afternoon. Welcome to Usiminas' Conference Call, where we will discuss the results of Q3 of 2024 . I am Leonardo Karam, Usiminas' Investor Relations General Manager. For those who want to follow along in English, the simultaneous interpretation of the webcast presentation is available on the Usiminas IR website. We also have the interpreter providing simultaneous translation. Please select your preferred audio. All participants are connected on listen-only mode, and questions may be submitted in writing in the Q&A section of Zoom. Participants listening in English can also post questions directly in this section. This conference call is being recorded and simultaneously broadcast on Usiminas' YouTube channel. We remind you that this conference call is exclusively for investors and market analysts. Please identify yourself to ensure your question is addressed. Any questions from journalists should be directed to Usiminas' Media Relations via email imprensa@usiminas.com.
Before proceeding, we would like to clarify that statements made during this conference call regarding the company's business outlook, as well as operational and financial projections regarding growth, are forward-looking statements based on the management expectations for Usiminas' future. These expectations are highly dependent on the performance of the steel industry, the economic conditions in Brazil and the international market situation, and therefore are subject to change. Today, we have CEO Marcelo Chara, the VP of Finance and Investor Relations, Thiago Rodrigues, and VP of Sales, Miguel Homes. To begin, Marcelo will share some initial remarks, followed by Thiago, who will present the results. After, we will address the questions submitted in the Q&A sessions. Now I hand it over to Marcelo. Marcelo, you have the floor. Good morning, and thank you to everyone, and welcome to our conference call.
It's a pleasure to talk to you in an additional earnings result live session. As we've mentioned in the past, we continue focus on the continuous improvement of our operations, the performance, safety, and we also are focused in environment regarding everything that is part of our industrial process. Our transformation agenda continues firm, reducing costs with productivity plans so we can be more competitive. We continue developing, valuing, and training our personnel, our teams, through programs of leadership and training programs. We also continue supporting the communities where we operate, and we will refurbish a public school in Ipatinga through a voluntary program from Usiminas, because we believe that education is one of the main tools for the development of people and society, so during this quarter, a number of results showed this in a clear fashion.
We had a pig iron volume 54% higher than the last quarter. This is Blast Furnace 3, the highest production level since 2010. The total production of gross steel was above 22%, the highest since 2022. We produce now with two blast furnaces than what we had in the past with three blast furnaces, and the gain of productivity up here in the steel results. We had the best EBITDA since Q1 of 2023, and we reverted the losses of the past quarter, mainly due to the continuous progress operational efficiency, reducing our costs. We expect to maintain a dropping trajectory on Q4, capturing gains for the best operational performance. Another great highlight were our steel sales. This increased 10% in sales to the domestic market, with a resilient demand, highlighting a greater demand in storage, domestic appliances.
Here, steel products and a greater pace of production of the automobile sector in this sector, and partial recuperation in sales that are strongly driven by the high level of imports and unfair competition conditions, especially products that come from China. The Brazilian economy maintains its growth during twenty twenty-four, with a GDP projection above 3%, mainly because of the industrial activity, civil construction, family consumption, and investment, with offsets the low activity of agro. For twenty twenty-five, we expect moderated growth, a return of 2%, with an agro rebound and a lower growth of the other sectors with attention due to high interest rate. Now, the Brazilian steel market reflects the trend of the economy, projecting an increase of demand according to World Steel Association.
It expects a 5% increase for 2024, and a projection of 3% for the next year, driven by the strong electro-domestic and automobile and civil construction industry. We expect the agendas help us for deep reindustrialization of Brazil. In the international market, we see a drop in demand of steel for the third consecutive year, with a drop of -0.9%, according to the World Steel Association, due to the decline of the purchasing power of families, monetary crunch, and geopolitical uncertainty, but we expect a growth of 1.2% in 2025, driven by the developing countries, India, Brazil, and South America, and Central America.
In addition, the market is being strongly pressured by the surplus of offering of steel from China, which dampens its internal demand, but it increases its export by over 21% when we compare it to what happened in 2023. This is a period that goes from January to June. 2024 imports increased 15% during the first nine months, vis-à-vis the same period last year, that had already presented the highest import penetration since 2010. In the Q3 of 2024, we have 13% higher than the Q2 of 2024. We see all the regions of the world defending themselves against unfair competition, and it is necessary to carry out adjustments in the quota systems implemented in June this year in Brazil.
