and BRL 29 million in expanding Deca. We also invested BRL 102 million in acquiring a 10% stake at ABC da Construção, as we announced during Dexco Day. This investment will be an important step in coming closer to our end consumers. We'd also like to highlight that this year finished with BRL 41 million in our venture capital fund, DX Ventures. We've already announced investments in scale-ups, Urbem, Noah, and recently, Brasil ao Cubo. Another important highlight was our acquisition of Castelatto at the end of last year.
Although it didn't impact our 2021 cash, it was approved by the authorities in January, and we are waiting for that to be approved and for further conditions to conclude this deal. It's important to remind you that Castelatto is a leader in a premium segment of concrete tiling and flooring. They're also a benchmark in design, which will fit perfectly into our portfolio. Taking a look at the impacts that this had on our debt, we will continue on slide five. In December, we announced we will pay BRL 878 million in JCP dividends, which did not impact our debt. Our debt was at 1.1x net debt to EBITDA below what we posted at the end of 2020, which was 1.2x due to a strong cash generation in our operations.
Concerning debt, we have disbursed a significant part of our program with the National Development Bank at a cost of 97% below CDI, with an average term of 1.1 years and a reduction in the average cost of debt, and a new credit line, revolving credit line of BRL 500 million. That created a new contingency device for any market volatility. Continuing on slide seven, the wood panels market closed the year at 15% of the volume sold in Brazil, out of which 16% was MDF and 14% MDP. This quarter, the industry had a drop of 3% of the fourth quarter, -1% in MDF and -4% in MDP, according to Ibá data. This was mainly due to advancing maintenance stops and adjusting inventories in the furniture chain.
This had a negative impact of 2.4% in the domestic market and 10.3% in the foreign market. We continue with Dexco on page eight. The wood division overcame all of the estimates regarding its productivity, and in the fourth quarter, it reached 100% utilization across all lines, showing the productivity gains that we got from the debottlenecking process. This aligned to increased prices and improved mix, boosted our unit revenue up by 38% this quarter and 33% this year versus 2020. Our adjusted and recurring EBITDA was BRL 383.5 million in the fourth quarter, the best quarter in our history, a total of BRL 1.4 billion a year, even despite a reduction in volume and adjusted inventories.
This division also had an EBITDA margin of 31%, 6% above what was posted in 2020. This is even more significant when we look at the current inflation, and it reinforces how we were efficient in managing costs and how focused we were at efficiency. On slide 10, we will discuss the Deca division. The macroeconomic scenario is still favorable for the civil construction materials industry. According to ABRAMAT, there was an increase of 8% this year versus 2020, although the speed slowed down at the end of the year. When we look at Deca on slide 18, this division, just as wood, had an absolute record result, reaching an adjusted and recurring EBITDA of BRL 411 million a year, out of which BRL 118 million were in the last quarter.
We saw that margins increased. We were able to implement price hikes and improve our mix, which led to a growth of 21% this year and 36% in the fourth quarter in this division, the third year in a row with margin gains. Regarding the fourth quarter of 2021, we saw there was a reduction in electric showers that was higher than the typical seasonal pattern this year, but it impacted us less in 2020. However, for that reason, we decided to reduce our production of the hydro unit and improve our inventory, and that impacted our sales, cost dilution and our EBITDA margin. We believe we'll overcome that impact in 2022. On slide 13, we talk about our ceramic tiles.
The market had an increase of 12% versus 2020 and a 4% drop versus the fourth quarter of 2020 due to lower inventories across the industry. Installed capacity utilization was 90% according to Anfacer, and ceramic tiles on slide 14 operated at a 100% utilization rate, a 4% increase in volume sold and a 19% drop during the quarter versus the fourth quarter of 2020. The biggest highlight in the division was positioning the Portinari and Ceusa brands, which allowed us to increase the product mix and led to a unit revenue increase of 37% this quarter and 22% this year.
