Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to Rumo Logística conference call to discuss the first quarter of 2021 results. Today with us we have Mr. Ricardo Lewin, CFO and IRO, Mr. Gustavo da 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 begin the Q&A session when further instructions will be given. In case you need assistance during the conference, 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, there will be simultaneous translation to Portuguese. The event is also being broadcast simultaneously on the internet via webcast.
Before proceeding, we would like to mention that forward 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 the 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'll now turn the conference over to Mr. Ricardo Lewin. Please, Mr. Lewin, you may proceed.
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you all for joining us in this earnings conference call for the first quarter of 2021. I would like to start by providing some highlights on ESG initiatives. Once more, Rumo delivered a substantial reduction on fuel consumption. This is the main driver for reducing CO2 emissions. In our long-term goals, we are committed to reduce our emissions by 50% until 2023. Another important effort is related to diversity. Recently, we announced our restructure of the board, bringing two women as members, as of now representing 20% of its composition. Besides that, we are strongly committed to increasing women presence in all organizational levels. Already in April, we issued our first sustainability-linked bond in the local market, reinforcing again our transparency and engagement with ESG agenda.
Last but not least, we expect to publish our sustainability report in June, highlighting several important improvements in our sustainable agenda. On the next chart, we are going to go through the main highlights of this quarter. Rumo presented a good performance in all main KPIs this quarter. Despite the delay in the soybean crop, consolidated volumes grew almost 13%. A better market outlook and higher fuel prices helped enhance our competitiveness, which allowed a yield expansion of 5.9%. In March, we started to operate São Simão Terminal in Central Network, allowing us to access new areas such as Goiás and Tocantins states. EBITDA reached BRL 832 million, 44% up year-over-year. During the first quarter, we prepared 2024 senior notes. That not only reduced the average cost of debt but also brought a non-recurring financial gain due to the unfold of the debt swap.
Net income reached BRL 175 million compared to a loss of BRL 274 million in the same quarter last year. On the next chart, we will present the operational results. North Network delivered the highest contribution for the quarter volume, growing 16.4%. In the South Network, the harvest historically starts later than Mato Grosso. This year, volumes arrived only in March, which limited its growth to 2%. Looking to the assortment of cargos, besides a good performance in grains that grew 90%, we highlight a 44% growth in fertilizers, 26% in fuel, and almost 20% in pulp. On the next chart, we will see results per operation. Our consolidated EBITDA grew 44%, result of a 42% growth in the North Network and a 67% in the South Network. The higher growth in the South has basically three reasons.
First, higher yields, mainly due to concentration of volumes in March, when tariffs are typically higher. Second, a better assortment of cargos with more sugar, and finally, better pricing in the Rio Grande do Sul that had a crop disruption last year. Consequently, we posted significant gains in margins in both operations. On the next chart, we will see the highlights of financial results and net income. Financial expenses improved due to last year concession fees prepayment and a non-recurring effect of BRL 203 million due to the unfold of the 2024 senior notes swap. A better operational performance, coupled with better financial results, generated a profit of BRL 175 million compared to a loss of BRL 274 million in the first quarter of 2020. On the next chart, we will see the effect of the 2024 senior notes prepayment in the P&L and cash flow.
The owing cost of 2024 senior notes were approximately 144% of CDI, while companies recent issuance in the local market are around 110% of CDI. As a result, the anticipated amortization of the 2024 senior notes improved Rumo's debt profile, increasing its duration and reducing its average costs. Also, the unfold of the debt swap brought a net impact of approximately BRL 204 million in the P&L. On the next chart, we will see more details of debt. In the first quarter of 2021, leverage reached two times net debt EBITDA, with a reduction of gross debt. As already said in the previous slides, the prepayment of 2024 senior notes has improved the debt amortization schedule, reinforcing the strength of the company for the execution of next year's investment plan. On the next chart, we have the market outlook for soybean.
