Thank you, Francine, for the introduction. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for your interest in joining our Q1 conference call for CropEnergies' first quarter results, 2023, 2024. You will find on our homepage the Investor Relations presentations, which I will go through. There you also find the press release for the Q1 and the quarterly report. What is on the agenda? I start on page two of the presentation. We will touch, as we do usually, the news on the market and political environment, and we will go into the financials of the first quarter, 2023, 2024 financial year. To close this section, we will have a Q&A session to answer your questions. Heike Baumbach, Head of IR, and myself, we're happy to take your questions after this presentation.
Before we go into the details, as an introduction, on March 17, we have already announced to the financial markets via MIR release that we await a significant reduction in Q1 results. Yes, when we see later on the results in the presentations, it turned out as announced. You will see in the financial sections that there is a significant decrease in turnover production and financial KPIs compared to prior years' first quarter. As an introduction, I would also like to frame this in a broader frame, because it's also a question of framing. When we look later on into the financial figures, you will see, yes, there is, compared to prior year Q1, there's a significant reduction.
If we take a broader view and also look into the prior years before the excellent year we had last year, we can confirm the outlook, and we still see a profitable financial year to come. This will be touched when we talk about the outlook for the full financial year. I will also give you before we go to the Q&A session, an update on our strategic projects, and there you will see that all our strategic agenda is fully online and is in line with our expectations. Let's get started with the presentation. I start on page four. This is about politics. What is new? Indeed, there's not too much in significant news when it comes to the political scene in Europe.
This is fully in line what we have already communicated to you in May, when we discussed the full year results of financial year 2022, 2023. In a nutshell, that covers the first three bullet points. The European Green Deal, and the link to that, the RED III, will increase the ambition level for CO2 savings and the intake of renewable energy. In a nutshell, this is very positive for the biofuels industry in Europe, because we will need more renewable energies to fulfill the ambitious targets and to fight climate change. I will just touch on the fourth point, which is the CO2 standards for cars and vans. That's also not new to you.
I just reiterate that I believe that the ban of the, or the quasi ban of the internal combustion engine is an political error. It's a violation of the concept of technology openness and neutrality. Just to reiterate, the internal combustion engine is not the problem to fight climate change. It's the fossil fuel that it burns. The combination of biofuels and synthetic fuels really give an very good opportunity to go along with this existing technology and to have a significant contribution to fight climate change. I'm fully convinced we will need all technologies to bring down CO2 emissions, we just cannot afford to leave one of the options apart.
This is also important in the context of, you have seen that in Germany, when it comes to the discussions of the heating law, the Heizungsgesetz, we have seen strong opposition from many people, because if people tend to be or feel overruled when it comes to technology choices, or when they feel overstretched when it comes to financial burdens, we quickly lose the support for climate protection measures. This is by no means in the objective for climate protection, and this just gives political instability. Let me continue, please, on page number five. There you can see an update on the RED, Renewable Energy Directive. It is called RED III. It's not too much new. It is also the same what we have already communicated in May.
There is a provisional agreement between Council and Parliament on 13th of March. As I've said, the overall ambition levels are increased when it comes to the overall energy consumption. The target for renewable energies is raised to 42.5%, could be an additional 2.5% up. For the transport sector, it's important when putting the RED III then into a national law, they will have, or continue to have a choice to use this in a way of a reduction of the greenhouse gas intensity target. This then shall be at least 14.5%, or they can go via a direct share of renewable energy, and then this has to be 29% by 2030.
This is in line what we have already said, and in a nutshell, that means that ambition level is increased, what is positive. Also positive, there is on news, but it's not new to you. We have already communicated there's no new on the crop cap. What is expected that the plenary vote, the final vote, is scheduled for September, and then the member states have 18 months to put the RED III, the new RED III, into national law. Let's continue on page number six. When it comes to news on the market development, we can start on the right-hand side on the graph. Here you can see the ethanol sales. There you see that the consumption is going to rise continuously over the last year.