These increases were enough to offset cost pressures, especially from natural gas, and we closed the quarter and the year with structural gains and EBITDA margin, 26.4% in the fourth quarter and 25.9% this year. This was enough to sustain our EBITDA record of BRL 84 million this quarter and BRL 300 million this year. Continuing with the dissolving pulp project on slide 17. With less than 60 days to go to begin operations, we concluded another quarter with the project within budget and within schedule although we faced many challenges. With nearly 8,000 employees on the front lines, we've already finished 95% of the project. We're very happy about the execution, and it faced significant challenges in the last two years. Page 18 shows how we concluded the year with many achievements regarding ESG.
We integrated the ESG and ICO2 indexes from B3, and we also advanced our goals at over 140% of water being reused, 60% of our energy coming from renewable sources, and 80% of our waste reused. We also are continuing to attenuate the impact of the pandemic. We donated equipment to different cities in Paraíba, Pernambuco, and Sergipe, which allowed them to store vaccines, and also donated Dexco products and hospital inputs. We now continue on page 19. We started 2022 pressured from the foreign market and due to speculations and the elections and with the new COVID-19 variant.
On one hand, we had an impact on interest rates, although they were acceptable for the civil construction industry, but we also noticed there was a deceleration in inflation expected for the year, which is good news. This was combined with our launches in the last two years and allowed us to maintain a positive outlook for the year. We're still cautious with what may happen in politics due to the elections. We're focused in executing our strategic plans and delivering results for the year. Looking at 2022 across all divisions, starting with wood. In the fourth quarter, we started producing our panel line, a further step in our product mix improvement strategy. Which, with our high levels of plant utilization, shows that our results will be sustainable for the next quarters.
We may see some pressure in inflation, and that may lead to volatility in the division's margins. At Deca, we're still positive about our mix and the division's capacity increase. In ceramic tiles, after our retrofitting process in the Santa Catarina lines, we will resume operations at 30 million sq m starting in May. We also have, as our highlight, the new Botucatu plant in upstate São Paulo, which is already ongoing. We're excited about beginning our new dissolving pulp unit in fewer than 60 days, and we hope to bring you good news about that operation. We'll now open for questions. Thank you.
We will now begin question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question please dial star one, if you would like to remove your question from the queue please dial star two. Once again I would like to remind you that if you would like to ask a question please dial star one and if you would like to remove your question from the queue you can dial star two. Our first question was asked by Caio Greiner from BTG Pactual. Go ahead Mr. Caio.
Hi. Good morning, everyone. Thank you. I have a couple of questions about your expected results for 2022. The first is about the wood division, if you could tell us a bit about that. Your comments on the release about revisiting the division's strategy drew my attention, and you also listed exports as a viable alternative with more competitive margins due to the exchange rate. I'd just like to talk a bit about that. When you talk about competitive margins, what is the difference between those margins and the domestic market?
I'd like to know a bit more about what products you want to use with the foreign market. In what geographies do you foresee any problems contracting credit? If you could tell us a bit about that. What are the limits you see for that strategy? We're trying to understand, you know, with the slowdown of the Brazilian market, to what extent can you be more aggressive in exporting? That would provide us with a great level of understanding. If you could tell us a bit more about ceramic tiling. That was another year in which your margins went up. From 21% to 26% this year, Deca from 14% in 2018 to the levels we're at this year.
I'd just like to hear from you know, if you can help us quantify how much is due to increased prices, how much of it is due to better mix. Is it due to mergers? Do you still see some space for expansion in 2022? Where would these margins come from? Do you still see room to grow, or increase prices? Or do you think only improving the mix would be enough? Thank you.
Thank you, Caio. Let me start by answering your first question. Exports are a big part of our strategy at Dexco, especially for wood and panels, and it needs to be. The international markets are demanding consistency in services and a good value proposition. You can't start an exportation strategy overnight.
You know, this is not a market that you can just join and leave at will. We do have a consistent history of exporting, and there are other opportunities that we haven't explored yet. There are many reasons why shipping sometimes makes us less competitive, and you need to have a good demand for wooden panels. That's something that we can develop. I don't think there's a limit to exportation. If we wanted to triple what we did last year, we could, but of course, we are committed to our Brazilian lead client. We can expand to different geographies. Latin America is the obvious choice. We work a lot with them. We have business in Colombia, and it's a market leader there. From there, we can reach other Latin American countries.
