Santos Brasil Participacoes SA

BOVESPA:STBP3

Earnings Call Analysis

Santos Brasil Reports Strong Earnings Growth

Santos Brasil achieved a pivotal milestone in 2023, surpassing BRL 1 billion in EBITDA, a notable consequence of strategic investments in capacity over the past few years. Despite a yearly volume contraction of 6.2% and a more pronounced 25% drop in the TEV, economic performance remained robust with a 10.5% rise in net revenue to BRL 2.1 billion and a 17.4% increase in net income exceeding BRL 500 million. The fourth quarter, in particular, saw remarkable growth with net revenue up 42%, EBITDA soaring by 85%, and net income leaping by 66% compared to Q4 2022. Margins expanded significantly, with EBITDA margin hitting 55% and net margin approaching 34%. The company also disclosed an optimistic outlook for 2024, expecting continuation of this upward trend. Investments in expansion continued with a significant focus on Tecon Santos, where the company looks to increase commercial capacity from 2.4 million to 2.6 million by 2025, solidifying its market position while maintaining service quality without bottlenecks.

Capital Investment and Margin Enhancement

An insightful glimpse into the recent strategic movements of a company at the forefront of transportation services reveals meticulous capital investment planning and an anticipated upswing in margins. The company has masterfully navigated a period of elevated depreciation, stemming from progressive investments which required time to mature. As a result, the future promises enhanced operating leverage from assets with high depreciation, leading to a significant lift in profit margins and potential dividends. The newly achieved operational balance, characterized by increased volumes, aligns depreciation and cash generation more favorably, laying the groundwork for improved EBITDA margins.

Competitive Strategy and Client-centric Approach

The narrative unfolds with a strategic focus on maintaining competitive advantages for clients. This is achieved by delivering superior service levels, which in turn fosters more competitive positioning in the market. The company showcases its agility and innovation through a capacity expansion strategy that emphasizes competitive pricing and the delivery of high-value services with no transshipment, capturing a majority share in import cargo services. As the company progresses, it aims to solidify its dominance by offering unparalleled services to coastal clients and leveraging high productivity in transshipment cargo, coupled with favorable import dynamics.

Guidance on Margin and Revenue Expectations

Looking ahead, the company carefully balances optimism with prudence, suggesting a long-term EBITDA margin within the range of 55% to 60%, given the alignment of volume, price, and cargo mix. This forward-looking statement underscores the company's confidence in its capability to drive growth in the container unit volumes through strategic terminals and the potential contribution from Itaqui operations which are anticipated to operate with even higher EBITDA margins of 65% to 70%.

Strategic Focus and Capital Allocation

A strategic lens reveals an intent focus from the company on leveraging its capabilities within the liquid bulk terminal and container sectors, which offer superior returns compared to grains. The company's strategic blueprint emphasizes organic growth in logistics, seamlessly integrated with their port operations and client movements, hinting at an opportunistic stance towards adopting new ventures. This approach prioritizes a pragmatic capital allocation towards projects offering substantial margins, notably in container terminal expansions projected to enhance capacity from 2 million to 3 million TEUs within 5 to 7 years. Furthermore, the company is discerning in its expansion strategy, aiming for meaningful investments over seeking an extensive network of terminals.

Operational Highlights

On an operational level, the company's dwell time has shown stability in Q4 2023 compared to the third quarter, with an uptick from Q4 2022 due to challenges related to federal revenue operations. This stability is noteworthy in the face of volume growth and reflects the effective utilization of bonded warehouses and secondary zones. The increased retention at the Port of Santos is demonstrated by a strategic utilization of services and new portfolio negotiations aimed at optimizing client service and asset allocation across primary and secondary areas.