In 2021, we had 9.1 million cubic meters of ethanol, and this is to increase to 10 million in 2023, and continues to grow to 10.3 in 2024 expected. Interesting to see that production is far lower. Here you can see on the left-hand side, production in EU 27 and U.K. is expected to amount to 7.5 million cubic meters, so a reduction to prior year. The delta. There are two things that we can see on that. One is that ethanol is a very good product and needed for the different markets, be it fuel, industrial, or portable. It's a good product, but European production is below consumption levels, and the delta is covered by imports.
This is somehow disappointing, because we have seen due to the European policies over the last years, there has been quite some uncertainty on the politics. The European industry has not too much invested into new capacities, and the result is now that production is far lower than consumption, and the delta is to be imported. When it comes to the E10, that means gasoline with 10% ethanol, it still continues to be the number one petrol grade in many European countries. Currently, 17 EU member states, plus Norway and the U.K., have rolled out E10. This is a clear success story. Positive is that this success story continues, so we see strong sales growth, particularly in France, Sweden, and the U.K.
E10 in Germany is still lagging behind, but there's also a window of opportunity to see here higher market shares. I will touch on this point when it comes to the strategy section later on. Positively to note that E10 sales have been started or introduced in Ireland, Austria, and Norway in April this year, and also Poland plans to introduce E10 at the beginning of 2024. That you can see from that slide, the overall trend in demand for ethanol is good and is a success story. On page seven, let's have a look on the imports and the prices. On the right-hand side, you can see the effect that I have just described, that the imports have been taken up significantly.
As I said, Europe needs imports to cover the rising demand, but this is also particularly linked to a criticism to politics over the last years with their instability in the political frameworks. They have not produced a framework that is in favor of additional investments. When it comes to the prices, as always, ethanol prices are volatile, and if you look to the right-hand side, to the bottom graph, you can see the volatility, and you can also see that there's no clear seasonal pattern. Average prices in Q1 have been EUR 841. Market prices compared to EUR 1,157 prior quarter. There has been a drop in prices in the course of the first quarter due to high import pressure, as just explained.
All in all, we see a normalization of price levels on the commodity market. If you look into the price charts of all commodities, be it Brent, be it coal, be it gas, be it grain, you can see that the prices have come down closely to pre-war levels, and it's only the CO2 certificates which remain quite high. This can also be seen as an indicator to the urge for having more positive measures to fight climate change. CO2 certificates are at present, the only commodity, or one of the commodities who is not following a downward trend. Let me please continue on page number eight. Here you can find an overview on the feedstock markets. That means on the grain market. On the right-hand side, you will find the graphs.
The current financial year, 2023, 2024, is in green. It's below than the prior year, which is in blue, and right now in line with the financial year 2021, 2022, approximately. Grain prices in Q1, they came down, market prices, at EUR 247 per ton, compared to prices of EUR 293 in prior years' quarter. As I said, grain prices are declining gradually after reaching their peak in May 2022. We can see a strong increase imports from Ukraine. Also, I mean, it's always in the discussion, what is about the grain corridor and the grain exports via ship, but there's also a strong export from Ukraine via the land way. Sorry.
On the street, on the land way. The EU grain harvest is expected to come out at 265 million tons. The outlook for 2023, 2024, the EU grain harvest is expected to rise again, and the global grain harvest is expected to reach the level of 2021, 2022 again. Also here we see some kind of normalization of prices. On page nine, I would like to talk about the energy market.
The energy prices are the third important driver to the profitability of CropEnergies. Also, what you can see here on the right-hand graph is the same trend, that the overall, the gas prices have shown a sharp drop compared to last year's figures, also reaching a more normalized situation. The price drivers are here, the good supply in Europe, with the global energy supply and demand, the storage levels have increased and the weather conditions. So overall, here we see a normalization of gas prices. Let me please come after this introduction on politics, on markets, to the Q1 figures. You will find the overview on page number 11.
