Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to the São Martinho S.A. conference call to discuss the results for the first quarter of the 24/25 crop year. With us today are Mr. Felipe Vicchiato, CFO and Investor Relations Officer, Alessandro Soares, Head of New Business and IR, and John, IR expert at São Martinho. The audio and slides of this conference call are being broadcast simultaneously over the Internet at www.saomartinho.com.br/ri. Participants will be able to choose which language they want to view the presentation in. Two tabs will appear at the top of the screen with the options. Please note that all participants will be on listen-only mode during the company's presentation. We will then begin the Q&A session for investors and analysts, when further instructions will be provided.
Please be advised that certain information contained in this conference call may contain forward-looking statements. Such information is subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause such expectations not to be realized or to differ materially from what was anticipated. Now, I would like to turn the floor over to Mr. Felipe Vicchiato, who will initiate this conference call. Thank you.
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today in the first quarter results for the 2024/2025 crop season. I will start with the topics of this presentation, starting with production of the quarter, the financial highlights, margins in terms of cash costs and sale price, and we will also talk about our corn operation and profitability and then hedging and ethanol pricing expectations. Crushing. Our crushing was quite strong until the end of June. We produced 21% more of TRS.
Sugarcane alone, we were up 16% in terms of crushing, 81.7 tons per hectare, which was a very strong yield. Average TRS was up 21.2%, which means that this represents 20% more for sugarcane. In terms of corn, we processed 19% more when compared to the previous period. The previous period was contaminated by the beginning of the plant, meaning that there was a relative worsening when compared to last year. And then we hope that since the plant is already operating approximately 1,500 tons a day, we will get close to our guidance, which is close to 15,000 tons of cane and processed corn. Our mix was also favorable for sugar production, given sugar prices, which are on average, much higher than ethanol prices.
We produced 26% on top of the previous year, which was 15,000-20,000 tons. We hope to get by the end of the year with 1,000,560 tons of corn, and this should happen by the end of October. Ethanol production was up 17%, mostly led by corn-based ethanol, which had a very strong year. Cogeneration, 34%, mostly due to the beginning of cogeneration of São Martinho's new boiler. And then DDGS was up by 24%, mostly attributed to corn crushing. We have a mix of sugarcane, 49 and 51. This mix should be within our guidance estimate by the end of the year. Now, moving to the financial highlights. Our net revenue was up by 20% to BRL 1.6 billion.
Basically, this is a combination of higher prices of sugar and higher volumes of ethanol. Sugar prices was 13% higher year-on-year. This was the result of better prices, and the sugar volume was 5% higher, and this is within the shipment schedule for the next coming quarters. In the case of ethanol, there was a 17% drop on the average ethanol prices when we compared to the first quarter of last year. I would like to remind you that the first quarter of last year had heavy rainfalls in the Center-South of the country. The crop season started performing quite well. We had good volume of ethanol in the market, so the prices in the first quarter was the highest price of last season, but it was not high enough to be sold.
This year, as the season is normalized, we were able to sell a bit more, but at lower prices when compared to last year. But even then, prices were much better than the last quarter, which we reported in the mid of June. DDGS, we sold 32 million tons, 23% more than last year, mainly due to the highest crushing of corn at an average price, which was 2.2% lower when compared to last year. With that, our EBITDA is up by 20%. Adjusted EBITDA, EBIT, is down by 42%. EBIT, in terms of sales volume, also contemplates the dilution of fixed costs, which improves our cash cost of EBIT. And EBIT is growing at approximately 18%. There were two important effects this quarter, which impacted the cash income and the net income of the company.
The first impact was the financial result with, you know, mark-to-market of swaps, that there was a change in the inflation indicator to CDI, and the impact was BRL 3.2 million in the quarter. These swaps are very long swaps. They mature in 2033, 2034, and 2034. These are the ventures that we mentioned last year, and when the curve opened too much, the mark-to-market of that becomes more relevant. If you look at the same period of last year or last season, the effect was quite the opposite. Instead of 24, there was a gain of about BRL 100 million with that swap. That's why in the variation, we have BRL 200 million when we compare quarter-over-quarter. In addition, last quarter, there was a mark-to-market of biological assets that was positive.
