Hi, good morning. Thank you for attending today's conference call of Altri's first quarter 2022 results. As it was already announced, my name is Rui Cesário. I'm the investor relations at Altri. We have with us today Mr. José Pina, the Group CEO, and Mr. Miguel Silveira, the Group's CFO. Mr. José Pina and Mr. Miguel Silveira will make a brief description of the first quarter results, and the floor will be open to 30 minutes Q&A. I'll hand over to Mr. José Pina.
Thank you, Rui. Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for attending today's conference call on our first quarter 2022 results. We're pleased to host this call with investors and analysts, and hopefully we can give you a clear picture of how the first quarter 2022 for Altri has gone and talk about the outlook and challenges ahead. If you go to slide number two, we present several highlights of the first quarter. We're pleased to report that Altri achieved an EBITDA of EUR 61 million in the first quarter, 86% increase comparing to last year's first quarter. Net debt closed the first quarter at 303 million, which places our net debt to EBITDA ratio at about 1.2, a comfortable level to develop our strategy.
We're also pleased to announce that we closed in April the potential locations for the greenfield plant in Galicia, which we call Gama project. This important milestone will certainly allow for other important steps in the decision-making process to move forward. We also wanted to share with you that Altri's invoices started to include information about the carbon and water footprint for each ton of pulp produced. We are leading the sector in these trends and believe this is a clear sign of transparency for our customers and the market overall, positioning ourselves as a reference in sustainability. Moving on to slide number three. We wanted to highlight the tight situation of the pulp market in Europe with inventories at European ports in March very near all-time lows.
April numbers, in fact, came out yesterday with a new monthly decrease to a new historic low of 1.014 million tons, which effectively represents about a reduction of 8% since the start of the year. Going to slide number four. We present the recent evolution of hardwood pulp prices in Europe. Prices have started to recover in early 2021 from a weak 2020, growing rapidly to $1,140 per ton by mid-2021 until early this year. Already during this quarter, there were two additional price increases of $30 per ton each, making the list price in Europe to end the quarter at $1,200 per ton.
Given the strong demand and supply tightness of the European markets, we have seen additional announcements of price increases already in the second quarter of 2022, of $50 each, both for April and May, to a total of $1,300 per ton. Looking at slide 5, we present the production and sales level in the quarter being broadly flat when compared to last year's first quarter and a positive evolution versus the fourth quarter of 2021 due to Celbi's maintenance stoppage in October. In slide 6, we show our sales breakdown per region, confirming our strategic focus in markets of proximity, namely Europe and near Middle East, with more than 90% of sales. Our sales to Asia are all attributed to our dissolving pulp production.
Turning to slide number seven, you can see our sales breakdown for end use. Tissue and print and writing are our main segments, which actually increased their weight in the first quarter of 2022 versus 2021, given the strength of these segments in the European markets. I would like now to pass the word to Miguel Silveira, the group CFO, that will comment on our financial highlights.
Thank you, José. Looking at slide eight, we can see that our revenues achieved EUR 249 million in the first quarter, an increase of 20% versus the last quarter of 2021, and 40% more comparing with last year's first quarter. EBITDA reached EUR 61 million in the first quarter of 2022, which is 23% more than in the fourth quarter of last year and 86% higher than the first quarter of 2021. In slide nine, we have some comments related with the cost inflation theme we have been seeing in the last few quarters, and which we are trying to minimize the impact. The change in the electricity regime from regulated to market prices in early February was a positive factor, but was partially absorbed by the growing expenses with natural gas.
On the wood side, we continue to need a high level of imports versus historical standards, and also an expense that has been penalized by rising logistic costs. Chemicals has also been a relevant component in the increase of the variable costs. Turning to slide 10, despite the challenges at the cost level, we would highlight that EBIT and net profits in the first quarter more than doubled comparing with the first quarter of 2021, and the operating results increased by 31% in the first quarter comparing with the last quarter of 2021. In slide 11, the free cash flow generation of almost EUR 41 million in the first quarter made possible a reduction of around 12% in Altri's net debt in the first three months of 2022, reaching EUR 303 million.
The net debt to EBITDA of the last 12 months is now at a very comfortable 1.2 times. Turning to slide number 12, we are proud to maintain best-in-class return on capital employed level of 18% in the first quarter, which compares with an average of 17% for the past five years. I will now pass the word back to José Pina.
