This conference call is being recorded and broadcast simultaneously on the Usiminas YouTube channel. We would like to remind you that this conference call is exclusively for investors and market analysts. For better dynamics, we would ask you to limit to two questions per participant. We also ask you to make any questions by the journalists at media at 3134998918, or using the email press@usiminas.com. Before proceeding, we would like to clarify that any forward-looking statements that may be made during this conference call regarding the prospects of the company's business, as well as projections, operational and financial goals related to its potential growth, institute forecasts based on management expectations regarding the future of Usiminas. These expectations are highly dependent on the performance of the steel sector, the country's economic situation, and the situation on international markets. They are subject to change.
With us today is the executive management of Usiminas. Our CEO, Sérgio Leite, the Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations, Alberto Ono, Industrial Vice President, Américo Ferreira, Vice President of Corporate Planning, Yoshiaki Shimada, Vice President of Technology and Quality, Kohei Kimura, Commercial Vice President, Miguel Homes, Chief Executive Officer of Mineração Usiminas, Carlos Rezzonico , Executive Director of Soluções Usiminas, Ascânio Merrighi , Superintendent Director of Usiminas Mecânica, Fernando Mazzoni, Director of Legal, Bruno Paulino, and the Controllership Director, Júlio Arroyo. At first, Mr. Sérgio Leite will make some initial considerations, then Alberto Ono will present the results. Afterwards, the question asked in the Q&A session will be answered. I give the floor to Sérgio. You may proceed.
Thank you, Leonardo. With your permission, and in order to make the audio better, I am going to remove my mask.
For us at Usiminas, it is a very important moment for us to be here with you together. We would like to thank you for attending this results live results call. It is a live that represents a very important moment for us at Usiminas. We are reporting to the market, to each of you, reporting to the society, disclosing robust results, the best of the company in the century. The results were built by Usiminas' team on an everyday basis in the past five years. Exactly five years ago, each of you can remember that we were in a very delicate situation at the company. But thanks to Usiminas' teamwork, the work of everyone, we made headway quarter after quarter, year after year. Today, we can present to the market solid results, robust results.
A company which is prepared for the future, a company that has worked and faced each of the challenges that were put in front of us. Our quarterly EBITDA, which will be provided in detail by Alberto, is an extremely important result. Our cash generation, our net income, and today we can present a cash of over BRL 6 billion that would allow us to settle all the debt and about BRL 200 million would remain in our cash. This is a fruit of a lot of effort, a lot of work, a lot of dedication. At this moment, we are working hard in order to build the present of the company and the future of the company. As I said before, in the first live that we had this year, when we presented the results of 2020.
We continued working, and we delved into the long-term planning of the company. The 10-year planning that we refer to as Vision 2030. We have been working actively on this project, which is a very important project for the future of the company. We have been having lots of discussions. Numberless projects have been studied and analyzed. As a background, we have an essential view of this path towards 2030. All the issues related to sustainability, climate issues, these are all very important issues to be discussed in each of the discussions that we are going to make, each decision we are going to make. We founded a company that the sustainability area is connected to the board of the company, and this is an area that has been working very hard involving everyone in all of our five companies.
In the beginning of the year, in order to exercise the activities for the year, we defined six goals, and we are going to present all of them to you. We have the ESG commitments with the six goals, and these are all very important to our company, and we are going to discuss a project that we have developed that has a very important meaning to all of us. Because above all, we are talking about people. This is related to inclusion and diversity project. We have just disclosed to the market the completion of our inventory of Greenhouse Gas Inventory that we prepared and disclosed to the market just yesterday. When we compare to the World Steel Association related to 2019, our results is related to 2020. Our position is, in terms of GHG, with companies with the best results.
This is very important for all of us because this is a challenge and an encouragement for us to continue working on each of the activities that we have. We always keep in mind the concern and the commitment with the climate change, with the greenhouse gas effects. We have been operating different areas. The company is highly involved, highly engaged. Without a doubt, we are prepared to face all the challenges the pandemic represented to all the companies and all society. In my opinion, it's the biggest challenge the humankind has ever faced. But us, by means of an efficient, quick management, we have been managing to go through it with the least impact on people's lives. We have been working effectively to preserve life, to preserve health and safety, and preserving the physical, mental, emotional integrity of everyone.
