Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. A very warm welcome to you at the conference, to discuss results for the first quarter of 2023. Before we move on to the presentation, a few technical information items. The presentation will comprise two parts, presentation part, and after that you will be able to ask questions, which will be answered by members of the board. The presentation is available on the Grupa Kęty S.A. webpage in investors relations relations in reports and presentation section. Presentation will be commenced by the President of the board, Mr. Dariusz Mańko. I don't hear. Switch on the microphone. Good morning. A very warm welcome. Thank you for having accepted the invitation and participation in our conference. During the former conference, we didn't...
weren't in a very good mood. Unfortunately, we were entering the period of, you know, recession, standstill in economy, our presentation of forecasts for 2023 was not optimistic either. I heard comments that, yes, everything is okay, the presentation was very diligent, well, there was a shortage of a smile on the side of the management board and no sign of optimism. Today, we can smile. Yes, gentlemen, can we? The results of the first quarter are better than we had expected.
We thought last year, by the end of last year, that the crisis, which was coming, very high prices of raw materials, but also energy, gas, and drop in the number of orders and pessimism which occurred in the polls among our customers was not giving us a chance for optimism. We thought that would be very strongly hit in the first quarter, and we would have to struggle for a good result and for completion of the budget for the whole year. Luckily for us, we may say the company yet another time proved, showed its power, its strength.
This is expressed in us standing on three legs, actually rooted in three different sectors of economy. The strength is resulting from us having exports at equal level compared to the domestic market. The mix of products, besides this in individual segments, results in the situation that in difficult situations, difficult moments, and for sure the first quarter was not easy, we are able to manage to cope with it, and we are able to maximize profits in such environment, such an area we are actually in. Yet another time it is confirmed that our so far investments resulted in the fact that we have assets on which we can generate very decent results in difficult conditions.
What helped us was, as I said, luckily, because lucky was the fact that stabilization of prices of raw materials listed on stocks, it allowed us to cooperate with clients and better regulate prices. It was, we may dare say, one of the main drivers which helped us to have control over what was happening in the first quarter. This situation among our customers also actually resulted in slight optimism in the first quarter, because in the fourth quarter last year, all discussions were saturated with huge pessimism. Here now it is already slightly better. Of course, we are expecting a difficult year.
When you for sure traced results from our presentation, the domestic sales unfortunately is failing us, and we do not expect demand to grow in Poland. We are actually supporting ourselves strongly with exports, and we want to search for additional orders in order to implement tasks we have got ahead of us in this year. Among other remaining activities in investment area, nothing is changing. We are commencing construction of new plant in Złotów. We launched a press 2,000 tons capacity in the extruded products segment.
What influenced the results of the first quarter was Borodianka, the plant which can already work 3 shifts, and we can even boast about having implemented the additional positive result with profit in such difficult war conditions, which are still in progress on the territory of Ukraine. All our efforts by the commercial services, gentlemen who sit next to me here, our work together resulted in results of the first quarter being really good. EBITDA at the level of PLN 200 million is satisfactory result for us at the moment. A decent net profit. We reduced working capital.
Briefly speaking, all mechanisms which regulate the operation of the company in the first quarter have worked. This optimism allowed us also to recommend recently a relatively high dividend in order to share with shareholders with part of record-breaking profit for 2022. Wrapping up the introduction and my input, later we expect questions from you, ladies and gentlemen, of course. Actually, we felt optimism compared to what we saw in the fourth quarter last year when we were creating forecasts. Of course, it is not so that today we can already announce success, that this is going to be a very fine and good year for the company. It will be a year of huge struggle for every order, for every kilogram of an order from every customer.
This is what we are actually prepared for now, and this is how we are going to view this year. That much of an introduction from me. Thank you very kindly. Thank you very much. Now, let me ask Mr. Piotr Wysocki to give the presentation on the extruded products segment. Extruded products segment, we may say, well, the first quarter, which came to an end, positively surprised us on, in a very poor market. We do not see any strong enlivenment. Drops are visible. The market is weak, is very weak in Poland. The market is also very weak in exports, although export is helping us quite a lot. This is a vast market where our sales forms, well, like in German market, at the level of a few %.