At the time, sugar prices were much higher, so our biological asset gave us that non-cash revenue. And when you compare this to that BRL 21 million, there was a drop of 85%, which certainly impacts the income, the net income of the company. But proportionately speaking, there was a significant improvement in the quarter. And if you notice in the third and fourth slides, there has not been any relevant contribution from EBIT and EBITDA for corn, because this contribution will appear more clearly in the next quarter once I show you our corn inventories and the volumes of DDGS. Moving to cash cost. Sugar cash cost remained flat quarter-on-quarter. We exclude the Consecana effect, and excluding that, it should have been going even lower.
With higher prices, there was a margin gain of almost 10 percentage points, reaching 25% of cash margin for sugar sales. In terms of ethanol, there was a drop in ethanol cash cost. Part of it comes from Consecana prices, and the other part relates to the lower fixed costs. Ethanol prices were down in the period, and because of that, our basis was down by 1.4 percentage points. The expectation—four point three percentage points, meaning, and this cash cost, except for Consecana prices, the price should remain pretty much where it is going forward. But prices, however, will be much better. In the second quarter, there was an important operation, important change in ethanol prices, and because of that, quarter-on-quarter, we will keep gaining margins with ethanol.
One important observation then, is that in the quarter, we had a large sale of hydrous ethanol, which has a better margin, and there was also some hydrous Goiás. In the next quarters, my sales mix will improve. I'll have more export ethanol and contracts already concluded, and more hydrous ethanol and a higher, higher volume from Goiás, and because the prices, it is higher. We sold and produced São Paulo hydrous this quarter, and despite the plants are 100% anhydrous, there, that happened because of ICMS use. We had a large amount to use, so in terms of cash conversion and, and margin of cash, this number is even higher because we are decreasing our, the working capital that is part of my asset.
Now, speaking a little about the corn operation. So we crushed 124,000 tons, in line with the guidance. This quarter, in our result, we have a corn price at 62 BRL per bag. I'd like to remind you that in the end of March, we had an inventory of 143,000 tons of corn. And for the intercrop period, it started in mid-June. So we had this inventory volume to handle the first months, and this volume of inventory was built at an average cost that was higher. And that is, that is why the EBIT and EBITDA margin for corn are very low. When we look at the corn inventory level we currently have, plus the future delivery support with deliveries, in the coming quarters, we should have a corn price at 51 BRL per bag, which, combined with the volume of DDGs-
... that I will be selling in the coming quarters. In this Q1, the volume was very low compared to the total volume, but I should be moving towards an EBIT and EBITDA of corn ethanol between BRL 250 million-BRL 300 million for the full year. Just to say that Q1 is not a reference quarter for you to have forecasts for corn EBITDA, because there was this very low, the DGGS, so volume that was very low, and the corn inventory that was purchased at a higher price so that we could get a start up of the crop year. Moving on, a little bit about our hedging position. In the end of June, we had 729,000 tons hedged at 2,000, around 2,000 per ton, an important part in BRL, another part open.
The dollar part only was hedged for the sugar, and this represents 76% of my own cane, of what I will be billing in the next three quarters. We have a turnover volume of our own cane that represents 76% already hedged. If we consider the whole crop year, including the volume that I already sold in Q1, this number would get close to 90% of our own cane. For the 2024-- the 2025, 2026 harvest, we started our risk management policy. Although we are constructive regarding sugar price, the forward sugar price, we sold a part of it in order to get some hedging, and this accounts for 16% of our own cane. We still believe that the Midwest and South of Brazil should have a shortage of cane in the last third of the season, because we had a dry summer.