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q4

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Good morning, everyone, and thank you for holding. Welcome to Santos Brasil Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. With us today, we have Antonio Carlos Sepulveda, the Chief Executive Officer; Daniel Pedreira Dorea, the Chief Financial and Investor Relations Officer; and Ricardo dos Santos Buteri, Chief Commercial Officer. [Operator Instructions] I would like to remind you that the earnings release and the presentations are available in the company's Investor Relations website where the replay of this event will also be available -- in addition to the rooms in Portuguese and English. We have simultaneous translation into Brazilian sign language. Before proceeding, please bear in mind that the forward-looking statement made on the business prospects of Santos Brasil as well as operational and financial goals are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Santos Brasil management and on information currently available. These forward-looking statements are no guarantees of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties as they relate to future events that may or may not occur. Investors and analysts should understand that macroeconomic conditions, industry conditions and other operational factors could also cause results to differ materially from those that are expressed in the forward-looking statements. I would now like to turn the floor over to Mr. Daniel Pedreira Dorea, who will begin the presentation. Mr. Dorea, you may proceed.

[Daniel Dorea, executive]

[Interpreted] Well, good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us. I hope everyone is well. I have by me the CEO of the company, Mr. Sepulveda and Ricardo Buteri, our Commercial Director. I'm going to begin with a few comments, and then we will open the floor for the Q&A. The year 2023 marks an important chapter in Santos Brasil history as we reached an EBITDA of BRL 1 billion. It is a result of a successful execution of the strategy outlined a few years ago, focusing on investments and capacity to capture demands in our markets, mainly in the Port of Santos pricing service, recomposition, better balancing them with Santos Brasil operational excellence and an increase in efficiency and productivity of our port terminals and logistics units, and 2024 shows even more positive time following a trend already observed in the last quarter of 2023. For example, this year, we started contracting five new navigation services. These are four lines with calls the Tecon Santos, including a new capital service operated by Norcoast, who's first stop was made in February. Norcoast is a joint venture between Hapag-Lloyd and Norsul is the first container cabotage company launched in Brazil in almost 15 years and three other long-haul services, too, led by the MSE shipping company with import cargo from Asia and the Mediterranean; and the other operated by ZIM covering South America, Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and the U.S. routes. The fifth contract signed by the company is for long-haul service led by CMA CGN, which started in February, with a route to the Gulf of Mexico and the U.S. is promising volume dynamic evidences the right decision to invest in expanding the capacity of our terminals, especially Tecon Santos made 5 years ago. This allowed Santos Brasil not only to capture a large number of additional calls as part of Santos in the last 3 years. But now, simultaneously, we contracted for additional navigation services, which will bring more predictability in terms of volume without loss of productivity or service quality.

If we had chosen another path, we would hardly be taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the market, and we would be growing more slowly. Santos Brasil remains firm and disciplined in its capital allocation strategy, focusing on capacity expansion and, of course, providing proceeds to our shareholders, in broad figures only. In 2023, we invested $1 billion between proceeds and investment, of which $636 million in CapEx and $479 million between dividends and interest on our own company. That means $0.55 per share in '23, representing a payout of 95% of our net revenues. In 2024, this figure will tend to grow. The company's capital structure is being optimized with a net debt, but with a leverage, that is very low of only 0.7x net debt and EBITDA. Now we continue for a brief balance of 2023, grading cognit of the year was the behavior of the volumes

[Unknown Executive]

[Foreign Language]

[Daniel Dorea, executive]

[Interpreted] The year was very erratic. We had flows in exports, cabotage and elsewhere.

[Unknown Executive]

[Foreign Language]

[Daniel Dorea, executive]

[Interpreted] Only in the third quarter, we had an increase in demand. Now the growing trajectory was consolidated in the fourth quarter with a very heated system at the Port of Santos. And normally, exports are concentrated between August and October.

[Unknown Executive]

[Foreign Language]

[Daniel Dorea, executive]

[Interpreted] Tecon Imbituba terminals also had a very good operational performance. Now the growth of 13.2% in the fourth quarter versus the fourth quarter '22 in the volume of container terminals was not sufficient to offset the drop of them in previous quarters, which means we had a drop of 6.2% vis-a-vis 2022. At the end of the day, all of our business units had a contraction year-on-year with a more extenuated drop of 25% in the TEV because of what is happening in Colombia and Argentina. On the other hand, the economic financial performance was fantastic all of the main line items grew year-on-year by 2 digits without an exception in the consolidated figures. Net revenue increased 10.5% to BRL 2.1 billion, EBITDA, 23.5%, reaching the symbolic mark of BRL 1 billion, and net income grew 17.4%, surpassing the $500 million. What is equally important is to observe the isolated results of the fourth quarter. Net revenue had a growth of 42%. EBITDA, 85%, and net income increased 66% when compared to the fourth quarter of '22. And please observe the expansion of the margins, the EBITDA margin grew 13 percentage points, reaching 55%, while the net margin increased 5 percentage points, reaching almost 34%.