We made important decisions in the last eight months in relation to our administrative expenses. We not only made progress in the operational area, but also in the administrative aspect, and we are searching for efficiency at the lowest cost with our ESG commitment. Notably in the S, where Usiminas has been a reference since the company was first constructed back in the 1950, when Usiminas was built. The company is 65 years old and will complete 59 years of operation. At the end of the fifties, we started building a city as well, and it's one of the 154 cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants. We informed that we demobilized the oldest headquarters, the former headquarters, and we brought to the cash BRL 130 million.
In July, we demobilized, decommissioned our central office in Ipatinga, which was a regional unit which was not being utilized, and we brought into our cash BRL 42 million. What is more important even, these two assets. The one in Belo Horizonte City is becoming a beautiful hospital, which will be one of the largest hospitals in the city. Ipatinga, where we had our central office, will transform into a college inside a university. So it is another step towards the ESG commitment. From this, we reduce our administrative costs. To put you in perspective, in relation to the headquarters that we inaugurated officially last week on the 19th. We have all the facility installed, completed. We are finishing the renovation of the other floors. The previous former, we had six floors with 3,400 sq.m. with available room per floor.
Here we have seven floors and putting together, they add to 3,400 sq.m of the useful area. The same size that we had for one floor in the former headquarters. We have to pay rent, but it was a great move. So we are making important steps. The team is motivated and engaged, happy. As we do in every call, at 8:00 A.M. we disclose the information to the market, and then we hold a meeting when we present the results. So first, before opening this call, we present all the information to our employees. We have a lot of energy. We feel a lot of energy because we have a moment of discussion, and the feedback has been very positive. So we are very happy to be here with you today, disclosing robust results to the market and assuming commitment.
A company which is prepared for the future with a commitment to build more and with more dedication, the present and the future of Usiminas. Allow me, in my final remarks, to congratulate all Usiminas team on the results that we are presenting today to the market. We are presenting all this information to analysts, to the society, the result of our team. I turn the call to Mr. Alberto Ono for him to present the quarterly results.
Good morning, everyone. I am going to remove my mask for better audio quality. I am going to ask you to go to the presentation. Let us start from the second slide, please. Here we can see the main figures related to sales and financial results. First topic is the steel unit sales, a global increase of 5% in relation to the previous quarter, reaching 1,315,000 tonnes.
This is a number we have not seen since 2015. As for domestic market, we reached a growth of 7%. It is a number that we have not reached since 2014. So we can see this great recovery in this quarter. In terms of iron ore sales, we can see a slight increase surpassing 2 million tonnes for this quarter in comparison to the previous quarter. We would like to point out that as we had published in our guidance, we expect to reach 9 million tonnes for the year, and that means that for the second half of the year, we expect the increase in the production of iron ore. As to EBITDA, there has been an expressive increase of nearly 110%, reaching BRL 5.066 billion. Here, I am going to talk a little bit more during the presentation.
We have some non-recurring events, but it is the highest quarterly EBITDA in the history of the company. As for our net profit, we have seen a significant growth reaching BRL 4.5 billion. Again, some non-recurring effects, the main of which is described here. We have the tax credit, PIS/COFINS recovery after the legal decision, and we have the consolidated number of BRL 2 billion. In addition to that, we have a positive FX variation of BRL 483 million. Moving on to the next slide. This is the consolidated EBITDA results. Out of the BRL 5 billion that we posted for the quarter, we had a non-recurring effect, an EBITDA effect of the tax credit of BRL 1.5 billion. As I mentioned, the PIS and the COFINS tax, as related to recurring EBITDA, is BRL 3.5 billion.
Anyway, it is a quarterly record, an increase of 46% in relation to the first quarter this year. This is a very, very strong result. On next slide, talking about the steel unit, we can see that the quarterly result has been record BRL 3.4 billion, out of which BRL 1.4 billion is related to the non-recurring effects of the tax credits of PIS and COFINS. Most of the biggest effect of the credit is related to the steel unit. In terms of operating results, it is BRL 2 billion. An increase in relation to the first quarter. A very strong and also a record. Next slide five. Mining unit, Mineração Usiminas. We reported a quarterly record. For this unit, we do not have the tax effects, and we reached BRL 1.5 billion, an increase of 38% in relation to the previous quarter.