Once imports continue growing, we also continue supporting the authorities in the anti-dumping investigations that want to demonstrate the harmful effects affecting the Brazilian industry with industrial goods. The national industry and employment, qualified employment, of our value chain are affected and are at risk because of this. The teams in Usiminas are focused in optimizing the operation and reducing costs to face this challenging scenario of price reduction. We reduced 10% our cash cost, and we will continue strictly controlling cash and cost. We had an increase of 14% in sales volume for the best operational yield or performance, but the drop of iron ore indexes affected strongly our margin. In September, we ended the seventh issuance of debenture funding, BRL 1.8 billion. This was the highest volume with the best rates conducted by the company, demonstrating how investors trust Usiminas.
The resources of this issuance were used to the buyback of part of the bonds that mature in 2026, and with this, we extended our debt profile. In addition, we closed the quarter with the reduction of net debt and financial leverage. Finally, I would like to highlight the acknowledgment of our team for their engagement and the commitment together with the customers. Like, for instance, the award of Automotive Business of 2024 in category suppliers. This is due to a joint effort of servicing our customer, developing solutions focused on operational excellence, innovation, and sustainability. Thank you very much, and now I hand it over to Thiago, our CFO. Thank you very much.
Good afternoon to everyone. This is a brief presentation of the results of Q3 before our Q&A session. As Marcelo mentioned, the highlights of the quarter were high sales volume in mining and steel, and the cost drop in steel. That was the main factor that allowed us to increase margins and EBITDA. There was a cash generation of over BRL 3 million, and the leverage index improved. We had a successful debenture issuance. We can go straight to the next slide with consolidated results.
Here, we can see that during this quarter, this was the best quarter, and there was a significant growth in the net revenue that totaled BRL 6.8 billion, 7% above last quarter, because of high level of sales that offset a lower margin in iron ore. The adjusted EBITDA was BRL 426 million, with greater contribution to our results. Here, we increased our margin to 6%.
Now, with this recovery, operational results and improvement in the financial results, we reverted the losses of the last quarter, and we had profit of BRL 185 million during the period. Now, when we see our steel unit, now following, you know, according to the expectation, we increased significantly our sales volume that ended 1,126,000 tons because of the growth of 10% of the domestic market, driven by good moment of family consumption industry, and this was the highest sales volume in the domestic market since 2021. This reflected on the net revenue that went up 8%. This was BRL 6.2 billion, the highest level since 2023. Now, the net revenue per ton was stable. This is because of the transference of price in the industry.
Now, the adjusted EBITDA showed a significant improvement, totaling BRL 378 million, right? The highest since the Blast Furnace 3 overhaul. Now, the main factor that improved all of this was the reduction of our CPV by 3%, with gains of productivity, efficiency, with the stabilization of the operations after the overhaul of our blast furnace. You can see more details regarding the EBITDA assessment. The main factors, as we mentioned, are in the CPV and the COGS, and here it's divided in two parts. The first part would be the effect of exchange rate and raw material that contributed with BRL 63 million. And I would like to talk about the negative effect of the devaluation that was BRL 200 million.
Now, the second part, and was even more important, would be gains due to efficiency that are within the BRL 124 million of consumptions. Here, we can see the benefits of the stabilization of the operations of Ipatinga, with benefits, fixed costs, better fuel rate, dilution of fixed costs, among other points. We also gained 19 million in other income and expenses, and on a delta of BRL 84 million due to non-recurring effects, and 51 are negative effects of the past quarter that were not recurring during this quarter, in a positive effect of BRL 28 million in recovered taxes. During the next quarter, we want to capture more costs, more expense costs. Now, following for the mining unit. We had an increase in sales volume by 14%, the best operational performance of our operation, totaling 2.3 million tons.
Higher volumes, together with other initiatives to control cost drop, you know, it contributed with 11%. This cost control is focus of our management after seeing volatile prices in iron ore. Ore's net revenue was seven hundred and sixty-seven million BRL. The best and the highest market discounts due to quality, this drop in net revenue per ton generated the EBITDA that ended the quarter at 44 million BRL. Now, our financial indicators. Here, we can observe that during Q3, we had an operational cash generation of 580 million BRL due to better results, and also because of a drop of working capital of 147 million BRL. CapEx was 202 million BRL, and continues slower than the what we had in budget.
We are being very strict in negotiations, looking for productivity gains and lowering in costs, and this is why the disbursements are translated to the future. This is like the repair of the coke plant and the PCI project that was planned for the Q1 of this year, and we will start mobilizing the teams now. This is why we reviewed our CapEx guidance to BRL 1.1 billion this year, but we still don't have the budget for 2025. We have an expectation that the CapEx of 2025 will not be different from what we had this year. That was BRL 1.7 billion. And with this, we generated a Free Cash Flow of BRL 360 million. This reflects on our net debt and our Leverage Index that we will see on our next slide.
