Hello, everyone. I'm Sebastián Moraga, CFO of CMPC. I would like to welcome you to our fourth quarter 2025 earnings webinar. Joining me today are Francisco Ruiz-Tagle, CEO of CMPC, Raimundo Varela, Chief Commercial Officer of Pulp and boxboard, and Claudia Cavada, our Head of Investor Relations. Please note that the statements made today during the presentation and Q&A may include forward-looking statements to assist you in understanding our expectations for future performance. These statements are subject to some risks that could cause actual results and events materially differ. In the fourth quarter of 2025, sales amounted roughly to $1.9 billion, and net income was $37 million. The pulp business generated an EBITDA of $168 million, with an EBITDA margin of 21.9%.
The Softys business reported an EBITDA of $107 million, increasing 13% quarter-over-quarter and 3% year-on-year, with an EBITDA margin of 12.4%. This business has experienced increased competition in its markets, especially in Brazil, where the tissue paper installed capacity has increased substantially. Also, weaker macroeconomics impacting consumption in other markets, especially Mexico and Argentina, have limited our ability to increase prices. Biopackaging reported an EBITDA of $7 million during the period, with a margin of 2.8%. The fluctuations of these three businesses versus previous quarters are highlighted in the slide. In the fourth quarter, the composition of CMPC sales was $767 million from the pulp business, $868 million from Softys, and $254 million from Biopackaging.
The 1% consolidated quarter-over-quarter sales growth was driven primarily by the pulp business. Pulp increased by 6% quarter-over-quarter, reflecting higher international prices and increased sales volume of hardwood pulp. Softys decreased 1% on lower volumes in the tissue paper unit, while Biopackaging decreased by 5%, mainly on lower sales volume. The year-over-year variation reflects an 8% drop in pulp and forestry sales, largely explained by a lower average price. In Biopackaging, a 12% drop was recorded as a result of a lower sales volume, and in the case of Softys, a 9% increase was observed, explained by a higher sales volume, along with a lower average price in U.S. dollar terms. Operating costs increased 1% quarter-over-quarter and 2% year-over-year.
Operating costs increased quarter-on-quarter due to higher sales volume, and year-on-year, mainly by the consolidation of Falcon in Brazil. Other operating expenses amounted to $348 million in the fourth quarter, increasing 4% quarter-on-quarter and 5% year-on-year. Quarter-on-quarter were related to higher expenses in Softys and, to a lesser extent, in pulp and Biopackaging. Given the aforementioned effects, on a consolidated basis, the company's fourth quarter EBITDA was $262 million, where the contribution of the pulp segment was 59%, Softys was 39%, and Biopackaging was 2%. Net income totaled $37 million during the period, an increase from $34 million obtained in the previous quarter and from the $10 million obtained in the fourth quarter of 2024.
The quarter-on-quarter increase was driven by higher EBITDA and favorable exchange rate differences. In the year-on-year comparison, the increase in net income is largely explained by lower income tax expenses and favorable exchange rate differences. Capital expenditures in the third quarter totaled $179 million, which compares with $176 million reported on the third quarter and to $261 million recorded on the fourth quarter of last year. The year-on-year comparison is explained by lower maintenance expenses. Now, I'd like to turn the presentation over to Claudia, who will provide more details on our results by business.
Thank you, Sebastián, and good morning, everyone. We will begin with the pulp business. In the fourth quarter, our total pulp production was up 2% quarter-over-quarter and 4% year-over-year. The growth was mainly due to lower maintenance downtimes. Breaking this down, hardwood production was 936,000 tons, up 6% quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year as well. Softwood production was 180,000 tons, a decrease of 14% from last quarter and 6% from the prior year. These fluctuations reflect time differences in our maintenance schedule. Looking at our sales volume, pulp volume sold to third parties increased by 5% quarter-over-quarter and decreased 2% year-over-year.