This was driven especially by higher volume, but it was highly impacted by the prices that we have observed along the second half of the year, second quarter. Steel transformation, Soluções Usiminas, has also posted a quarterly record. We have a relevant effect of tax credit, but even discounting this effect, BRL 310 million is the highest EBITDA ever recorded in operational terms. It is an expressive increase in relation to the first quarter. If we look at the recurring part of nearly 13%, which is a very significant margin for the segment. Related to financial indicators, working capital, there has been a very significant growth of BRL 2 billion, and out of which BRL 1.4 billion is related to an effect of the tax effect. We have tax recoverable with an increase of nearly BRL 1.8 billion.
When we look at PIS and COFINS tax, we can see that the payment on this result is BRL 468 million. This has to be collected. What we have in relation to the increase quarter-over-quarter is related to the inventory variation, and this is mostly related to financial results. The inventories relate to slabs, iron ore, raw material in general. This is the cause of this effect in particular. When we look at the steel volumes, we can see the inventory steel levels at the steel unit, and we can see the inventory effect shown in the working capital is related to prices because the volumes are very stable. The inventory turnover is 52 days, so it is below the historical levels that we have observed in terms of 70 days.
On the next slide, as Sérgio has mentioned before, we surpassed BRL 6 billion of consolidated cash for this quarter. With the FX variation that we had in relation to the debt that reduced our gross debt to BRL 5.8 billion. The net cash is BRL 220 million. This is the net cash in relation to our debt. The leverage index is close to zero. Next. Talking about investments and CapEx, we increased the pace of investments for the quarter, reaching BRL 335 million. As we provided in our guidance to maintain BRL 1.5 billion for 2021. We expect an acceleration in our CapEx, in our investments for the next quarter. Moving on to the last slide of the presentation, in relation to our ESG goals.
The point that was pointed out by Sérgio is that most of the goals are in line with what we were expecting, except for the migration to filtering that is related to mining that was planned to start operating during the second quarter of this year. Unfortunately, we had some delays in the works. Probably this project will start operating still in 2021, but our initial target was the second quarter. It will have no impact on the operation, but unfortunately, it was a point which was missed according to what we expected. This is the end of the presentation, and we can take your questions now. Thank you.
Thank you, Alberto. Let's start. The first question is about the capital allocation. We have three questions related to this topic. Angelo, Rafael, Marcelo, and then Caio, an individual, are asking the use of capital.
The company de-leveraged, so it's a position of net cash. Investors are closely watching the allocation of capital of the company. What are the plans for Usiminas? Are we going to see high dividends, or will the CapEx increase in the mining unit? In the same breath, we have a question related to interim dividend. Can we expect anything related to M&A operation? Alberto, please.
Thank you for the questions, Rodolfo, Rafael, and Alexandre. First of all, our focus remains in the capital discipline, and especially in the financing of our CapEx program with cash generation. This year we have BRL 1.5 billion for CapEx. Something that has been engaged for the years to come.
We'd like to remind you that we have the Blast Furnace 3 is going to be remodeled, so we have CapEx already allocated for this, and the stoppage is going to occur in 2023. We have a CapEx that has already been engaged, earmarked for the future, and it's a lot of CapEx. The focus is on generations. We are going to finance the CapEx, which has already been earmarked. We also have investments considering the more favorable scenario. We are studying other options of investment. But we haven't defined anything, we haven't approved anything yet. But notably, we will start study again our galvanization lines. The three galvanization lines today are operating at full speed, so it makes sense to consider increasing the capacity in these areas. This is something just natural. That's why we're considering this.
We started studying this again, but we still haven't defined what kind of investment, what will be the schedules and the deadlines and when we are going to implement all this. We are studying this very deeply now. In relation to dividends, this is a point for discussion at our board. We have also to consider that the tax, the taxation of dividends, is something which is being discussed by our authorities. We are doing a close follow-up on this. At this time, we intend to continue following the current payout of 25%. We are closely monitoring the tax issues, and we have been discussing with our board in relation to whether or not we are going to make any action, which is different from what we have been doing. We plan to maintain the payout of 25% as we have done so far.