We are active there, and we can see our hope there for improvement of results generally in this year. We put stakes on exports very strongly. If we look at macro perspective, first quarter, on last year on the first quarter this year, metal from 3,500, it was record-breaking figures, aluminum noted at LME. Now it drops down to 2,350- 1,320. These are levels market is used to and accepts them. Another very important element in macro scale is a drop of price of billets, because the fourth quarter, I mean, the first quarter of 2022, were historical levels, 1,600.
Nobody had seen it in history. Today, it is dropping, and as of today, we have the listings at the level of 620. This also shows that this market is weak, that this demand for billets is missing and producers of billets who were reducing their capacity and quantities we might make use of today, the supply in the market of billets is very, very high. Among global things in European market, a big problem is actually Turkey. This was already in the 3rd quarter of last year. Turkey, which is processing the cheap Russian aluminum, is two size-wise an importer of Russian aluminum, cheap aluminum. They process to aluminum profiles, aluminum sections, which flood Europe, we may say.
We act here, both within Polish Association of Aluminum Producers as well as within European Association of Aluminum. We are trying to counteract this flood of cheap Turkish aluminum. Among novelties, in the first quarter this year, a so-called complaining group was established. This is led by legal office from Belgium, who effectively carried out anti-dumping proceedings regarding flat products from China, I mean, aluminum sheets. That suing group groups 20 largest producers of aluminum in Europe, which forms 60% of the market. It is very important because above 55%, generally such a group may be established and addressing the European Commission can be filed by such a group.
What I mentioned, limited demand. If we look here the sales, we may say that next slide, please. Here we have it. Volume is dropping by 6% value-wise. It is 7% drop. I personally believe it is a big success because the first quarter last year, as we remember, you could sell everything at every price. Queues were very long, delivery time was reaching two months. The 7% drop in this weak market, which is currently now. Please note, domestic sales is dropping even by 17%. We consider it a success.
If we look at EBITDA, it is only 7% drop, I believe it is a big success of all those who are involved, all people working in the segment of extruded products. Well, if we look at the first quarter and what Mr. President mentioned, we looked at it actually very pessimistically. We were positively surprised by the first two months of this year, January and February. This was related to rebuilding, reconstruction of stocks in our clients. The aftermath, the result of what was happening in the third quarter of 2022 when their warehouses have been emptied, cleared out. The clients noticed positive signals from the market, and they started actually gathering stock. These results were a surprise for us.
Looking at the structure of sales, we have increased in the segment of automotive and transport. This is generated mainly by new projects. It doesn't mean that in this sector, actually, automotive, the situation is very good because let me remind you that unblocking Chinese ports happened only mid-January. Those delivery chains, well, we also feel it in some projects, were still torn into pieces. This increase for automotive segment is resulted from new projects mainly. As you can see in the structure of sales, by directions, Poland is dropping here. In Poland, we can see a very big slowdown practically in all sectors, although construction is the top sector pulling results downwards most strongly.
Activities we took up a few years ago to create strong offices, strong companies for sales purpose in Germany, and Italy and Czech Republic allow us to reconstruct and compensate this drop in Polish market. Next slide, please. Well, here we talked a little bit about Alupol in Ukraine, which also surprised us very positively from the beginning by the decision of the government. From the beginning of February, we got approval for full production. Of course, this is still going on in war conditions, the production itself. The recent change in the curfew hour with full darkness, plant closed and lights must not escape to the outside. Actually, this had a very strong influence on EBITDA achieved in the first quarter.
Honestly speaking, it was difficult to design anything, well, the budget, in war conditions if we look at Alupol in Ukraine. We can see increasing internal orders because part of those orders are directed. We process our billets for production in Ukraine, but we can see that this market very slowly but regularly is growing and increasing, and we are selling more and more to domestic market. We are waiting for the war to be over, like all of us are waiting, and we are waiting for the big reconstruction people are talking about and highlighting that we have been there for 15 years. We know the market. We are a recognizable producer of aluminum profiles there. Looking at investment tools, as usually follow tonnage, we are implementing the complex of new presses.
We concluded the mounting of a 2,000-ton press in Slovenian development of components for automotive. The most important investment there was finishing the line for Fisker project. Let me remind you, this is American producer of electric cars. Well, beautiful SUV. We have lots of orders and finished ready line. Continuation of renewable sources of energy project after completing construction of building of photovoltaic panels on the plant as of today from own energy sources. Generation of our energy actually covers 27% of consumption of all energy EMI is using.
