Welcome to Empresas Copec fourth quarter 2022 results conference call. Today's presentation and the fourth quarter 2022 earnings release are available on the company's investor relations website, investors.empresascopec.cl. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this presentation may include market outlooks and forward-looking statements which are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Empresas Copec management and on information currently available to the company. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they relate to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors could also affect the future results of Empresas Copec and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements.
This presentation contains certain performance measures that have been adjusted with the respect to IFRS definitions such as EBITDA. In this opportunity, questions will be received in written form. If you have a question, please write it down in the Q&A session. Please be aware that your company's name should be visible for your question to be taken. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Rodrigo Huidobro, Chief Financial Officer of Empresas Copec. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you very much. Hello, everyone. Sorry for the delay. We had a small tech problem. Thank you all for joining us today in this conference call, where we'll be taking a look at the results of fourth quarter 2022 for Empresas Copec. For that purpose, I'm joined here today by people from our investor relations department, led by Mr. Cristián Palacios, and also people from Arauco led by Mr. Gianfranco Truffello. They will all be helping us out in the Q&A session at the end of the presentation. Having said that, let us go to the main findings here for the quarter. As you can see there on the screen, this was a quarter where we recorded lower results than what we had been recording for the last few quarters.
That had to do essentially with a drop in the results in our forestry sector, in the different divisions in our forestry sector. Together with that, we recorded a couple of non-recurrent, non-operational results, which were also very significant for the quarter and for the year as a whole. If you go division by division, you can see that in forestry we had a drop in volumes, offset by higher prices in pulp and panels, but in general, a drop in volumes across all segments. We had increased costs for all segments as well. A drop in volumes as well when we compared with the immediately preceding quarter. Drop in volumes and in prices in pulp and wood.
As I said, a very strong non-operational result, non-recurring, we had to do with revaluation of biological assets and also impairments of assets. We'll look at some more of that in detail going forward. In energy, it was a good quarter. We had good results in energy. We had higher margins at Copec, MAPCO and Terpel, together with higher volumes at Terpel. A slight decrease in volumes in Chile, together with a decrease in volumes in MAPCO, which has to do essentially with the fact that at the beginning of the year we sold out approximately 10% of the total gas stations of MAPCO. In terms of other developments and projects during the quarter, we had the beginning of operations at MAPA by the end of the quarter.
Together with that, we had the closing of the acquisition operation for Blue Express, this last mile logistics company, which was acquired by Copec, and also the authorization to enter the digital payments industry. We had Mina Justa in Peru, the copper mine in Peru, completing the first full year of operations. Regarding ESG, Copec continues to make progress very steadily in electromobility, and Empresas Copec was confirmed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and also was awarded some interesting recognitions in a couple of local rankings. Finally, Arauco made good progress in terms of waste revaluation. The numbers for this quarter are $679 million for the EBITDA, which compares of course unfavorably with the latest EBITDA that we had recorded.
We had recorded EBITDA of around $900 million-$1 billion for six quarters in a row, and now we're down to $679 million, which means 25% approximately down year-on-year and 29% quarter-on-quarter. In terms of net income, it's a -$9 million, so it's a loss of $9 million, essentially stemming from the non-operational, non-recurring effects that we mentioned. The main differences in EBITDA come from the forestry sector. As you can see there, Arauco accounts for $235 million of the difference with respect to the EBITDA of the quarter, corresponding quarter of the previous year. This, as I said, is a 25% decrease.
It has to do in forestry, essentially, to drops in volumes, and that applies for pulp, panels and sawn timber, added to a drop in prices of softwood. We also saw higher costs across all divisions. In terms of energy, as I said, there's this increase, an increase in Copec, essentially, and has to do with improved margins, basically across all geographies for Copec. Sorry about that. We're moving on to the net income. The comparison with respect to the fourth quarter of 2021, you can see that essentially the same analysis. The most of the difference comes from Arauco, where we had this drop in operational figures together with this non-recurring effect that we are recording due to impairments, essentially Argentina, and also a negative revaluation of biological assets.