Thank you, Alberto. Our next question, I'm going to break down our questions because we have many of those. People are interested in prices. This is to Miguel Homes, Rodolfo de Angele with JP Morgan, Daniel Sasson with Itaú, Marcelo, Barcellos with Santander, Thiago with Bradesco, and Carlos. The first part is related to the business environment in the domestic market. What's this environment like? Are we likely to expect some increases? What's the expectation of carryover of previous increases affecting the future? There are more questions related to the carryover, and they're asking us to make comparisons with last month to understand this carryover.
This will be the first question. Rafael, Daniel, Thiago, good morning. Answering the first question in relation to the price environment in the domestic market.
Today, we could define the environment as stable, considering that the international market has presented some volatility with some variables that affect the local prices. When we analyze what happened in the second quarter and what's the current situation. In the beginning of the second quarter, we observed an increase in the international price, which was driven by the strong high costs and the freight costs. Likewise, there was an important increase in the FX variation. Then in the second part of the quarter, there was a drop in international prices in China and Russia that was driven from expectations of action to be implemented by the Chinese and Russian governments.
We heard this week in relation to those two expectations of measures that will be defined by the Chinese and the Russian government in relation to elimination of the tax debate of the China products, especially cold coil, and the rebate for hot coil had been eliminated in May. When the Russian government announced this, of a tax of import of all steel products as of August at about 15%, with the high volatility that we have been observing along the second quarter of the variables at the international market. We can see that we have reached a stability in this market. With this news, we would expect an increase in the international prices driven by the offer of the exports. But imports in Brazil, about 38% of the imports in Brazil are related to China and Russia. The offers will be impacted by all this.
Of course, we are going to keep this evolution in control. We are going to monitor them, and we are going to have as an objective the parity of 15%, because this is what we observe in the market. In relation to the carryover, we cannot inform you what would be the actual fact. June prices, the average price was 4.4% variation, had this variation in relation to the average cost, and this will impact the carryover. You know that the distribution price has adjustments in shorter periods. We have also monthly contracts, bi-monthly contracts, and quarterly contracts, and they will follow the evolution of the distribution prices. All the adjustments that happened along the second quarter and also in the third quarter will impact the average prices. In relation to the premium, which was the last question, it is 5%, 10%, 10%-15%.
I would say that the premium of balance is at about 15%, but considering all the variables that play an important part on the parity.
Thank you, Miguel. With this, we close the questions. I think we covered all the questions that were asked. Carlos asked if we were suffering some pressure on the market, but you mentioned that we are having some stability at the prices. Thiago asked about the balance price and 5%-10% or 10%-15%. What would be 15%? You said that 10%-15% would be sustainable. Would you like to add anything, Miguel?
Only to add something in relation to the pressure in the domestic market. Today, we have a scenario of stability. Of course, we have been observing some high imports. Of course, we have to expect this movement. Today, with the recent news that we heard last week, we could expect a strong reduction in imports from now on because of the restriction of the offers and the actions that were announced by the Chinese and Russian government. As I said, they account for 88% of the total exports. With the cold coil and other types of products.
Thank you, Miguel. Now we have two questions related to costs that were directed to Alberto. Alberto, Daniel Sasson with Itaú, is asking about the cost pressure that we can expect in terms of cost high of raw materials. Bruno Toledo, as an individual, asking what are the expectations of cost evolution for the fourth quarter. In other words, up to the end of the year. Yes, Alberto, you have the floor.
Daniel and Bruno, right? In relation to costs, what we can say about it is the following. We have an expressive increase cost pressure along the second quarter. Okay? This pressure, especially from coal and also slabs and iron ore, this increase occurred in the first months of the second quarter, but we have seen some stabilization at the end of the period.
What we can say, I cannot talk so much about the third or the fourth quarter, but in relation to the first and the second quarter, we can say that we have reached the stability level. As Miguel mentioned, international prices are reaching a level of stability as well. We suppose that we are already in a situation of somewhat balanced, both for steel and also purchased slabs. This is the scenario.