As I've already indicated in the introduction, the signs are negative, we see a decrease in ethanol production to 221,000 cubic meters after 281,000 cubic meters in prior year's quarter. This is linked to scheduled maintenance, which we had in two of our sites. Revenues came down by 19% to EUR 321 million. This is both linked to volumes and prices. As a consequence, when we see later on the details, operating profit and EBITDA net income are also show a decline.
If I focus here on operating profit, we turned out with an operating profit of EUR 14.1 billion for this first quarter of financial year 2023, 2024, after a very strong extraordinary result of EUR 87 billion in prior year's quarter. Positively to note that our financial asset situation is still very comfortable, having a value of close to EUR 300 million by the end of the first quarter. Let's go more into detail. If we look on the next slide in the operating profit, let me start with a summary. If you look on the right-hand side to the bottom chart, you can see that Q1, this financial year, was pretty in line with the Q4 last year.
Clearly to say, compared to the, especially to the very strong first half we had in the prior financial year, this is a clear decline. As I said in the introduction, we'll take the whole year, we will touch on that in the outlook section. This is pretty in line with three years before that excellent record year. Production is down. That's the right-hand upper chart. As I said, 221,000 cubic meters produced, so this is a decrease compared to prior year's quarters and linked to scheduled maintenance, which we had in two of our plants. Revenues, just explained. Cost of materials came down due to lower volumes, but here also we had higher prices.
In together of those two effects, cost of materials went down by 8%, reaching EUR 254 million , this also then leads to a decrease in the gross spread to EUR 56 million . The further operating expense and income came out at close to EUR 31 million . If we go here more into detail, which you see in the quarterly report, you can see personal expenses went up. This is linked to an increase in FTE. Other expenses are pretty in line with prior year, we see a decrease in other income. Here is a effect of the prior year, that we had a positive derivatives income in the other ex-expenses.
The value that you see here for other income is rather than the normalized value compared to a significant one-off item last year. Depreciation came out at EUR 11 million, all in all, we came out with an operating profit of EUR 14 million, which is pretty in line with Q4 last year, as I just stated, but a clear, significant reduction compared to prior year's figure. Let me please continue on page number 13. This is the net earnings situation that is full PNL after operating profit. You can see that the interest, the financial result is increased to EUR 1.3 million.
This is linked to the positive interest that we get on our net financial assets positions, and the earnings per share finally came out at EUR 0.13, and that follows the earnings development. Before I come to the outlook, let's have a look on the cash flow. Cash flow of the first quarter was close to EUR 21 million. We see a negative impact for change in net working capital of EUR 32 million, leading to a net cash from operating activities to - EUR 11 million. In this EUR 32 million negative effect or uptake on an increase in working capital, here is also an effect of the negative market values that we have, for example, for the wheat futures.
As you know, this is future, so we have cash at brokers, which we have to cash in at the bankers brokers account. This is not booked into cash, but in other financial assets, so this increases the working capital. Investments in property, plant, and equipment has increased. Here you can see the first investments in our new renewable ethylene plant in sites. I will come to this later in the strategy section. All in all, we came out at a net financial assets positions of close to EUR 300 million, which is a strong value and is the background for our strategic development and to be invested into the projects to come.
I would like to go over to page number 15. We confirm, as of today, the outlook that we have given for 2023, 2024 in our annual report. We confirm, as of today, we await revenues to range between EUR 1.27 million and EUR 1.37 million. That means a midpoint of close to EUR 1.3 million. The EBITDA to range between EUR 140 million and EUR 190 million, and the operating profit between EUR 95 million and EUR 145 million. That means this is a midpoint of EUR 120 million. This is clearly below prior year, but pretty in line with the three years before.
Just as a reminder, in the three years before our excellent record year before, operating profit in 2021, 2022 was EUR 127 million. 2022, 2023, EUR 108 million. 2019, 2020, it was EUR 104 million. We assume to have another strong year compared to the three years we had in the period before this record year. What are the assumptions underlying in this outlook? All in all, we assume a gradual decrease in volatility on the sales, raw material, and energy markets. We believe that there's a strong and positive demand for ethanol to be continued in Europe. We make this clear to the introduction of E10 in other European countries.