Together with that we had some decreased results in Mina Justa when you compare it with the fourth quarter 2021. Also at the parent company level, because of some negative tax results in this particular quarter when compared with the fourth quarter last year. Getting into some more detail into the numbers, you can see that the, as we said, the net income for the quarter is a loss of $9 million. Operating income amounts to $357 million, which is a decrease of $248 million with respect to last year, to 2021. Once again, it has to do with decreased results at Arauco, coming from volumes and prices going down, essentially across all divisions.
That is offset to a certain extent by our energy division, where we have good margins at Copec in all its geographies. Chile, Colombia and MAPCO in the U.S. with good margins. In terms of non-operational results, we had this impairments of fixed assets, essentially Argentina. We had the revaluation of biological assets, which we do once a year. In this case, turned out negative. There's a huge effect of the increase in interest rates, discount rates for the different countries. A lot of that comes from the effect of interest rates. We also have higher financial expenses associated with higher debt and also of course the increase in interest rates.
Finally a negative exchange rate stemming essentially from some assets that we hold in local currencies that were depreciated when measured in dollars because of the rising exchange rate. All in all, we had, as I said, a net income of -$9 million and an EBITDA of $6 million approx. In terms of our balance sheet, we continue to do well in our financial ratios. Still a good EBITDA margin, but lower than the comparable quarters. A good return on capital employed amounting to 13% compared with 16% last quarter and 13% as well one year before this quarter. Leverage is totally controlled. EBITDA on net interest is at 12.6x. Very good. Net debt to EBITDA is 2.3x. Slightly higher than the preceding quarters.
That is a little bit misleading, though, because it includes a very poor effect of working capital having to do with accounts receivable, essentially with the State of Chile, matter which should be regularized over the next few months. A little misleading, this 2.3x. If we make some adjustments, it should go down to 2.1x. Well into the range that we have defined in our financial policy. And very much controlled net debt to EBITDA. We have a well-balanced debt schedule for the years to come. Although this particular year we're facing a lot of maturities and refinancing requirements. We have started doing so already.
We, in fact, we issued a bond in the local market in November for a total of $254 million in very good conditions. And we are looking at other options to refinance the coming maturities, and on them, of course, as always, as always, local bonds, international bonds. We have local and international credit lines. We have cash at hand and so on and so forth. So, this maturity should be well attended. If we get into more detail for the different divisions. Getting into the forestry sector to start with, you can see that EBITDA went down and reached $408 million compared to $643 million for the comparable quarter, one year before. Which means a decline of $235 million.
As we said before, this stems basically from a deterioration of the market condition in different segments. We had a drop in volumes across all divisions. We had an increase in costs for all divisions as well. We had a decrease in sawn wood or timber prices offset by higher prices in pulp and panels. Markets in general have become more challenging, and we'll see some more of that in a while. Net income, of course, goes down, and part of that has to do, as we explained before, with non-operational factors, which were very significant during this quarter. Other income is impacted by the negative evaluation of biological assets, as I said, stemming in part from the increasing discount rates. We have higher other expenses linked to impairments essentially made in Argentina for our fixed assets.
As we also said before, some negative effects coming from exchange rate differences. If we get deeper into pulp, you can see that EBIT for pulp goes down from $352 million to $282 million this fourth quarter 2022. Also compares unfavorably with the $308 million that we recorded in the third quarter 2022. Year-over-year, the difference is explained basically by lower volumes, offset to a certain extent by higher prices. The difference is also explained by costs going up across all fibers, in percentages that range between 2% and 44%. This is the last case for unbleached software and having to do with the long stoppages that we had to do at the Constitución mill, essentially.
In the quarter-on-quarter comparison, we also see lower prices and also lower volumes in this case. Slight increases in costs also for the different fibers. Once again, unbleached, the increase for unbleached is higher because of this stoppage in one of the mills. A brief discussion of the conditions in the markets for the fourth quarter last year. In general, pulp prices weakened across all geographies. Global inventories increased, now are standing by the end of the year at 49 and 48 days for softwood and hardwood, respectively. We continued to see hardwood restrictions from Scandinavian suppliers related to their supply coming from Russia, and therefore they have been producing more softwood instead of hardwood. In China, demand was low.