We need to build consistent strategies in Latin and maintain good volume levels because it's an edge. We could also look at China. Interesting shipping situation. They provide us with good competitiveness, and they're very consistent in their imports. Margins are very similar to what we see in our domestic market. As you accelerate, as you start shipping a big volume there, margins go down, but it's still healthy for our business. That's our market. Exports have always been important, and they're starting to become more significant in the wood panels division in Brazil, especially with the international demand we're receiving and also with the foreign exchange. Of course, we have to be careful and maintain good service levels. That's essential for our domestic clients.
Raul, if you'll allow me, I can add some information to that. Analysts that have been watching us for some time will know that there is a difference. It's the first time in which foreign margins, and here we're talking about MDP, because in the past, we exported a lot of MDF and very little MDP. Now, we're basically exporting MDP. When you send a product to the domestic market, margins are very similar to what you have in the foreign market. That doesn't bring major advantages in exporting, but there is a lot of demand in the foreign market. This is different from what we had in the past. I mentioned how last year, as an alternative, and this is a very simple example that's very representative.
In the last days of December, which is normally a time in which the industry slows down and which people don't receive products because of the holidays, we exported nearly 50% more in January than we had foreseen, and we had a very good result with that. This was a little bit different from what we saw in the past. In MDP, specifically, exports are a great alternative. When we send it to Colombia, you have even better margins than what you have here. Izzo can answer the question about Deca.
Okay. Caio, I'm glad that you remember our history with margins at Deca. This journey was a part of our strategy, as I mentioned. What I can say is that a five-year strategy across its five top goals, revenue, and EBITDA, just as with ceramic tiles that have much of its operation in Cecrisa, what we were trying to do when we integrated this business unit was done, which means that in 2022, we're finishing a cycle for ceramic tiles and starting a new one.
The new cycle, as you know, will include some investments that we communicated during the Duratex Day last year. All of the investments are concentrated in our utilization so that we can pursue a better mix, a better unit price, and better EBITDA margins. What we expect is to have consistent EBITDA margin growths. Of course, our strategy is always going to seek EBITDA margin growth. That's a trend for this year.
We hope to continue to have gains on both divisions. That's why this was mentioned last year. It will happen this year and in the next years, improving our mix and providing better results. Our structural initiatives in the commercial area with sales have allowed us to accelerate our mix improvement process and also, you know, raise prices, synergies. In the first four months of the year, we saw that margins were above what we expected. As we had communicated as well during Duratex Day, we expected to have BRL 150 million in additional EBITDA due to the synergies captured by both units, and we expect that this will happen in the next months.
Again, just to make a long story short, to answer your question, yes, we are seeing unit revenues going up. This is due to how we're able to price better. It's also due to improved mix, and we will have better EBITDA margins, given the process that we're going through to improve our mix and provide better revenues.
For the next question, we have Mr. Gabriel Simões from Goldman Sachs. Go ahead, sir.
Thank you for taking my question. The first is about the challenging scenario that you're facing. What do you expect from the prices in 2022? Do you believe it will continue to go up, or will you be more pressured this year?
Since you had good movements in the wood division, I'd just like to know if you still have some space to raise your prices as you did recently. My second question is about your new project. You're coming to the end of the construction, so can you tell us a bit more about the project, and when do you expect it to start running, and at what levels initially? Thank you.
Thank you for your questions. About the costs, as you know, we finished the fourth quarter with a significant level of inflation in our input prices. 2021 was exceptional. We got exceptional results because of a strong demand and, of course, the capacity we had to work with new prices, passing on inflation, even though it was so strong.
We decided to finish last year with the necessary price raises so that this year we could begin on a good foot. We analyzed what costs were still growing at the fourth quarter, and we wanted to offset it to a certain extent. We advanced some of our adjustments as you must have seen. What we've been seeing in January. Well, in January, we had results in line with what we expected, even higher than expected, actually. At the end of the year we had a very good result. It's important to break down and see what was due to what. The last week of December, and especially the first two weeks of January saw many effects in our production.
