Good morning everyone, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to Rumo conference call to discuss the fourth quarter 2021 results. Today with us we have Mr. Beto Abreu, CEO, Mr. Rafael Bergman, CFO and IRO, and Mr. Gustavo Rosa, investor relations and treasury director. We would like to inform that during the company's presentation, all participants will only be able to listen to the call. We'll then begin the Q&A session when further instructions will be given. In case you need any assistance during the conference call, please request the operator's help by pressing star zero. We also would like to inform that the conference call will be presented in English by the company's management, and there will be simultaneous translation to Portuguese. This event is also being broadcast simultaneously on the Internet via webcast.
Before proceeding, we would like to mention that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Rumo's management and on information currently available to the company. They involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors and analysts should understand that conditions related to macroeconomic conditions, industry, and other factors could also cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Beto Abreu. Please, Mr. Beto, you may proceed.
Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Beto Abreu, Rumo's CEO, and thank you for joining our fourth quarter 2021 earnings call. As usual, we'll start our presentation with an update of our ESG agenda. On environmental, social, and governance agenda, the company had important progress in 2021. For the first time, the annual sustainability report index were assured by a third party, reinforcing the reliability of the data and the company's commitment to transparency. The report also brought important improvement, such as the creation of two new commitments to sustainable development focused on developing sustainability actions with supplier and customer, in addition to the goal of guarantee 100% traceability of agricultural commodities by 2025.
In 2021, there was also the inclusion of ESG goals in the variable compensation plan of employees and the increase in the number of women members of the board of directors, which currently represents 3 out of 10 members. In recognition, Rumo's received the Women on Board seal from UN Women. In 2022, for the first time, Rumo is part of the Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE B3) portfolio. Rumo is also the only logistics company to be part of ISE B3. In the third quarter, Instituto Rumo was established, which began its activity focused on the youngster with the first class held in the city of Rondonópolis. Finally, reinforcing the strategy of raising sustainability-linked funds, Rumo carry out two operations with this framework in 2021, and we are starting 2022 with roughly 50% of the debt related to sustainability.
On the next chart, we will present the highlight of last year. 2021 was a year for strengthening the work that the company has been carrying out on several fronts of our strategy. On the regulatory front, many developments have been made. We have signed the authorization contract allowing us to build the extension from Rondonópolis to Lucas do Rio Verde. This will be a transformational project for the company, which will extend our footprint to the main grain-producing region of Mato Grosso. We are optimistic about the licensing process, and it's likely to happen before the end of 2022.
Another recent improvement was the approval of the new railways Law 14,273, which reinforces the development of Brazilian rail infrastructure with greater regulatory flexibility as an important pillar of competitiveness for our country, such as, for example, the possibility of building smaller stretch called short lines, capable to connect important production regions to the country's main railroads. In the Ferradura last mile before entry in the Port of Santos, after the renewal of MRS concession, the pass-through tariff should be reduced by around 60%, as well as bringing new investments, which will allow even more gains in operational efficiency and capacity. In addition, the investment made in the Port of Santos and Malha Paulista, the intensive use of new technology in the operation with 120 rail cars per train is already bringing more efficiency and capacity to our business.
With the initiation of Central Network, we entered in a market that will export around 11 million tons of grains in 2022. In the first year of operation, we already reached a significant market share growth in Goiás. In addition, we will begin transporting other types of cargo in the coming years, creating additional growth opportunities. Last but not least, we grew 3.7 points in market share in Mato Grosso throughout 2021, and with initiation of the two roads on BR-163, we expect a further increase in our competitiveness. On the next chart, we will talk about the operation Central Network, where we had an important advance. Since 2019, when we signed the concession agreement for the North-South Railway, we have been doing investments and improvements in its infrastructure, making it operational after more than 30 years.
During 2021, we initiate two grain terminals which operate in Goiás, where we already transport significant volume of grains. As a result, we had a significant growing market share in the second semester, reaching 54% in December. In 2022, we will have a new sugar terminal in the second quarter, a new fertilizer terminal by the third quarter, and we project the operation of a container terminal for the fourth quarter. Thus, we should see even more growth in volumes and value creation in that region. On the next slide, the market share highlights. 2021 started with a good competitiveness, giving the highest spread between the truck freight comparing Miritituba and Rondonópolis since the origin in Lucas do Rio Verde. A record of a soybean crop increased the volume transported with the gain in yields.