Conditions were somewhat normalized in terms of logistics, but still with some delays. In Europe, we began to see conditions deteriorated after many quarters of very strong conditions in Europe. We began to see pulp demand declining by the end of the year, in relation to paper demand, basically. Softwood prices decreased. However, hardwood remained quite stable. Dissolving pulp prices have also been affected, and that's due to lower demand coming from viscose producers. As I said before, our production was affected by the stoppage, a non-scheduled stoppage at the Constitución mill, which is unbleached pulp. We had these significant increases in the cost of production because of this stoppage. For the last few months, some discussion on pulp.
You can see that the prices in China by the end of February are standing at $810 approximately for softwood and $730 approximately for hardwood, with a gap of $178. In Europe, they have also been declining a bit, standing at $1,389 and $1,300 basically for hardwood. China demand has been declining a bit. We had the Lunar New Year. We had some sources of demand declining as well. Dissolving pulp in particular has been declining because of lower viscose demand. We could see these conditions to stay there during the following months. However, we still have to see the effects of the reopening of China due to the lifting of COVID restrictions.
Still a question mark, but pulp markets are definitely weak, weaker than in the preceding quarters. Likewise, in the wood products markets across all geographies, we have seen a weakening of conditions. EBITDA is down to $154 million. We had seen EBITDAs of over $300 million for many quarters in a row. Now we're down to $154 million, so a quite significant decline. As you can see there in the charts and the tables to the right-hand side, basically sales volumes and prices have been declining, for all segments, with the possible exception of panels, where you see a price increase year-over-year. Other than that, the trend has been downward for the different products, and the different geographies.
Some further discussion on these markets. In the case of North America, which has come to represent more than 50% of our revenues, we can see declining demand for MDF. Higher interest rates definitely have taken a toll on demand for housing, and you can see the housing starts to the right-hand side. We have also faced the increased competition from producers in Brazil, which are exporting to the North American markets. Additional pressure in MDF coming from that. Particleboard, situation is slightly better because we do not have the competition component. Now, we do have a decreased demand, but we do not have the competition component from foreign players. Case of remanufactured products, they also are presenting some oversupply, some increased inventories, but we are already seeing some signs of stabilization.
In the case of plywood, we have a slightly more positive view, with healthier inventory levels and a, and the spring season coming up. A potential good outlook for plywood for the next few months. I In the case of Brazil, we continue to see a weak market. We have more MDF supply coming online, and as a result of that, we have seen, more exports going to foreign markets, which is a clear sign of an, a weaker internal market. In the case of Chile, we also see declining prices, but already some signs of stability. In the case of Argentina, we have seen quite a stable market, in the last few months. Asia, Oceania, basically similar trends.
Somewhat slightly decreasing trends during the last few months, but already seeing some signs of stabilization. All in all, the pattern is very similar. We have seen clear signs of deterioration in the markets, lower prices, lower volumes in general, but already seeing some signs of stabilization at these levels. The outlook for the next few months could be somewhat more positive than what we have seen in terms of trends stabilizing a bit. This of course stems to a great extent from the housing markets, but also from the remodeling segment, which was very strong during the pandemic and in the year following the pandemic, but it's also showing some signs of weakness.
If we move to the energy market, our energy division had a good quarter. We had volumes increasing in Terpel, basically across all countries in Terpel. Although it was slightly offset by a decrease in Chile and also a decrease in MAPCO. The decrease in Chile was not very deep, and in MAPCO it was very significant, 30% down, but it had to do essentially with, to a great extent, at least, with the fact that we sold part of the gas stations network at the beginning of the year. Very good performance over the Lubricant segment, which has been favored by good commercial strategies and also by costs going slightly down. All of this has been partly offset by a lower effect of inventory revaluation in Chile and in Colombia.
All in all, we have an EBITDA for Copec at the consolidated level, for the fuels division consolidated of CLP 201 billion, compared with CLP 187 billion in the comparable quarter last year. An interesting increase over the fourth quarter 2021. Market share is very stable. In Chile, standing at 58% approximately. In the industrial channels, we have seen volumes going up 1.8% year-on-year, 2.7% quarter-on-quarter. However, in the gas stations channel, we are seeing some decreases in volumes, 5.5% and 1.6% year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter respectively. Trends, we continue to see volumes above pre-pandemic levels. Margins when measured in real pesos, this is a real peso business, we tend to see stable margins in real pesos.