Looking at EMMI, but also looking at conditions created there in Slovenia for construction of new photovoltaic systems installations, we will be placing more stress, and we will be going towards building still greater an amount of be it photovoltaics we will be using. Conditions are better. The very fact that there is more sunshine coefficient of sunshine is higher compared to the situation in Poland. As I mentioned, a successful start of the line. This is the fourteenth line, fourteenth press for extrusion of soft profiles. In March, we extruded the first hot billet on it and the press of 2,000 tons pressing force and new bay, new hall. The hall is adapted now. It was built for two presses originally.
Now, we are commencing working at the same time on assembly and on fully launching the production capacity of the 2,000 ton press. We are waiting for delivery of elements for the 4,000 ton press. Both these lines, after completion, will increase production capacity of the segment to 125,000 tons. Again, we will be the leader in Polish market. Yet another producer will be far behind us. This, I guess, is all regarding segment of extruded products. Thank you for your kind attention. Thank you very much. Now we are moving on to aluminum systems segment. Mr. Tomasz Grela, President of Aluprof S.A.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. A very warm welcome segment of aluminum systems, segment strictly working on the construction market.
Well, I will avoid telling you yet another time about what the situation generally looks like in construction market and similarly related to the past of the market. It's enough to say that in cross-section of what we are seeing in construction market, it seems that our results for the first quarter are very good, significantly above the forecasts which we had made last year and significantly above the results of the total of construction market with the attention paid at our system of aluminum systems sales at the level of 560. It's a drop of 4% wise. It is a several % drop. The result caught up with by higher transaction prices. Broken down into domestic and exports, we can see a clear difference.
Domestic sales drop by 9%, but foreign sales plus 3%. It changes a little bit our sales structure and share of exports. Well, share of domestic sales drops to 59%. Regarding sales and structure of sales by segment, it is no change here. Still, similar share in the sales of aluminum systems and roller systems. This allowed us to work out a bit over PLN 70 million. Still, of course, it is a clear drop compared to the first quarter last year, over 20% drop.
It is worth attention that this is the best result for the recent three quarters with margin close to 15%, so not much less than what was assumed, 15%-16% margin at the EBITDA level. Regarding sales situation in domestic market, here, traditionally, we are showing you in slides a few implemented product projects which we managed to obtain in this quarter. These are just examples showing in what areas we are actively working in and what topics we managed to be winning and implementing in our country. We still watch a very high demand for industrial and warehouse units, objects. This is visible for almost two years, very dynamic development in this area. Here we have to admit that nothing has changed. Still, very strongly, this segment keeps developing.
A similar situation is regarding office buildings, energy-saving office buildings, so an area of great interest for us. Our systems have been prepared and dedicated for many years for this type of solutions. Growing number of such certified office buildings gives us strong optimism. It means that in future, investors will be more and more paying attention at this type of certificates, which in our opinion, will allow us to still more dynamically keep developing in this segment. We watch first signals coming from the market telling us about utilization of thermo-modernization programs. Similar is the situation with post-industrial objects. Here is a clear increase of this type of objects.
We are also watching what gives us optimism for the future, a significant increase of in inquiries. This is increased by close to 25% year-on-year. It is not translated on sales still this year or in the nearest quarter, but it is a very good forecast for the end of the year, for the third and fourth quarter, and I hope that together we will be able to watch it. Regarding negative aspects in this segment of domestic market, for sure, the drop and slowing down regarding high volume buildings, so all kinds of office buildings, hotels, commercial centers. Here, we can see sort of stagnation, lack of decision by investors to start to commence investment.
It is not so that among those started or planned investments for today, somebody is withdrawing. No. To a great extent, it is time shift, uncertainty and, well, nervousness in the market makes investors withhold their implementation. For sure, slowing down an element in this sector is a very big increase in construction costs. On the average, we note almost 40% increase from the beginning of the pandemic, which makes investors, I mean, small, medium, institutional investors and developers to recalculate their budgetary assumptions. As I mentioned a moment ago, in many cases, they withheld their decision about launching, starting, and this is mainly related to our clients, our individual clients.
