Good morning, and welcome to this Q3 2021 presentation for BoroGuard. My name is Per Sohle. I'm the CEO of the company. I will be joined this morning by our Chief Financial Officer, Peer Bjarno Lindstad, and we will take you through the following agenda. I'll go into the highlights for the Q3.
The market situation in each of the business segments. We have made an investment in when I called Alginor during the Q3. I'll give you some brief background on that. And then the outlook for the remainder of the year. And then Pejarni will take over and go through the financial performance in more detail.
First, the highlights for the 3rd quarter. We delivered an EBITDA of SEK391,000,000 up from SEK 2 66,000,000 in the same quarter last year. We saw a very strong performance across a number of areas, Particularly in the biosolutions business, we continued the strong development that we have seen during the last two quarters. We had higher deliveries and improved product mix in Biomaterials. We had a high sales volume and increased sales price in for bioethanol.
And in the energy side, Borraguard The bulk of Borraguard or the majority of Borraguard's energy consumption is secured through long term contracts, but we do have a share of the energy that can fluctuate with the spot prices in LNG and electricity. And during this quarter, we saw a high spot energy prices, which had a negative impact in this particular quarter. On the other hand, the lower wood costs continue to contribute in a positive way to the result. We also saw a very strong cash flow in the quarter. And as I mentioned, in July, we made an investment in a company called Olginur Assa that I will revert to in a minute.
If you take a look at the business areas and the market situation. 1st, in BioSolutions. The average price in sales currency came in 19% above the same quarter last year. So this is more or less in line with what we have seen recently. The price increases is a combination of real price increases, Reduced sales volume to low applications that give a technical higher average in price and also a favorable development in product mix.
So combined, those 3 drivers gave a price increase of 19% versus last year. The sales volume is 7% lower versus the Q3 last year, and this is, of course, due to the reduced raw material base, we think that roughly 90,000 tonnes per quarter is a representative of the run rate that we now in production and sales. This was partly compensated the reduced raw material base was then partly compensated by an increased volume from the Florida plant. And the volume reduction, again, is mainly into the low value construction applications. So hence, the development in average price as well.
Then in Biomaterials, We had higher deliveries in Specialty Cellulose compared to the same quarter last year. So there is a positive volume deviation. The actual sales volume in the quarter is just slightly above the production rate, I would say. Reduced sales price is largely offset by improved product mix. As we have communicated for this Calendar year, the price in sales currently should end up 2%, 3% lower than the same price the price last year, and this was also reflected in this quarter, but the improved product mix compensates for this small price reduction.
Then in Fine Chemicals, we had a high sales volume and increased price for attributed positively in this area. In the Fine Chemical Intermediates, we had a slightly lower sales volume compared to the same quarter last year. Then I will talk a few minutes about Olginor. We announced in July that we would make investments in this company. And Algonor is a start up company.
It's a marine biotech company in development based on the West Coast of Norway the city of Harvgesund. It's the core technology here is twofold. It's sustainable harvesting of the seaweed kelp And also, by refining of the kelp raw material into a number of different products. So we are utilizing the whole raw material to make different products. The target markets here will be high value ingredients that go in to a global market for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications.
And what why is this a good match for BoroGuard? Well, both companies have a strategy that's built on full utilization of a sustainable raw material, and that goes into a high value products or a specialized market. And The particularly interesting thing here is the combination that Borraguard has in competence between wood chemicals and wood chemistry and fine chemistry. And I think that particularly relevant when you compare Borraguard and Olga Nord is our background in Fine Chemical Intermediates, where we have a lot of experience from development, scale up, manufacturing and sale of products according to current good manufacturing practice principles and food grade quality, which also would include our Bio Vanlin business. So we think there are a lot of relevant overlap between the two companies in terms of competence and strategy.
And what is our engagement in Alganor? Borragaard will acquire shares in 4 different transactions that will bring our ownership share up to 35% until the end of April 2024. If we go all through with all transactions, we will have invested SEK 270,000,000. If the last tranche is not fully subscribed for whatever reason, The last tranche is SEK 126,000,000 out of the SEK 270,000,000. Then BoroGuard is obliged to pay a break fee of SEK 6,000,000.
Borragaard also has a member of the Board as part of this agreement. And Algonu has already, on several locations, utilized Borraguard's biorefinery demonstration place plant to further the process development of this a blue biorefinery concept. So a long term investment for Borraguard and a development project, I would say. Then on to the outlook for the 4th quarter. And just to remind you at the introduction of this slide, the Q4 is historically our lowest performing quarter for a number of reasons.
I'll remind you why that's the case. The BioSolutions, the sales volume in the 4th quarter is expected will be between 8,500,000 and 90,000 tonnes. So this is slightly below the normal run rate of 90,000 on average. However, the new bio vanillin capacity will be gradually phased into the market, and it will continue to be phased into the market into this Q4. In Biomaterials, the average price for the full year is expected to end up 2% to 3% below the 2020 level.