And during the whole year to date, very little rainfall. So starting in September, we should see a substantial decrease in the TCH of the sector, which should impact the volume of sugar produced. And we think that this should affect the prices of sugar, but with, but with what we are going to deliver in 2025 and subsequent crop years. With that, we end the presentation and we are going to open the floor for questions. Thank you very much.
Thank you. We will now begin the Q&A session. I'd like to remind you that if you want to ask written questions, we suggest you send your written questions using the Q&A button on the bottom of your screen. If you want to ask a question, a live question, click on the Raise Hand feature. Your names will be announced, and then you can enable your mic. A prompt will appear on your screen to enable your microphone so you can ask your question. Our first question comes from Pedro Fonseca with XP Investimentos. Mr. Fonseca, go ahead.
Good afternoon, Felipe, and the whole São Martinho team. Thank you for taking my question. My first question is about the weather. I'd like to know from you, this recent worsening of TCH due to a drier weather can impact the planting for the 2025, 2026 crop year. Do you have any expectation regarding that? And my second question is about the CapEx for sugar in the market. What have you been seeing regarding CapEx in new sugar-producing mills? And if you see this as a potential risk for 2026, these are my questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Pedro, for the questions. Well, in the case of São Martinho, the bulk of our planting, almost all of our cane is an eighteen-month cane, so we plant the sugarcane between January and March. So the impact of the rainfall is very reduced, because this is a period that mostly is rainy, so we plant between January and March. But those who have twelve-month sugarcane, a good part of the industry, those are being impacted because they're planting the sugarcane, and they find it, they run into some issues. Regarding the volume of investments in crystallization, sugar, ethanol mix, I believe that all of the projects in the pipeline have been announced and are running in this crop year.
I don't see today any incentives to invest in the sugar mix, because the sugar prices are lower compared to the 2023, 2024, when all of these investments were contracted. Secondly, the ethanol price recovered a lot. We had a big surprise with ethanol. It was below the parity for many, many months, and this helped us make a decision to have sugar crystallization of many companies, São Martinho included. But now, with a premium of about 20-25%, it is very hard to find an investment. ... that would offset that. So I guess that what we have now, 40-42 million tons, that's where the sugar production level will remain.
Super clear. Thank you very much.
Our next question from Lucas Ferreira from J.P. Morgan. You may proceed, sir.
I think he's off.
Okay, let's jump to the next question. Lucas, are you there? Okay, go ahead.
I'm sorry, I was on mute. Good afternoon, Felipe. My question is, whether you think that this weather situation could even bring about some downside for crushing because the cane is drier, it's got more fibers, so maybe part of this cane will be crushed next year, so that you would wait a little bit longer for it to develop further? And my second question is about sugar. In your opinion, you talked about hedging strategy, that you want it to be more constructive going forward.
But let's say, if you look at a sudden death of the crop in September, if looking forward, this could be a trigger for sugar. Do you think that this may bring about a negative effect when you look at the, the appreciation of the currency? And what do you think is necessary for sugar to perform better?
Oh, thank you for your questions. Well, our estimate of crushing in the Center-South region, it's an estimate that looks at the sugarcane field in general, you know, for the entire industry. Our number is very similar to the numbers from Datagro, between 500,000 and 600,000 tons, and it wouldn't go any beyond that number, precisely for the reasons that you mentioned.
But there is yet another factor, which is, I think the technical number is this doses in the sugarcane, because at the end of the day, the amount of converted sugar through crushing is lower than it should be, given an X number, you know, X capacity of crystallization. So you produce less sugar and more ethanol. So not only you have a limited number of sugarcane, the issue of the cane itself is leading sugar yield to be lower than what was estimated. UNICA published its numbers today, and so this fortnight is such that predominantly should produce a lot of sugar because the TRS is quite high. I mean, it's cold, so you concentrate TRS. And statistically, if you look at it, these TRS slash the quantity of, you know, ton of sugar per crop is low due to the factors that you mentioned.