Thank you, Alberto. Our next question comes from Daniel Sasson with Itaú. He wants to know about the working capital, Alberto. He said the working capital keeps moving up, especially inventories, even not considering the recognition of the tax credit. What is the perspectives in this line up to the end of the year?
Daniel, the point here is the following.
Considering the operational level as we have shown to you, when we talk about the inventories of steel, I would say that the physical aspect will be in line with the guidance that we provided you. The sales for the third quarter, 1.2 million tons, 1.3 million tons. We are likely to believe that we are going to keep these levels in physical terms at stable levels, as we have shown from the first to the second quarters. As to the financial aspect, I would say that it will depend on how the price will evolve. As I said, at the end of the second quarter, we had observed some level of stability in the cost components, especially raw materials. We might observe some stability-related aspects, but it would depend a lot on how the quarter will play out.
Thank you, Alberto.
Now we have a question, or in fact, three questions, but it is about the same topic. It is going to be for Carlos Rezzonico from the mining. Rodolfo, Carlos. They would like to talk about the plans of the mining unit and what would be the CapEx. When can we expect announcements of CapEx in the mining unit?
Thank you for the questions. In fact, Usiminas is strongly working to fraud. Compact and industrial products. We continue with a lot of energy. We are considering all the mix, all the changes, so it is going to take some time. But on the other hand, we can say because of all the innovation that we have by acquiring new areas. Areas that we did not use to use, today, we can think about scenarios. Considering the scenario that we are expecting for the next quarters.
All these plans makes us very peaceful and very confident for those compact, and an opportunity for us to continue favorable materials. We continue making progress in our study of CapEx, but I believe that the final results will not be seen up to 2023, when we expect the approval to happen. This is just a summary of what to expect.
Thank you, Carlos. We have a question to Miguel, asked by Thiago, relating to steel inventories. Do you believe that clients learned to operate with lower inventories, and we are not likely to see major variations in the future?
Thank you, Leonardo. Good morning, Thiago. Of course, we have observed the recomposition of the steel inventories along all the chains along the second quarter. According to INDA Report, the stock levels moved from 2.2 months, 2.3 months to 2.6 months at the end of June.
Certainly with the impact of lower production of vehicles, the automotive sector recomposed its inventories. We cannot say today that most chains have a level which are very regulated, very balanced. I think what clients are doing is the need for working capital. Also because of the increase of the steel, the increase will generate some financial stress in the production chain, especially in the companies which are medium-sized or smaller-sized. We see that the chains are operating at a lower level of inventories. That doesn't mean that it's not positive to the sectors. Obviously, when the inventory levels are a bit lower, there is a de-balance because of the market, the volatility.
We as the steel companies, we have to provide support to this chain so that they can work with an optimized working capital, and then we are going to remove the inefficiencies, the financial inefficiencies of the sector.
Thank you, Miguel. Our next question is also to Miguel, asked by Thiago, and he asks you to make some comments on the automotive area. What is your expectation for the normalization of the vehicle production in Brazil?
Thiago, the automotive sector has lots of challenges because semiconductors are missing in the market. This is something affecting not only the Brazilian market but the global market. According to ANFAVEA reports, there has been a small reduction of automotive production expectations from 25%, an increase of 22%. The level of uncertainty is very high according to some reports.
According to Intel CEO, they are saying that the normalization of semiconductor supply will happen along next year. Of course, we are prepared to keep pace with the recovery of the automotive sector, and we do this monitoring on a weekly basis, and we are prepared to this recovery in the automotive sector as well as any other sector in Brazil that will need our products.
Thank you, Miguel. Our next question is directed to Sérgio. José Bento , an individual, is asking about the sustainability chain of ESG. What are the weaknesses of Usiminas, and what are the goals for us to mitigate such points?
Bento, as I commented in the beginning of our call, sustainability is a priority to our company. In our weekly board meetings, we start the meetings always discussing sustainability. Sustainability in a broad sense.