Regarding the soybean market in 2021, according to Agroconsult projections, Brazil should have a record harvest of 137 million tons, an increase of 11 million tons compared to 2020, of which 85 million tons should be exported. Also, according to the consultancy, Mato Grosso is expected to increase its exports by 2 million tons, extending the harvest until July. In Rio Grande do Sul, a strong expansion of production, 8.3 million tons, is also expected, recovering from the 2020 crop failure. In Goiás State, a new market that started to be served by Rumo in March, production is estimated at 13.4 million tons. Commercialization and volumes under take-or-pay agreements are well advanced, bringing a good outlook for the second quarter 2021. On the next chart, we will see corn outlook.
AgRural projects a reduction of 8 million tons in the country's production and a decrease of 6 million tons in export volumes. In Mato Grosso, a reduction of 1 million tons in exports is expected. In Mato Grosso do Sul and Paraná, production is estimated at 20 million tons, and in Goiás, production can reach 11 million tons, representing an additional volume opportunity given the recently consolidated geographic expansion. The volume of corn contracted for the second half of the year is substantially higher than that in the same period of 2020. However, volumes for the fourth quarter are still challenging due to the expected lower availability for exports. On the next chart, we'll take a look at the long-term drivers for grains. Farmers' profitability has skyrocketed in the last years, increasing approximately 12x for corn and 3x for soybean.
From a supply standpoint, we should continue to see crops improvements over the next years, once farmers could expand investment in productivity and area expansion. On the demand side, China is recovering fast from the African swine flu and the consumption of soybean is going up. At the same time, China is becoming a relevant importer of corn, which increases significantly the global demand for grains. Of that, points out that our investment thesis is stronger than ever, and we should continue to pursue the development of Brazilian logistic infrastructure. On the next chart, I would like to comment on the Port of Santos. In previous calls, we have been highlighting improvement in Santos port infrastructure. This time, I would like to share with you the deliveries that changed dramatically the efficiency in the port.
Improvements of the export corridor, Macuco expansion, and the third line of Paquetá will be operational by June this year. Also by this time, Terminal T39, in which Rumo has a stake, will be delivering the first phase of investments committed in the early renewal process that will bring another ship loader and access to Berth 37. With that, Port of Santos will be significantly better off. On the next chart, I will comment on Central Network. As already disclosed, we have been operating São Simão Terminal since March, and we are seeing volumes going up fast. At the same time, the construction of Rio Verde T erminal is advancing well. Throughout the second half, we expect significant additional installed capacity in our terminals. Therefore, Rumo is getting ready to take full advantage of its competitive position in the grain market.
Before finishing, I would like to talk about our container operations. Klabin, which is already a very important customer for Rumo, is partnering with Brado. Companies signed a long-term agreement that will create a demand for 30,000 containers per year, reinforcing the diversification of cargoes with high scalability, always attractive to railways. Also, this partnership allows the replacement of trucks, which brings further contribution to CO2 emissions avoidance. Here, I conclude my presentation, and we can go to Q&A session. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, we'll start now the Q&A session. Our first question comes from André Hachem with Itaú. Please, Mr. Hachem, you may go ahead.
Hello, Lewin. Thank you for taking my questions. Congratulations on the results. My first question is in regards to volumes. You had a big delay this year on the soy harvest. Even though you still reported strong volumes for the first quarter, so I'd like to understand a little bit better how you're seeing the volumes developing for the second quarter of this year, given the pushback with the delay within the harvest. Still on this topic, I'd also like to see how you're seeing the corn harvest later this year, the winter harvest, given that we're seeing a much lower expectation on production. That's my first question on volumes.
My second question is on the Central Network. You provided numbers which seem to be a lot higher than we were expecting, which is a very strong ramp-up. Do you think this should maybe level off and then only resume by the end of the year? Or how should we think about the evolution of the dynamics of the Central Network? Thank you.