Thank you, Miguel. If you look at slide 13, we wanted to share with you the environmental data that we started to include in our customers' invoices from April onwards. All invoices are now issued with information on greenhouse gas emissions, the use of water, and the consumption of renewable energy for each ton of produced pulp. These I would like to stress are audited numbers. If we look at slide 14, we highlight additional milestones and developments in the sustainability front. We have made an update on the evolution of the many environmental metrics in our SDG 2030 targets, and we're pleased to share with you that we have surpassed over 90% in the required target set by the end of 2021.
Considering that, for a series of these goals, namely, SDGs, water reduction, process waste recovery, reutilization, et cetera, were achieved by 100%. If we now move to slide 15, we present an update on the Gama project. We have announced the location of the site in April, a 200-hectare site in the region of Lugo in Spain. This was a rigorous selection based on several criteria that included technical, environmental, hydric, and orographic factors. This was an extremely important milestone as we now move forward with the environmental impact study. The engineering and economic viability plans, licenses to local authorities, makes advances with EU subsidies. Finally, in slide 16, we wanted to share our views looking forward. We continue to see the European markets quite strong with a sound order book.
Pulp availability continues to be an issue, confirmed by the low inventory levels at European ports. Therefore, we have seen an additional two price increases, as I've mentioned before, April and May, $50 per ton each to $1,300 per ton. This continues to support the cost inflation that we have also seen in the last months. The site location of our Gama project is now a reality, and we can now accelerate several crucial steps for a decision to be taken until year-end 2022. We're also pleased to conclude the separation process of the pulp business and GreenVolt, which we believe went quite well for all interested parties.
As we mentioned at the time of the announcement, we should maintain a 15.45% stake in GreenVolt, which to which we would add the shares from withholding tax process. That could mean a final economic stake still below 20%. In due course, very soon, we will announce the exact final numbers. I'll return now the floor back to Rui Cesário.
We're now open to Q&A for the next 30 minutes.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to submit a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. If you choose to withdraw your question, please press star followed by two. When preparing to ask a question, please ensure your phone is unmuted locally. As a reminder, star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. Our first question comes from Bruno Bessa of CaixaBank BPI. Bruno, your line is now open.
Hi. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two, if I may. The first one focused on wood costs and second one on the new project in Galicia. Starting with wood costs, we have been seeing a sharp increase in terms of cash costs for Altri. A relevant part of this, I believe, is related with wood costs. If you could share with us some visibility on your expectations regarding the evolution of wood costs over the coming quarters. When you believe that this higher need for imports could normalize and when could we start seeing here a bit of some normalization in terms of wood costs?
It will be appreciated. Also related with wood costs and more on a long-term view, again, coming back to the expansionary projects that exist in Iberia, whether you see here any kind of issues in terms of wood cost evolution due to these projects that have been announced by Altri and by Ence in particular. This will be the two questions focused on wood costs. The third question and last one regarding the location of the plant in Lugo. It seems like a bit of a different location to what we are used to see.
All your plants in Portugal are close to either the sea or to rivers. This one, and correct me if I'm wrong, seems to be a little bit away from this kind of channels for the distribution of the product. My question here is trying to understand why to choose this location, and what should you be doing to offset potential higher transportation costs that you might have with this plant, if that is the case. Any views on this will be highly appreciated. Thank you very much.
Okay. Thank you, Bruno. Let me start with your first question, first and second, which obviously relates primarily to wood costs. This is a reflection, I think, of what we see in terms of inflationary pressures throughout the industry. Obviously, we're not immune to that. We had indicated previously that we would expect to see generally costs this year to be in the teens. We still continue with that perspective. If anything, obviously, with the evolution in the last quarter, we would frame that as something in the high teens. We're talking about 15%-20% year-on-year. Wood costs would be likely on the high range of that. You're talking about possibly in the range of approximately 20%.
In terms of issues and risks, we don't, at least as far as what we could see, a normalization of this. We have our plans in place for the remaining of the year. Our wood needs at this moment have been essentially contracted, so we don't expect to see significant issues related to that. That means that the evolution that we've seen at least so far would likely lead to a normalization level. On your third question, specifically to the location of the plant in Lugo, in fact, we studied 46 locations. When you say that traditionally or these are typically located closer to waterways, in fact, this is the case for this plant.
It's near a river called Ulla, and near a water basin, Portodemouros in Lugo. This is the exact geographic center of Galicia, so proximity to raw materials, in particular wood, was very much one of the key factors. There's significant proximity to the forest that we will be focusing on to provide raw materials. In terms of the topography of the terrain, we've been able to identify a location that of over 200 hectares, which is obviously very important for this type of project. Also, in terms of accessibility, there are very well-developed road accessibility. In fact, this particular location is near a highway that connects Lugo with Coruña and Santiago.
