Companhia Siderurgica Nacional SA
BOVESPA:CSNA3
If you don’t study any companies, you have the same success buying stocks as you do in a poker game if you bet without looking at your cards.
Utilize notes to systematically review your investment decisions. By reflecting on past outcomes, you can discern effective strategies and identify those that underperformed. This continuous feedback loop enables you to adapt and refine your approach, optimizing for future success.
Each note serves as a learning point, offering insights into your decision-making processes. Over time, you'll accumulate a personalized database of knowledge, enhancing your ability to make informed decisions quickly and effectively.
With a comprehensive record of your investment history at your fingertips, you can compare current opportunities against past experiences. This not only bolsters your confidence but also ensures that each decision is grounded in a well-documented rationale.
Do you really want to delete this note?
This action cannot be undone.
| 52 Week Range |
10.64
19.66
|
| Price Target |
|
We'll email you a reminder when the closing price reaches BRL.
Choose the stock you wish to monitor with a price alert.
This alert will be permanently deleted.
Companhia Siderurgica Nacional SA
Earnings Call Analysis
Q3-2023 Analysis
Companhia Siderurgica Nacional SA
In a challenging global scenario for steel companies, the diversified business model of the company stood out, allowing a robust 25% growth in EBITDA despite pressures from imported steel. This quarter's focus on increased profitability and cash generation resulted in BRL 1 billion, leading to deleverage and a reduction in net debt. The commitment to continue deleveraging aims to reach a leverage ratio of below 2.5x by the end of the fiscal year, which aligns with the broader goal of falling below 2x as part of the company’s policy.
Operational costs and pricing strategy have seen improvements with a 4% increase in prices, indicating a trend that is expected to persist. Margins have increased by 4 percentage points. The EBITDA margin improvements indicate a positive direction for future quarters, and initiatives to achieve synergies are expected to elevate performance further. Initial signs suggest a strengthened outlook for 2024, influenced by better results foresighted due to persistent operational enhancements.
The company has shown a commitment to ESG by achieving the lowest accident rate, which is 13% better than the previous year. Furthermore, there has been a significant reduction of 19% in water consumption compared to the same period last year, and the company successfully generated 1.2 gigawatts of its own energy. Progress in diversity goals is on track, with women’s representation at 15%, moving towards the goal of 28% by 2025. The first sustainable bank finance operation and the publication of the climate action report signify further advancements in the company's sustainable and responsible business approach.
Leverage remains a key concern for the company, which is being addressed through strategic actions to reduce debt levels. Asset value management represents a relevant action in this approach, with the expectation of a stronger capital market in 2024 facilitating this process. Another significant move is the plan to reduce leverage by materializing at a Market-to-Book Equity (MEB) ratio below 2x, aligning with the strategy of deleveraging.
The acquisition of Lafarge Sace led to higher operating efficiency in the cement sector, an area where the company sees room for margin expansion through synergies. The margins of 30% are expected to improve further, with a potential for margins greater than currently reported once full synergy is realized in the coming quarters. The executive team emphasized the recent tough market conditions that are anticipated to recover, which would contribute positively to the margins moving forward.
The company is fighting against the imports of steel that are claimed to be in unfair competition and not compliant with specifications. The import situation stands as an area of concern for the industry, highlighting the need for the government to adopt protective measures and align them with global standards to secure domestic manufacturing and economic growth. Meanwhile, the company continues its ongoing negotiations to increase rates to shield itself against these market challenges.
On the front of deleveraging, the company expressed confidence in achieving a reduction in its leverage ratio to below 2x by the end of 2024. This ambitious target would be pursued by leveraging the potential for growth and profitability within the group's risk capital, particularly in the cement sector and potential partnerships in energy. The company is preparing for the future with a strong belief in the strategic initiatives underway.
Concluding the call, the company reiterated its determination to recover and improve its results, thereby achieving a more positive performance. An invitation to the upcoming CSN Q&A session was extended, highlighting the company's open communication with investors and commitment to transparency.