We saw a high level of COVID infections, and as you know, we've had record cases across Brazil, but none of our employees were hospitalized. The vaccines, which are mandatory here at Dexco, are working well. Of course, we had a high level of absentees, especially in some areas that require more labor, such as ceramics. In 2022, we began the year with challenges in production. That also affected us a lot. That was a slower period from December 20 to January 15. Usually, markets are slower at this time, so it was all according to our forecast.
It's important to underscore that because it really is a time in which people go to the store less, people have holidays, and the pandemic also got in the way, due to, you know, a shortage of labor and, you know, lost workdays. We managed to work around that well, especially during the second half of January. In February, we already have normal levels. The good side was that January is showing that costs have been better. Inflation for our inputs is below what we had foreseen, which is positive. We start seeing inflation slowing down. Commodities are starting to drop. We expect that for the first quarter and second quarter this year, we'll see a better inflation scenario. That's the expectation that all of Brazil has, right? The central bank and so on.
We still see very positive trends. For example, there's still a strong demand for real estate credit as reported by the banks. I always have to remind you of that because I knew we were going to get many questions about a slowdown, but we have to look at the middle and long term. You know that we come in at the end of the construction cycle, and there's still a lot of demand for it. It's very difficult to be negative about 2022 and 2023. There's a huge demand of ongoing construction work. We should continue. We foresee some operations, as I said last year. We foresee operations in 2022 to be at the same levels as last year. There may even be some gains.
Now, what will happen, and this is what we can expect, is volatility. It's a very atypical year due to the difficult political landscape in Brazil and even in our economy. The pandemic itself is causing problems. We can expect volatility, but we believe it will be a positive year, a good one. Any slowdown we see for any of the months, we believe will be one-offs. We don't believe that we'll see a significant contraction this year because markets are still strong. As I said, we're operating well in January. We have a solid orders backlog. We have a lot of demand for wood. It still is very significant in our balance, and we see significant exponential growth in exportations. I believe that prices will be worked on very well.
We don't expect to increase prices now, and we will only do so if we believe that the inflation doesn't follow our expectations. For now, it still is following our expectations, so our strategy has been maintained. Your question on dissolving pulp. The plant should kick off in early March. Everything is going according to plan, and this is a glorious project, if I can say so, because it was a three-year project. It was a lot of construction. We had 8,000 people at the site, and we managed to organize it well, especially when it came to COVID. To give you an idea, I think right now, I think we have about 100 people who were sick. So that's excellent.
We saw a lot of inflation in costs and inputs, but we expected to finish the project on time and on budget. This project was funded and financed in dollars. We're very positive. The dissolving pulp market is still doing well. The U.S. dollar remains strong, we should see a positive ramp up with very good market conditions for it. We're going to see a ramp up in March and over the next six months, and we hope to reach production capacity in the second half of the year. The dissolving project, excuse me, the dissolving pulp project is doing well. Our partners are very optimistic about the project. This is an integrated project for them because they were able to expand their production capacity. They also have expansion projects there.
Since it basically has two variables, which are pulp prices and the foreign exchange, once we have 100% of our production sold, that makes us very comfortable. It's a process that is not simple. It's very complex, in fact, but everything is going according to plan, and we hope to start the plant in March according to what we had foreseen.
Great. Thank you.
Isabella Vasconcelos from Bradesco BBI will ask the next question. Go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. I have a couple of questions. If you can tell us about what you expect for your budget or for your CapEx for 2022? Specifically, we've seen some CapEx inflation, so I'd just like to hear how much that affects you, especially with the projects that you're running.
My second question is about the competitive environment you see in Brazil. I'm sure that Dexco has a much more rational structure. I'd just like to know how you've seen your competition. Cost pressures, if players are still passing their prices or offsetting their prices. Do you see any changes in your market share? Those are my questions. Thank you.