If we analyze only the container terminals, EBITDA grew 117.5% reaching BRL 335.6 million in the fourth quarter 23, with a 63% margin, which means an increase of 17 percentage points vis-a-vis the same period in 2022. By the way, we have always said that we're getting to a point where the operational lever will be important to thrust the margins of Santos Brasil, and we have seen this translating into sound figures this quarter. We had a good balance between volume, cargo mix and prices in the fourth quarter of '23. We have a good proxy of the potential gains of our business when these variables are duly aligned.

Now to continue on to the Q&A, I would like to close with 2 highlights. First of all, we have completed the first year of liquid bulk terminals in Itaqui that have already contributed positively to our operating cash generation that was BRL 13 billion in 2023 with a 40% margin despite the scale and the lack of warehousing and the terminals -- the expansion work that the brownfield terminals are according to schedule, and they will be completed during the year when we will double the capacity of Itajai going on to 110,000 cubic meters in 2024. We continue to invest so that in 2025, we can deliver an additional 80,000 cubic meters to end up with a total 190,000 cubic meters. This is four-fold the presently installed capacity.

Finally, we're maintaining the pace of investments in Tecon Santos. The commercial capacity will go from $2.4 million sales to $2.6 million sales at the end of 2025. Now the competitive edge of Tecon Santos will remain and will have enormous capacity for containers in the Port of Santos without creating bottlenecks for the users. We're on the right path with growing results, financial soundness. We adhere to our environmental principles, and of course, we work with discipline for our shareholders and others. These are my initial comments. We can now open the floor for the Q&A. And I would like to thank you for your attention.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] [Operator instructions] Our first question comes from Lucas Marquiori from BTG Pactual. You may proceed sir with your question.

[Lucas Marquiori, analyst]

[Interpreted] Good morning, everybody. Thank you for the call. I would like to hear from you about volume. First of all, if you could give us an update on the performance interruptions, operational interruptions in BTP and Navegantes to fully understand which is the scenario? And until when these terminals will be out of the system? Secondly, because of these interruptions in other terminals -- and perhaps Buteri could give us an update on how the lineup is today. What is it that you foresee in terms of contracted volume growth vis-a-vis last year and which should be a good sign of growth in volume for the year 2024 vis-a-vis the year 2023. Those are my questions.

[Antônio Sepúlveda, executive]

[Interpreted] Lucas, good morning. This is Antonio Carlos. The first question about BTP and Navegantes we have very scant information of what happens in BTP. What I would convey to you is the solution of a problem of this nature is something critical. I can say that the repair of that route will extend for 5 months. From the moment when you mobilize until the conclusion, we have no news that this repair has even begun so far. We have perceived that they have closed on a repair service. And of course, we imagine that we would have 5 more months, which means that by September, this work should be concluded. Now for Navegantes, the information we have is that this is work that will extend for 2 years. It is important, Lucas, to underscore that you follow up on our lineup, and you have observed that there has been a growth in volume. But the volume hasn't begun to grow only because of -- well, the first the accident and then the refurbishment in the Navegantes port. We already had a growth in volume in the third quarter.