As I stated, this is, for example, Ireland, Austria, and Norway, which started with E10 in April. Poland to come at the beginning of 2024. This will be met also by continued high import volumes. Last but not least, before Heike and myself, we go over to the Q&A section, I would like to give you an update on our strategy, which you can find on page 16. The strategy is unchanged. Positive to note that all our CropEnergies teams are fully dedicated to the strategy, and all the project teams work with very high commitment and successfully on the different projects.
I will guide you through to the five bullet points, which is our strategy, and we'll give you some updates where significant progress has been made on some of the projects. I will start because our claim is, as you know, we deliver green carbons. I can also only reiterate that a lot of people talk about decarbonization. For me, that's not the right idea. We have to talk about defossilization, because we need carbons for our every energy carrier is a component of carbons and carbon or carbohydrates, as it is the base chemicals, and if we do not wish them to be fossil one, there is no 12- 25 solution.
Biomass is a very interesting technology pathway to fulfill climate changes and to provide green carbons for energy and chemistry in other industries. The first bullet point is for sure, we will continue to strengthen our core business of mobility with sustainable and climate-friendly fuels. What is new here? One is, we continuously look into also second generation ethanol and have interesting projects here. When we were discussing or when I was discussing the 25% market share of E10 in Germany, I said that there is a strategic window of opportunity in Germany to increase the market share, and this is linked to the fact that the Zehnte BImSch, that means the tenth, Verordnung über die Beschaffenheit und die Auszeichnung der Qualitäts- und Kraftstoffe, that means somehow a fuel quality directive in Germany.
This is under review. Here is the situation, that Germany is the last country in Europe who still offers or obliges petrol stations to offer an E5 protection grade, 95 octane. The SPD working group mobility has already claimed this year that this should be abolished. Also the ADAC says it's better to go for E10 to save money and to do something for the economy. There's a strong political support also for E10, and we work together with the associations to bring into this law, into the 10. BImSchV, that the E5 protection grade is abolished because this is no longer needed. This was obliged to be in place in, on a European legislation level by until 2013.
We are 10 years since it has been abolished on the European level, and it's now really time in Germany to abolish this E5 protection grade. Also new in this field is we have informed you that together with Stuttgart Airport, we have an E20 test for their fleet, and the results of this test will be published in October. Also interesting to note, we plan to have in Mannheim, Germany, the first petrol station offering E20. That means an ethanol plant for with 20% ethanol. We hope to close this project and to launch this in October.
This is what is new on the first point when it comes to our core business of mobility with E5, E10, E20, and second generation fuels. The second bullet point is, do we want to build up, or we are already in the process of building up a new business area based on ethanol derivative and alternative to fossil raw material. This is the field of bio-based chemicals, and here we have already announced two projects. One is ethyl acetate in Zeitz. This is very successfully ongoing. We have informed you that the investment value is approximately EUR 120 million to EUR 130 million for this project to produce 50,000 tons of ethyl acetate. It's, the project is ongoing very well. We have signed all significant contracts.
We are now in the process of handing in the permits and to order the first long lead items. Groundbreaking is to be expected at the beginning of 2024, and then starting production in 2025. The second project is also progressing very well. This is our 50% stake that we have in Syclus. This team plans to have an ethanol ethylene plant. We have just launched this Monday, a press release that they have chosen Axens as a technology provider. The idea is here to have a plant in the Geleen, Netherlands chemical park on producing 100,000 tons of ethylene. Investment value can be up to EUR 130 million.
Now with the technology of Axens being chosen, we can start with the basic engineering this year, and then have the final business model and the final calculations for this project. Assuming a positive investment decision of CropEnergies, production could start in 2026. Biogenic CO2, that's the third strategic X, which is very interesting in the field of, be it both for direct consumption, for example, in drinks, or its CO2 is a very interesting product. This is ongoing. There's no significant new news. The fourth bullet point is on proteins. We believe that plant-based proteins is a very interesting market in Europe, be it because we in Europe as a whole, has a protein deficit.