We are also watching, unfortunately, worsening financial standing of companies, and here I'm talking of our clients. The whole construction sector unfortunately suffers now from worsening liquidity, financial liquidity. This will be yet another element which we will have to most probably deal with in the coming months. The mood in the financial markets is not optimistic. People still are in fear of recession. As I said a moment ago, it seems that in the cross-section of this whole situation, results of Aluprof, of our segment, well, appear very positive, actually, on this background. A few words about sales, foreign sales. Just like in domestic sales, we are also presenting a few selected objects.
Besides standard directions like Czech Republic, the Netherlands, the US, you can see also development of Balkan markets. Here, an example of a building in Crna Gora, in Montenegro. In this area, we see an increased development of marketing and commercial activities from our side, which is in a way a result of the fact that the Balkan market, regarding production of windows and doors, is increasing very dynamically. A lot of interesting, very interesting companies appear there. To a great extent, exporting to Western market. Therefore, we selected this market for the nearest years as quite a strong target. A similar situation is with American market.
I guess you noted that for some time we haven't been presenting pictures from very big representative buildings, objects like before, because our sales philosophy has been changed in American market, announced earlier and thought over strategy related to replacing implementation of big objects towards selling systems. What Aluprof can actually do best bears first results. Why such a strategy? Because selling systems is from our perspective much a safer sales and not raising such a risk like delivering finished elements for tall buildings in the US. To, well, very briefly about Vietnamese market. It is quite exotic, but it is a kind of an experiment related to Far Eastern market. We found very solid, strong partner in that market.
Very strongly, we cooperate with them on launching sales and production in Vietnamese market. As a pilot program related to developing the Far Eastern market, we together opened up six showrooms. Interest in European products is unexpectedly high there, and the quality we are presenting in the market of the Far East compared to the Chinese product flooding them is evaluated very high and very positively. I hope it will be yet another direction where we will be able to keep developing very strongly in future. What can be actually blocking us in exports markets? For sure, the quantity flooding Western markets by products produced in Eastern Europe. I'm mainly talking of Romania, Bulgaria.
They get to our clients in the form of finished products, which makes us having greater and greater problem to sell our systems to clients who, in a great proportion, make use of those producers producing in Eastern European countries. Situation in exports markets, depending on the direction, varies, we watch very intense activities by our competitors also related to price war, which we have to adapt to. Probably prices which so far have been noted in export market by ourselves will have to be verified in the nearest period to be adapted, adjusted to the expectations of the market. Regarding investment, just a few words about our largest this year's investment project. It is extension of the plant in Złotów.
First quarter is the cornerstone placed and earthwork and concrete work to be done. Now it is the stage of erection of steel structure, so the deadline is under no threat. We are a few weeks before the planned time. We will be able to file this project for use. On time. Now a few words about our new products which we have introduced into sales this quarter. Announced earlier the family of pergolas, the solutions of which have been extended at the first quarter of this year is a definite message about entering and selling this product in domestics and exports markets. A similar situation is with our fireproof glass.
Launching of our own production of fireproof glass is already in progress, communication, promotion, and first sales to our customers domestically and abroad is actually in the pipeline. That much at the moment. Thank you very much. Now Mr. Rafał Lechowicz is kindly requested to present the flexible packaging segment.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, flexible packaging segment, Alupol Group. The first quarter of 2023 is behind us, how different it was compared to the first quarter of last year. We are watching a stable, unfortunately, very weak demand both for polypropylene film and for flexible packaging in Europe.
As you can see in the slide presented here, stability of prices in polypropylene and polyethylene resins, their availability compared to other raw materials used in the flexible packaging segment. Unfortunately, on this poor demand, is oversupply in one of the segments of polypropylene film. Recent months, two launchings of capacity for production of this total capacity about 100,000 tons a year have been launched. This is 10% of market. I think presented results are no surprise to you because you were on the go informed about unavailability of them coming real compared to former periods' results.
Let me remind you that for obvious reasons, last year, we faced a rapid increase of demand for food packaged also in our foil, our films and laminates, extending their date of time of lifetime. A leap for demand for such things resulted in shortages. Producers of hygienic articles willing to use the good situation, panickily were searching for raw materials in the market, not only to satisfy quickly increasing current demand, but also to add to zeroed warehouse levels in the past.