Therefore, we ended the period with BRL 5.9 billion in cash and with an improvement in results. We reduced our leverage level from 0.8 of last quarter to 0.38 during this quarter, and as mentioned, on the right, we had the profile of the debt after issuing the debentures, and it was not only the highest volume, but one of the best spread captured by the company. And we bought back part of the bonds, reducing the volume that was expected for 2026, extending the debt profile. Now, this was a quick presentation, so now we can go to our Q&A session. Leo, you have the floor.
Thank you very much, Thiago. W e will start with our Q&A sessions. The first question would be for Miguel. This is about price, as Caio Ribeiro, from Bank of America, Rafael Barcellos from Bradesco, everybody wants to know more about prices. My question is: What are the prospects of steel prices for the upcoming month? Could you tell us how the revenue per ton is compared to the average of the quarter, and what is the adjustment expected for industrial players? I believe it would better to break out these questions, so please, let's start with this first question.
Thank you, Leo, and thank you, everybody, for the questions regarding price prospects. We transferred the price increases during Q3, both in distribution and the industrial contracts that were updated throughout the quarter. So in this sense, we've observed an average price in the domestic market, impacted by the worst sales mix.
But all we hear, we have adjustments in distribution and industry. The price of September, that regarding the net revenue for next quarter, was close to 1% above the average price of the quarter. Of course, following all the adjustments throughout the quarters that were mentioned. Now, regarding industrial customers, as we also have informed, the industrial sector has adjustments depending on the contract, on a quarterly or a semestral basis, and they follow the trend of the prices transferred to the distribution. So during Q4, we can expect a similar adjustment to that was carried, performed in the distribution sector.
Thank you, Miguel. Igor wants to know what is the likelihood of transferring this to the customer portfolio. He says that the industrial sector is reluctant because of the penetration of import products. Does it make sense to expect for a more seasonal moment? And Rafael wants to know about the price of flat steels. Now, regarding the industrial contracts, as I mentioned before, and the price adjustments were transferred, the whole in each contract that was updated throughout that quarter and throughout the month of October. Now, regarding price dynamic, I can't remember what the other question was. Regarding distribution, what can we expect for the upcoming quarter?
T he definition of prices or our price policies or adjustments or increases that were defined have been totally transferred. So we could expect, when we talk from per segment, stability with the current prices that are being practiced during October.
Now, regarding the price dynamic of flat steel, we continue monitoring all the variables that can impact our price equation, that on one side has all the raw material, the impact of our cost, and on the other side, the international market dynamic, as Marcelo stated. Although it is pressured by the surplus of Chinese steel, it is true that we have trade defense mechanisms adopted by regions. Now, China is the main target of trade defenses. Two hundred and twenty-four measures are being adopted according to the latest data that we saw from Aço Brasil. So we continue monitoring. We will update you regarding our price policies, regarding the evolution of these variables in the upcoming months.
Thank you, Miguel. Our next question for Thiago. Also, a number of people want to know about CapEx. Caio Ribeiro from Bank of America, Gabriel Simões, Goldman Sachs, Igor Guedes, Genial, Daniel Sasson, Ricardo Monegaglia, Banco Safra, Barcellos from Bradesco, and Guilherme Nippes from XP.
In a nutshell, should we assume that the CapEx was cut now and it's postponed for twenty twenty-five? Which were the main canceled investment, and why did you cancel or delay this investment? How much CapEx did you not use, and if there is a change in the coke machine investment, and what CapEx do you expect for twenty twenty-five? Just one thing, Thiago, Igor wants to know what was the filter to select these projects. So, Thiago, you have the floor.
I'm going to try to answer everything. And then I will give the floor to Marcelo. Number one, it's important to clarify that we did not cut our CapEx. No projects were canceled or on purpose were postponed. So yes, we do have a number of situations. I'm going to focus on the main projects that everybody's aware of. We had a budget this year, the beginning of the PCI project, the injection of dust, coal for pulverized, coal for the blast furnace, and here we expected to start this during the first semester.
We are just initiating the mobilization for the assembly. This is because , it took us longer to negotiate the assembly contract. As I mentioned, we are being very critical, seeing details, because we want more productivity, and we want to drop our costs in addition to CapEx, so it took us longer to sign a contract.