Hi, Isabella. Thank you. I'm not sure if I heard your first question very well, but I think you were asking about our CapEx and if we have any effect on how projects will continue.
Yes, that's right. Great.
To answer your first question, our projects have been approved for the middle and long-term. Expansion projects are approved very carefully, and this is very different from what we had in the past.
In the past, that is 10 years ago or so, especially with wood, we had a lot of preventive CapEx. What do I mean by that? If you reach 90% capacity, you would start a new line without analyzing it further. It's different now. Now, our expansion process is much more careful. As you can see, we started a significant investment in the areas where our demand plan or our demand projections and our margins, as we mentioned when we answered Caio's question, were very consistent. We see projects to expand ceramic tiles, metals, and none of them will have any continuity problems regardless of what the scenario is. Because these are projects for the long term. Some of them, for example, metals.
A part of them have been captured until the end of the year, but they're usually for the next year, as well as all of our other projects, which will only be ready in 2023. There's an entire strategy behind it. If you were to say that we can set a contingency to our CapEx, well, you can always do that, but I wouldn't say it's significant. I don't think it's going to impact any of our projects. What we may see is, you know, some restrictions during the process, you know, internal improvement projects. But I would say that it's not more than 10% of our CapEx. Because all others already have their equipment purchased. In Botucatu, they're already doing flat earthworks, starting with civil construction.
It is very difficult to expand our capacity in the divisions, but rather we are adding value and forest. Our investments are not very susceptible to these changes in the economy. We've already looked at different scenarios across all of them. To answer the second part of your question about the competitive environment. I think you know, you mentioned wood, you mentioned how we have more competitors. No, we are facing two different situations right now, okay? Your analysis is correct when you say, for example, if you have higher level of inflation, you might be pressured on price. That's not what we feel right now. Our competitors, from what we've seen, are also exporting a lot because that's an important lever that brings good results right now.
Again, it's a very good moment for exports, and many people are exporting a lot. I don't think competition for the domestic market is that significant. Another thing is that everyone is being pressured by costs that went up significant last year. Everyone changed their prices because of costs. Commodities like resins, for example, resin components, urea, melamine, have all gone up significantly. They started taking a share of the product. Companies, and that's not the case for Dexco, but companies that require wood are seeing a significant price increase from what they're getting from the market. You recently saw yesterday from Klabin mentioned it. That's going to affect our competitors significantly as wood prices go up. We don't believe that we will see any reductions in price as costs are so much higher.
I'm very positive about this commercial environment. I see it from a rational standpoint. I don't think that we're going to see many significant announcements besides the ones we already heard. I think that the market will behave rationally driven by these two things: being able to export at a profit and also due to costs being pressured. Great. Just a quick follow-up. I'm not sure if you have a number or a range of what you expect for your CapEx in 2022 that you can share. We have our CapEx for 2022. I think Francisco and Natasha can check and see which of these numbers can be shared. But if they can't share it, then that's not an issue.
I have Francisco and Natasha, who are basically policing me so that I don't give any information besides our guidance. We're just going to check if we can disclose that, and we'll let you know.
Thank you.
The next question will be from Rafael Barcelos from Santander Bank. Go ahead, sir.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. First, about wood panels. You mentioned a lot about the demand, so I'd just like to hear a bit more about the supply and demand balance, especially supply. There was a big plant that was going to start its operations last year. Does that affect you? And how can that affect the wood panels market? How do you see supply and demand for 2022? Also regarding exports, what is the limit that you have with changes in the market and products. That would be great to hear. Also, I'd like to hear more about your capital allocation. I see that you've been looking at M&A opportunities and what is your main focus in doing that right now? Thank you.
Well, Rafael, referring back to wood. What we're expecting is the plant from Berneck, which didn't go online last year. It will probably start in the first quarter. Please correct me if I'm wrong. It's an MDF production and we saw the retail market where MDF is being sold, basically taken. That is, we have a lot of demand there. So we don't believe that this production capacity will affect us. It was already foreseen.