In the quarterly comparison, hardwood volume was up 7%, driven by higher exports to China, while softwood volume declined 4%, reflecting lower sales to Asia, ex-China, and Europe. In a year-over-year comparison, pulp sales volumes declined by 2%. Hardwood sales were up 2%, driven by higher exports to China, and softwood sales decreased by 16%, primarily from lower exports to China, the rest of Asia, and Europe. On the pricing side, the average sales price for softwood in the second quarter was $663 per ton, a decrease of 4% from last quarter and 12% from last year. The average sales price for hardwood was five hundred and twenty-nine dollars per ton, up 4% quarter-over-quarter and down 8% year-over-year.
As a result, revenues for the pulp business totaled $607 million, increasing 8% quarter-over-quarter and increasing 9% year-over-year. In our forestry business, sales volume was 993,000 cubic meters. These volumes were stable quarter-over-quarter and up 15% year-over-year, reflecting stronger sales of pulpwood, Selex, and other forestry products. Combined, total revenues for our pulp and forestry businesses were $767 million, up 6% from the previous quarter and down 8% from last year. Next, let's look at the pulp cash costs per ton. For hardwood, cash costs were $228 per ton, an increase of 4% quarter-over-quarter and a 1% year-over-year.
The quarterly increase was driven by higher costs of chemicals, wood, and labor, partially offset by lower costs of energy. year-over-year, there were increases in the wood costs and chemicals, while we saw decreases in energy and labor. For softwood, cash costs reached $403 per ton, up 6% quarter-over-quarter and 13% year-over-year. The quarterly increase was driven by a higher cost of energy and materials, while chemicals decreased. year-over-year, all cost lines increased, with the most significant increase recorded in energy and wood. The EBITDA for the pulp business was $168 million, marking a 4% increase quarter-over-quarter and a forty-se-- a 27% decrease year-over-year. The EBITDA margin was 21.9%.
The quarterly increase in EBITDA was mainly due to higher sales volume together with a higher price in hardwood. The year-over-year decrease was a result of the lower average sales price. Next, let's discuss our Softys business. This quarter, the market remained highly competitive. In response, we have sharpened our focus on brand building and positioning, particularly for our personal care products and in markets with strong growth potential. Softys revenues for the fourth quarter totaled $868 million. This is a 1% decrease from the third quarter and a 9% increase year-over-year. Let's break down the volume. Tissue paper volumes decreased by 3% QoQ and increased 2% year-over-year. Personal care volumes increased by 3% in the quarterly comparison and 24% year-over-year. This growth largely reflects the integration of Falcon Diapers operations in Brazil.
In terms of pricing, the average sales price for tissue products increased 3% quarter-over-quarter and declined 2% year-over-year, reflecting the latter case, the currency appreciation across Latin America. For personal care, the average price increased by 3% quarter-over-quarter and a year-over-year, also reflecting currency appreciation in the region together with a highly competitive environment. Softys EBITDA for the third quarter was $107 million, with a 12.4% margin. This represents a 13% increase from the pre-previous quarter, and it's a 3% increase year-over-year. Next, let's discuss our Biopackaging business. Sales volume for the quarter decreased by 3% from the prior quarter and 12% year-over-year.
The quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year decline were primarily driven by lower volumes of Boxboard and reflect the high inventory stocks observed globally in the Boxboard and other paper industry due to a contraction in the packaging markets. Our average sales price in U.S. dollars was down by 1% quarter-over-quarter and remained stable year-over-year. As a result, revenues for the Biopackaging totaled $254 million, down 5% from the last quarter and 12% from the same period of last year. The quarterly decrease was a direct result of the lower sales volumes and a lower average selling price. Biopackaging EBITDA for the third quarter was down 61% from the prior quarter and 63% year-over-year, reflecting lower volumes.
Our EBITDA margin for the quarter was 2.8%, a decrease from the 6.8% we saw in the third quarter and the 6.6% from the fourth quarter of last year.
Thank you very much, Claudia. We ended the third quarter of the year with roughly $5 billion of net debt, which decreased 1% quarter-on-quarter and increased 3% year-on-year. Cash totaled $900 million. The net debt to EBITDA ratio reached 3.97x in the fourth quarter of 2025, which compares to 3.79x in the third quarter of this year and 3.15x in the fourth quarter of 2024. Now, I would like to highlight some events that occurred during this last quarter of 2025. In December, CMPC held its Investor Day, bringing together leading analysts and investors. Our senior executives presented the company's strategy to address current challenges in the paper sector, including increased Chinese pulp and paper production, tissue overcapacity in Brazil, and weaker demand in Mexico.