You don't have any saved screeners yet
Morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for holding. At this time, we would like to welcome everyone to CSN conference call to present results for the third quarter of 2023. Today, with us, we have the company executive officers. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded and all participants will be in listen-only now during the company presentation. And soon this, we will go on to with Q&A section at which time further instructions will be provided. Should any participant require assistance during this call, please press Star Zero to reach the operator. We have simultaneous webcast that may be accessed through CSN Investor Relations website at ri.csn.com.br, where the presentation is also available. There will be a service for this call on the website for a period of 1 week. The slide presentation may be downloaded at this website. Before proceeding, please be advised that some of the statements herein are near expectations or trends and are based on the current stations and opinions of the company management and the performance and events may differ materially from those expressed herein, which do not constitute projection. In fact, actual results, performances or events may differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. As a result of several factors: overall and economic conditions in Brazil and other countries, interest rates and exchange rate levels due to rescheduling or prepayment of debt nominated in foreign currency, protectionist measurements in the U.S., Brazil and other countries, changes in loan regulations and general competitive factors at global, regional or national basis. We will now turn the floor over to Mr. Marcelo Cunha Ribeiro, CFO and Investor Relations Officer, who will present the highlights of CSN for the period. You may proceed, Mr. Ribeiro.
A good day to all of you, and thank you for participating at the CSN call. First of all, we will go on with a presentation and then give the floor to Mr. Benjamin Steinbruch, the Chairman of the Board. We begin with the highlight of the period. Referring to a sole same of CSN business model, which is its diversification, in this quarter, it became very important as it allowed for a robust growth of 25% despite a pressure on the scenario of the steel companies worldwide. We were able to increase our profitability and increase cash generation that reached BRL 1 billion. It's led to deleverage and reduction of our agenda. These are the highlights we will discuss during the presentation. We go on to the next slide, showing you the sequential evolution of our EBITDA. And you can see the enhancement of this quarter, 25% improvement. And on the other hand, we see that we are still in a semester of transition. There is more to improve to enhance, especially in the steel segment that this quarter felt the pressure of imported still in unfair conditions because of the global price and impacting the domestic market. The EBITDA had a drop of 64%, offset with a positive evolution in all of the other businesses with a highlight of mining more than 76%, where we also see an excellent advance in our logistics center. And our cement segment has the best EBITDA in its history. We reached BRL 2.8 billion, with over BRL 552 million sequentially. Now we continue on, we go onto operating and financial indicator here you see CapEx was an evolution of 20% already expected as of our annual evolution, BRL 304 million in steel because of important projects, especially the coke battery at UPT and other sintering improvements and advance in Sonae that involve operating enhancements and, of course, our project of Page 15. We reached BRL 2 billion in terms of CapEx, working capital positive an evolution of BRL 1 billion, a healthy evolution of inventory, and we continue to reduce our inventory and the number of suppliers were insisting on on-time deliveries. And because of the mix of raw materials, we were able to have an advance of BRL 1 million in suppliers in terms of accounts receivable and impact on the business, especially in mining with a growth of BRL 500 million in terms of accounts receivable on the base as you can see the working capital has helped us to generate operating cash flow. This quarter, we reached more than BRL 1 billion. When we compare this sequentially, you can see the seasonality, the volatility of the business. This is the second year where at the beginning of the year, we have pressure on working capital and then throughout the year on the second to the fourth quarter, we are able to reverse these investments and generate quite a bit of cash. This year was not different. It translates into cash of BRL 1 billion, even after we include CapEx in our results. Now on the following slide, this cash generation was sufficient for the first and after some quarters to allow for a positive evolution in our net debt was a drop of BRL 1.5 million, minus 4.8%. Also due to initiatives, of course, that we have undertaken to guarantee the reduction in leverage, the payment of electable energy, something that we had already mentioned in the previous quarter, and therefore, not only on an net debt cost but leverage reached 2.6%. That's an important step vis-a-vis where we would like to get to. And this is our policy to be below 2x. But this quarter, we have been adjusting our guidance by the end of the year, and we are within 2.5x. And we're quite confident that we will lower this with the advance of the results and may be initiatives that are underway. We have visibility that this 2x of leverage will be reached in 2024. We continue on with the presentation. We show you our cash generation also helping us to create a very robust position in liquidity. We have more than BRL 15 billion with a very healthy coverage when it comes to the short term indebtedness and indebtness that will be gradually reduced through the coming quarters and the gradual replacement of short-term instruments by long-term instruments. We had an issuance of debenture of BRL 700 million. This is a recent window that was opened up in