On the other hand, in the second semester, due to the corn crop failure, truck prices were reduced despite the rise in fuel prices. Rumo had as a strategy to improve its market share of grains in Mato Grosso and obtained an increase of 8.3 points in this period and 3.7 points of market share year-over-year. The competitive scenario in the second half of 2021 impacted the negotiation of tariffs for 2022, especially for soybeans in the first half. For 2022, with a good soybean harvest and a record corn harvest, there is room for a normalization of truck freight, which tends to be reflected in yield gains in the second half of the year.
Looking ahead, we expect the start of the tolling on the BR-163, which should result in an improvement in our competitiveness when compared to the Arco Norte. To continue the presentation, I would like to ask Rafael Bergman, who became Rumo's CFO in January, to join us. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Beto. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm very honored to join Rumo's team. Moving on to slide 11. Starting with volumes, we transported roughly 16 billion RTK in the fourth quarter of 2021, 2% below the fourth quarter of 2020, despite the drop of more than 22% in corn volumes. We continued with our strategy of gaining market share, advancing even more to capture the available volumes of grain, in line with what we had been doing throughout the year. We focused on occupying the maximum of our capacity, capturing the benefits of our scale. Looking at 2021 as a whole, we made more than 64 billion RTK. That's 2.5% above 2020, even with the adverse scenario regarding the corn crop.
In our north operation, we grew 3.2% in volumes, which resulted in an estimated market share of 43% in the export of grains from Mato Grosso and almost 28% in Goiás, with the consolidation of the Central Network. In the south operation, the transported volume dropped 1.9% due to the even more severe effect from the crop shortfall, which led to a 78% reduction in the corn transported volume. On a more positive note, both the container operation and the fuel and fertilizer segments show double-digit growth and a positive performance for both. On slide 12, I'll cover the results of each of the business units and also the consolidated results for Rumo.
We have just seen the volume, so speaking of yields, the yields in the first half reflected the good performance of soybean crop and the pass-through of fuel price. On the other hand, in the second half of the year, and even more in the fourth quarter of 2021, we accepted lower tariffs in our north operation in order to continue capturing grain volumes in further regions, and also due to the greater pressure on spot prices for grains in a scenario of crop shortfall. The EBITDA for the northern operation totaled BRL 2.8 billion in 2021. That's 13% lower than 2020. If we exclude the non-recurring effects of the PP&E review in both periods, the decrease would have been 6%.
The EBITDA for the south operation reached BRL 492 million due to better tariff dynamics, an increase of 31% versus 2020. In this case, the provision for impairment of BRL 144 million in the western operation we realized in 2020 helped in the comparison. Looking at the consolidated figures for Rumo, the 2.5% growth level in volume and 4.5% increase in yield were not enough to offset the increase in variable costs and also the inflation pressure on our fixed costs. On slide 14, the financial result in 2021 improved 8.8% when compared to 2020.
Despite the higher interbank rate, the cost of net debt was positively affected by a non-recurring gain in the winding process of the derivatives linked to the 24 and 25 bonds called prior to maturity. Also, the figure for 2020 was negatively affected by a change in the mark-to-market methodology of our derivatives. The reduction in other financial expenses is mainly due to the repayment of BRL 5 billion in concession fees, which we effected last year. Net income in 2021 reached BRL 156 million due to the same factors that influenced the lower EBITDA performance. On the next slide, I'll cover more details of our debt profile. We ended the fourth quarter with a leverage of 2.8 times net debt over EBITDA, mainly due to the corn crop shortfall, which caused a negative impact to our EBITDA.
When we look at our debt amortization schedule with the 32 bond issuance and the prepayment of the 25 bonds last January, we can see that Rumo doesn't have any significant amount of principal repayment until 2027, which helps with the execution of the new railway extension to Lucas do Rio Verde. On the next slides, we have the market outlook for soybean and corn. Moving on to slide 17. According to Agroconsult projections, the soybean 2022 harvest in Brazil will reach 127 million tons, of which 78 million tons should be exported. Despite the drought experienced in the South region, the states of Mato Grosso and Goiás, where we have a more relevant presence, maintain their growth projections, both in terms of production and in terms of exports.
Among the main regions where we operate, until the 10th of February, the soybean harvest in the South and Midwest states presented good advances, in particular in the states of Mato Grosso and Paraná, where the harvest reached 56% and 23% respectively, higher than the five-year average for the same date. On slide 18, we will see the outlook for corn. As for the corn market in 2022, also according to Agroconsult, Brazil should have an all-time high harvest of 111 million tons, a 25 million tons increase compared to 2021, of which 34 million should be exported, more than 60% above the export in the previous crop. Together, Mato Grosso and Goiás states are expected to export around 9 million tons more than in 2021.