Hi, André. I will take the first part of the question. Lewin will complement with regards to corn and Central Network. When we think about soybeans this year, we are having an all-time high crop. It got late, you are right. We were able to grow more volumes from March onwards. We are seeing a good availability of soybeans for the second quarter. As we already disclosed, we are well advanced in terms of the agreements and the commercialization of grains is doing okay. We believe we're going to have pretty good volumes throughout the second quarter of this year. With regards to corn, I will hand over to Ricardo.
Thank you, Gustavo. Hi, André. Well, for corn, as I said, we have a considerable drop in the harvest. According to Agroconsult, it's expected to drop 8 million tons in Brazil. Okay. Consequently, 6 million tons in exports. In Mato Grosso, it's expected to drop 1 million tons, and this may be a bit conservative. It's important to say that this year, the window for exports is going to be shorter for corn due to the late harvest of soybean, as you said. Also important to note that for this year, for the corn period, okay, for the corn crop, we are 2x more contracted than we were at the same period in 2020.
We have 2x more take-or-pay contracts this year. We expect to have a good third quarter, okay? The point here is that for the fourth quarter, there is still a lot of uncertainty. The fourth quarter uncertainty is due to not only the late soybean harvest, but also to the weather conditions, okay?
Together, the weather conditions plus the late crop halted completely the commercialization of corn. There's still a lot of volumes to be sold in the fourth quarter, okay? This is the answer for corn. The second one is regarding Central Network. André, I don't know if you remember that on the third quarter, we provided you a table on all the terminals. There was one like São Simão that we said that would start first quarter this year, exactly what we did. I remember that the second one that we were talking about was Rio Verde. Rio Verde, we expect to have it ready very soon. Okay, we will take advantage of the corn crop. We'll be able to start to elevate from this terminal in the second half of the year. There's a huge capacity.
Just to have an idea, we have static capacity in Rio Verde that's two times more than we had in Rondonópolis before the improvement that we did in Rondonópolis. We will not start to use the entire capacity. What I can say that it's a respectable ramp-up, and we'll be using a good amount of capacity for the second half of the year already in Rio Verde.
Perfect. Just to complement on that.
Go ahead.
We're going to be releasing today after the market close our volumes for April, and then you're going to have a better view on how fast volumes are growing in Central Network. We are still talking only about the São Simão terminal. Ricardo made a fair point. Of course, the capacity will boost after we have the entrance of Rio Verde. You're going to see for sure some very significant growth from March to April in our São Simão terminal.
Perfect. Thank you. Very clear.
Thank you, André.
Our next question comes from Lucas Barbosa with Santander. Please, Lucas, go ahead.
Good afternoon, Lewin, Gustavo. Congratulations on the results, and thanks for taking my question. My question is regarding yields. Can you give some color on how you are seeing yields for the second quarter? What magnitudes of year-over-year expansion you are seeing? In addition, if you could comment on what are your expectations for the third quarter this year? That's my question. Thanks very much.
I will take this, Lucas. Thank you for participating on the call also. Let's talk about prices for the second quarter. Total prices will depend a bit on the fuel prices. Okay? As you said in the last call, for the first half of the year, the soybean transportation, we are very well-positioned in terms of take-or-pay, okay? We consider that ex-fuel prices will continue to be at a good level. Okay? You said about the second quarter. What was the other question? For the third quarter also.
Yes, yields as well.
Yeah. As I said to André, the third quarter, we already have a very good amount of take-or-pay contracts, okay, as I said, for the second half of the year. We have two times more take-or-pay than we had at the same time of the year in 2020. The point here that they're concentrated in third quarter, okay? Third quarter, we have good guarantees on volume and prices, okay, obviously, depending on how you vary fuel prices. The point here is that for the fourth quarter, it is still too early to say, okay? As I said, there is still a lot of uncertainty due to the weather conditions, late crop, commercialization that was completely halted. We can good scenario at fuel in the third quarter this year.
Perfect. Lewin, very clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Lucas.