At this inflation levels, it's very hard to see that stability. We have seen margins hurt in inflation-adjusted terms because of these high inflations. As always, the total margin generated by the division is subject to potential volatility coming from FIFO effects and also industrial variations. Actually, industrial effects have been positive during this quarter, having to do basically with some interesting supply optimizations that we have done in the industrial segments. We have very good network positioning, a good brand positioning. All in all, the outlook is positive. In Terpel, we also had a good quarter. We had an EBITDA of COP 311 billion compared to COP 282 billion. An interesting increase on the comparable quarter last year and also on the immediately preceding quarter.
In this case, we have an increase over 3Q 2022 as well. We had an increase in volumes across the board. With the exception of a slight decrease in Ecuador, we have volumes growing in all countries. Peru stands out clearly because of the increased volumes by 66%. Aviation plays a major role there. In the other geographies, we've seen interesting increases as well. Lubricants have been doing very well. We have integrated the operations of ExxonMobil during the last few years, and that has been going very well and contributes also to an increase in EBITDA when compared to the last year. As in all local currency segments, we have been hurt by the increased interest rates because of some debt that is linked to inflation.
Yeah, that has happened across all segments that are linked to local currency. In the case of MAPCO, we came to EBITDA of $11 million, which is quite good for the last quarter. In general, we have some seasonality last quarter, but this $11 million compared very well with the preceding fourth quarters of previous years. We've seen a stabilization of margin at higher levels. EBITDA margins have stabilized. Together with that, we have seen a good performance of our convenience stores network. The focus in MAPCO continues to be margin stabilization, operational efficiency, we continue to improve our product mix at the convenience stores network.
We have also been working in gas station renewal and of course the network optimization, which involves selling part of the network at the beginning of the year. That accounts for part of the drop of 17% that we saw in volumes from one year to the next. That also has to do with some changes in users and customs. Apparently people are traveling less to the office, so we have seen a decreased flow in general in the areas of the U.S. where we operate. That also explains part of the drop in volumes. In the case of our liquid gas division, Abastible, we had an EBITDA amounting to CLP 28 billion, which compares favorably with the last quarter of 2021.
In general, we have seen better margins in Chile, together with good volumes in Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. As I said before, we have also been hurt in terms of financial costs because of inflation-linked debt. In operational terms, the patterns are similar in Chile and Colombia. We have seen the Bottle segment decrease, basically. That has to do with the effects that we're still seeing in the stemming from the high prices, the high international prices of propane. Volumes have decreased in the Bottle segments. In the Bulk segment, in both countries, we have been able to offset the drop in margins by increases in volumes. That has to do with very successful commercial strategies that have allowed us to increase our customer base.
Similar patterns in Chile and Colombia. In the case of Peru, we have seen volumes increasing essentially due to very successful commercial strategies with a good product mix, with a good distribution network. Over the last few months, essentially during the summer in the southern hemisphere, during January and February, our operations have been disrupted to some extent, not very significantly, but to some extent in some geographical areas, have been disrupted by the blocked roads and protests and the political situation in general in Peru. That is showing some signs of stabilization over the last few weeks, though. In Ecuador, very good performance with the distributors switching from other brands to our own brand and therefore increasing market share. Moving on to our other investments.
Main thing to comment here is Mina Justa in Peru, which completed its first full year of operations. In the year-on-year comparison, we had a decreased net income. However, quarter -on -quarter, we were able to recover the EBITDA, to increase the sales levels and the production levels that we had been showing before. Cash cost also went down from the third quarter. All in all, we recovered EBITDA of $251 million and a net income of $149 million. We have completed the first year, as we will see, in a couple of minutes, with very good numbers from Mina Justa. The other companies that are listed there, have been performing in a quite stable way, so there's not much to comment regarding them.