Unlike 2021, when there was a delay in the soybean harvest, the anticipation of planting and harvesting of soybean compared to the last five years average allows for a more favorable window for cultivating and harvesting corn, which brings so far positive perspectives for the 2022 crop. Until the 10th of February now, the corn planting in Mato Grosso reached 63% and in Paraná, 33%, while the historical average for the states on the same date is 42% and 50% respectively. On the next slide, I'll cover the short-term guidance projections. In 2022, we expect to reach a volume between 72-76 billion RTK with a midpoint that is 16% higher than last year's volume.
In terms of EBITDA, we estimate a range between BRL 4.1 billion and BRL 4.5 billion, which would represent a 28% midpoint increase. This is due to the expected growth in volumes and tariffs. Noting, as Beto said earlier, that part of the transportation volumes, in particular that of the soybean in the first half of 2022, were priced at the second half of 2021, and therefore in a less favorable competitive scenario. On the other hand, CapEx should be reduced if compared to the average we stated in the long-term guidance. The efficiency gains with the 120 rail cars per train, in addition to the improvements in the Port of Santos, allow for gains in the operating cycle that should reduce the need for the acquisition of rolling stock.
Therefore, we foresee investments between BRL 2.7 billion and BRL 2.9 billion in 2022, without considering the extension to Lucas do Rio Verde, which should begin as soon as the licenses are obtained. The EBITDA and CapEx figures we expect to deliver in 2022 should allow us to reduce our financial leverage prior to starting the construction of the extension to Lucas do Rio Verde. With that, I finish the presentation and remain available for the Q&A session.
Thank you. We will now begin the Q&A session. If you have a question, please press star one on your touchtone phone at this time or at any time. If at any point your question is answered, you may remove yourself from the questioning queue by pressing star two. Questions will be taken in the order they are received, and we kindly ask you to make it one by one. Please also pick up your handset to provide optimum sound quality so that when posing your question. Please hold while we collect the questions. Our first question comes from Pedro Bruno, XP Investimentos.
Hi, good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for taking the question. My question is around the discussion between short term and long term if you will. We've all known that the fourth quarter was expected to be the second half actually of 2021 as a whole should be weak given what happened to the corn. This is old news for everyone. You guys, I think surprised the market positively on the top line side, I would say, right? With strong volumes at the end of the day, with the tariffs that compared to past periods was not that bad at the end of the day. It didn't cover the higher fuel costs as everyone saw now with results.
This was somewhat, I guess, expected. What was not expected until recently was that that would roll over, I would say, for 2022, right? That was kind of, I guess, a surprise. I think we're past that point now. My point here and what we're trying to understand is how we can see of a rollover of this evolution or of this market share strategy that you were undergoing after 2022, right? We understand 2023 should have an important step in terms of improvement. You already discussed that, and Beto was just talking about that. My question is how if you can walk us through how that communicates with the 2025 guidance that you still have ongoing.
In terms of, I guess, the three main guidances that you have there, right? For volumes, for EBITDA and even for CapEx, which I would like to understand how structural it is, the reduction of CapEx that you are undergoing, and how that also communicates in terms of free cash flow generation going from here, let's say to 2025. However you want to go about the answer, my main point is if you can help us connect the short term with the long term, given the market share strategy that you are taking, which of course is not a one that looks one quarter ahead. I understand. Thank you very much. That's the question.
Thank you, Pedro. This is Beto speaking. It's a very broad question, but as you suggest, I will try to cover it, going firstly through volume and then maybe instead of EBITDA, let's go through cost and yield, and then let's talk about the CapEx. Okay. Starting with the volume, and we are considering of course that the global demand for what we transport will keep growing. I think we have to agree here that we really understand that we have the most competitive solution in the areas that we operate. I must say that there's a gap between our solution and the other alternatives on mainly, let's say, Mato Grosso and Goiás.
We have to say that we see this gap increasing in the short term, and I would say in the medium and long term, increasing dramatically in terms of competitiveness. We all know the reasons for that gap. We saw the results this mainly in the last quarter. We saw a huge market share in Mato Grosso was around 70%. In Goiás the market share in the second semester were around 40%. I'm trying to say firstly covering volume, that we really have all the solution and the capacity to keep it growing and reaching the guidance that we have. When you talk about market share, you also have to talk about yield, which is one of the things that's part of the EBITDA.
Of course, a shortfall of 14-15 million tons of corn does not help. There's always a learning in this process. We always can do better. I have to say this, there's no regret here in the team regarding the strategy to grow market share that we are putting in place. We understand that this is what we would do again. Trying to really test our capacity and, but I think the main message here regarding yield is that we can consider the second half of 2022 as a transition period for a different, completely competitive environment in 2023. That's what we have to take into account at this moment. We can talk about the reasons further. Okay.