The whole market environment gave a privileged position to companies having own raw material backup like Alupol Group, because other companies implementing within their structures relatively short added value chain were not able to fulfill expectations of the market regarding a short delivery time. This parameter was decisive of which companies got orders at that time and which not. This whole situation actually together with delayed deliveries from Asian competitors made increased interest in, first of all, produce polypropylene films produced by Alupol Films. The market was ready to accept really very, very high prices.
Currently, the situation is back to normal and Alupol Films is implementing results in line with those assumed before the decision about construction of polypropylene films within flexible packaging segment. In the first quarter, we reached solid, very good really, financial results because all basic parameters like sales, operational profit, EBITDA or net profit, are above those assumed in plan, budgetary plan presented by the end of last year, 2023, of course, at the current stage of its implementation. Let me remind you that the assumed sales is PLN 1,156 million, and after the first quarter, this parameter reached close to PLN 350 million.
The assumed EBITDA for the whole year is PLN 195 million, and the result obtained after the first quarter is already above PLN 62 million. Significant change has happened in the structure of sales, however, because we watched the drop of sales in polypropylene film from 53% to 32%, whereas this is still an index in line with the long-term strategy assumptions, where it was assumed at the level of 38%. Still, exports slightly is above the domestic sales, which in current geopolitical situation in Europe allows us to safely operate. Next slide, please. After a small trough in the fourth quarter, we see a significant increase of utilization of production capacity.
The level of 80%-85% is the optimum one, both from our perspective as well as from the perspective of our customers. It provides us with the possibility to maintain our machine depot in the right condition and to them, a possibility of quick relocation of volumes in case of foreseeable problems occurring in their current suppliers. Regarding implementation of investment plan, it is going in line with schedule. Let me remind you that spending was mainly on investments, supporting, maintaining the capacity. Thank you for your kind attention, and I'm available for you during the rest of the conversations. Thank you very much. Now, Mr. Rafał Grabowski, the Financial Director, is kindly requested to comment on consolidated results. Thank you very much. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Consolidated income from sales close to PLN 1.4 billion, a very high amount. Although 8% lower than the first quarter of last year, as it was mentioned here. This is a result of much lower listing of prices of raw materials we use, that means aluminum and petrochemicals, and lower sales volumes resulting from weaker demand compared to the record-breaking level of last year. EBITDA does in these conditions at the level of PLN 200,000, it is a very good result for us, as all gentlemen mentioned. Surrounding was less negative than we had expected, and therefore, in the first quarter, the result is slightly better than assumed.
As you remember, structure of our budget was such that the first half-year was assumed to be absolutely lower regarding results with expected bouncing up in the second half of the year. Financial costs in this quarter, close to PLN 17 million, PLN 12 million more compared to the former year. This increases the interest rate related percentage and lack of PLN 2 million in the last year. Regarding income tax, clearly reduced tax rate investment on these two development projects, both in the extruded products and aluminium systems. It is PLN 23 million. It is a delayed tax because working in those special zones.
Yet another slide, it is summary of our liquidity in the quarter. This is yet another quarter with very high flows from operational activities, close to PLN 300 million. This is the third quarter running when the working capital is not increasing, but it is decreasing mainly as a result of dropping prices of raw materials used in production. This quarter, releasing net capital was PLN 117 million. Regarding investments, we are in a year where the accumulation of investment spending is taking place because it is about PLN 390 million a year. Investment is done in line with the time schedule. Now spending is mainly related to two big projects increasing our production capacity.
The two prices systems in as in extruded products, then a strong cash flow operational according to plan, it is a PLN 170 million of this is a reduction of debt in quarter. At the end of first quarter, drop of debt PLN 180. Nothing is changing regarding our financing structure. It means about 15% of loans. It's loans in euros. It is about a quarter of our annual exposition on that currency. We may say that the financing is long-term in its greatest proportion.
This reflects the fact of organizing PLN 350 million of new investment loans, actually in relation to investment activities planned and also partly long-term character of the turnover loans. Wrapping up, summarizing the whole quarter, as I said, PLN 180 million lower debt and safe financial situation at the end of the period. Now, briefly about prospects. It is kind of an assumption of ours. For a few weeks, we can see stabilization of, in raw materials, and practically there are no factors which would incline us to establish, to assume significant change. We assume stabilization, but still, market uncertainty is staying in place. We measure it by the fact that the horizon of orders we can see.