In terms of the highlights projects for the quarter, yep, we have started operations at MAPA. By the end of the quarter, by the end of December, we were able to load chips in the digester and therefore start operations and produce the first bale of pulp actually some days after that. You can see the picture there with the whole team celebrating the first bale of pulp. With this facility, the Arauco mill, the total full Arauco complex will reach a production capacity of 2.1 million, out of which the new Line 3 contributes with 1.6 million tons. The total new capacity for Arauco as a whole in pulp is 5.3 million tons. Second thing to highlight here is that we had a difficult season in terms of forest fires.
There were forest fires that had affected paper locations in Chile during February. The company has a very good infrastructure, a lot of equipment, and a lot of efforts, technology, innovation to fight these fires. However, due to the prevailing conditions during the quarter, the damage done by these fires has increased with respect to previous years. Total plantations potentially affected so far are 47,000 hectares. That's the estimate at this point. In terms of the potential impact on the company's financial statement, the estimate with the currently available information is $50 million. That is net of the timber that could be recovered and net also of the insurance cover. $50 million, approximately the final impact of this forest fire season.
At Copec, we continue to look for ways to gradually transform our business model and to also make the energy transition, both things at the same time. We were able to close the operation for Blue Express, the last mile logistic companies that we acquired. We closed the operation in December. This is a company that has a lot of synergies with the existing Copec network in Chile. The value added to this company, therefore by Copec acquiring it is quite significant. Together with that, we received the authorization by the Chilean Financial Authority to potentially enter the digital payments market. We have a strong base of customers. We have an application where we're working with on customer loyalty programs.
Therefore, that provides us with a very interesting base to eventually try some additional sources of value for our customers, such as digital payments. This is all very preliminary, but it is in line with opening options to transform and complement the business model that we now have. All of these operations definitely add value to our existing assets. Mina Justa , which completed its first full year of operations. It had begun operations in 2021, but they were partial operations during the year. It had begun operations in May 2021. This is the first full year. We ended up with an EBITDA of $800 million and a net income of $420 million. Very good numbers for in our total sales of approximately 125,000 tons.
In line with what we had announced previously. There was also the first distribution of resources to the shareholders. At Mina Justa, we see a total of $140 million during the year. Very good news for the first year of Mina Justa. Moving on to ESG. We have some news here to talk about. We have once again been confirmed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Together with that, we have been distinguished in the Sustainability Yearbook of Dow Jones, which means that we are in the top 15% of the industry. Together with that, we have received some prestigious awards in the local market.
One of them is the Merco Award, where we led the holding category. The other one is the La Voz del Mercado, carried on by EY and the Santiago Stock Exchange, where for the fourth year in a row, we have been distinguished as one of the companies with the best corporate governance. This is very rewarding and this is a recognition of the many efforts we are doing in this matters. In terms of electromobility, as always, we have news of our network being expanded. Copec Voltex, which is the brand that we use for electromobility, will be supplying Antofagasta, which is a large city in the north of Chile, with 10 chargers. Copec will be in charge of the many services to supply to the buses.
Together with that, we opened up another terminal in one large district in Santiago, the Renca district, with 17 chargers. Also in one of the tourist spots in Chile, San Pedro de Atacama, we have opened up some new charging points in the route between Antofagasta and San Pedro. Making steady and good progress in terms of electromobility. Finally, in terms of waste revaluation, we had Arauco making progress towards its goals. Arauco aims to achieve 100% revaluation by 2030. This of course has to do with reducing the disposal of waste and also benefit from resources that can be found in the waste of different industrial processes.
Pulp segment, for example, the waste can be used in the production of concrete, soil and pH regulator, and manufacturing of fertilizers. In the case of wood products, they also have many interesting uses. So Arauco achieved 60% and 47% in pulp and wood respectively for revaluation of waste. So that's an important increase on the numbers reported last year. With that, we are ending, we're finishing what we have prepared for you, and we will be opening up the Q&A sessions
Cristián and Gianfranco will be joining me in this Q&A session. Please go ahead and write down your questions on the chat that is there for this purpose.
Thank you. We'll now start the Q&A. If you have a question, please write it down in the Q&A section. Please remember that your company's name should be visible for your question to be taken.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you everyone for attending this webcast. I'm gonna start reading a few questions here. I have, the first one comes from Gabriel Simões at Goldman Sachs. In 43, Gianfranco, if you can provide more details on the expected MAPA ramp up production and when you should see basically the first batches produced impacting results for Arauco?