We also shared our financing plan and provided further details on the scope of the Natureza Project. In January 2026, we signed the concession contract to build a private terminal at the Port of Rio Grande in Brazil. This port infrastructure will be essential to support the Natureza Project, which is expected to be submitted to our board of directors for approval in mid-2026. Additionally, CMPC achieved a triple A rating from the Carbon Disclosure Project. This recognition underscores our leadership in managing climate risks, responsible water use, and forest protection, aligned with international standards. With that, Claudia, we can now start our Q&A section.
Thank you, Sebastián. Please recall that you can make your question just...
... raising your hand or just in the chat box. Let's recall that we have today here, Sebastián Moraga, Raimundo Varela, and in the line, Francisco Ruiz-Tagle. We have a first question coming from Safra, Ricardo Monegaglia. Ricardo, the floor is yours.
Hello, everyone. I have two. First, on how do you see the current prices given potential new capacity coming from China in 2026? And do I understand that customers pushing back on pricing volumes at current levels giving their market space? Do you think you're comfortable to also disclose how or how your order book was in recent months or maybe January, that would be great. And my second question on Softys' margin surprised us. So can you break down how much mix, volumes, and cost normalization? And what gives you confidence that Softys' margins can continue expanding, especially given the recent appreciation of local currencies against the U.S. dollar? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Ricardo. This is Raimundo. I'll take your first question regarding the market. We have had a successful contract negotiation. You know, at the end of the year, we negotiate the contract for the following year, and we were able to close 100% of our volume for 2026. In some cases, we even have over demand in some regions. So in general, I think it was a good contract negotiation season for us. And then regarding placing the January orders, we had a good feeling of the market, I think, in January. In China, we closed January and February with price increases for both months. So I think that the situation in hardwood in general, I think is healthy.
Softwood is a bit, it's a little bit different. Our volume in softwood is not so big, so we were able to place it without problem. But the market in softwood is a bit more difficult. There is more volume available, there is a bit of less appetite, less demand. So I think hardwood quite positive. Softwood a little bit more difficult.
Okay, the second part of the question was connected with Softys. Could you please repeat the question? I couldn't take it very well.
Yeah, sure. So margins were a positive surprise to us in the quarter. So I wonder if you could break down how much of this margin growth came from pricing, mix, volumes, and maybe cost normalization. And what gives you confidence that Softys' margins can continue to expand through the year, especially as we saw a recent appreciation of local currencies against the U.S. dollar, which does not bode well to your margins?
Okay. Well, thank you very much for the question. First of all, I can say that the situation of the volume during the last quarter in Softys been better compared with the rest of the year, so improving in some way, volumes. So it's all, it's affected with that. Also, in Softys, we have been in a plan for price increases during the last quarter. As you know, there were, there are some economies affected during, in Latin America, some overcapacity in Brazil and in Mexico, so some competitive situation that is also challenging us. But, even considering that, we have been successful in increasing prices.
In connection with the revaluation of the currencies, I would say this is basically, it's good news for Softys in the sense that, we're increasing our prices in dollar in general, and the market we're participating, and affected negatively from the cost side, but in some for costs that are based in local currency. But in general, a lower revaluation of currencies is affecting positively the result of that business.
Thank you very much. Understood.
Thank you, Ricardo. The next question comes from Goldman Sachs, Marcio Farid. Hello, Marcio. Welcome.
Thanks, Claudia. Hi, good morning, everyone. Thanks for the time. Quick one on me for Natureza. Obviously, you've done the revaluation of forest assets on the balance sheet, basically, mark to market the forest value. That seems to better reflect the value of your asset, but it also seems to be a preparation for a potential alienation or sale of forest assets for the Natureza project, right? Can you, you know, just remind us what... How are you thinking about preparing the balance sheet for an eventual Natureza approval? What is the next step here? Obviously, I think you have to finalize the licensing and then take it to the board by mid-year.