the Brazilian market with Paris and the real world segment, and we will constantly make payments from those in coming quarters to improve the indebtedness through the years to guarantee this evolution in the right section of our deleveraging and net indebtedness to improve our rate teams, we will have positive figures, and this shows us the possibility of future upgrades. We will now speak about the highlights per segment. We'll speak about the steel performance. This was a difficult segment with pressure on results as I mentioned it because of important steel competition that reduced the prices, even with the surplus of imported steel, we obtained a growth in the domestic market. In an environment of mixed domestic demand with a positive demand such as sectors in construction and others and others that are just stocking automotive and equipment, for example. But we maintained our market position. We had a slight reduction in the total volume sold because of the seasonality of our sales. Regarding EBITDA, it was quite pressured because of another quarter of a property prices. We had Mexico responding to the drop of prices in the international market and what is happening globally and cost dropping, but not sufficiently to avoid these margins. Now the good news, you will see on Slide 15, where we see an advance in the production of labs. And of course, this translates into a cost of club that is 13% lower but still not equivalent to the cost of merchandise. So that should happen in the fourth quarter. We consistently expect that stability will come from these floors that we have in the third quarter and become more positive in coming quarters. We move on to speak about the mining segment that had a very strong quarter. Practically, all of the KPIs were positive, a record in production. We not only were able to sell more, but as part of the sales. We have more of our own iron ore and not purchased iron ore. Now the price realization was quite strong because of the advance in international prices of iron ore. Now these are provisional prices of shipments from the previous quarter. And regarding the cost, we had this positive impact of our own iron ore that help us in margin improvement. And this maint enhancement because of a better production with an increase of 45% and EBITDA almost close to BRL 2 billion. In the next page, all of the elements probably bridge showing a positive evolution adjustment in open shipments on previous quarters going through volume, price in the international market, but also the mix of our own iron or produce more important than purchased iron ore, the plot was an advance in the quarter. And this is how we reach the very strong EBITDA in the third quarter with an expectation of a very positive performance until the end of the year as all of these elements will be maintained. We go on to comment on event. As I mentioned, we had nominal EBITDA, the highest in our history but we still have a great deal to deliver. We show you growth vis-a-vis the same period last year of 4% in volumes, even with the market [indiscernible] to 3%. So this shows you that the synergies have brought about a healthy gain and health. This quarter, we have a slight decrease because of a decrease of speed in the last month in September when we finally integrated all of the plans of Lapas. Of course, it's natural time of transition we have to keep a less accelerated pace in the last month of the quarter. Were it not for this, we would have had sequential growth. Now in revenue, you can see an enhancement in prices, an increase of 4% in prices, and we believe that this is a trend that will remain and the cost reduction, greater ambitions in terms of materializing synergies. And that is why we saw margins increasing 4 percentage points to the transition where we will reach higher levels. This was a good quarter that enables us to think we will have better results in 2024. With this, we conclude the comments, and I would like to give the floor to our ESC Manager.
Good morning, everybody, and thank you for allowing me to be here. I would like to share the highlights for the quarter. As you No, we have had very specific guidance in terms of our indicators are qualitative indicators and our performance in terms of ESC. The main highlights for the period. And this was mentioned in the CSN call is the completion of the stability of our bank and the conclusion of the decharacterization of pivotal work for the GP that we will go a 2 year modestly. And of course, we have made great price in this. We're also evolving in terms of our operational management. We ended in terms of health and safety at the lowest accident rate, 13% better than it was last year with the mix reduction in terms of our accident severity rate and 44% in the number of loss due to accidents involving our own employees. Now, we have figures that have been incorporated into all of our operations, and we have an accumulated reduction of 7% in our figures vis-a-vis last year. In environmental management, you will see the expressive reduction in the use of water. We had a great deal of rainfall, and we had minus 19% in water consumption for the CSN Group compared to the 9 months of 2022. Now we were able to generate 1.2 gigawatts of our own energy. I would like to very quickly refer to the part of diversity that continues to grow. The women's representation now reaches 15%, an increase compared to last year. And we continue to comply with our goal of 28% in 2025. And you will see the constant evolution of the company in terms of NCI. Now we had the first operation of a sustainable bank finance of BRL 500 million with Bank of Brazil for Mint. And finally, the publication of our first climate action report. It's a document that we so all of the detail in terms of our decarbonization and you will be able to see this at Investor Day, and it will also be published in the site. Thank you.
Thank you, Elena, for the highlights. With this, we would like to end the presentation and open the floor for questions and answers. I give the floor to Benjamin Steibruch, the CEO, for his comments.