That's on the yield side. EBITDA is always about cost. Let me mention here two important levers on the cost side, which I think it's important to mention. One is energy efficiency. Very important in a moment like that with the level of fuel prices. We have been reducing 5% on an annual basis, and that will keep like that in the next few years. We are sure that this level of efficiency will keep reducing. The other lever when we talk about cost that we must take into account, although it was not part of the guidance in 2022, it's the throughput pass-through tariff that we're gonna pay in the last mile of the Port of Santos.
Everyone knows that Ferradura. As we know, this process was approved already, the infrastructure minister was approved already in the agency, and now it's in the TCU. We are talking about, for instance, for Rumo a cost of BRL 250 million only in 2022. We are expecting to have this approval, we don't know exactly when, but what is in the document says it's a reduction of 60%. These kind of things that give us the confidence that cost with the yield in the medium term will bring the EBITDA that we are projecting in the medium and long term. We also have to talk about the CapEx.
This is very important because all the investment that we have been doing, we started with Rondonópolis, as you know, the port, the Port of Santos was completely transformed last year in terms of investment, the use of technology on the whole process, the 40 siding expansion that we have implemented in the network. A lot of things have been implemented on the Central Network brought not only volume, but one very important thing was the optionality that this new business brought for the whole system. All those things together, it's bringing a level of efficiency that I have to say is way far from what we were expecting.
If we go back to 2020, we were running, in terms of cycle, the business with almost 100 hours. That was the transit time. We don't talk a lot about transit time, but this is a key lever of our business. Last year, we run it, well, with around 90 hours and we started 2021, 2022 below 80 hours. This is absolutely, let's say, amazing in terms of efficiency, again, by far from what we expected, and the impact on the CapEx is very important. We run it already the second semester of 2021 with BRL 1.4 billion of CapEx.
We should run in the same amount in the first semester of 2022, and again in the second semester of 2022. It's BRL 2.8 billion, and we are expecting to test this as the new level of CapEx from now on. That's our view regarding CapEx, and again, 100% related to efficiency and as the main driver to gaining capacity. I'll say this is a summary of volume, cost, yield, and CapEx to link the current, let's say, guidance to the long-term guidance.
No, that's perfect. Thank you. Thank you very much. I have a quick follow-up, just on BR-163, which you mentioned for 2023. If you guys have any update in terms of the evolution. We understand the signing was postponed somewhat, of the new concession. Just if you have any insights in terms of when. Well, a timeline for the beginning of that concession, that would help, and I will leave any further questions for the end. Thank you very much.
Yeah, Pedro, very quick one. We were expecting the signature for March. We already heard that it might be signed in April. We know that the signing was postponed because there's no way to do any kind of work in the rail with this level of rain that we have today, but should happen shortly. But we are not considering, let's say, any toll, a tariff, in the current year in our guidance, okay? We are really considering this for 2023.
Perfect. Thank you very much. I'll leave room for other questions. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Lucas Barbosa with Santander.
Good afternoon, Beto, Rafael and Gustavo. Thanks for taking my question. I actually have two questions from my side. First, can you comment on the assumptions that were used when building the 2022 guidance? The main point I want to hear is, if we have the corn crop in Mato Grosso reaching 40 million tons this year, could there be upside risks to your assumptions, or this is a figure that Rumo already used and assumed when building the guidance? Is there anything that could be a positive surprise this year and that was not incorporated in the guidance assumption? I think I just heard Beto mentioning the MRS concession renewal, but maybe there is other points that could be positive surprises to the guidance. That's my first question. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Hi, Lucas. This is Gustavo. Good question. We took as assumption, Bruno, the visibility that we have on the volumes that we negotiate so far. We have a good idea on seasonality, especially for the first half of the year, where most part of the volumes were already negotiated with customers. It's kind of tough to predict how much volumes we'll have in the low season of soybeans. Very likely for May and June, we still have some idle capacity to sell in the market. How much volume we could additionally be selling in those months depend on the seasonality and in the rhythm of exports that the trading company will be doing in the market. It's hard to predict, but we have a very good visibility as of now.
When it comes to the second half, right now we have very good data about the planting of corn, but it's still too early to say, so we are forecasting an all-time high crop. Again, seasonality matters to us, so we are trying to be accurate in terms of seasonality. We are not trying to be way too optimistic and nor way conservative as well. With regards to MRS and the pass-through fees, as Beto mentioned, we are not taking that into account right now because we don't know for sure when exactly will be in place. The potential impact of it could be meaningful, but we are not sure if we are gonna have six months, three months of impact this year.