Now, I'm talking mainly of extruded products segment. It is much shorter than last year at this time of the year, and therefore it does not confirm neither worsening nor improving in the trend. In this situation, of course, in the second quarter, we are focusing on optimization of costs of our operations in all areas. Because we know that implementation of the budget is a challenge for us. At the same time, thanks to the funds we have and investments planned, of key importance is their practical completion, because as President Grela mentioned, till the end of the year, we want to have the construction of plant in Złotów completed and also delivered the second press in the segment of extruded products. We want to start its assembly.
Regarding financing, in this situation, it is also a result of this, what, was mentioned by, my predecessors. We are focusing on liquidity. We, act to a great extent in the construction market. As we know, in the situation of slowdown or crisis, threat, the liquidity situation in this sector is actually, noticeable, and therefore we are focusing on, safeguarding our receivables in this area. So far, we have good results. Nothing bad is happening there. Practical information and event which will take place, as announced, at the beginning of the week we, made, we proposed the 21st of June, this year as the day of dividend, especially here, the recommendation of the board will be, actually considered, which got positive, opinion of the supervisory board regarding dividend for last year.
Thank you for your kind attention. Thank you very much. We have concluded thus, the presentation part. Now let us move on to the session of questions and answers. I didn't mention it upfront, but you may be asking questions on the chat. Let me remind you about this, because on the chat, actually chat is empty now. I received practically only one group of questions to the mailbox. Of course, you may also use this channel for asking questions. The questions are about general perspectives, but let me ask from questions about aluminum systems segment about possible risk of repeating situation in the Polish market from the foreign markets.
Is the drop of tendency in Poland, may it appear later in foreign markets and in further quarters there we will see drops taking into account our exposition to those markets, it is a significant element of potential risk. I must admit that we do not notice such a risk. We don't feel any threat in this respect here. Let me tell you briefly why our over 40% share in the market, domestic market, is actually very strong towards all changes in construction market. We, with those changes, we have to take into account that every swing up or down makes a clear reaction in our results of the company. Regarding sales, export sales, our share in European market is rated at the level of 2%-3%.
Whatever bad is happening in the European market, our exposition is clearly lower. That's for once. Secondly, we must not treat exports markets as one bag into which we put all markets, all countries, because every market is ruled by its own rights. The situation in those markets looks drastically different. Let me give you an example of Italian market, where last year there was a boom regarding demand for products like windows and doors. It was related to the subsidies. Let me remind you only that in Italian market, subsidies were at the level of 110% of price spent for the window and windows and doors. Last year it was record-breaking year in Italian market. Today, the situation is drastically different.
We see a slowdown, stoppage in that market because those subsidies actually have been used up. We can see it in other markets, very strongly developing is the Balkan market, the whole Spanish and French markets, which are very big markets. From our perspective, it is closer or later future, and here we have a lot to do. We are not afraid of any movements related to a drop in demand in exports markets.
Let me add that in Poland, first of all, we have a shortage or lack of orders for infrastructure and extension of infrastructure, orders from the municipalities and towns. Here funds for reconstruction are missing because practically when we talk to the representatives of the municipalities or towns authorities, they do not have funds for it. There the funds for reconstruction related to pandemic got to Western market and inflation. I guess Hungary has greater inflation than Poland. Inflation results in the fact that starting from elementary John Smith building a house up to large financial institutions building tall buildings, each investor must do recalculation of their assumptions, budgetary assumptions, because money is more expensive now.
In Poland, it seems to me that there are these two factors which slow down construction very strongly. In the West, these two factors do not exist because let me remind you, inflation is not over 1,000%, but it is just a few percent there. Investors do not have to do recalculation of their approach to the assumptions which they had planned initially. In my opinion, these seem to be two basic points which make difference between Western Europe and Poland. Thank you very much. I also have a question related to practically all segments. How do you gentlemen perceive the prospects of the second quarter compared to first quarter of this year? Will they differ significantly? Let us start from extruded products segment.