We have just made the inventory of greenhouse gases inventory, and we disclosed this information to the market. In this inventory, the number that we reached is 2.06 of gas per ton of gross carbon. We are at the half of the steel market in terms of positive results. At the international level, we are within the scenario, within the half of the companies whose position is more positive. Obviously, I'm comparing the results of Usiminas of 2020 to the Steel industries of 2019. We wait for the 2020 results to be published to make the comparison. We are working in the environmental aspect in relation to sedimentable particles in the Ipatinga unit. We have an extremely important project, and we have made progress in this unit.
Last year, we saw the environmental monitoring center that allows us to monitor all the company and all different neighborhoods of Ipatinga, because we're the only unit that is positioned in the center of the city. We have been working hard in order to control the sedimentable particle emissions, and the results have been very positive with a significant reduction of these emissions. We've implemented mist spray devices using polymers. We are performing a number of actions, and this is the area when we talk about reduction. When I talk about this is health blast, centralization, and others.
The company is engaged, totally engaged according to the Vision 2030, and this is a part present in our discussions, and we always ask ourselves, "How can we possibly reduce the GHG?" We consider this in all the investments, and we are looking for operational improvements in the existing equipment. This is a permanent question, a permanent issue that is occupying our minds. When we consider the ESG agenda, we know that we are referenced, both related to the people at Usiminas and also the people in the communities where we operate. Our relationship is very strong. We are very close to the communities where we operate. We have two foundations, which are very relevant. One is a foundation focused on health, which is Fundação São Francisco Xavier .
We have a foundation in the area of education, also Francisco Xavier, and we have Instituto Usiminas that does a very important job in relation to the performance of the company in health, education, and cultural, and community support segments. At this time, we are building a hospital in Belo Horizonte, which is going to open in March next year. As for S in the ESG, we are placed at the top in terms of social responsibility, and this is a perennial concern for all of us at Usiminas.
Thank you, Sérgio. Our next question is to Miguel. It is related to volume. Caio Ribeiro with Credit Suisse and Guilherme Nippes with XP are asking about the mix of sales in the domestic market versus the foreign market in the months to come. Are we going to increase their share in each of the areas? What about the logbook for this quarter, the inventory level, and also the inventory levels in the chain comparing the quarters? Guilherme Nippes is asking, is there any alternative if the domestic activities slow down?
Thank you, Caio, Guilherme Nippes. In relation to the domestic market and exports, with the strong recovery in the past nine months in Brazil, we gave total priority to the domestic market in Brazil, especially our industrial clients in Brazil and the value chain, especially those in the Mercosur region. This priority will continue in the next month. This will be our priority and provide support to the growth and the evolution of our main clients in the domestic market. Obviously, we are going to be on the watch out of opportunities in the external market, considering the availability of the products that we can have every month.
Today, our order book is very strong at levels which is similar that we had observed in the past months, both for the domestic and the mixed exports and domestic market. In relation to export profitability opportunities, we can see something positive in terms of attractive margins to the steel sector. Obviously, with the recent news of elimination of tax rebate in China and also the implementation of an import tax in Russia, this could have a positive evolution in our margins in the international market. As I said before, our priority is to provide support to the domestic market, but we are going to be on the watch out on the opportunity in the external market. We are going to continue analyzing each business opportunity, both internally and abroad.
Thank you, Miguel. Our next question comes from Caio Ribeiro with Credit Suisse directed to Alberto. How you would evaluate an upstream part of Cubatão now? Do you believe you have sustainable data to make this decision, Alberto?
Caio, thank you very much for your question. The point here is that for us to be more conviction in terms of the sustainability of the demand, we have to consider whether this demand is going to remain high. I believe that we have to keep an eye on this domestic market and observe whether or not this is going to continue, this will remain high. Clearly, in the recovery months, as of the third quarter of last year, we have seen a clear movement of replenishing the inventories. But when I would say that the second quarter of this year was an end to this movement, and from now on we are going to see what is the actual demand.
We have to understand what is the level of actual demand so that we can have expectations for the future. In terms of upstream of Cubatão, this is something that has been talked a lot about, but as we talked before, even we are going to make a decision, but decision is not going to be so quick, and it is not going to be so cheap because of the situation and also the time the unit had stopped. We do not have the crew, we do not have the personnel to work there. Because it has stopped for five years, all the labor, all the workers that used to work there are no longer at the company.