For 2023, it's likely that it's gonna help us throughout the year, but this year it's really hard to know and to be certain about this.
Perhaps, because this is Rafael here. Just, perhaps to go back to one of the points that Pedro mentioned also in his question, which is related to cash flow, right? With the projections for 2022, we decided to reduce our CapEx, as Pedro said. That is part of our strategy to level off our cash position and to finish 2022 with a reduced leverage. That's also a consideration when we look at the long-term guidance for the company. When we look, of course, at the EBITDA going forward, there might be some challenges related to the competitive scenario.
It is our job as management here to make sure that we find ways to compensate that in terms of the amount of expenditure that we're realizing in the company. CapEx, we will be testing the flexibility of that. 2022 is a very important year for that. We are confident that this strategy will deliver the results we are expecting here.
Perfect. Rafael and Gustavo, thank you for taking my first question. If I may, a second question, it's on the contracts for the corn expected to be transported in the second half. Can you comment on how much of your expected volume for the second half is already sold and how the yield is looking like for those contracts on a year-over-year basis? Thank you very much.
Yeah. Thank you for the question. It's Beto. Firstly, as Mario just mentioned, we are with most of our capacity in the first half sold out, but in the second half, we will not disclose the amount of the capacity sold. This is of course strategic information for us. Again, what is important here is that we're expecting an all-time high crop of more than 110 million tons of corn. That's what we are expecting today. Let's see if we can confirm the number and have a good, let's say, corn crop this year, completely different from last year.
Lucas, if I may, we have to remember that the outlook for the freight market in the second half should be way better than what we had in the first half. We are also trying to balance well volumes with price. We are not in a hurry, as Beto said, we have an all-time high crop, so we are in a good shape to deal and to negotiate the volumes in the second half. We will not be disclosing any information on that right now.
Perfect. That's fair enough. Thank you very much for taking my question. Have a good day.
Our next question comes from Rogério Araújo with UBS.
Hi, guys. Thanks a lot for the opportunity. I have a couple of questions here. One, I understand you may have already sold most of the soybean volume for the first half of 2022, but if you were to negotiate the contracts today, how much is the price gap you believe that Rumo currently has versus the market value? I'm trying to think about a potential for yield expansion in the second part of the year. How much is the gap you believe you have versus market prices for this first half of the year? That's my first one. Thank you.
Rogério, let me start with this one, and then I will hand over to Mario to complement. It is difficult to talk about the price gap after the gain, you know. I would say that there were opportunity, but if you look for the fourth quarter last year, we have a huge gap between fuels price and truck freight. Those kind of thing happened. That was the moment that we were negotiating, let's say, the volume for the first harvest. What we saw in, let's say, in the first two months in the... You saw that the volume in January was a crop very difficult to harvest due to the rains.
I would say that we might maybe we lost an opportunity in terms of price, you might be right, but I wouldn't say that was the wrong movement to do it. I think it's considering what happened in the first 2 months of 2022, I think was the right movement in terms of entry, let's say, sold with most of our capacity for soybean.
Rogério, try to help here. I think we share in the presentation some competitiveness data that pointed out that during the first half of 2021, we saw the spread in the truck prices between Miritituba and Rondonópolis reaching slightly higher than BRL 120 per ton. Even with higher fuel prices in the second half of last year, we saw a decline in that spread going to below BRL 80 per ton, which means that, you know, truck prices went down at least BRL 40 per ton during the second half in a moment where fuel prices were skyrocketing. That shows how difficult it was to negotiate volumes in the second half of last year.
Also, that we carried over part of that in an efficiency when we negotiate the volumes for 2022, especially for the soybeans, that, as Beto mentioned, arrived much earlier. We had to take a stand on that to be able to capture the volumes. If you look later how much market share we earned in January, it was unbelievably high, the level of market share, just because we negotiated the take-or-pay base in advance. It's always a trade-off. I cannot argue that we, our strategy is 100% accurate, but we did the best we could, and we are taking advantage on volumes.
Maybe price, there will be a gap in time, but sooner or later we'll be capturing any market opportunity as long as truck prices pass through fuel prices and inflation.
Okay, great. Thank you. My second question is on costs. Do you see any one-off expense in the fourth Q? We saw some unusual other expense line of about BRL 60 million. Can you say if there was any one-off cost there? Thank you.
Hi, Rogério. This is Gustavo. Regarding other expenses, what we saw in the year was pretty much a phasing issue between the quarters. If you look as a whole for the year, the only offset that we had was last year when we had almost BRL 300 million being recognized in Malha Paulista due to the write-off of some liabilities that we had in the past. During the early renewal process, we did the write-off of those liabilities, and they were accounted as gains in other revenues and expenses. Between the quarters is pretty much phasing, because if you adjust that, and you can see that information available on our comparable results, it's pretty much even.