Looking at the perspective of the second quarter, it will be very similar to first quarter. No fireworks visible on horizon in the market. A very short perspective of orders because today we are saying that we see it very good regarding May, but June is remaining a big puzzle. I do not expect that quarter to be far better than quarter one. In case of aluminum systems segment, historically, the second quarter was always clearly better compared to quarter one. Based on our observations, we may say that in case of April, for example, the result will be very similar to March. If a similar perspective might stay till the end of the second quarter, we might expect that the second quarter should be relatively a little bit better than quarter one.
Segment of flexible packaging. First quarter is so-called pre-holiday quarter, and for food producers it is of course the harvest period. Therefore, results of the second quarter, third quarter and the vacation, summer vacation quarters where our customers plan their vacation break, they switch off their production capacity, we may expect that the second quarter will be worse compared to quarter one. Thank you. We may add also globally, what the financial director mentioned earlier about the good indicators at financial level. If it is difficult situation in the market and will be difficult, the second quarter we have discussed what it may look like because there is a big struggle because pressure on commercial margins will be with us. What remains is to focus...
Well, fight in the market, but focus on optimization of costs of operations. This is what we are focusing on in the second quarter. Regarding also the financial flows, here cash flows, we would like to have at least a similarly good quarter compared to the first quarter. One more thing financial director mentions, strongly focusing on liabilities because we also have to watch it in such difficult market. Thank you very much. The puzzle of lack of questions has been clarified. The chat is not working for the time being. We are working on it. We apologize. Of course, you can address these questions, your questions, to M Malina Maupa Group, mmalina@grupakety.com, to my mailbox.
If it works, I will inform you. Next series of questions, which I received. The first question is addressed at Financial Director. By how much EBITDA was higher in the first quarter compared to the assumptions which we assumed in the forecast for 2023? Well, here. Switch on. If I may, I will respond in this way because we were not making information about detailed quarterly forecast, but it was PLN couple dozen million above, but it was not exceeding annual forecast. Therefore, we did not decide to update the annual forecast and also due to the uncertainty which is around us. I must ask your attention the fact that this results being above, well, the first quarter was lowest. We expected the most difficult conditions.
If we look at quarter two, as my predecessor said here, if it is going to be similar or a little bit better in aluminum systems and a little bit lower in flexible packaging, we will be closer to assumptions for the second quarter, which originally have been assumed in annual forecast. Thank you very much. Next question is whether the company is expecting maintaining historical EBITDA seasonability. That means second quarter better than quarter one, then third better than the former one, and then a drop. As a rule, yes, actually, this is what our forecast looks like. Therefore, this first quarter, as we said, I mean, going above it and maintaining a positive result will be responding to forecasts to the third and fourth quarters.
Please note that the seasonality historically resulted in case of Grupa Kęty, resulted from climate actually. We always noted, ending completing, constructed objects before winter. Everybody wanted to close the building because then, work inside the building could be done. I'm reaching for history. It was in the past in Poland, but in November, we had snow outdoors, and the snow stayed and frost and winter until March remained. Now the situation is not in place. You can do construction work over November, December and January now. Even in assumptions, investors do not actually assume such a scenario that we have to buy maximum a lot of aluminum for facades and windows in order to close the buildings before winter. Now, the pressure of climate is not in place.
The climate is more gentle and it is shifted. We, I mean, we will be feeling less and less exposed to the seasonability related to winter in construction. I was informed that choosing a Polish or English version chat should be working. I even have a test information, so please try once again. Choose the language version and then chat. Let me go to the next question in the meantime. Can we share information about the value, the EBITDA margin obtained on BOPP film, which was especially important for us in the first quarter of 2022, and it generated such excellent results? Or whether margin obtained this year is already clearly closer to the levels which we had expected, lower, higher? Of course, if we can answer such question, we want to.
Let me answer because President Lechowicz said we have new competitors in Portugal. It is quite a sensitive question. It seems that we do not have to answer this question. Thank you very much for a quick and brief answer. Next question. Results in the Ukrainian company. Can we share information how high they were compared to the original assumptions for the first quarter of this year? How high they were? This is we assumed, dear ladies and gentlemen, zero EBITDA at the level of EBITDA, so that the company would be self-financing. In the first quarter, we exceed PLN 1 million. Yes, PLN 1.3 million depending. It is positive, good information for us. These are not significant amounts.