But you just mentioned the port agreement, which is also an important one. So just to try to think what are the next steps and the confidence you have that you're gonna have the balance sheet ready for Natureza's kickoff. Thank you.
Okay, thank you, Marcio, for your question. Let me start first for the what is the status of Natureza and answering some of your concerns about this. And also, hello? Hello?
Hey, it's okay.
We can hear.
We can hear.
Hello? You can hear. I'm sorry. So, let me answer part of your question, and then I will pass to Sebastián to talk a little bit about the balance. But of course, we are, you know, in a process of preparing the company for this possible project. And I say possible because it has not been still approved by the board. The situation today is that we are still in the process of obtaining the environmental permits required for all these technical studies for this project. And we are expecting to present the project to the Board of Directors by mid-May 2026.
100%, you know, aligned with the project. And so we are today, you know, preparing everything for having this ready. And we have had important advancement in terms of engineering of the project in general, and you know, with some negotiations and definitions, of course. And still, you know, waiting for the previous license, what is the next step, which is we're under a kind of a normal period process. And the previous license should be ready by probably... we're expecting that within the next couple of months. And then, you know, the installation license, probably couple of months after that.
So in general, I have to say that everything is advancing without any particular problem. And probably, Sebastián Moraga can explain to you what we did about the revaluation of the land, but it's not necessarily connected with the project. It's part of a revision that we did. But a part of that, I can tell you that we are, you know, of course, preparing the best way to and a responsible way because we have a, we have a really clear target in our debt levels. And so we have a are preparing, you know, this in a responsible way to go ahead with the project. So Sebastián Moraga, you can add something about our changes and the valuation of the land.
Marcio, regarding the land revaluation, basically, the decision to do that was to provide better information of the value embedded in our balance sheet to the market. That does not necessarily mean we want to do something with the land, but basically, it was driven to provide better information to the market. Now, to your question regarding balance sheet, as we mentioned on the Investor Day, first of all, Investment Grade status for the company is cornerstone, and in that sense, we have been very close with rating agencies. We have provided them the plan that we have in mind in terms of deleveraging the company to take the decision of Natureza with a stronger balance sheet.
And obviously, through the construction of Natureza, which obviously will entail a lot of CapEx, we will keep on Investment Grade as a cornerstone, and we're taking all the measures to do that. Now, regarding the monetization plan that we announced on Investor Day, I can obviously comment that the plan is advancing well, but obviously, given the non-disclosure agreements, I cannot comment more on that. Hopefully, in a couple probably the next investor call, we can provide some more color into that.
Sounds good. Thank you. Maybe another follow-up here on the cost side. I think there has been some good cost momentum, at least up to a couple of quarters ago. And I think especially on the softwood side, cash costs have increased a little bit and hardwood costs improving as well. Can you just, you know, highlight to us what is the expectation in terms of cash costs and the key drivers going forward, please? Thank you.
And Marcio, connected with the cash costs of softwood and hardwood, I would say, yeah, we are ending a year with improvements in cost compared with last year, even compared with our budget. We're very much online and working hard on being, you know, as we said before in other meetings, working hard on being P10. I mean, so I would say my impression is that we are, you know, improving per ton cost on the main raw materials, especially wood. And so just to say that, I mean, we will still continue being absolutely competitive, especially in Brazil.
Sounds good. Thank you.
Thank you, Marcio. Please recall that you're welcome to make your questions, just raising your hand. The next question comes from J.P. Morgan, Tatiana Leszczynski. Hi, Tati.
... Hi, Claudia. Hi, good morning, team. So thank you for taking my questions. I think some of them was already explored, but I would just like to focus on the bio-packaging segment. I think the results for this quarter missed a little bit of our expectations, and we understand that this is coming from lower sales and lower realized prices. But I would just like to explore with you what is the future that, like, the long-term margins that you expect for this segment, and how are the plans to achieve that? I think we have been—this has been a segment that results have been struggling a little bit. The environment is not, like, environment for this business is not being that easy. But what are the plans? What is the long-term view that you have on this unit?