Also from a transportation standpoint, we believe that it's extremely well located. These were some of the key, not all, but some of the key reasons that led us to this selection. As I said, it was a very thorough process, where we assessed over 46 locations, and it included other criteria such as environmentally sensitive areas, cultural sites, the overall juridical makeup of specific potential locations. Overall, this was the one that we felt met the best requirements for the location.
Okay. Thank you very much. Just to follow up, we can conclude then that
This plant, if starting to operate, will from a logistics point of view operate as smoothly as those you have in Portugal, right?
Yes.
At least.
No. Absolutely. Absolutely.
That's clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Bruno. Our next question comes from Jaime Escribano of Banco Santander. Jaime, your line is now open.
Yes. Hi, good morning. First question maybe on outlook, even if you have commented already, but it would be nice to have an insight on what's going on in China. First, we saw last week that APP was increasing $50, based on the hardwood price there. I don't know if you can give us any color, and we know you don't sell except for the dissolving, you don't sell hardwood pulp there. But I'm just curious to understand the dynamics with the COVID lockdown and how is the demand evolving, bearing in mind that APP is increasing prices, so why is this happening? And also, we got the Europe pulp inventory at a historical low of around 1 million tons. It was released yesterday in Europe.
Also, have your view on, do you think the inventories are very low because clients are restocking ahead of higher prices in June, July? Or is it because also the demand is strong and there is a scarcity of pulp and that's why everybody's kind of buying pulp because they are concerned? A little bit, your views on the sector would be appreciated. Also a follow-up on Bruno's question. I also was surprised because of the location. Now I understand it better. The only bit that maybe I would like to understand is, if it would have been useful to have the harbor close by, like for example in the Ría de Vigo , in order to export the lyocell.
Is it that you expect to sell it all locally, and that's why you don't really need to be close to the sea? Yeah, this would be my two questions. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Jaime. Starting with the first point, just a bit of an outlook, as you very well stated, we don't sell hardwood pulp, kraft hardwood pulp in China. From the follow-up that we do, we have the perception that the recent lockdowns and the zero COVID policy have increased bottlenecks, although this is starting to ease. Therefore, there's an expectation of rising economic activity. Even though there are, I think, still some risks from a demand standpoint in China, those are starting to ease. Also, the government has announced some economic stimulus that would likely also have some impact. In addition to that, we also believe that there should be a relevant restocking effect in China once the situation starts normalizing.
I think that's probably one of the key factors that is driving that. We saw APP's announcement. We wouldn't be surprised if there could be any further announcements as well. But that situation or the combination of those situations, I think is clearly putting some pressure in the value chain. Logistics, by the way, continue to be an issue around China. There are significant volumes on the water heading to China, and I'm sure that's going to help a little bit with the restocking effect, but that's not likely to happen very quickly. With respect to Europe, I mean, the inventories are as you said, at historic low levels.
We have seen additional layers of complexity on the supply side of the pulp market. I think it is clearly a combination of difficult logistics. There's been some unplanned shutdowns that happened in suppliers outside of Europe that have also delayed shipments onto Europe. Generally speaking, the European market has been extremely dynamic this year, as you probably have noted. I mean, we talked to customers who tell us that, and particularly in print and writing segments, that they have their order books full all the way through the fall of this year. That's likely to continue to put a lot of pressure on the demand side.
Effectively, if there is a continuation of disruptions in logistics and ultimately, I mean, there's been for the first part of this year a significant strike at a major producer in the Nordic countries. Also the dynamics of the war in Ukraine, I think has also impacted that. All of those have contributed clearly to what seems to continue to be a very, very tight market without any specific change that would be seen at least in the near medium term. Going to your third question and regarding the Gama project and again, on location.
First of all, this plant is going to serve multiple markets, primarily Europe, but also parts of North Africa and Southeast Europe, namely Turkey, which are very significant customers for this product. Ultimately, I mean, the logistics we have considered in terms of reaching ports is not something that we would consider to be of any significance. As I said, it is very well located in terms of road transfer. There are some rail logistics as well that would have to be connected to the site. Overall, I mean, proximity to the port we value much more, in particular with the plants of these characteristics, the specific operational environment.
Access to fresh water was clearly one of the key criteria. But the location, ultimately, we were able to consider a lot of the key elements, and it enabled us to find a selection of the sites that have effectively the best conditions for that. As I said on road transfers, I mean, you have a highway that basically is passing very close to the site. We don't believe that the logistics is going to be of any issue at this point.
Okay, very good. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Jaime.