Our next question comes from Rogério Araujo with UBS BB. Please, Rogério, go ahead.
Hey, Lewin, Gustavo, thanks for the opportunity. Congratulations on the results. A couple here on my side. The first one is on take-or-pay revenue. Can you please go through the negotiations on take-or-pay for the first Q, how this played out with the delay in the crop by February? If you can say how much take-or-pay revenue there is recognized here in these results, more or less.
On my second question, it seems that Rumo gained share over the Northern Corridor in first Q. Can you go through the negotiations with the trading companies, all the take-or-pay volume that was closed by the first half of the year? If you have a view on how cheaper it is to use your railway network instead of going to Northern Corridor, when you are close to Sorriso or Lucas do Rio Verde region. How is the competitiveness South versus North at this moment? That's my questions. Thank you.
Rogério, thank you. Thank you for the questions. You can see in our release that the take-or-pay for the first quarter is a bit more than BRL 100 million. Okay? You see the revenues, you see also in the working capital. It is to be paid in the second quarter. These are usual negotiations with trading companies in the sense that we signed a contract on that, and this is owned by them to us. This is not a huge discussion with them. If we cannot transport, we also own them take-or-pay. It's something around a bit more than BRL 100 million. For the second part of the question, Gustavo, would you like to take this?
Sure, Ricardo. Thanks. Rogério, you're right. We did well in terms of market share in the first quarter. I think we have a lot of effects here. You remember we recently implemented a new commercial structure that right now is responsible for the whole company, and it amplifies the focus on the commercial relationship with customers. That allows us to negotiate take-or-pays in advance, which ultimately allows us, for instance, to have more volumes sold for January, that generate the take-or-pay in first place. It also reflects the improvement of the market conditions that we saw when we were negotiating with customers. Everybody knew that fuel prices were going up, and that is very important to explain our competitiveness against trucks. This year, different from what happened last year, the trading companies were having better visibility on volumes.
There was any kind of trouble with the off-takers abroad. The commercialization evolved well, and railway tends to be cheaper, especially after we have this rebalance in oil prices, that allows us to present better prices. What's going to happen in the upcoming quarters? It will depend pretty much on the markets, but we are well-positioning, and we believe that our commercial strategy is in place, and depending on what's going to happen with fuel prices, we might present a good performance throughout the year.
Thank you. Just to follow up, when you look at volumes that are published, does it also include the take-or-pay that was not transported but was paid?
No
not?
No, not at all. We only recognize the take-or-pay in other revenues. It does not affect, not even yields, not even transported volumes, because the volumes weren't transported at all.
Perfect. Thanks so much.
Thank you, Rogério.
Our next question comes from Victor Mizusaki with Bradesco BBI. Please, Victor, go ahead.
Hi. Congrats for the strong results. I have two questions here. The first one is a follow-up on the Central Network. If you think about this operation, right? You talk about like a warm up of operation, only a relatively small terminal with 1.5 million tons of capacity. You deliver a very high margin of 46%. My question is: With the opening of Rio Verde terminal in the third quarter with 8 million tons of capacity and expect dilution of fixed costs, can we say that maybe Centro- Sul can achieve the same margin of the North Network, so the margin above 50%? The second question is, if you can give us an update on the environmental license of Lucas do Rio Verde project. Thank you.
Victor, thank you for the questions. I will tell you about the margins. I will not give you a number, but I can tell that the margins on Central Network can be equal or more than the North Network. Okay? Remember that we always say that we have gains in scale, very scale gains here. When we are full operating Rio Verde, that has a distance that's higher than São Simão. We can be with equal or even better margins than the North Network. Okay? Regarding the environmental license, we are working on that. As we said before, the license has been discussed locally, yes, by the local environmental secretary, and we are working on that. Okay. What I can say at this point, the studies are evolving very well.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Victor.
Our next question comes from Stephen Trent with Citibank Group. Please, Stephen, go ahead.