Okay. Thanks for the question. Well, we started the process at the end of December last year. We produced the first bale, January 20th. From that time, we were producing with only one of the pulp machines, because the other one was under completion. We completed that, I think, at the beginning of March. Right now we are in full ramp up with the mills. Our expectation is that we could produce around 800,000-850,000 tons this year. A full month of capacity probably will be reached at the end of the year or probably the beginning of next year. In terms of sales, of course, you have to build inventory.
We take into account about a month of production, that could mean that we will sell about 700,000-750,000 tons during this year. I will guess that the impact will be start feeling probably the second quarter. This quarter, the production will be still very low, and sales very, very low in order to make an impact on the EBITDA.
Thank you, Gianfranco Truffello. The next one comes from Jens Spiess of Morgan Stanley. Gabriel Simões is also asking about this. Basically, if we have experienced any issues at the Mina Justa operations due to the social unrest in Peru, and if the company is considering expanding capacity in this business?
The Peru situation has been quite difficult over the last few months. We have seen instability, we have seen a political crisis after the seizing of Pedro Castillo's government. Lots of social demonstrations, some blockages, some violence. We have experienced some interruptions in our LPG operations, as I said during the presentation. We also have experienced slight delays in shipments for Mina Justa. They are stabilizing and normalizing, and they have been doing so during the last few weeks. We think it won't be a major effect in Mina Justa during the quarter. Of course, the political situation in Peru is still unstable. Disruptions in general have been normalizing over the last few weeks.
Fortunately enough, we, in Mina Justa, the mine is located near the coast, in the middle of the desert. It operates with the highest environmental labor safety standards. Very good relationships with the communities nearby, which are basically mining communities, and a very good acceptance, and very good relationships with its workforce. We haven't seen any majors, any major disruptions, but some slight decreases in shipments. We sincerely hope that the situation in Peru will be solved in a positive way, that democracy will prevail, and we can go get to a path of stability, institutional stability, and also certainties for the business environment. You asked about potential expansions of Mina Justa.
Well, yes, that's a matter that we envisaged at the very beginning when we decided to enter the project Mina Justa. One of the very attractive elements that we saw in the project is that it had a very interesting upside. As a matter of fact, the percentage of mining properties used by the current project as it is not more than 10% or 15%. In other words, there's a lot of mining property to explore and to potentially expand the mine. We have already started explorations. The first results are, we are very optimistic about the very first results, but they're still very preliminary. But if everything goes well, we could definitely evaluate expanding the mine.
We will get back to you as soon as we have more certain information on results of explorations.
Thank you, Rodrigo. The next one, also from Jens Spiess at Morgan Stanley. What is the CapEx guidance for 2023? If you can provide some breakdown per division, please.
Yeah. We're still working on that. As we always do, we will get the final figure. We will make the final figure public in our shareholders meetings, which is taking place in a few weeks in April. What I can tell you is that, as you well know, we are coming from several years in which CapEx has been over $2 billion. We have gone ahead with many large projects such as MAPA and Mina Justa. In 2022, again, we recorded a figure that was more than $2 billion because of final expenditures at MAPA and also the acquisition of Blue Express.
For 2023, the initial figure, very preliminary, a rough number, is gonna be in the vicinity of $1.7 billion-$1.8 billion, which is made up of the maintenance CapEx base that we have of around $900 million. In addition to that, we have additional projects. In this case, the bulk of those includes our panel mills, plantation acquisitions for future growth, some small remainders of MAPA, network optimizations, gas station growth in some geographies in fuels, electromobility, energy transition. All of that amounts to a total of $600 million-$700 million. On top of the $900, we have this $600-$700 of additional projects in the different divisions.
On top of that, another roughly $200 million, which is comprised of many different projects across all divisions, which are efficiency projects, all of them very profitable, very reasonable projects, many of which we had postponed during the pandemic. All in all, we should come to a total of roughly $1.7 billion-$1.8 billion for the CapEx in 2023. As I said, the final figure will be communicated in our shareholders' meeting in April.