Thank you. Our final question of today comes from António Seladas of AS Independent Research. Your line is now open.
Hi. Good morning. Thank you very much. Most of questions are already answered, so I have just two questions, quick questions I think. Your figures in terms of external supplies and services have been around 70 million for the last two quarters. Should we consider this figure a plateau or in terms of costs for the coming quarters or not? The second question is just related with the energy. As far as I understand or I understood, now you sell all the energy to the market and you buy it, you buy from the market at market price. Just to confirm and to understand your figures in terms of energy costs and energy revenues. Thank you very much.
If I understood you correctly, you were asking about the energy balance in terms of what we sell and what we buy. Is that correct, António?
Yes, exactly. Just to understand if, when you see the revenues, other revenues, so the energy revenues should be there. We also see external supplies and service increasing for last two or three quarters. I guess that, this is because you are buying energy, not just natural gas, but also electricity to the market.
Yeah. Considering our three units, two of them are essentially balanced in terms of energy generation versus consumption, and one has excess production, which we sell, it produces generally about 200 gigawatt hour in excess on an annual basis. You're right, we sell all energy. We also buy all energy, and the balance of that, as I mentioned, is a positive balance. The way we structure the new reporting, in other sales, it includes the energy, and also another component is the biomass that we sell, in particular through contracts to GreenVolt. That's included in the other revenue as stated in the new reporting.
Regarding the first question, 70 million, the external supplies and services have been around 70 million for the last two quarters. Do you think this is a plateau or do you think that costs could still increase from the current level?
António, as I mentioned, in terms of the overall cost inflation, energy, as you know, it's an open market, and the futures have been evolving significantly over the last few months. It's hard to tell where energy is gonna go long term, but I would assume that at this point we've seen at least what would be the most significant impact. We do have also on the purchase of energy, besides electricity, we also purchase natural gas. Year-over-year, that's where we've seen a significant increase. I mean, if you look at the natural gas prices, they've been four-five times greater just in the last 12 months. You see a reflection of that.
It's hard to see where that would go any further at this point, because you would likely have an impact as well in terms of the cost structure across the value chain, and not just in the pulp and paper value chain, but across many other value chains that depend on natural gas for energy and steam production. We'll see how that is going to evolve. Overall, just to restate, where we see our cost inflation year-on-year, particularly for the remaining of the year and at the levels that we project, we'll likely see something in the high teens, year-on-year between 15%-20%.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you, António. Apologies. Our next question comes from Carlos Jesus of CaixaBank BPI. Carlos, your line is now open.
Hello. Good morning. Two questions from my part. First off, it is regarding discount levels. How do you see discount levels at the moment? At which level can we see discounts of BHKP? And the second one, if we lock costs or the cost levels at the current level, what would be your vision for EBITDA margins for the remaining of 2022? Thank you.
Thank you, Carlos. First of all, on the discount levels, I mean, they don't change for us, as you imagine, month-on-month. We do annual contracts, where those are fixed, and the changes that you could see primarily deal with product mix or any particular change in terms of non-contracted business. I would say on average, these tend to be historically in the industry, anywhere between 34%-36%. That's just based, again, on an industry level. In terms of cost levels and our expectations in terms of EBITDA margins, I think we'll continue to see healthy EBITDA margins. As you've seen in our results, we've increased our EBITDA margins.
We are already considering most of the impact on cost inflation compared to the same period last year and compared to Q4. It's really going to depend on the evolution of prices. As I said, with the market being as tight as it is right now, I would not be surprised, as I said, to see prices continue to evolve favorably at least over the next few months. If that's the case, obviously we would see that impacting positively our EBITDA margins.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you, Carlos. Our next question comes from Luis de Toledo of Oddo BHF. Luis, your line is now open.
Yes, morning. I had a question, but it has already been addressed. Maybe it was relating on the other revenue. I don't know if you could provide some breakdown between the different items that regarding the energy and also the maintenance of biomass plant and the last component. Let's see. You mentioned also the sale of biomass. I don't know if you could provide some breakdown on a rough manner. Thanks.
Yeah, Luis, what I would suggest is perhaps you could follow up with Rui, our Investor Relations, who can give you a little bit more clarity in terms of how we're structuring our reporting.
Okay. Thanks. I will do so.
You're welcome.
Thank you, Luis. Our next question is a follow-up from Bruno Bessa of CaixaBank. Bruno, your line is now open.