Good morning, everybody. It's always very satisfying to speak to you after the presentation of the results of the third quarter. I'm very quickly going to make some remarks on the sector. We begin with mining that was presented in the morning. We had a record of production. The prices aligned with the market, very good prices that we've found to be somewhat surprising and they ended up being higher than we expected control costs. This was a very good quarter. And the last quarter, the price is given of $130 per ton. This is the market price, which will certainly enable us to have a mining headwind in the fourth quarter will continue on what happened in the third quarter in terms of the improvements in the amount and the prices that have already been established. And of course, we're going to continue on with enhancements in terms of mining. When it comes to cement, we have a growth, although the market has become ever more difficult. We believe that the market for the fourth quarter will continue to grow as part of what has been foreseen. We're in mid-November already, and we do believe it will be a per quarter with a price recovery and with higher consumption of cement. As you will know, since the beginning of the year, we have been working obviously in terms of maintenance, we have problems. As you know, in the last quarter of last year in terms of our steel mill and we're working arduously on processes that are quite lengthy. We're beginning to see the initial results. And after the work in all of the quarters of this year, I believe that we have finally returned to a situation of normalcy. With this, our production will be better as a consequence, the cost should be lower and we do believe that we will have a quarter that will continue on improving on the third quarter. Now infrastructure is going beyond our forecast in terms of results, collaborating with our figures, Germany, Portugal and the United States have also had a very good performance within what was expected. And there also contributing to the results. The specific case that I would like to refer to is that of imports of steel that seem to be occurring in a very disorganized with Brazil. Most of the countries have high taxation and in some countries, this taxation works. We reduced our taxation to 6%. We went back to 9%, but we're truly lagging behind is what happens in the rest of the world and what happens with us. And we should offer the same treatment that is being offered by other countries. In this case, the government is clearly aware of what should be done in our sector and other sectors of the economy have been feeling this impact and very little has been regarding the problem. We don't need to have specific skill on the part of the government. All you have to do is copy what is being done to us, and that will be sufficient. What we cannot allow, and please forgive me, but we cannot allow Brazil to end up like this to have people using without quality outside of technical specifications. With steel imports in Brazil, truly compromising our security. It becomes very difficult to compete in the market without balance. This is a warning that we're issuing not only in our segment for all of them because we are undergoing a period of protectionism and Brazil cannot act differently from the rest of the world in this case. I think the time has come for the government to adopt stringent measures to effectively protect employment and the growth of the economy. I believe that we spoke in depth of taxing more collecting more and nobody is speaking about spending less [indiscernible]. In my opinion, we should take away some of the taxes of the economy and some of the sectors need to be selected for a lack of taxation enabling these sectors to grow, to develop and to create an appropriate plan for growth of industry within conditions that we set forth by the government, I believe that this is necessary is urgent and it is slightly behind. When it comes to ourselves, that's CSN, we're going to continue working on the leveraging. Our priority, of course, is the safety of our gas, ESG and the investments that are already underway that will bring us stable going forward. Thank you all for your attendance. We can now open the floor for questions. We're at your disposal.
Our next question comes from Guilherme Rosito from Bank of America.
My first question to Marcelo refers to capital allocation. It usually is very expressive at CSN, but we see that CSN has in maintaining very relevant things. Now you have increased your buyback and in which situation will be the company allocate capital and continue to pay very good dividends. My next question is to Martinez. If you could comment on price and distribution, what is happening in terms of negotiations to increase the rate of steel? Will this apply to the rate for all products?
This discussion of dividends and buybacks. I don't think this has like a wide answer. We have seen our own preference that is to work with buyback to recover the price of the share, the effects or rather transitory and what happens. Deep down is to pay the shareholders. So we believe that this is a policy that can work better instead of using this buyback that is quite discretionary and not very foreseeable. And we have mentioned this in some of our investor days, we would like to pay higher dividends to pay the investors but within a certain logic. And this is what we have done with the dividends that have just been announced of BRL 2.5 billion, and the buyback alternative is there. But for us, we prefer to maintain consistency during the quarter. I will give the floor to Martinez.
Guilherme, I understood the first part of your question, referring to price and distribution. The scenario that we're working with for the fourth quarter is a stable demand until the end of the year at stable prices. This is a scenario we're counting on in terms of parity nowadays, we imagine BQ in China of 533, 540 sometimes reached $550. And in the domestic market, the variation will be 34,000 and of 100 with $1.01 15%. So there is no reason, therefore, to try to work on recovery prices. What we have to do is sell the products. There's still a rate of imported material in the market, as Benjamin has just remarked this is an unfair unload a normal situation comes with peaks of 25%. So the trend until the end of the year is to have a drop in the imports. This is the scenario that we're faced with at the end of the year. I'm sorry, I was not able to understand the second part of your question.