So today, that things are at market price, sugar market price, this does not contemplate, does not indicate that Brazil will produce 40 million tons in the Center-South. And even that, this season will continue to post low growth and a price at $0.17. The way it is, even with the price of cane at BRL 550, a lot of companies are operating very close to their cash cost. The second question about sugar, I think the exchange rate has a technical effect. The sugar market is very net, it's very liquid. There are too many traders operating there, and, and in, in case of the sudden death of the season, once they realize in the last third of the season, a lot of the cane will not even be harvested. We will have to wait for a following year while it, it grows.
So when that happens, and in fact, the numbers emerge, maybe this could be a trigger that will lead to the recovery of sugar prices. I mean, we're close. Today is August 13, so I think in the next 30-40 days, we should have a good idea of what the effect will be.
Thank you.
Next question from Luiz Carvalho with UBS. You may proceed, sir.
Good afternoon. Congratulations on your results. I have two questions. The first question is more related to capital allocation. What is your view about the potential expansion of the corn plant and eventually the sugar plant, or even if you think about accelerating the buyback or change the dividend policy? I just want to understand what's in your mind and whether there is room for additional biogas plants if you, you know, look towards the midterm. My second question is on sugar prices. ... What do you anticipate for the end of the year in order to maintain part of the hedging still open? If you could share your views, that would be helpful.
Hi, Luiz. Thank you for your questions. I will start with the last question on sugar prices. We have outstanding about 10% of the total crop, or 25% of the remaining own cane, with a very significant concentration in the March screen. The March screen of 25 is about $0.1850 or $0.1860. We believe that once the TCH data and the cane sudden death that we believe could take place, this price could go as high as $0.20. So this is our expectation for March. But once that screen goes up, I think this also impacts the following screens. As for capital allocation, you talked about biomethane.
We are in the middle of the construction of the plant that should ramp up next year, and while that doesn't happen, I mean, we just look at the operation to see what additional yield we can gain or what additional production we can gain, and or whether maybe we would have to make some adjustments in terms of the nutrition of the plant. Because in our project, we contemplate biodigestion of vinasse that remove some of the nutrition elements that will go into the sugar field. So if we, during that project, we see that there is no need for that, the other projects that will come become more profitable, and that's why it will be to our interest to expedite that. But for now, I mean, in terms of the buyback, we made important progress.
I think 80% is already concluded. In the next few months, we will conclude the remaining portion and decide whether we will open a new buyback, considering the current price of the shares. Corn expansion or sugarcane plant. Well, this has been a very, very good year for our ethanol plant. Energy consumption is quite low, with very low steam consumption. We have a very important competitive advantage, therefore, because we do not need to originate biomass. To give you an idea, in Goiás, in some regions, the chip price gets to 500 barrels per ton, and a plant like Boa Vista, if it weren't integrated, it would need almost 200,000, you know, tons of chips. So we are analyzing the facts to see if we can double the plant without the need to use wood chips for anything.
If the ethanol landscape remains good or constructive for this year and next year, maybe we make a decision to build the plant, but this decision will only be made by the end of the year and early next year. But as for the sugarcane plant, it will be at Boa Vista Farm. The problem is that with the sugarcane plant, that requires a significant investment, so and then you no longer produce ethanol, you don't produce ethanol, but you favor the production of sugarcane, and prices are quite tight. So if sugar prices, for some reason, never recover, and by that I mean an increase of at least 20% from the current numbers. So I think it will be very difficult for any project to pay off, given the current situation at Boa Vista.
Because when you build a sugar plant at Boa Vista, you lose ethanol, you lose yeast. We have a very modern yeast plant that we sell. So if I produce less vinasse, I cannot produce enough yeast and ethanol up to 2032, we have the benefit, an additional benefit, that we, that we wouldn't have with sugar. In terms of capital allocation, therefore, what could be more logical would be to expand our corn production.
Perfect. Thank you.
Thank you.
Next question from Bruno Tomazetto with Itaú BBA. Go ahead, Mr. Tomazetto. I guess his microphone is muted, but we'll move on. Question from Mr. Pedro Gama with Citi. Mr. Gama, go ahead.