This is why we had the delay of the beginning of the project. Now, Coke Battery 3. Now that we started, it continues fully in development, fully in operation. We had a slower execution in the beginning of the project because of the natural difficulties that you face when you repair a machine like a Coke Battery still in operation. We had to use part of the CapEx of this year's budget for next year, and in this budget, we saw a CapEx for battery four. We still have not decided what we're going to do with this coke plant. This is another value that we have postponed for the future, so we haven't canceled anything. There was no specific filter to select projects to be postponed. This is part of the natural process when you execute a CapEx.
Once again, this doesn't mean, in our view, that there will be an increase of CapEx next year. The expectation is to maintain this CapEx. Also, so to have the same CapEx as this year. During last year, in July, and as we've mentioned in a number of calls, we conducted a deep process of restructuring and transformation in our industrial operations. We started with the blow-in. In the beginning of the operation, we stabilized Blast Furnace 3. This was an investment of almost three billion BRL, and the CapEx process is part of this deep review. Why am I saying this? Because we have achieved a significant efficiency in the specification, and also the correct selections of what is executed and the follow-up of the investment executions with great gains of efficiency.
The hot repair postponement, why did we postpone it? This is because we had a deep discussion of technical specifications with the suppliers, because in Usiminas, we have an excellent team that works with assembly, that are top-notch, that allow us to see the different suppliers, and we were able to achieve great savings.
And as Thiago just mentioned, as there is an execution a bit different from what was planned initially for the beginning of this year, and this has allowed us to be more efficient in the execution, more predictable, and much more effective when it comes to achieving our targets, and we have clear objectives in our investments.
They are connected to environmental performance, efficiency, and cost improvement, and we want to continue aligned with a project that is a new gas pipeline that will allow us to achieve energy efficiency and other smaller investments that are focused on improving the industrial performance, and mainly the costs, curtailing costs as a result.
Thank you, Marcelo. Our next question is for Thiago. Thiago, about the Compactos project and CapEx. Caio Ribeiro wants to know if there is any decision regarding MUSA's expansion.
No update. We continue with, as in the last quarter, we continue developing the project in MUSA, and we follow up the environmental licensing process that is the right pathway for a decision-making process. We expect a decision after the environmental licensing that probably will happen at the end of twenty twenty-five. Thiago, now our next questions are regarding costs. A lot of people want to know about costs, and I will try to break them out in blocks. First one would be from Gabriel Simões, Goldman Sachs. He said, "We've seen a drop of cost during this quarter, and you said that you expect a new reduction on Q4. Would it be interesting to tell us how much change is connected to the prices of your industrial inputs, and how much is connected to the operational improvement?"
Okay. So, now, regarding the next quarter, it's always difficult to say what the effects will be, because there are a number of variables that impact the COGS. So I'm not going to dare to tell you what is the variation per price or per efficiency. Our expectation and what we observe is a COGS drop, more or less, at a level similar to what we saw from the second to the Q3. It's also going to depend on other factors that we cannot control, like exchange rate. That is the best answer that I can give you. And strengthening what Thiago just stated, we are working with a long-term project that goes in stage, and we have quick wins. We have mid and long-term gains.
What we feel is that we are consolidating the industrial operation with comparative indicators, and we have the competitiveness programs with 100 actions that directly impact the cost performance. This program is up and running, integrated with all the teams and all the company's areas, with the systemic operation in order to consolidate the industrial performance and competitiveness. It is something that we control, and we have to be focused on them.
Now, Thiago already mentioned this. Got Tatyana Cagnin from J.P. Morgan. T hey want, should we expect gains of efficiency similar? If we expect efficiency improvement for 2025, this would be it. Okay, now, regarding 2025, once again, it is very difficult to say what the expectation is.
So the level of cost reduction from Q2 to Q3, and we expect to see from Q3 to Q4, these are levels that are higher because we are stabilizing our operation with the operation of Blast Furnace 3. After that, we will see continuous improvement. We see, and we believe that we will improve efficiency gains with Blast Furnace 3, but the effect here would be in the long term. So this is an effect that is diluted through time. And I would also, as I already mentioned, our competitiveness plan that has significant, it has significant initiatives aiming at the mid and long run. My answer is, yes, we will continue growing.
We had quick wins during the first year, and we will continue capitalizing on this, but we do have a robust program of efficiency improvement and competitiveness improvement that will incorporate actions in the mid-run. Therefore, our expectation is to continue improving our competitiveness for next year. We have important initiatives to conduct this, so we feel reassured that we will gain efficiency, and we are already perceiving this.