We are here very intensively working on a project, and I'm confident that in due course, we can communicate on that. There's good progress in the proteins field. The fifth pillar of our strategy is somehow more to the future. It's a new business area that we are planning for green electricity and green hydrogen. This is also ongoing, but there's also no significant news. This having said, CropEnergies is well positioned for the future, and we are very much looking to putting all those projects to life. I close the presentation at this point of time, and now Heike and myself are happy to take your questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star followed by two. Your questions will be answered in the order we received. Anyone who has a question may press star followed by one at this time. We have our first question today from Hartmut Moers from Matelan. Please go ahead with your question.
Yes, good morning. Well, I would start with your production, if I may. I mean, this obviously has been lower compared to the previous periods due to the maintenance that you already announced. Given that you don't have a maintenance in each quarter, can we now expect production levels to come back to more normalized levels, say 280,000 or above? Or was part of that low volume also driven by the current market situation? Yeah, let's go one by one, and, I will have some follow-up question later.
Yes, as I said, we had maintenance in the first quarter, and one of the maintenance is still lagging into June. Yeah? Also in Q2, we will see the effect of this scheduled maintenance. That means for the full year, in the course of the year, production will ramp up. For the total year, we also assume that there will be a decline in production.
Okay. Yeah, coming back to the last part of the question, you still relate it to maintenance. The market environment has no impact on this. Apart from the maintenance, you would do a full production on all sides, particular, you know?
Yeah.
Referring a bit, I know you're not giving specific information on your sides. As you know, Württemberg, for example, has a special relevance for us. You might give as much information as you can regarding the situation in Württemberg.
There's no particular point to one or the other plant. It is just two are in regular maintenance.
Mm-hmm.
Typically, we have maintenance schedules of 30 months or plus. Now two of them are in maintenance at the beginning of this year, so Q1 and somehow Q2. Besides this, we see really a very good demand for ethanol, there's no point in not limiting production or whatsoever. We fulfill our contracts. The only issue is scheduled marketing maintenance in two months, in the first month of this financial year.
Yeah. Great. That's reassuring. I also know that this is a call on Q1, and you usually do not talk too much about the coming quarter. Still, I mean, it has been clear that Q1 compared to last year's Q1 came in lower. Given that you have repeated your guidance, it should be fair for us to assume that Q2 results should increase compared to the Q1 results. Otherwise, I would guess it would be hard to reach your guidance just from the second half of the year. Is that a fair assumption, or do you see it that way? Is that your planning, or do you think differently?
You're right. Typically, we or not typically, we don't give quarterly forecasts, yeah? In the, given the volatility and also the overall uncertainty with the Ukraine war, a lot can happen, yeah. But as a, as a trend, if you compare our Q1 result and our full year guidance, it's clear that during the course of the year, and particularly in the second half, we assume an improvement of our financial figures, but we do not give quarterly outlooks.
Okay. One point should be the improved production, though, as you just said, not coming back to the usual level, but still, production should increase from the level in Q1, as I understood. Are we also seeing some improvement with regard to your hedging situation in Q2 compared to Q1? As I understand it, I mean, you should have made positive result on your ethanol hedges and a negative effect on your wheat hedges. Is that situation changing to the better or the worse in the coming quarter?
No, you're fully right. We have, for also, given the uncertainty and the high grain prices we have seen after the Russian aggression against Ukraine, we also have. That's what I said, what you have seen in the working capital section, that we have negative market values for the wheat futures. They are consumed within the first six months, gradually the hedging situation will improve, because now prices have come down, and we, the futures that we now take into our books, they are far below the prices which we have seen last year. We first have to consume, let's say, also the expensive hedges of last year, which is in the course of the first months of this year.
Great. Thank you very much. That's it from my side for now. Probably I come back later, if something pops up again. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Moers.
Ladies and gentlemen, I repeat, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one. Our next question is from Thomas Schießle. Please go ahead with your question, sir.