Yes. Sorry for coming back to two questions. The first one, just trying to understand a bit the dynamics of supply in Europe, and with the end of the strikes that we were seeing at the UPM facilities in Finland, how do you think this will impact the level of supply and in Europe over the coming quarters? This will be the first question. The second one, again, coming back to the project in Galicia, what will be the biggest challenge that you will have in this project, in your view? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Bruno. Well, in terms of the supply, I think there are two factors here that we need to see how it evolves, on the end of the UPM strikes. We would expect to see some volumes coming back to market. Although we haven't seen much evidence of that, it always takes a certain time for that to normalize. I would assume that over the next few months you may see some of that happening. Although, purely in terms of volume, it's probably not going to be meaningful enough to change the current supply demand dynamics. On the Galicia project, this is a greenfield project. We have a lot of work ahead of us this year until the final investment decision.
We're doing our environmental impact studies. We're doing basic engineering. We're in very active discussions with technology and equipment suppliers. I think until we have a very full picture of that, I wouldn't be able to tell you much more, other than the fact that we're progressing, I think, extremely well. If anything, the original assumptions we saw in terms of the market attractiveness have been reinforced. This is a market that is changing significantly, in particular on the textile side. As you know, this is intended to provide potential substitutes for synthetic and fossil-based textiles. This is a market that is rapidly evolving towards more sustainable fibers. We believe that at least the fundamentals of the market for this particular project are extremely attractive.
When you look at the challenges of building a greenfield of this magnitude, as I've said, we need to go through all of the design and finalize the discussions with suppliers. We'll see how or if there's gonna be any significant impact from the current cost inflation that we have seen in markets. Although this is a multi-year project, and therefore we're not, at least at this point, expecting that will have a serious impact. Overall, we're very happy of how this is evolving, particularly now that we have announced the selected location.
Okay. That's clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Bruno.
Thank you, Bruno. Our final question by the telephone lines comes from Jaime Escribano. Jaime, your line is now open. Please proceed with your follow-up question.
Oh, yes, sorry, I was on mute. Yeah, no, I just wanted to ask a final question more regarding market expectations. I look to Bloomberg consensus close to 300 million EBITDA for the full year. You made 60 million in Q1, which makes a run rate of 240. Obviously, prices in Q2 and Q3 are likely to be higher. In order to match market expectations of around EUR 300 million, the EBITDA should be on average in following quarters should increase to levels of around 80 million per quarter. How comfortable you feel with this?
Obviously, with the current information, I know that things can change, but bearing in mind your forecast for cash cost in following quarters and the positive evolution of pulp prices, do you think this is doable? It's a little bit toppy or just any insight you can give us on your sentiment on that would be useful. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Jaime. As you know, we don't provide outlook and guidance. That's just at least a matter of policy. From what we've said and the numbers where we have, it's what I've mentioned, you know, we'll have to see where the overall market dynamics will evolve. We don't see it much changing in terms of where the market is today, the tightness of the market. That's likely to lead to at least some upward risk on prices. The increases from the first quarter haven't yet fully materialized, as you've seen also from what we've published, although we've reflected already the significant cost increases. I would say for the remaining of the year, we'll have to see how it's going to evolve.
We're optimistic in terms of how we're likely to see at least based on the current dynamics. We'll certainly continue to work as hard as we can and manage as prudently as we can to be able to deliver the best possible results.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Jaime. We have received a written question from João Pinto of JB Capital, and the question is: Could you please give us an update on cash cost outlook and how much do you expect them to increase in financial year 2022 versus 2021?
Thank you, João. As I've mentioned before, in terms of our cash cost outlook, at least based on what we've seen this year, would expect our cash costs year-on-year to be in the range of 15%-20%. You're looking at high teens at this point.
Perfect. The second question from João Pinto. Could you update us on the process of greenfield project in Galicia?
Sure. In terms of the project, as I've mentioned, there's a lot of work streams ongoing. Once we've had the site selection finalized, we have the environmental impact study ongoing. We have the basic engineering ongoing, significant discussions with providers of technology and equipment. We'll be filing as well the strategic industrial project, which is a green channel on administrative processes in Galicia. We're having active discussions with potential financial backers on the project, in particular, some of the major banks, in commercial banks. That's all of the ongoing, and I would say over the next few quarters, we'll definitely have more detailed updates.
We're aiming, as we've mentioned earlier, that we will be in a condition to make a final investment decision by year-end, assuming that we get all of these workflows up to a successful conclusion. A lot of work going on. A very significant dedicated team is working hard on it, so we hope to provide more updates in future quarters.
Perfect. Thank you. We currently have no further questions. I'll hand back over to Rui for any closing remarks.
Thank you very much for attending and all your interest in Altri. I think that's all for today.