However, the sales volume in the 4th quarter will be significantly lower than in the same quarter last year. And this is not market related. It's a necessity because we have sold a lot more volume in the 1st 3 quarters than we have actually manufactured. And when we go into the Q4, we expect lower production rate and we already have low inventory. So then we just cannot it's not We are not capable of delivering the same volume that we did last year in this particular quarter.
Fine Chemicals, A weaker sales mix versus the same quarter last year is expected in Fine Chemicals. As you know, we have varying delivery patterns between quarters in Fine Chemical Intermediates, and this particular quarter will be on the low side. Then finally, the production output and energy costs. Every Q4 in October, we have our annual maintenance stop, which, of course, leads to a lower production rate for that particular quarter. This year, we will have an extended annual maintenance stop because we have to install some new equipment That will take more than the normal time.
And also there is, of course, due to COVID-nineteen, there is a lot of things to do and catch up in the maintenance stop these days. Also in the Q4, just to repeat that again, most of Borragaard's energy volume is secured through long term pricing in long term contracts. However, we do buy some spot of liquefied natural gas and electricity, and we expect that this situation will prevail, of course, in the Q4, which will give us some further increase in energy costs across all business areas compared to the Q3 in 2021. So that summarizes the outlook for the Q4. Then I will hand over to Pejbjorna or the financial figures.
Thank you, Per, and good morning, everyone. Borregoeur's operating revenues increased by 13% compared with the 3rd quarter last year, from strong sales in both Biosolutions and Biomaterials. EBITDA increased by close to 50% to NOK391,000,000 compared with NOK266,000,000 in the Q3 of 2020. Biosolutions had a significant Improvement in EBITDA, also fine chemicals improved, while Biomaterials had a result in line with last year. High spot prices for liquefied natural gas and electricity led to increased energy costs for all business areas in the quarter.
This was partly offset by lower wood costs. The net currency impact was positive by NOK 5,000,000 compared with the same quarter last year. The EBITDA margin of slightly above 27% was more than 6 percentage points higher than last year. And earnings per share ended at NOK 2.12%, a significant improvement compared with the same quarter last year. Operating revenues in BIOSOLUTIONS increased by 14% compared with the Q3 last year.
Price increases and a favorable product mix more than compensated for the lower sales volume. EBITDA increased by NOK119,000,000 to NOK 251,000,000. The significant EBITDA improvement was mainly due to the continued impact from increased sales prices and the favorable product mix, partly offset by increased energy cost. Biosolutions is actually the business area in BoroGuard, which has the largest impact from higher prices for energy. The net currency effects were slightly positive compared with last year.
And BIOSOLUTIONS had a strong EBITDA margin of 30% in the quarter, an increase of 12 percentage points compared with the same quarter last year. In Biomaterials, operating revenues increased by 16% compared with the Q3 last year, mainly from higher deliveries of Specialty Cellulose. EBITDA was NOK 91,000,000 in line with the Q3 last year. Higher deliveries of specialty cellos and lower wood costs compensated for reduced sales prices and increased spot energy prices. The net currency impact was slightly positive in this area.
The EBITDA margin was close to 23%, 3 percentage points above last year. Fine Chemicals had operating revenues in line with the same quarter last year. EBITDA increased by SEK 6 NOK1000000 to NOK49 1,000,000. The EBITDA improvement was mainly due to high sales volume and increased sales is for Bio Vanillin. The bio no, for sorry, for bioethanol.
The bioethanol production volume continued at high level, with improved yield and lower costs. Fine Chemical Intermediates had a result in line with the same quarter last year. And the net currency impact in Fine Chemicals was insignificant in this quarter. And EBITDA margin was 37%, 4 percentage points above last year. The net currency impact on EBITDA was positive by NOK 5,000,000 compared with the Q3 of 2020.
The slightly positive impact came from reduced hedging losses, which more than offset the negative impact from a close to 4% stronger Norwegian kroner using BoroGuard's currency basket. Hedging losses were reduced by NOK 35,000,000 to NOK 16,000,000. And using currency rates as of yesterday, the net currency impact in the 4th quarter is estimated to be 0 compared with the Q4 of 2020. And the corresponding impact for the full year is estimated to be minus NOK 65,000,000 not compared with 2020. Borraguard had a strong cash Flow from operating activities also in the 3rd quarter, mainly due to the strong result.
In addition, tax payments were low in the quarter. Total investments reached NOK 219,000,000 in the quarter. Out of this, NOK 163,000,000 was expansion investments where the main expenditure was related to the investment in shares in Algin The net interest bearing debt decreased by NOK 128,000,000 in the quarter. At the end of the Q3, Borraguard was again well capitalized with an equity ratio of 58% and a leverage ratio, which is net interest bearing debt over EBITDA of SEK 1.08. And that concludes today's presentation.
Per Schirley and I will now be ready to answer any questions.