Hello, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. I have a question regarding sales of ethanol. It seems that the market was reacting well to a tighter balance between supply and demand. Additionally, Petrobras increased the prices of gasoline. So I'd like to understand, what do you expect regarding the parity dynamics? Does it make sense to see parity increasing and prices increasing as well? And what could be the sales dynamic for this crop year? Should we expect a lower inventory level than the previous crop year? And additionally, regarding the sugar market... ... I'd like to hear what you're thinking about the Indian market. How do you see the country achieving the goals of E20?
Good afternoon. Thank you for the questions. Well, today, the parity is 66%, if I'm not mistaken. With the volume of the last month, month of July, which was almost 3 billion liters of ethanol sold, 1.8 billion of hydrous ethanol. And we think that this parity, over the coming months, should get very close to the economic parity, which is close to 70%, 70. Our sales should be more gradual in the coming quarters. Should be 20, 25%-30% per quarter. We don't expect to carry too much ethanol until the end of the crop season, as we did last year. Regarding the level of inventory, I think I commented on that, and you asked about the price of sugar. Could you please repeat the questions about sugar? 'Cause I'm not sure I got that.
My question is, what do you see for the Indian market, if we, if you will achieve the ethanol targets?
Well, for the Indian market, these are goals. It's not our mandate. I just want to make this very clear. I understand that this will happen. They postponed it for one year. There are a number of investments in ethanol plants that were made and need to be remunerated. I think that they will do it, and there will be a conversion from sugar to ethanol. We have an expectation that this will happen next year faster, because the next year, they will recover sugar production that comes from a very low base. I think that the base for this year will be close to 31 million tons. In the subsequent year, they will recover. With that recovery, part of that sucrose should go to the production of ethanol, which will help sustain kind of a healthier price for sugar.
Excellent. Thank you very much.
Next question from Thiago Duarte with BTG Pactual. Mr. Duarte, go ahead.
Thank you. Good afternoon, Felipe, and to everyone. A quick question, Felipe. I just would like to understand the sales strategy of ethanol in the quarter. You sold quite a lot, if you think about historical proportions for a Q1, comparing to what you should produce this year and thinking about your mix. And I had the impression then, that you didn't carry a lot of inventory from the previous crop year to this season. I just want to understand, was this limited by your physical capacity of storage or any reason why you sold so much ethanol this quarter? Considering what you mentioned regarding a price recovery expectation, which partially happened in the quarter, but which is clearly happening more now, moving towards the second half of the crop year, as you yourself mentioned.
Hello, Thiago. Good afternoon.
You see, we sold about 22% of the total volume that we're going to produce. So although we believe today the prices tend to recover, in the first months of the season, we were kind of in doubt regarding the fuel's price dynamics, whether the prices were going to drop or not. And the position of our commercial department was to be somewhat cautious to not carry too much inventory, because if something happened along the way, if the oil prices dropped a lot for whatever reason, or if the dollar price dropped a lot, and the prices in Brazil dropped a lot, that could hurt our margin a lot. In Q4? Q4 was impacted, and it was frustrating in terms of the prices of ethanol. And our decision was not to wait and see what was going to happen.
We decided to keep the minimum 20, to put 20% of what I have available for sale. It is clear. If I may ask a follow-up question. Considering the average for the industry, for the Center-South, for sugarcane, where do you think you stand today when we look at the average production cost of ethanol close to BRL 500 per cubic meter? Where do you think the industry is in terms of production cost, on average? Well, I think that the industry is 20% above that.
Okay, clear. Thank you.
We would like to conclude the Q&A session, and I would like to turn the floor to Mr. Felipe Vicchiato for his final remarks.
Thank you very much for joining us, and we are certainly available to answer any further questions. And I hope to see you again in the middle of November for our next earnings release presentation.
So São Martinho's conference call is now concluded. Thank you for joining us, and have a very pleasant afternoon.