If you could give us more color on your negotiations to increase rates and if these rates will apply to everybody in steel
Well, when we think about the increase of rate, I don't have an update on what is happening. As Benjamin mentioned, we're working in all fronts. We're specifically involved in negotiations with all of the government stakeholders, which in one way or another, have influence in this process. What is more important is what Benjamin mentioned. You don't need science or technology for the [indiscernible] what is being done abroad. We live in decarbonized deglobalized world and what we need is a minimum of protection at present. The U.S. at present, we clearly perceive that they are fully protected with their antidumping to rate Europe. They work with anti-dumping and now they have safeguards implemented for Brazil is standing on the outskirts of the world. This situation is ridiculous what is happening in Brazil that the industry participate with 11% of the GDP. What we truly expected for the government to do its job and to increase these rates to a minimum of 25%, which is what we're claiming for. And even that way for any projects if we take away the shipment price, we will still have difficulties from the plant in where everybody is competitive. Besides the Brazil cost that still exists, we faced difficulties, as Benjamin mentioned and in the case CSN. Specifically, what we have done is heroic in pro then forgive me for the work with a drop of 5% in price for fighting against the imports with unloyal competition with products that do not comply with specifications an enormous amount. I think the drop was small. We have been struggling strongly against this material coming into Brazil. And CSN is directly involved to give you an idea Gerdau of the imported material coming into Brazil, 63% impact CSN. It doesn't impact other market players. So those who are bearing the brand are CSN in terms of prepainted material, the galvanizmaterial, the template. If you look at the drop of 5% in maintaining volume, this is quite positive considering what we're facing. We're working like crazy. We're changing our portfolio products, stickiness, clients and amounts to be able to exist. Otherwise, a drop would be much greater in galvanized materially, I speak of a premium of 15% in Q, it reaches 27% premium in the imported nationalized product. Luckily enough, we still have a group of clients and as this portfolio that able us to distinguish ourselves and make our package irresistible to the client. This is a more complete package and justifies what we presented in the results.
One more question for Martinez. The discount.
There are 2 relevant actions that we're adopting to reduce this and we look at the value of the assets in CSN, the example of Semi is very clear. It has been depreciated in a rather impressive way with a stable value, and we have carried out some actions at sea. We're doing the same with our cement units to unharness this year. Now this is part of our plan, and we hope to do this when the capital market is stronger in 2024. And secondly, we have to reduce our leverage. The leverage, of course, brings about concern of CSN compared to Semi and the relative performance of these, a reduction of leverage will enable us to materialize at MEB.
Our next question comes from Caio Greiner from BTG
I would like to further explore the margins in steel. And if we look at what is happening, you have a drop in flat of 13%. But in terms of tonnage, the drop was minimal. And this is reflected in the cost. I would like to understand how you view the margin of the steel plant in the evolution in the coming quarters. It will see the impact already benefiting the margins this next quarter and in 2024. Now if we do assume that we're in a highway binary, fear, but what will happen with stable prices and what will happen in 2022? So if you could help us at of that equation of the margins for the steel plant for 2024. The second question, I would like to pour leverage guidance and where do you foresee achieving this reduction until the end of 2024 to below 2x. When we carry out our accounts, we see the EBITDA for 2024 being very similar ore 2023. And the same holds true to cash generation with the same levels of EBITDA, amortization for the payment of energy and the payment of minimum dividend, you wouldn't have a great deal of cash for deleveraging. Perhaps, we're working with on premises or assumptions. And that is where the reduction in leverage would come. What was your thinking of other variables in terms of cash or the sale of assets?