The next one comes from Leonardo Negri at Bank of America. Two questions, actually. The first one, in fuels, Rodrigo, what is the demand outlook for your different regions and markets over a few quarters? What was the effect of inventory revaluation on 4Q results? The second question goes for Gianfranco. The 4Q was challenging, a challenging quarter in the wood segment in terms of prices and volume. If you can provide some color on that business and what could be reasonable margins going forward.
Yeah. Regarding the first one in fuels, this is a market that moves very much in line with the local economies. The gas station channel was affected positively to a certain extent during the last couple of years by the fact that we had a lot of monetary liquidity in the local economies. At the same time, we had a huge increase of the total stock of cars in the local economies, particularly in Chile. Going forward, it will depend on the evolution of the local economies. We have seen that in Chile, we've seen some decreases in the gas station channel, but some increases still in the industrial segment. In Terpel, we continue to see a good behavior, a slight growth in, you know, channels and in all countries. That is performing quite well.
In MAPCO, as I said before, we are operating with a reduced network, so, we will see lower volumes at the beginning of 2022. This change in customs and users regarding the frequency with which people basically go to the office, that has translated also in less traffic flows and therefore less demand for fuels. So, we will see stability on the figures that we have recorded over the last few quarters, but that's essentially a figure that is down with respect to the preceding years. So that's the outlook for the different divisions in fuels. Then you mentioned the FIFO effect for the last quarter, right? Which was not significant. It was a very slightly positive, but not significant at all.
That means while when comparing it with the last quarter of 2021, it's a $30 million decrease approximately because of that effect. That's the total FIFO effect in Chile and Colombia.
Okay. Regarding the question about the wood product division, of course, it was a challenging quarter, but we're coming from a very good two years. I mean, not normal levels of EBITDA, as you probably have seen in the numbers. We are adjusting our production capacity in order to not increase our inventories and try to not to decrease prices. I think that we most probably reached already the bottom of demand, and we are more optimistic about the second semester. The second semester, sorry. Most probably the first quarter will be challenging also in terms of results, I think the situation will start improving probably starting from June because we see a healthy demand coming from our customers, especially in the U.S.
The long-term prospect of construction in wood continues to be good, and I think then once the economy adjusts the inventory, all the chain, I think the things will improve. I will say that we will still have one or two quarters more challenging in terms of margins and EBITDA in the wood product division.
Thank you, Gianfranco. Alfonso Salazar at Scotiabank is asking for, if you can provide, Rodrigo, some breakdown of by-product production at Mina Justa last year.
Well, Mina Justa has two main products, which are cathodes and concentrates. Last year, we came up to 28,000 tons of cathodes and 97,000 tons of concentrates, which adds up to approximately 125, which is in the rates that we had projected. We also have some by-products, essentially silver. That's the only significant by-product which accounts for less than 10% of sales. We can give you some more detail. We can send you some more detail if you need it. But that's roughly the breakdown.
Okay. Another one from Alfonso Salazar. What are your projections for fuel volumes in Chile and LatAm? Basically, longer term, period 2025, 2030, please.
As I said before, they are usually linked to GDP growth. It will depend a lot on the economy and the projections for the economy. Longer term, however, they will be at some point begin to be impacted by the transition to electromobility. We think this is not going to be a short-term trend in LatAm. It will be longer term, definitely than in developed countries. We have some estimates according to which the fuels market in LatAm continues to grow for the next 15 years or so. We are working that with those sort of projections where our main markets, Chile and Colombia, continue to grow for approximately 15 years. After that, they remain stable and gradually begin coming down because of the gradual substitution by electromobility.
Along those lines, as, as you well know, and as we have commented before, we are already working, preparing ourselves for that transition, and moving ahead very quickly in electromobility and also opening up options for valuing our assets in the fuels division and for gradually complementing and transforming our business model. As I said in this presentation, all of the initiatives that we've mentioned, Blue Express and payments and electromobility and energy generation and so on, fit in well with the strategy of diversifying, complementing and allowing energy transition and opening up options for reasonable options, well-thought options for our fuels assets.