It's a project that has been running for two years, and I think it will be absorbed. I think this ramp up will not cause any turbulence for us. There are some challenges because the MDP market specifically has no new capacities, and as I mentioned, we're exporting MDP. We could export MDF, but there is a strong demand for MDP. We have agreements and supplies, so I think this plant will be able to go online without great losses. There's no additional square meter in MDP supply, which would be inconvenient right now. As I said, there's also a bias in exports towards exports. If we were to supply only the export demand, we could do everything. That's a significant demand, and we have to refer back to the origins of that.
This is a suggestion for analysts and for anyone who wants to look at this market. There is a shortage of wood in the entire world. From forests, there is a shortage in Asia, in Europe. There is wood in the U.S., but the market there still imports a lot, so the market is still a great importer, and it's used for other products. This unbalance really gets in the way of the entire chain. For example, pulp, wood panels, and all of that is affected by it. The demand for exports is very strong and it continues to be very strong in furniture in Europe and Asia and the U.S.
The demand, when we compare absolute numbers, someone said, for example, that we traditionally used to export 20,000-25,000 sq m per month, and we're now basically at 50,000 sq m. We could say that there's a market for all of it. There's a strong demand, and we're managing the market because unfortunately, we still see a shipping and transportation crisis which is starting to be resolved. We see that container costs are starting to go down. As Raul said, there is a route to China that has more competitive prices. There is a lot of space in exports. It's difficult to look at the demand and say, "Well, I could export 10% more." No. I could double my exports if I had to. There is a possibility.
It's very elastic right now, and I also see it as a long-term movement. There's no solution for this, lack of production due to a shortage of wood and increased wood prices. There's no solution for it short-term. It can be balanced, and I believe that for a good while, exports will be a good channel, especially if we look as we expect, the shipping market is not only affected by inflation. This is due to speculation, really. At some point, it will be adjusted, it will go down, and I think that can generate more competitiveness. Most wood panels company have been exporting significantly. Thank you. Your second question. Oh, sorry, Rafael. Your second question was about capital allocation. You had asked if we were going to buy anything, if we have any business.
Well, what I want to say is that 2021 was extremely strong in strategic projects and developing DX Ventures which culminated with an acquisition of shares in three companies, Noah, Urbem, and Brasil ao Cubo. We're very happy about this acquisition. We also had an acquisition of ABC. We're very excited about the projects that we can develop with them. They have a lot of experience in logistics, and we believe there's a lot of synergy there, and we're going to learn a lot from them. Recently, that culminated in the acquisition of Castelatto, a small niche company that had very good results and even better perspectives. That opened up another portfolio for architectural concrete. For 2022, we don't have any relevant projects for M&As. 2022 should focus on delivering on these projects.
Yesterday, I was looking at our CapEx for the board, and we have 52 projects ongoing at the same time. It includes improvements, debottlenecking. It's a full truck. It should be a year in which we focus on that, and we're going to turn our eyes, of course, as you know, we're building scenarios based on this movement. We're focused on Deca, on ceramic tiles, but we have significant organic projects which should only have significant M&A movements if we had any opportunities that were very strategic or any situations in which investments would be significant and so on. This is not our expectation. We expect to have a year dedicated to executing the projects that we announced, Castelatto, and continuing to capture synergies. Okay?
That's clear. Thank you. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, we got a few questions in the chat box, but since we're out of time, we're going to let Antonio Joaquim make his closing remarks. Go ahead, Mr. Antonio.
Thank you, everyone. I'm sure that everyone who asked a question in writing will get their questions answered. These answers can be sent to everyone who were in this call. Thank you. I'd like to reiterate that we're still positive about our outlook for the year. There's a lot of homework to do. We have a lot to do with Deca, ceramic tiles. We have a new plant for ISO, and that was recently built. We have very interesting projects, and we're very happy about the performance of wood and the possibilities that it brings. We're very excited. Of course, we know what's happening in Brazil.
It's an election year, but we're still positive, and we're sure that over 2022, we will be able to still provide good results for our investors. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for listening, and if you need anything, we'll be here. That concludes Dexco's conference call. Thank you for listening, and have a great day.