I don't know if you recall in our Investor Day, we have announced the anticipation of investments because we had perceived a change in the growth curve of the Port of Santos. And I believe that what was abnormal were the first 3 quarters of 2023, and certainly not the last quarter of '23 and what is happening now. We're following our curve. We are at $2.4 bills with the investment and the 2.6 for 2025 is something we have been announcing since the end of 2022. This is a structural movement for the port. And Santos Brasil is capturing growth of the port. This is natural for a very simple reason. We're investing massively for the last 5 years, and the pace of investment last year was $620 million. The expectation this year is to invest $720 million, and this will enable us to observe the growth of the port especially because our competitors are not investing. They have not invested to radically change their capacity. Therefore, this movement is a natural movement and expected movement. And in Santos has no connection, which one is happening in BTP and Navegantes, it can be of help. We have only one service, half of a service for imports at BTP. So you can expect a growth of volume this year, a growth of EBITDA and a constant growth.

We have heard a great deal from you. If we will have recurrent here, yes, there will be recurrent. This is part of our project. We have carefully surveyed these movements, and Brasil is doing very well in terms of the export of agricultural commodities and the export of the Port of Santos is based on agricultural commodities, based on sugar, pulp, cotton. And in the case of import, we had a drop in the first 3 quarters of 2023. But in the last quarter, it came back quite firmly. And the drop in the rate of interest is a driver to increase the exports of vehicles. We have seen a return and we see a greater strength in this area. So what we have been saying to you is finally materializing. Now these events, of course, can be helpful, Navegantes helps Imbituba where we have additional services. We will be announcing other services at Port of Santos, what is happening is what has to happen. I'm going to give the floor to Ricardo Buteri who will speak about the lineup and what has been happening.

[Ricardo dos Buteri, executive]

[Interpreted] Lucas, good morning and thank you for the question. I'm very happy to give you this structural overview, that we're not dealing with some onetime issue. Now to speak about NAV and the volume of growth, which was your second question. The lineup is quite full. This is not a surprise to us. Our forecast for '24 was to have robust growth. This is how we drafted our budget for the year. What is happening is that what we have been negotiating since October of last year is being realized, we have just signed four contracts for Porto de Santos and one in Imbituba, and this doesn't arise because of something happening with the competition. This should be made clear. And these volumes have a trend to be continued. The contracts are closed for 2 years. We are negotiating new contracts and today that strategy that we have shown of generating greater capacity and maintaining operational services, in fact, allows us to have a win-win relationship with the ship owners and the terminal.

When it comes to additional demand for the Port of Santos, for example, I'm not referring only to new services. I'm referring, for example, to the fact that we have already ascertained between Santos Brasil and the ship owner, a ship called [ Latam Mast ], which is the transition of an already existing service where they are operating 6 ships of 8,000 TEUs to ships of 13,000 TEUs. These are facts that bring about security, undoubtable security about the strategy we have adopted for growth for service levels and continuity of growth at Santos Brasil.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Our next question comes from Guilherme Mendes from JP Morgan Chase, you may proceed.

[Guilherme Mendes, analyst]

[Interpreted] Good morning, Daniel, Ricardo and Eduardo(sic) [Antonio]. Two points from my side. First of all, it is a follow-up from the question by Lucas to word it differently, how do you foresee the capacity, the use of capacity at Porto de Santos at the end of the year? You're going to make the most of the investments you have made in the last few years. And when 2024 ends, will you still have idle capacity when beginning 202?. My second question refers to prices with a view towards 2025. Where I think that the price issues will concentrate in Tecon Santos. Part of the volume comes from a competitor. And in the future, the competitor will have idle capacity. Will this interfere in a possible price negotiation in the coming year? So which is the capacity, if you do have idle capacity this year? And how are you going to work with a repricing of contracts at the end of the year? Thank you.

[Antônio Sepúlveda, executive]