Just to give, like, just to understand a little bit with more clarity, what should we expect for the coming, not maybe not quarters, but maybe for the coming years? Thank you.
Probably, Raimundo, you can start explain something about boxboard, and then I continue with the rest of the business.
Thank you for the question. Regarding boxboard, I think it has been no doubt a difficult year and a difficult Q3 and Q4 were quite difficult, I would say. But we are confident. We have a fantastic product. Our boxboard is really, really very, very good quality and extremely appreciated by our customers. And our sales has suffered a bit because the market has been somehow flooded by very low price Asian boxboard. But I think our value proposition is based on extremely good quality and extremely good service, and our customer base has been very loyal to us.
So even though we have lost some volume on the margin, we are confident that this is a good business for CMPC, and that we will be able to recover our sales. And actually, we have been slowly doing that. The prospect for this first half of the year are a little bit better. We are focusing more in markets that appreciate more the service, and we have plans to grow a little bit our sales in the U.S.. We have a very diversified portfolio. So yeah, and no doubt it has been difficult, and this overcapacity will persist for a few years.
But we are confident that our value proposition is strong, and our, our customers will continue to be very loyal to, to us, given our level of service.
As I'm speaking a little bit about the other business we have, under the Biopackaging, analysis we are doing now, and the situation of Sack Kraft. I would say this is the... has been a tough business for us, especially this year. And, I would say, in some way, explain because we are very much concentrated in the construction industry with the cement sacks, and in some countries where we're selling, the economic situation is not the best, and, and we are, in some way recovering this position. We have, as you know, we are participating strongly in this business in Chile, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, and some export to the United States. And, so in some part, it has to be with that. But also, I can say that, we are...
have been, have had some operational problems, especially in Mexico, so we affected the production there, and it was affected then the export to the United States. That's an important market for this business and even the sales in Mexico. And, in that sense, I would say that we have a strong recovery plan already in place, and so we should be, you know, improving, increasing our capacity, our potential production. And looking to the future, as you said before, we believe that, you know, this paper alternative for packaging has an important future. We really have a lot of confidence in that.
We believe that this business has will, you know, will—should be, you know, improving its results, and not only because of more sales, but also we're improving cost production. And also, I can say that what we have, you know, our operations in Brazil, also, we see that we continue improving. We have an acquisition there in 2 years, 3 years ago. So our expectation for the future, and basically, we are based on a very competitive fiber in this side of the world, softwood, for producing this kind of product, should be competitive. And so we see with good eyes the improving of the results and the development of this for the future.
Thank you. Thank you, guys. If I may just have, like, do another question. I saw in the release, and we have been seeing some news on the fires that we have been having in Chile. Can you just comment if you are expecting any type of impacts on your production or anything that we should be in alert over these fires? Thank you.
Okay, let me tell you something about the fires. It is. We have been, you know, in a, we're in a fire season during this time. This is summer here, but we have had very warm days, and we had some important fires last week. But CMPC was, of course, affected. We have lost till now about less than 2,000 hectares, which is not significant at all, when you consider the whole forest, you know, base we have. So our facilities will not be affected for that. But just to say that, always the fire season is something that we are concerned about that.
We see some intentionality here and, or negligence, so this is something that is concern to us. But we have a very good team, you know, prepared for attacking the fire, for preventing fires. And so actually I'm just in the south of Chile, and I met this morning the people, and we are really, I would say, very well organized to, you know, to face this situation. But of course it's a concern in Chile during this time of the year. But we are not expecting to stop any of our operations.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Tatiana. The next question comes from Bradesco, Matheus Moreira. Hi, Matheus, are you there?
Yes. Hi, Claudia. Thank you. Morning, all. So just one follow-up question here on my side on the Softys division. I mean, we've seen quite challenging market conditions across most of your geographies, right? So I'd like to get your thoughts on what we should expect for the division in 2026, and also if you could provide more detail on the internal efficiency initiatives you're implementing to partly offset these more challenging market dynamics. Thank you.