There is a small difference between the figures of 2020 and 2021. When we look to the volatility in the fourth quarter, it's a bit bigger, but it's more related to phasing than other one-offs.
Okay. Very clear. Thanks so much. Have a great one.
Our next question comes from Bruno Amorim with Goldman Sachs.
Hi. Thank you for taking my question. Actually, I have two. I'll go with the first one. The first question is a follow-up on Pedro's question at the beginning of the call. You know, there are several moving parts, of course, but I'm trying to get a sense of what all that means for the next 2-3 years in terms of, you know, volumes, prices, and then EBITDA. Your guidance is used to imply on some roughly 10% volume growth with pass-through of cost inflation, which, you know, drove some mid-teen growth in EBITDA through time, call it 16%. You know, is it still the case? I'm particularly interested in understanding how it reconciles with the fact that Northern Mato Grosso grows faster than Southern Mato Grosso, to which you are exposed.
Of course, for now we are leaving outside the Lucas do Rio Verde expansion, which could be an upside longer term. I'm just trying to understand, you know, if that, let's say, framework is to apply. Thank you very much.
Hi. Hi, Bruno. This is Gustavo. Again, I think Beto already comment a bit of this, but, from a revenue standpoint, first, we believe that our strategy for market share will allows us to capture additional grain volumes. When we combine that with the fact that the harvests are improving, we should be able to capture more volume in regions more close to our terminals. That could help us also in terms of a normalization of crops that last year was really bad, especially in the second half. Also, we are having some discussion with strategic customers, especially for other cargoes rather than grains, which could provide a significant amount of volumes in the upcoming years.
We are doing a lot of effort in our commercial area, and we are gonna bring additional volumes to the company on top of our market share strategy. When it comes to price, we have some triggers that will be in place hopefully next year, early next year. The first one is the toll roads in BR-163. The second one is this, let's call it normalization of truck prices, which were somehow affected by the shortfall of corn in the end of last year, which was somehow carried over for the first half 2021. When we think about costs, you know, today, given the hikes in the fuel prices, we are spending quite a significant amount in fuel consumption.
If you take 5% every year in fuel efficiency, that could mean a lot of money, and the company is really committed to pursue these reductions in fuel consumption. It's well aligned with our ESG agenda and strategy. If you take into account what could mean in terms of reduction in costs, the agreement that MRS will negotiate with the ANTT to renew their concession, you know, maybe for 2025, we could be talking about more than BRL 200 million per year in costs that we'll be saving just because MRS is lowering the tariffs, and that is a mandatory condition on their renewal. With all those levers, we believe that we could from 2023 onwards catch up and recover.
As Rafael Bergman just said, we recognize that we are slightly behind our schedule in terms of growth, but we are confident that we have the levers to catch up with the plan and you know go back to our growth strategy, but being consistent with the fundamentals in the long term of this business.
Bruno, Rafael here again, I think, we appreciate that the EBITDA at the end is as dynamic as the competitive scenario that we face. We do have some important triggers, as Gustavo just said, for 2023. For 2022, we are growing volumes, we are testing capacity, but it's a transition year in terms of margins. That's our expectation. 2023, we expect to be a much better year from a margin standpoint. But of course, the long-term guidance is a figure in the future.
When we look at the EBITDA stated in long-term guidance, I think if you take a snapshot using the best view of the competitive scenario, and I think most of you did that, projected something on the lower end of the EBITDA guidance, which is fair for what we have seen. This is something that, of course, we will need to see as a movie, not as a picture.
I restate the point around the CapEx, which is an important part of the financial figures for the guidance, and without compromising growth, and I state that again, without compromising growth, we are already working with the scenario that is in the low part of the range of the guidance, with a view on testing this year a figure which is below that and hopefully being able to roll over the strategy for CapEx for the following years as well.
On your point around Lucas do Rio Verde, I think in the call that you guys had, when the project was discussed, Gustavo mentioned that there was a discussion around combining the figures, because there is a long-term guidance for 2025, and there's also some guidance which is not with the exact scope, regarding the figures for Lucas do Rio Verde. I think it is natural to assume that, at some point during the year, as we approach the start of the construction of this extension, that we consider combining those figures. Something that we are also doing is doing a benchmark in terms of the type of metrics that are appropriate for a company to have as long-term guidance.
We are looking at what other companies have been doing, and we will, for sure, be talking to some of you in that process as well.