Now, still about costs, Ricardo Monegaglia wants to know: If there is a currency appreciation, can we see COGS per ton higher than the quarter? So we will have a drop throughout the quarters, even if we're dealing with the same exchange rate. Did you see the exchange rate effect between Q2 and Q3?
You know the magnitude and the impact. I f we have an exchange rate at the current level, let's see, it's BRL 5.60, BRL 5.70. We still see a COGS dropping during Q4. At the current level, yes, we believe in cost reductions. Let's see. Let's see what is going to happen. The exchange, we cannot control the exchange rate, but we can control the rest. We are working, we are developing our management dynamic to be robust before any exchange rate. I say this because, of course, the things that we cannot control, like exchange rate, impact the entire economy. Now, the inputs that we buy in dollars and that Brazil imports, clearly they generate an inflation effect, inflation or deflation, if it appreciates or depreciates. But our focus is to be competitive with the whatever exchange rate we have. We are prepared.
Our management dynamic is to focus on what we control so that we are more efficient, more competitive, and this is what we trust. We are confident about this.
Our next question, Marcelo, would be about slabs. Igor Guedes wants to know, What can you do in the short run to mitigate the impact of the partial dependency that you have in buying slabs from third parties?
Clearly, there are two drivers that are important. In our sites, where we use mainly Cubatão, we have a program of industrial efficiency, extremely efficient. The team is developing an exceptional plan to improve the efficiency. Yes, we have benchmarking information, and here we can verify that our Cubatão hot roller machine has exceptional competitive levels when we compare it to other industrial performances.
What is important is to improve our industrial operation in Ipatinga, so we can balance Ipatinga's supply, and we can use some specific niches. When we increase Ipatinga's production, we can transfer part of the slabs to the Ipatinga plant. The secret here is to be extremely competitive in our industrial operations, wherever we are able to capitalize this competitiveness with a level of efficiency that offsets this deficiency or this difference in the net steel balance. What is important here is to highlight the good relationship that we have with our slab suppliers in Cubatão, and we see no risks in the mid and the long run.
So in the short and mid-run, we have regular supply, both from local suppliers and international suppliers, and we obtained excellent service level through our Cubatão plant.
Our next question for you, Miguel, I'm going to break it out. These are about exports, but Igor Guedes from Genial wants to know, for Q4, you mentioned a slight drop in the sales to the domestic market, partially offset by greater export sales. In your view, this greater export sale, is this opportunistic due to the exchange rate?
No, it's not connected to drastic changes or opportunistic opportunity. The Q4 always presents seasonality in the different sectors. This could be automobile, distribution, industry. And our opportunities for exports, we analyze, and we're always paying attention to the export opportunities during any quarter.
W e may see throughout time, better or worse opportunities in terms of profit. And during Q4, we are being able to achieve a good level of export that can offset the seasonality of the domestic market, of course, focused on our target markets. That would be Mercosul and the North American market.
Thank you, Miguel. Now, still about export, Argentina. Now, the Argentine government is announcing measures to facilitate import. Due to your proximity with the Argentine market, could this facilitate the situation? Is there any perspective to export a mix with a higher added value, very similar for the NK pipeline?
Igor, as a matter of fact, we participated regularly in the Argentine market, in the automobile industry that maintains the regularity. And on the other side, the oil and gas sector.
Now, especially in the oil and gas industry, we see a greater level of activity, which can generate greater opportunities of business in the short and mid-run. We are negotiating a number of projects that are being publicly announced in Argentina, and we expect to receive good news in the upcoming quarters about these projects.
Thank you, Miguel. Thiago, our next question about mining from Igor Guedes, Genial. He says, regarding mining, the volume of shipping was higher than expected, above the quarter of the quarter. Q4 has improvements with treatment units disconnected, with increase of thirteen percent. Do you see a sequential improvement because of the normal seasonality effects or what happened?
What today limits the production in Musa is the ITM that doesn't operate because the fronts that feed this ITM aren't in operation.
There is a limitation of the other treatment units to produce the iron ore volume. It is not the organization that is going to produce the capacity. What we need are the mining fronts that will feed the ITM that is disconnected. This was a one-off increase. To go back to the past level, we have to continue with the extraction. As Thiago mentioned, we carried out a deep cost reduction plan. When we rebalance cost, we handle the stocks that we have in different sites, and this allowed us to improve our performance, and in addition to this, now we are embarking in the rainy season, where seasonally there is a drop because of the complications that result from the rains, but yes, we are focusing on all the processes.