Hello, Dr. Meeder, this is Thomas Schießle from Frankfurt.
Yes, good morning.
Good morning. Question on big figure. Revenue had been down 19%, production had been down 21% for the first quarter, and prices had been down for ethanol, - 20%, more than 20%. How did you manage to make such a big amount of revenues? Question is especially on the product mix you generated in the first quarter, and what are your expectations concerning the product mix in the coming quarters, please?
there are not too many changes, if not that the co-products were very successfully. Especially our gluten sales have benefited from high prices. typically, the product mix or the revenue mix in between ethanol and the co-product is 80/20, and in the first quarter, it was 70/30. we benefited from a good situation on the co-product side.
Will this mix relation hold on for the coming quarters, so 30%- 70%?
Difficult to say. I would say the long-term trend is 80/20. This is when prices and is normalized. Typically, we have this because we have seen this 80/20 on average over the last years. I would assume that this will also go back to 80/20, but it's difficult to say with what will be the timeframe, because there's also somehow pressure on the co-product pricing linked to the decrease in the grain prices. I think we will. So far in Q1, we benefited with, it will hold on for some time, but in a long, longer term perspective, I think we will see again 80/20 ratio.
Speaking to gluten perspectives, is there a change, structural change, of demand deriving from the change in pork production in the EU, especially in Germany. Decreased pork production is expected?
Gluten particularly goes to aqua feed, so it's a very good product for aqua feed. You are right. We see there are two trends that we see on the nutrition side. One is that a lot of what is called bio when people are under due to inflation and decreased purchasing power, so gluten, no, not, sorry, not gluten, so bioproducts have been decreased. We also, they are fully right, we see a decrease in meat consumption. It's a global trend, yeah. Given a decrease in meat consumption, also the co-products can get under price pressure, but this can also then, can easily change.
For the time being, you are right, there's pressure on the meat consumption and linked to that, also to the pricing.
Mm-hmm.
It's never again, it's very volatile, and it, the situation is not fully clear how to continue.
Okay, other question from my side would be on financial results. You improved your financial results quite dramatically. This is fine. Shall we take the Q1 financial results as a proxy for the coming quarters, or shall we take higher numbers because you will increase the financial assets base?
I mean, given the positive analysis for the full year financial guidance, the net cash position is positively supported, yes. It will depend on the interest situation. There's also the interests are high. If I look to the banking forecast, interests will continue to rise. This will continue positively. The second point, which is more difficult to predict, that's the EUR GBP ratio.
Mm-hmm.
Given that our daughter company, Ensus, is financed in Euro, the Euro GBP exchange rate also has an impact on unrealized interest expense or income.
Mm-hmm.
This is difficult to fluctuate. For the financial asset side, this is to be continued.
Okay. You don't disclose, the net financial, obligations for Wilton, don't you?
This is intercompany financing. What we disclose is the net financial exposition of the group, and you find also the, yeah, in the balance sheet, the financial receivables.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
We do not disclose it, group by group.
Mm
or group company by group company.
Yeah. Third question is on your strategy concerning defossilization. Generation 2 projects, could you please be more specific on your projects? Give some more light on that, please.
Which one? Which one, sorry?
The generation 2
Second generation.
Yeah, advanced-
Yeah
... biofuels, so to speak.
Yeah. I cannot disclose more for the moment.
Ah
... it's still ongoing. As a trend, you can see, I've seen in the political section, I've touched the point that the crop cap is unchanged in Europe. On a European level, the first-generation biofuels can contribute up to 7% energetic value to meeting the climate goals. This is a freeze, that means this is positive because it secures the existing business model, not only of CropEnergies, but of the entire European biofuels industry. This is positive. It also shows that the growth fields for biofuels is in the second generation, yeah.
You've seen in the market section that the ethanol demand is still increasing. This increase in demand, it can be met by imports, but I'm not such a friend of imports because I like because I'm fully feel European, and I think we should strengthen our European industry in having European solutions for European demand and not leaving to new dependencies to, let's say, China or other countries. It is good if we have a thorough European thinking, so I'm fully in favor of that. If we then wish to have more biofuels in Europe, this is then in the field of second generation.