Thank you very much for the comprehensive answer. If I may, I have a follow-up. You know, if we look at your guidance for this year for EBITDA, the range is pretty similar to your guidance for last year. You know, this year we have, you know, fairly strong crop outlook. The Central Network is ramping up. Diesel prices is higher, which should favor your relative competitiveness versus trucks. Can you please, you know, help us understand why, you know, we are not seeing a guidance which is superior to last year's guidance? You know, what's getting worse and then offsetting those, you know, positives? Thank you. Hi, Bruno. This is Gustavo.
You're right when you say that, arguably, the higher the fuel prices, the better for our competitiveness. Indeed, what we have is a mismatch in those, in this process, 'cause last year we not only had fuel prices going up, but we also had a crop shortfall. As I pointed out at the beginning, instead of seeing prices going up in the second half of 2021, we saw a huge decline in truck prices that was brought by the crop failure. That somehow compromised our ability to pass through, to fully pass through fuels and inflation for the beginning of 2022, especially because the crop arrived earlier.
Either we would wait to negotiate better tariffs, risking to lose volumes in the short term, or we would prioritize volumes, making sure that we are gonna use all our installed capacity, especially in the periods where typically the market is idle. Some time later, we could seek to recover these prices as we see trucks passing through inflation in the market. I think with that process, we left some money on the table. It was not a decision of the company, but a reality in the market. It was not easy to pass through inflation and fuel when we saw lower truck prices in the market. That's again, we believe it's a temporary mismatch. It's not something structural that should remain over time.
That's one of the reasons why you are seeing close figures. Another thing that could be also an issue and we have to take into account is the seasonality. Especially after the pavement of the BR-163, we saw higher capacity in the Arco Norte, which provide the trading companies the ability to concentrate exports. It's harder to make sure that we'll be able to do the same amount of the volumes in the low season. We are also taking into account a seasonality that is not as good as the seasonalities that we had in the past when there was no pavement of the BR-163. That's another thing to take into account.
Thank you very much, Gustavo.
The next question comes from Regis Cardoso with Credit Suisse.
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks, Beto, Rafael, Gustavo, thanks for taking my question. Two questions and two quick follow-ups. The questions are, do you have already any kind of capacity limitation? I mean, do you have to choose at any one point in time, for instance, whether you want to, let's say, reduce prices to capture more volumes in the North network, but that would be limited against the volumes you could grow in the Central Network, for example? I mean, is capacity already a limitation? That's the first question. Second question is, how should I think about volumes, and in particular, why do the volumes in the new guidance not grow over the guidance that you had provided for last year, right?
Cause I know we had a crop failure last year, but the guidance didn't account for that crop failure. Now we have a better year with a full year of a Central Network and so on and so forth. These are the two sort of main questions. If I may, just two quick follow-ups on previous questions to see if I understood them correctly. One is on the other expenses, which was a total amount of BRL 60 million, but within it, there was a BRL 49 million of others, right? I just wanted to understand if that is recurring. When we think moving forward, should we keep those expenses in the other expenses or eliminate them?
The second follow-up is just regarding the guidance. If I understood it correctly, the 2025 guidance still stands, but it's very likely that it would be, you know, looking to reach the lower end of that guidance. Is this correct? Thank you.
Regis, Rafael here. Let me take the last one since I was talking about it earlier in the call. No, what I said was that the EBITDA is a dynamic figure due to the competitiveness scenario. We still have the range that was provided last year. It's fair to say that given that we are behind the implied curve, that if you take a snapshot of the projections as they stand, they are closer to the lower end of the guidance. There are, of course, uncertainties with upside risk that fall within the range up to the upper side of it.
I also said that on the CapEx side, we have the range, but we are already working with implementing the lower range, the lower side of the range. Of course, that will be very important to test the capacity this year with perhaps less acquisition of raw material stock, but benefiting from all the work that has been done over the years in terms of modernization of lines and so forth. Just you should be very clear on that. Gustavo.
Yeah, Regis, very quickly here regarding other expenses, what I meant was that last year. Sorry, on 2022, we had a one-off in Malha Paulista of BRL 360 million. That was what made the number better last year. I think the level of other expenses that we had this year, it's kind of the normalized level. We don't see much one-offs this year, but rather only last year. If you could remind me the first part of your question, Regis, w-
There was a question about the limitation on capacity for volumes between North and Central part of the network, and also the comparison on this year guidance over next 2022 guidance for volumes.
Regis, regarding the interactions between north and central, of course, during the peak it's an issue because we don't have unlimited capacity. For several months throughout the year, it's not an issue. We could, you know, seek to have higher volumes in both operations. It's important to understand that throughout last year, we made very important improvements in the Port of Santos, so we delivered additional capacity. We also implemented the round trip of 120 rail cars, which is gonna maximize the way that our trains run in the network, providing also additional capacity. We enter with two terminals in Central Network, giving us more flexibility, as Beto mentioned in the beginning of the presentation.