What I mentioned earlier, simply designing budget for a Ukrainian company in war terms, in war conditions, would be irresponsible from us to plan anything different from zero. Thank you very much. Next question is about broader perspective of the whole year. Initially we assumed this was the declaration, with a presentation of forecasts for 2023, that for the first half of the year we are allocating about PLN 300 million EBITDA, whereas for the second half year about PLN 400 million EBITDA. After the first quarter we have PLN 200, extrapolating theoretically after half a year, we will have PLN 400. Whether the option for the second half year is also the possible option?
This is also exceeding our planned level of PLN 400 million, exceeding it by about PLN 100 million, which would finally result in EBITDA the level of PLN 900 million or rather, equalizing it and in PLN 400 first, PLN 400 second. I hope I clearly explained what the question was about. Honorable ladies and gentlemen, as we mentioned, yes, really in line with our policy as at today, estimation of exceeding the results and what we have implemented in the first quarter, they do not exceed 10%. Briefly speaking, they are below PLN 70 million. The quarterly system of the forecast was that the first quarter was really forecasted low level.
We may say that if we enter the quarters two, three, and four and they are done in accordance with the plan where the fourth quarter is weaker again, this figure above planned will not be increased in the scale of the year. Both due to this uncertainty which Piotr mentioned, this short horizon we notice, we did not decide to update it. I think after the first half of the year, our situation for planning will be much easier. Slightly better quarters, slightly different trends because as you remember from December that for the first half a year, we all the time assume the level of reducing stocks, warehouse stocks.
As Piotr mentioned, in the first quarter in some customers we can already see signs of increasing their stocks. We have to check this effect because maybe this positive bounce up started a bit earlier, but we are not convinced to what level it will lead us to. We want to be fair to the market and we really approach it professionally. Please note that last year, the first quarter, situation abnormal, that in packagings, in BOPP or in extruded product segment, we are not able to provide for the customers. Our production capacity is utilized to the maximum and practically clients are not asking about what the price is going to be, but whether they will get the goods, the products.
Abnormal situation where, well, last year in August, in September, we are asking clients what next and they say that they will be ordering 50% of what they were ordering in the past. Such dynamic changes make it very difficult for us to create a forecast which could be a forecast for certain. Today we also don't know what will happen in the third quarter. May we avoid having such leaps, jumps, because we like to have some horizon planned and to be almost certain of everything.
In this situation, although we have a lot of experience because it is not our first forecast, our first budget, and assuming this budget and implementation thereof, the recent period is so such a period of vast changes that we ourselves are considering it and we are rather looking at a short-term horizon and now we are focusing on the second quarter in order to avoid not noticing something, not to spoil something, to be able to be talking about the second half of the year. What will happen in the third quarter, I don't dare to say. Well, of course, we presented to you assumptions for the forecast and the budget is in force, is obligatory.
If it appears that all of a sudden the, in BOPP films, there will be such a demand that we will start work at maximum capacity, additional profits will show up. Today, we don't know about it, and there are no signals related to it. Thank you for your kind attention. Thank you. I also tried to consult the question of chat here, but yes, we may still be having problems, so one more question. The question is about the thing between extruded product segments and aluminum system segment. With poor demand in the segment of extruded products segment, are there any possibilities to receive greater numbers of profiles by the aluminum system segment compared to what had been assumed in the forecast?
In the forecast, we already assumed that this year about 3,000 tons will be taken by aluminum system segment from extruded product segment. Is there any space on top of that? As we assumed, practically all our demand regarding needs related to aluminum have been transferred to internal pressing shop, so to the segment of extruded products, apart from quantities related to atypical profiles or dies. Here, actually increasing quantities in orders in the segment of extruded products may be only related to increased demand and increased sales in the following quarters. Thank you very much. So far, no more questions have arrived. Those people who would like to ask a question still are very kindly requested to send them to my email mmalina@grupakety.com. I will do my best to answer possibly fastest.
Sorry for technical problems. I hope that during next transmission we will eliminate this problem of lack of chat availability. Thanks to all listeners for participation. I would like to thank gentleman from the board, President of Alupol Packaging. Let me invite you to the next presentation already after the results of the 2nd quarter, which will be done at the beginning of August. Still decision has not been made whether in the stationary form or remotely, but we will keep informing you on the go. Thank you for your kind attention once again. Thank you and goodbye.