Next one, also in fuels, Isabella Vasconcelos at Bradesco BBI. Rodrigo, after obtaining approval from the CMF, paving the way for new developments in digital payment tools, she would like to ask more color on this strategy, looking forward for Copec, please.
Well, as I just mentioned, this fits in with the strategy of opening up options for our fuels division. This is an option that is very well-fundamental because we have a very strong base of very loyal customers. We have a strong brand customer preference, as we've said before. We have an application that is penetrating very successfully among our clients. We have a base of approximately 1 billion clients per day and growing in our network of gas stations in Chile. Therefore, that provides us with an interesting base of customers to which we can provide some additional services, some value-added services in order to enhance their experience and make them more loyal to Copec.
The digital payments authorization goes in line with that and opens up options to grow along those lines. Still very preliminary, we just have the authorization, we will be informing you of the different developments that we make along those lines.
I have Rodrigo Godoy at Credicorp with two questions, basically. First, in Forestry, Gianfranco concerning the forest fires occurring in Chile during this summer, if you can provide some color about the impact of this event, but basically on the wood supply side, in the medium term. Secondly, what is the current status of the dissolving pulp market these days? Then, a question for Rodrigo, what are the production forecasts and cash costs for Mina Justa in 2023?
Okay. We have already disclosed the potential financial impact of the forest fires this season, which we calculated approximately $50 million. That amounts to 47,000 hectares of potentially affected plantations. Remember that we have in Chile about 650,000 hectares of plantations. The impact on the supply of wood in the coming years, it's-
It's hard to assess right now before having a detail on that plantation's damage. Normally what happens and what we experienced during the 2017 fires was that during the first one or two years, you need to harvest more because some of the standing trees are damaged, but there's wood that you can use. You have an increase in supply of wood in the short term, let's say one or two years, and then a lack of course, of supply of wood in the near future starting, let's say, year four, around in some buckets of years that we need to assess more carefully.
I don't expect any problem with the supply of our mills in terms of the amount of wood because of the size of the damage. We need to run our models and to see what is the best use of the forest that we will have in the coming years with that lack of less than 10% of forest. Of course, there's other sources of fiber. In eucalyptus there's exports of eco- fiber getting out of Chile. There's a lot of sources of fiber that you can get in case of need. Of course, we don't expect to have any problems with the production of the mills coming forward.
Regarding the dissolving pulp market, we have seen a decrease in the price that comes from the decrease in demand of viscose. Normally that happens, the adjustment in the lines of the demand for cotton or for viscose. Right now, in our case, we have, you know, the stoppage of Valdivia that will start on April 1st for about four months to repair the dryer. We're gonna have less production available to our clients. In that sense, we're not gonna be so affected. Still the price of dissolving pulp is attractive compared to the alternative, which is short fiber. We will keep on producing dissolving pulp, waiting for the margins to improve.
Rodrigo, the last one, also from Rodrigo Godoy, if you can comment, the levels of production and cash costs for Mina Justa in 2023.
Yeah. We have been gradually increasing production at Mina Justa. We started in 2021 with a partial operation in the year. We completed the first full year in 2022 with a production of 125,000 tons approx. We had been ramping up the two sources of production. The sulfide plant has been operating at design capacity since late 2021, and we're about to finish the ramp-up of the oxide plant. All in all, production for this year should be very close to full capacity. Very close to the 150,000 that we have announced as the total capacity of Mina Justa. Let's say in the 140-150 range. Regarding costs, we have set 1.3 as a long-term guideline.
We have gone through quarters with less than 1.3, and others like the third quarter of 2022 with 1.6, as high as 1.6. We began to see a normalization in the fourth quarter of 2022, where we completed the quarter with a 1.4 level. 1.4 seems to be a good estimate. They should be very stable around that figure for the years to come, given the cost inflation that we experienced over the last two years. 1.4 is a reasonable figure to have in mind.
Thank you, Rodrigo. We don't have more question at this moment, so I turn it back to you for your final remarks.
This concludes the question and answer section. At this time, I would like to turn the floor back to Mr. Rodrigo Huidobro for any closing remarks.
Well, thank you all very much for joining us today. We will see you, at the beginning of May for looking at the results for the first quarter 2023. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.