We kind of have this flexibility to balance between the two operations, but it's unavoidable that during the peak of the harvest, there will be some kind of constraints. That's perfectly normal, and that's why seasonality matters a lot. If we could negotiate volumes to secure a better use of seasonality throughout the year, that could add a lot of value for us.
Very clear. Thank you.
The next question comes from Filipe Ferreira with Citi.
Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. I have two questions on my side. The first one is regarding ESG goals. We saw you have a sustainability report that focus a lot in carbon emissions and deforestation efforts, mitigation efforts. I'd like to know from you if there are any plans to include goals and actions related to tracking the correct use of soil by clients in terms of using pesticides? How is the new project in pesticides that is being voted in the Senate includes additional risks for the ESG goals of the company? That's my first one.
Hi, Felipe. A good question. We are proud always to share our ESG agenda. First of all, I think it's important to explain that our main goals in terms of the environmental side today is the reduction of CO2 emissions, which we are doing quite well over the past few years, and we still have aggressive plans to deliver significant gains in the upcoming years. In our last sustainability report, we also disclosed a very aggressive target of having 100% traceability of all the grains that we are transporting through our network. This is a very ambitious plan that forces us to work alongside with our customers to implement it.
It was designed to make sure that after 2025, the company could guarantee that we will not be related to any grain that is being harvested in any area related to any issue related to deforestation. When it comes to pesticides, right now we are not focusing or prioritizing this agenda, but of course we are always studying. But it's something that is more on the farmer side. Today we are trying to influence, especially the trading companies, that could send the right message to farmers to, first of all, to be in compliance with the Forest Code in Brazil, and also, by providing additional capacity that in turn could allow trading companies to shift from trucks that, for instance, are six times less efficient when it comes to CO2 emissions. Those are our priorities right now.
Of course, we are open to analyze any other opportunity, together with customers, with farmers, that could fit well in our ESG agenda.
Nice. Thanks for the answer. My second question is regarding the partnership that you announced at the end of last year with Hidrovias at the Port of Santos. I'd like to hear about what are the current stages of this partnership. Since Hidrovias has stopped operations at the Port of Santos for maintenance, what is your expected timeline for the contract to be signed? When can we see benefits starting to appear at the results of the company?
Hello, Felipe. This is Beto speaking. Regarding the partnership with Hidrovias, the contract was signed. Actually, many contracts were signed last year. We have Hidrovias, we have the 20-year contract with Suzano. We have a 25-year contract with Klabin. We have the contract signed with ADAMA to build the fertilizer plant in Rio Verde. We have the contract signed, and we should have the new terminal of sugar in Iturama this year. We have the new terminal of container that should be open this year also in Maranhão. Many contracts have been signed last year. This is one of them, which is 500,000 tons of fertilizer that we should be able to carry in 2023, by end of 2023. Okay?
As you know, there's a huge bottleneck in Santos in terms of a capacity for fertilizer. That's the limitation from that.
Okay. Thank you so much, and have a good day. Thanks.
Thank you. I would like to turn the floor over to Mr. Beto Abreu for his final remarks. Please, Mr. Beto, you may proceed.
Thank you very much for the call. Thank you for everyone. I think the first thing to do is that, regarding the first quarter, which is the quarter that we are discussing here, we know that [uncertain] is never disabled. We are not happy with the financial results for the fourth quarter and for the year. We are happy with the strategies that we put in place. We are confident that we are in the right route with the right strategy. We must take into account a few things and final message that I would like to leave with you. The first one, I do not underestimate the level of impact that our operational excellence will bring to our capacity. That's a very important thing in our business.
The second one is that, again, 2022 is a transition period. We manage the business not for the quarter, in that case, not specifically for the year. We are managing the business looking for a specific period of time and looking for the long term. Second half, it's a transition period. In 2023, we know, there's many things going on, and we're gonna find a completely different competitive environment. That's the second thing. The third message is we are very confident that we will be completely available to start Lucas do Rio Verde in the current year. So there are many things available. That doesn't mean that we will start, but there is no, we are expecting that we're gonna be allowed to do it. Everything is running very well and better than we expected.
A lot of the structural things with huge impact in the NPV that happened, not necessarily the P&L as we were expecting, but a lot of actions with huge impact in the net present value for the business. Again, thank you very much for all of you.
This concludes Rumo's conference call for today. Thank you very much for your participation. You may now disconnect. Have a good day.