Good afternoon, gentlemen, thanks very much for taking my question. Just two quick ones from me. When you think about longer-term incremental investments, do you have any high-level thoughts with respect to whether you would invest in a brand-new project that the government presents? I realize it's a little unfair to ask because we don't know all the projects that they could present. Would you rather make incremental investments in the South Network, for example? My second question relates to the hydrological conditions in some parts of the south of Brazil, if you're seeing any impact. Thank you.
Stephen. Let me take the first one. The second one, Gustavo will take. I don't know if I get very well the question. If I didn't get you, after I answer, you tell me. The point here is that obviously that's a project that's very important for the company with very good returns. That's the extension to Lucas do Rio Verde. Obviously our preference is always to invest in high-return projects. Okay? However, we do have other projects. What you're saying is that if I have limited capital, which one I would invest? Obviously, I will invest in the extension. Okay? Regarding the South Network, it's an interesting project. Obviously, as you see today, the margins of the South is much lower than in the North Network. Still, you can see good returns on investments in the South.
In the south, let me say that its returns are lower than going to the north. Being very direct, we would prefer invest in the north, but we are discussing in the south, the renewal, to see if we reach to a situation in which is attractive for the company to invest.
Okay, that's super. Wanted to get your high-level view. Very helpful.
Okay. Gustavo, would like to get the second?
Yeah. Please. Stephen, nice to talk with you again. With regards to the south, you're right. We have two things going on. First is the late crop of corn, that brings also some weather concerns. We don't know yet for sure how this might influence the production. Right now, there is at least some risks on that. On the other hand, especially when it comes to Rio Grande do Sul state, which does not have a corn crop, they only work with soybean crop. Last year we had a huge drought. This year, the availability of soybean is much higher, and that could help us, at least in Rio Grande do Sul state, to offset or to prevent any losses in corn that we are seeing or expecting to Paraná state due to the bad weather.
We're going to have to see in the upcoming months how this will take place. There is at least reasons for concern with regards to the size of the current production, in the south state.
Okay. Very helpful, Gustavo, and good to hear from you as well. Thanks a lot.
Our next question comes from Murilo Freiberger with Bank of America. Please, Murilo, go ahead.
Hi, guys. Thank you for the opportunity of asking a couple of questions from our side related to the Central Network. The first one is, I know it's a bit too early to discuss that, when we look the yields there, they were substantially higher than what we see in the Northern Corridor, for example. I know you won't provide a financial guidance, but to have a rough idea of where we could land the yields in the long run. Should it be closer to what we have in the Northern Corridor, slightly higher? If you can give any kind of guidance on that sense. The second one, I know it's also a little bit too early to discuss, but if you could talk a little bit about the competitive environment moving forward as you ramp up operations.
You will probably reach kind of the same influence area that you have on FCA network, if you guys anticipate any kind of sharper competition with the other railway system. That would be the two questions from our side.
Thank you, Murilo. Thank you for the question.
Let me start by talking about the Central Network. It's a business that is starting, and our main priority is to get all the volumes we can in that concession. I wouldn't like to commit on any guidance for pricing, because pricing is not the objective. What we want there is to have the highest competitiveness we can in order to ramp up the volumes very fast. Right now, we are trying to get all the volumes, and prices are luckily coming strong. That's not the final objective. When we ask about the competitiveness in the region, we believe that our network is the most competitive one. We are very close to the heart of the production in the Goiás state. Therefore, we are much less exposed to trucks than FCA.
We believe that naturally the volumes tend to shift to our network as we become able to afford additional capacity. We are not concerned about competition, and we believe that we have the right tools to capture most part of the volumes.
Fantastic. That was pretty clear. Thank you, guys.
Our next question comes from Josh Milberg with Morgan Stanley. Please, Mr. Milberg, go ahead.