Second generation means that it's all kind of waste and residues, so it could be straw, but it also could be industrial waste, which still contain carbohydrates, and those carbohydrates for out of residue or waste streams, they can be fermented into ethanol, and I believe this is a very strategic-wise and also political-wise, a very interesting field. As I said, we have a project in that, and we are close to finalization, and as soon as we have more details to publish, we will do so.
What is your feeling concerning, increase of capacities for advanced biofuels? What is your feeling? Does the industry increases its capacities on behalf of meeting the expected demand, or are they still reluctant?
I can only speak for CropEnergies and not for competitors. We will increase our capacity, yeah, and for 2G, we look into projects, and we're very positive that we will find some projects. We have seen projects in Europe on straw ethanol. There are some projects ongoing on this Clariant technology you can find on the Clariant homepage. But there are different technical pathways for second generation. Yes, I do believe for CropEnergies that we will have projects, and I assume also for others, because it's interesting fields, but I don't have information of competitors' view on that. All in all, I believe this we will see this trend.
There will be capacity additions in the field of second generation, because it's also the clear political wish, and there are obliged blending mandates under RED III, so this will come. It will take time, but it will come.
Okay, coming to the next new business area, bio-based chemicals. your project in sites is the total investment of maximum EUR 130 million really fixed? Is there a cap on the investment amount, or is there still some surprises to foresee if it comes to the volume?
Yeah. In life, you can never exclude surprises, I know. We have a very thorough budgeting process and negotiation process, and the contracts are up, are signed. So far, there's no indication of an increase, but for sure, for you can never exclude everything. As of today, and given the very strict budgeting process that we have, I'm confident that we will stick to the EUR 130 million.
Okay. Still on sites, the energy is produced today at on a coal-fired power house. Will this be changed within the new with the new investment, or will you change it even quicker, and yeah, get your energy from other sources than coal-fired?
I mean, we have a channel, we have a clear path, we call it CE Green Deal, where we want to come to a climate neutrality production. We have started in our BioWanze plant, there we have, we are in the process of realizing the second biomass boiler. BioWanze will be the first plant to be a climate-neutral production, the others will follow. We do not yet have a fully dedicated year-by-year planning when this will come. We will go into all of our plants and to change to climate-neutral production over time. The other plants, as in their planning, are not so advanced like BioWanze. We started with BioWanze, the others will come.
Okay. Thank you so far. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Schießle.
Our next question is from Axel Herlinghaus, from DZ BANK. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking my question. I have just one. It's on the export price pressure. Could you give us an indication how you perceive the current export pressure, especially from Brazil right now? What do you expect, how the Brazilian arbitrage window for exports to EU will develop in the forthcoming months?
Yeah, thank you for that question. It's a very good question. If I look into the global ethanol prices, there have been in the past situations where the European prices have been clearly above the Houston price, U.S., or Santos price, Brazil, or Philippines price. Typically, if the European prices is far above the other international prices, then we get import pressure, because then it gets interesting for the exporters to import into Europe. When I look into current prices, they are pretty on, pretty close, yeah. At each time, where the prices were pretty close, the arbitrage for imports or exports into Europe is closed, then typically the European prices went up again.
This is, if history would duplicate, this could be seen as a positive indicator to rising European prices, what we believe in. It's very difficult because in this, the volatile markets, everything can happen. Also, ethanol prices can show other reactions. If I just take the comparison of European prices and international prices, one, yes, the arbitrage is closed, and second, this could be a starting point for higher European prices.
Okay. Thank you very much.
There are no further questions at this time, and I hand back to Dr. Stephan Meeder for closing comments.
Okay. Thank you to all and for your interest in joining our conference call and your questions. On the last page of the presentations, you'll find our financial calendar. The next possibility to meet is our general assembly, and looking very much forward to being in contact with you. Thank you very much, and I wish you a nice day. Thank you very much. Goodbye.