Well, thank you, Mateo. Actually, yes, we have been—we are challenged in some of the countries we are participating with the Softys. I would say that we have a very important position in this market in Latin America. Probably where we have the most important challenge today is in Brazil. Brazil and Mexico. And why is that? Because we are seeing an overcapacity and some, you know, economic conditions that are not the best in terms of demand. And for overcapacity, we are seeing today in Brazil is probably close to 40% and 25% in Mexico, around that. So this is, of course, affecting in some way the business.
It means that we are in kind of a very competitive situation. But I would say that just to mention to you that in the case of our Softys business, we are, you know, working hard in improving the situation, working hard on cost. We believe that we will be, you know, successful while basically working on four pillars. We are, you know, to fortify this tissue business. Firstly, we are working in leverage our unique footprint that we to serve our key areas. Second, we are now with a very strong and concrete program for lowering our cost, production cost, improving efficiencies in every facility.
We are trying to actually get the more, the most healthy margins, considering that we are in this competitive situation. I have to say that we have an important experience in the region, in this business, and we believe that we will be, you know, successful in that. Thirdly, we are also working on the distribution network to reach our new clients and to work more on capillarity. So this is also another important area where we are, you know, working on.
The other thing I would mention is that the personal care business that we are also, you know, improving and making it more important for CMPC, not only in the market I already mentioned, but in general, in Latin America, in general. So, I would say that we have a very clear pillars to continue working on this and making this business more competitive and improving our results.
Perfect, that's clear. And maybe if I could, another follow-up questions on pulp, on pulp cost particularly. I mean, we've seen a kind of steady increase in cash costs on the softwood side in recent quarters, now surpassing the $400 per ton level. I'd like to better understand what is driving these increases and whether they are structural or temporary. Thanks.
Okay, in terms of the softwood cost in the quarter, actually, yeah, it's a little bit higher, but, but, I would say that it's not, it's not, nothing is structural. Still, you know, working and improving our efficiency in the mills, and it means that we are looking for using less wood per ton of pulp, improving our specifics in chemicals, et cetera. So I am not seeing, you know, a complex situation or anything in the cost of softwood. In the case of hardwood, I'm sorry, hardwood. In the case of softwood, it is true we're a little over $400, which is not the best cost, you know?
I don't see a kind of a permanent situation on that, probably affected because of the distance of some forests to the mills. But in general terms, I have, I have to say that there is a room for improving in softwood, working on that, making them more efficient and... Yeah, I see that the most probably you will see better cost in the future. Mm. Okay, thank you. Understood.
Thank you, Matheus. The next question comes from LarrainVial Juraj Tomsic. Hello, are you there?
Hello, good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning. Oh, perfect. Just a quick question regarding the concession for the private port in Rio Grande. What CapEx do you expect in the port? And just to confirm, if this port is included in the $4.5 budget for Natureza?
Okay, yes, the concession was almost approved not many days ago, so we are very... First of all, we have to say that we are very, we feel very good about that because the port is a crucial aspect in this kind of project. Very crucial. We have today an operation that where we have the capacity for the mill, for the operation we have to date there, so this association is very important. What we are doing there is not a, this is a, it will be a joint venture, this concession, this future project. It will be a joint venture.
For CMPC, the investment is, it's still under analysis, I cannot tell you exactly what is that, but a bit over $100 million, between $150 million and $170 million, around that. And, it's not included in the $4.6.
Okay, perfect. Thank you.
Mm-hmm.
Thank you, Juraj. We have another question coming from Karina Pasut, Itaú BBA. Hi, Karina.
Hi, everyone. Hello? Hello?
Yes. Yeah, a bit, a bit aloud, please.
So my question is regarding the non-strategic sales of assets. You mentioned that that would be part of how you were envisioning improving the balance sheet, so I was wondering whether there was any advance on that side.
Yes, Karina, as I mentioned earlier, we are advancing on the different avenues that we commented on the Investor Day, which encompasses forests, wind power opportunities, land for commercial purposes. And what I can comment, obviously, all these processes are under NDA, non-disclosure agreements, so we are comfortable with the speed of advancement, and, as I mentioned earlier, I hope we can comment into more detail on the next investor call.
Perfect. Thank you.