Hey, everyone. Hey, Lewin. Hey, Gustavo. Thanks for the question. You guys had, in the presentation, the slide on the different investments being carried out in Santos, I was just hoping you could elaborate on that topic and revisit to some degree how much those projects will help you overcome any potential bottlenecks over the next few years. If you could also just revisit the status of the project with DP World, that would be great.
Hi, Josh. Thank you. Well, let's start with DP World. We are still evolving with them in the project, okay? It's not like when we announced it was the first MOU on the project, so we still have some time to close all the details, okay? Regarding Santos, as you saw here in the presentation, there are a lot of projects that change completely the scenario in Santos, okay? We have the third line of Paquetá, you have the Ponta da Praia project. You have several projects that both increase efficiency in the port, and also increase capacity. At least consequently, they increase capacity. Santos is not a bottleneck right now, but we have been working in the last five years to avoid that it becomes a bottleneck, okay?
The bottleneck is mainly not necessarily in the terminals, but in the entrance of the Santos port, and these are the ones that we are working on to improve the efficiency. I give you just another year, but just to illustrate what I'm telling you, like in the last year, we reduced the journey in Santos port by something around 15 minutes, okay? This is the result of the great job that we are doing in Santos port, and this is only one example. Okay? Besides these projects that I told you, there are other ones to increase capacity, like the improvement in T39 that we said in the presentation, that we increase static capacity and we increase additional capacity in Santos port. Thanks to this job that we are doing, we are changing completely the efficiency and capacity in Santos port.
Okay. It's probably difficult to measure, but just talking about the cost benefit of, and the commercial benefit of the investments being done there. Could you address that?
In what sense, Josh? Could you elaborate a bit more?
Well, no, just thinking a little bit about the speed to market, so like the turnaround times and you mentioned sort of those efficiency gains, that presumably would bring some kind of cost benefit to the operation.
I see now. Yeah, I got it. I think all the calls, Josh, I always say that a very efficient or when we need a very efficient railway. There are extremes that are very efficient. We have, on one side, Rumo [do Ouro] that's very efficient. We have Ferroviária that's very efficient, but not necessarily we have all the efficiency that we would like to have in Santos. This is the reason that we are working. What that means, that once we gain efficiency, as the example that I told you, reducing almost one hour in turning, in the cycle inside the transport. That means that we are reducing our costs and getting more competitive. Once we get more competitive, we can fight for more volumes, for example, in Mato Grosso, for example, in Goiás.
This, you can feel, and for us, it's obvious that once you see here that we reduce our costs, we get more competitive, we keep our margins. This has a direct relationship with competitiveness of the entire North Network.
Okay. Lewin, you had also talked about some potentially transformational projects in the Port of Santos. Are there still some larger scale opportunities that you're pursuing?
What I can tell you, yes. There is still some room to grow in Santos, and we are pursuing that. Unfortunately, Josh, I cannot tell you more on that. Yes, we feel there is still room to increase both efficiency and capacity in Santos port. The ones that we have efficiency here that I can tell you, Josh, are the ones that I always tell. We have T39, Macuco. We have increasing capacity for fertilizers in AMAGGI. The ones that are public are the ones that we are already working. There are other ones to create additional capacity that we are working on. Once I have more details, we will bring here to the calls.
Okay. That's great. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Josh.
Our next question comes from Regis Cardoso with Credit Suisse. Please, Mr. Regis, go ahead.
Thank you, Lewin, Gustavo. Thanks for taking the questions. Congratulations on the results. A few topics I wanted to touch base on. The first one is in relation to the guidance. The low end of the guidance for billing, let's assume some BRL 200 million in the Central Network. That means the existing operations would have to do about BRL 3.8 billion or in other words, BRL 1 billion on average, EBITDA for the next three quarters. These are very rough calculations, right? My point really is that the low end of the guidance already implies very strong results for the two quarters ahead, already adjusting for the Central Network. Unless you, of course, disagree that the Central Network EBITDA will be up around BRL 200 million, and otherwise it would be much bigger.