So the margins of the steel plant, they still have that internal effect is not only cost and price, but also the share of our business in Germany. The share in Germany was generating 2-digit margins because of the situation in Europe, the positive situation and the press, and there was a very rapid normalization between the second and third quarters, the market went back to a situation of normally and seasonality in Germany in July and August and September. So when we compare the second and third quarter, there's a negative contribution of Germany, it is significant. And it's difficult to compare this with price and cost domestically. The good news is that the volumes in Germany are growing once again, prices are stable. Scrap will also see a reduction, so becoming in Germany. And the situation here, which is more relevant with one of our stability and that range will help us a more positive performance of production, the big cost. This happened at the end of the quarter closer to September. And because of this, the cost of production is still in the inventory, and this would translate in the cost of merchandise by full throughout the third quarter, the margin will be very positive in the fourth quarter, and we're going to see that in the coming quarters regarding our outlook for margin. Now your question on deleveraging is very pertinent. It's a difficult thing to do. It includes uncertain premises, for example, the cost of iron or the coming year. You're right, there is no consensus. We are going to take to live 2 times with the risk capital of the group. We have been very vocal about this. We have cement. We're going to stick a partner in terms of energy, and this is how we're going to make sure that our accounts are correct. Now we are working with the future, and this is what we believe will happen in 2024.
Our next question comes from Ricardo Monegaglia from Safra Bank.
I don't want to be too insistent on steel in Brazil but I'm trying to understand the carryover of the steel price in the last month, well, the price of steel in the last month in the past and how this compares with the averages in the past. And if you could give us an outlook of what happened in October and November already, which will be the evolution in the fourth quarter. The second question is about the results in cement. How much of the increase in profitability is due to synergy and which is the mix that you experienced and without expecting a higher growth, your base case, I believe, is 33%.
Ricardo, when it comes to prices, I mentioned formerly, there is no carryover. We're working with a situation of price stability for the fourth quarter. Now eventually, of course, we may have a slight variation because of the mix of products, but there will be no significant variation in terms of price. This is a valve about cement. Basically, we already have a very positive evolution in terms of the synergies. We have already remarked this in other column. After the Lafarge Sace operation, we were able to force even better of print. And we're evolving in all the possible fronts for synergy. Now the synergies are incorporated into results of the company through time. And we see an evolution and incorporation in the third quarter. Benjamin and Marcelo himself mentioned that cement in the last few months in the last quarters, well, have to face a more typical market, and we see a price recovery in the last quarter. We hope there will be a recovery in coming quarters, and we will see a more vigorous evolution of synergy regarding the margins that we expect, we had margins of 30% in cement. Now with the incorporation of Lafarge Sace, these margins dropped immediately because Holcim was working with a 20% margin. But once again, by incorporating synergy in the coming quarters, we will be seeing a normal recovery and expected recovery with the potential of having margins greater than we are quoting here.
Our next question comes from Daniel Sasson from Itau BBA.
My first question is perhaps to Martinez or Marcelo, you remarked that in terms of cost, the benefit of the reduction in the cost of sub will become more visible beginning in the fourth quarter. I would like to understand in the cost of production of slabs that already had a good drop. There is still room for further reductions. And we spoke about the price of the BRLs per ton in steel, and this an extremely contracted margin for the quarter. My second question to insist further on the previous question of demand. Also it is clear that the capture of synergies becoming ever more evident of a margin recovery. The EBITDA going to 23% margin. Now going forward, do you still detect opportunities to grow through M&A in the sector? Is this still a route that you can explore or do you believe that as of now, the restrictions of the antitrust agencies could make dissociation more difficult simply to see which is your outlook for the next step after the capture of synergy and the growth of the business?
Regarding the cost, yes, there is room for further drops and through it has been reduced more. If we look at October, we see the price lower than those 3,400, 3,500, and there have been some movements in raw materials that might make it more difficult to have subsequent drops. We've seen what is happening with coal, iron ore and others, but yes, this cost will continue to drop and even a bit our margin. Now regarding cement and the consolidation. The cement sector in Brazil continues to be fragmented compared to other large and more mature markets. And therefore, we can put aside the new opportunities may come about at the top of the ranking at the bottom of the ranking. We believe that all of these opportunities, of course, would be worthwhile looking at. If there will be limitations because of the law of competition, the refer only to cement. We know how this logic operates in the discussion with Canadian trust agency. We had long discussions during Lafarge Sace. So it depends on the regions where we would like to implement new opportunities for growth and inorganic growth.
As we have no further questions, we would like to end the question-and-answer session. We will return the floor to Mr. Marcelo Cunha Ribeiro, CFO and IRO, for his closing remarks.
I would like to thank all of you once again for your attendance, for your questions, and of course, before closing, I underscore our conviction that we're on the path to recover our results so we can have even more positive results. I do invite you to the CSN Q&A that will happen in a month. You will, of course, receive a safety message so that you can follow up on this. Once again, thank you, and have a very good day.
The CSN conference call ends here. You can now disconnect and have a very good day. Thank you for using Chorus Call.