And this started five years ago, so we have to have the workers, operators working with equipment, and we have to evaluate which is the piece of equipment that will need more maintenance and which equipment will need less maintenance. And it takes a time. After we make a decision, resumption of the activity is not going to be very quick. This has to be very clear. So in terms of demand, which is the main point of the question, I could say that we have to wait a little bit more so we can have some clarity of what is the actual demand now that the replenishing of the inventories has come to an end.
Thank you, Alberto. Now we have another question to Alberto, and the question is related to the EBITDA expectations for the third quarter. Are we likely to expand the EBITDA above the records we presented in the second quarter?
I would say thank you very much for the question, but as always, we do not provide guidance in relation to the EBITDA. Our guidances are limited to what we discuss in terms of volumes and sales and financial expenses. So I will not be able to make any comments on this, but in terms of sales, both for steel and iron ore. As for steel, we're expecting a stability in relation to the second quarter. And as for mining, the expectation is that the volume will increase in relation to the second quarter, so that we can reach the 9 million tons. This is what I can say.
Thank you, Alberto. The next question is to Miguel. It comes with Carlos de Alba again. Miguel, he wants to know whether we are changing the contract with the automotive and industrial sectors, migrating to quarterly contracts or spot contracts in comparison to annual contracts.
Good morning, Carlos. Usiminas establishes long-term partnerships with its clients. The automotive sector has been a strategic and a very relevant sector to Usiminas, and this will continue in the future. Usiminas has a history of complying with all the agreements, all the contracts that were signed with our clients. So all the valid granted contracts will continue as they are. Each contract will be updated and renewed according to the moment, and future and past variables will be considered, considering the stability of the business for both parties. So the answer would be no. No, we are not canceling any agreement that has already been signed. All the renewals of contracts will reflect the development.
Thank you, Miguel. Another question to you, Miguel. Caio and with BTG Pactual asks about price. What's the price gap today between the industry clients, ex automotive and distribution? What do you consider to be the ideal level, and when do you expect this level to be reached? Miguel, please.
The price gap, of course The distribution is different in different industries. We have agreements with different industries, monthly or bi-monthly or semester agreement. When we observe the distribution of the first half of the year, there was a gap that evolved along this period. And those gaps that happened in the first quarter and in the second quarter. So we have gaps but we always try to make it zero. This gap could not be so large, otherwise we wouldn't be committing our objective. Otherwise, we would not consider the general conditions of the market.
This is valid to all sectors of the Brazilian economy.
Thank you, Miguel. The last question comes from the professional from Tatuí Capital. He congratulates on your results and he wants more details about the galvanized product. What would be the CapEx for the project? The question is directed to Alberto.
At this time, we cannot talk so much about this topic because this is something that we are reevaluating. We are resuming the studies of the CapEx and how long it would take to implement the lines. These are the questions that are being analyzed at the moment by us so that we can have an idea and take this as an investment proposal for our board to approve. These are the points that we are currently evaluating. We are not able to provide any details of any of those points you asked right now. Thank you.
Thank you, Alberto. We complete our Q&A session and now I turn the floor to Sérgio for his final remarks. Sérgio, you have the floor.
Thank you, Leonardo. Thank you each and every one of you who were here with us for this exact one hour discussing the results of Usiminas. It was a great pleasure for us of Usiminas team to present solid results and a positive prospect for the future with our commitment to work with the same dedication, looking for the best competitiveness, reaffirming our commitment with the sustainability, with the ESG agenda, diversity and inclusion. Today, we had a total of 24 questions. All very important questions to each of you so that all of you can understand the moment we are going through.
This positive moment where we were able to share the best results of the century. Thank you for attending this call. In October, we are going to see one another again where we are going to present the results of the third quarter 2021. It has been a great honor for the executive management of Usiminas and all the team as a whole. I congratulate our Usiminas team on the results.
Thank you and have a nice weekend. I would like to remind you that if you have any questions, the IR team is at your disposal to provide you with the services