What I wanted to ask you is, do you see it as very likely that you'd reach that result, or does it depend on fourth quarter corn harvest? That's one question. The other one is whether this is very seasonal, for example, whether you expect a very big concentration in the second quarter now, whereas we are looking at this on a normalized basis throughout the quarters. This is the first question, a little bit of math to understand how to reach the guidance or if there is any risk there. The second topic or actually two quick ones is on capacity, whether you have spare capacity right now or if adding volumes, let's say, would require additional trains and so on.
I'm trying to gauge whether the upside would come mostly from, in the North Network, the existing operations, would come mostly from tariffs or volumes, in the shorter term, in 2021. One last quick one. Working capital was quite negative this quarter. If there is any specific reasons for that, maybe the new terminal starting up, but that led to a debt increase. How do you manage this? Thank you.
Thank you, Regis. Well, I take the first one, then I send to Gustavo. Regarding the guidance, there's no change that we would like to do right now. The point here is that we know that there is a huge reduction on corn crop. As I said, we foresee good second and third quarters. It is too early to tell about the fourth quarter. It's very uncertain what will happen. At this point, we don't have why to change the guidance. We believe we can reach in the range. Okay, if you say how likely is, we believe that we can reach, we will follow this. If we have any change that we want to do, we will come to the market and provide new guidance. This is not the case by now.
Regis, one thing that's important, remember that with Central Network, and not only with Central Network, but the diversity of cargo that we have, we have some flexibility that we are working on that. We have sugar that we can transport. Volumes that come from the north can come right now from Central Network. It's the first year that we are operating with the Central Network. This is also one reason for not changing anything by now, okay? If we see that we need to do any change, we will come to the market, and we'll tell you, okay? Gustavo.
Sure. Let me start with the capacity, Regis. Maybe the most important thing to understand here is that, we did real good volumes for the first quarter, even though, as we mentioned, and I like it, the harvests arrive late. That showed how strong the capacity of the company is right now. We also traded in the first quarter with a very few contribution of Central Network. We believe that from the second quarter onwards, we're going to have a higher contribution from Central Network that will take advantage of the capacity that is being built in that concession.
We're going to be also running with longer trains, that is already in place, and that could provide a lot of capacity. All of that will meet those investments that Ricardo just pointed out in the Port of Santos. We truly believe, and we can add to that the expansion of Rondonópolis that we did last year. We believe that we have all the right conditions to afford higher growth in the upcoming quarters. On top of that, you also ask about tariffs.
I think we already covered a bit of that. It also depends very much on the market and on the fuel prices. The good news is that we have more volumes protected than last year, but it still might be subject to any kind of volatility that could come from the market. Your last question was about the working capital. You're right, there was an outflow this year, lower than the outflow that we had last year. One of the reasons that contributed to generate a higher outflow in the working capital was the take-or-pay recognition. As Ricardo mentioned earlier, we recognized roughly BRL 100 million in take-or-pay fees that are expected to come cash in the second quarter. If you exclude that from that number, you're going to have very probably what we call business as usual.
Working capital was affected by suppliers, receivables, and taxes, but it was all ordinary, nothing from different. I think when it comes to working capital, my main remark would be that we definitely expect for the second quarter to cash in most part of the take-or-pay that was recognized in the first quarter. Then it could offset a bit these effects of working capital that we showed in the first quarter.
Very clear. Thanks, Gustavo, Lewin. Have a good day.
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our question-and-answer session for today. Now I would like to turn the floor over to Mr. Ricardo Lewin for his final remarks. Please, Mr. Lewin, you may proceed.
I'd just like to thank you for the participation of everybody. We had a very good quarter, and as I said here in the call, we expect to have good second, third quarter with certain uncertainties in the fourth, but we are still very positive with this 2021 year. Okay, thank you, everybody, for your participation. Talk to you next call. Bye-bye. Thank you.
That concludes Rumo's conference call for today. Thank you very much for your participation. You may now disconnect and have a good day.