The licenses are already approved, so that during 2025, especially during the second semester, the East ITM will be activated. The next question for Thiago about the mining unit. Ricardo Monegaglia from Safra. So what is the trajectory of the mining breakeven? What are readjustment measures in the operation? What if the iron ore price goes to $90 per ton or lower levels, what will happen here? Ricardo, we generally do not disclose the iron ore breakeven, you know about this, and we always state that there is flexibility regarding the breakeven within the Musa operation. Different operations have different breakevens, and we can reorganize our operation in order to adapt it to the current price.
As mentioned, a number of initiatives were adopted in order to curtail the cost during the period of a volatile price in iron ore, and the main initiatives are moving material among different plants and gain of productivity and operational performance of the ITMs. I don't know if Marcelo would like to say something.
Thiago, one more regarding capital structure. Edgard de Souza Itaú wants to know the following: If you could give us details about what operational results do you expect for twenty twenty-five with controlled CapEx and better carryover of costs? Does the current leverage level make sense for the company?
Edgar, currently, we don't expect any significant change regarding our capital structure. We're initiating our budget process for next year, and we will have a clearer view regarding results, cash generation, and capital structure of the company.
Currently, we have nothing to comment regarding any type of changes. Marcelo, another question now regarding quotas. Guilherme Nippes, XP, if you could give us details regarding the import tariff impact, if you expect more measures from the government. I believe that we can start with this one. C hina drops the steel domestic consumption, and practically, they don't reduce the productive level. This is the surplus that they don't consume goes to the export market, and they're invading all the markets. In Brazil, China increased its exports 21% vis-à-vis 2023. All the regions have adopted protection measures against China, and this is known. In the U.S., there is a harsh quota, and in addition, this quota has 25% tariffs, and other regions are doing this, like Europe, Great Britain, all the markets have responded.
Brazil gave an excellent response. The government responded excellently, and they placed a tariff and a quota based on an average consumption of 2020, 2021, 2022, of 30% and 25%. As of-- This started in June, and the measures aren't effective because the level of import is 15% above last year, out of which, we have excellent dialogue with the government. The industry. We have to be intelligent in the industry. We have to work in team and to see a common good and to defend the jobs of Brazilian. This is an invasion when I say that import penetration above 20%, there is a Usiminas right beside us, but with a Chinese flag. So we are giving jobs to the Chinese worker, and our Brazilian workers are losing their jobs. This is defense.
This is a matter of defense. This is what the other economies are doing, trying to defend their industries. So our expectation is to convey this to the authorities, to work in team with the value chains, because what can be a business for very few in the import process and the sales of this product can be a great evil for the entire society when we see it as a whole. And we do trust on the technical capacities of the authorities that are helping us to identify cases of dumping, because this is of public knowledge. There are cases that are registered, and we trust the technical capacity, because the cost indicators, over 60% of the steel industry are connected to the cost of carbon commodities. You know, Chinese industry are exporting with a loss.
All this information has been given to the authorities. We trust their technical capacity because they have excellent teams assessing this entire issue so that we're able to establish barriers, defenses to this invasion. In a nutshell, we trust that we will be able to change the quota and the tariffs, because the-- what we've done have not offered any results, and we hope to have concrete measurement or defense measures to control this anti-dumping. So I, Rafael Barcellos from Bradesco
Just one other thing. It's the... This is not only a problem of unfair competition.
When you see the deficit in our trade, in the industrial trade balance of Brazil, practically, it quadrupled in the last ten years. We are at a deficit level of manufactured products, which is deep. This is a severe problem. There are a number of sectors that have been affected: machines, the automobile industry, a lot of durable goods and many products, not only that use steel, but everything regarding industrial manufacturing. This, this is affecting the Brazilian jobs. This is very sensitive, and together with all the value chains, we have to articulate, working as a team, being rational, with a deep view, because we have to defend all the country's value chain without losing competitiveness. We want to, we want to level the playing field because it's totally unfair when we think about these products.
This is why it is important to pay attention and to provide an institutional executive response to this situation. Just one thing regarding the dumping process. Indeed, there are two open processes, one regarding cold rolled coil and the other one regarding metallic sheets. We believe that there is some technical support and that the investigations will base themselves on technical facts. These are tools issued by the WTO. We expect this to be adopted. As soon as you confirm unfair competition, what impact do we expect if we apply anti-dumping measure to these imports that present unfair competition? We expect a drop of imports and greater business opportunities for local industries.