[Interpreted] Good morning. This is Antonio Carlos, Guilherme, we have -- well, when we speak about terminal capacity, the capacity of the terminal is the capacity of the smallest system you have. We have several systems working in parallel and serially. Now for this year, the set point was to have available capacity of 2.4 million TEUs. This is what we imagine to have that we would perhaps have 2.2 million TEUs. Nowadays, the possibility is to do more than that. So what are we doing? Our net cap is 2.6 million TEUs. When working with the planning of the year, we would like to end the year 2025 with 2.6 million TEUs. Things are already ready at the terminal, Others are still underway. So we are making strides to deliver 2.6 million TEUs before the end of the year. Just to give you an idea, we're going to have peaks during this year. Our expectation is to have peaks. When you annualize this, there will be peaks of 2.6 TEUs. So we're very comfortable. I was at the terminal yesterday, and the level of occupancy of the yard was at 61%, and we're going to be releasing yard capacity this year, so we are very comfortable. Now, before in the response to Lucas, we had had a service that -- because of the incident at BTP. So the company is operating at cruising speed. And at Tecon Santos, we haven't altered anything. We have simply one: talent, which is a challenge. We have followed up on the last years, which is the scarcity of people to operate equipment. We have more equipment than people. Of course, we have moved to fill that deficit. We have some categories which are very difficult to fill. We carried out an agreement with another cargo company. And with this, we hope that in the coming 90 days, we will be able to fill in the vacancies that are missing. And once we fill in the vacancies, we can reach those 2.6 million TEUs. We want to make the most of this moment of growth and go back to have that buffer of 200,000 TEUs. You can imagine that Tecon Santos can reach 3 million TEUs of capacity and our investment plan is based on that thesis of having 200,000 TEUs that are inactive to make the most of any distortions we may have on the coast to make the most of all the extra calls. We don't want to have dues at the Port of Santos. We won't create logistic interruption, and we have been very precise in capital allocation because of this. This is our strategy. Therefore, we're going to continue with it during the year without any stress in making the most of all growth opportunities. I'll give the floor to Ricardo who will speak about pricing, which refers to your second question.

[Ricardo dos Buteri, executive]

[Interpreted] Guilherme, thank you for the question. Well, regarding repricing, it is important to understand the following: we do not visit and enter into negotiation only in the year where the contracts mature. To give you an idea, the coming week, we will begin a roadshow in Asia with the goal of updating all of the clients in terms of that schedule, that detailed capacity that Antonio Carlos has just mentioned that we have in our assets so that we can give them the comfort of continuity and longevity along with the services offered by Porto de Santos in the sector. The client is interested in that. The capacity of service and longevity. They have to be certain that the phase in and phase out of larger ships will reach the Port of Santos, will come in a window that has been previously agreed upon during the week. And of course, pricing follows up on all of that. It follows up on the update in investments. It follows up on the guarantee of good service. And pricing, repricing will take place in 2025.

We have approximately 15 contracts that will mature during 2025. With the same criteria in the last two cycles we adopted at Santos Brasil by demonstrating our capacity, showing what we have done in terms of investment and that the Port of Santos is considered a hub in Brazil, and that it is a secure and reliable option. Not only the Port of Santos, we have Imbituba coming into the radar with services operating in the Gulf of Mexico and from the United States and other services being negotiated for Imbituba and Porto du Conde. And what is important that we take into account in price readjustment. We're allowing the shipowners, the long-haul shipowners to ever more have synergy in the long-haul ship so that they can work with transshipment and associated to cabotage service. One of the services mentioned in Daniel's speech, refers to Norcoast. So the joint venture will make it possible for Hakub that formerly did not more at the Port of Santos to do this through the entire cost of Brazil through cabotage. So all of these facilities, security and synergy in the hub that we call the Con Santos part of the Porto de Santos hub will enable us to have the same pricing strategy, showing all of the clients, which are the real gains that they can obtain with this new service at Santos Brasil is offering.

[Guilherme Mendes, analyst]

[Interpreted] Thank you very much, quick follow-up, if you allow me. That increase in capacity that will reach 2.6 million TEUs is not included in the CapEx plan that you presented at Investor Day. So I presume you have additional investment for this?

[Ricardo dos Buteri, executive]

[Interpreted] But what is it that we're doing? It has been included in the CapEx of $720 million. It includes a 2.6 million TEUs. What are we going to do? We're going to increase our OpEx, we're going to work with 11 groups anticipating all of this. And to speak about the detail of the projects: we had the demolition of a building to build a new building. What are we doing? We're going to create a restaurant, a modular restaurant before we build a new building that will have the eating place for the new building, but the demolition was already part of the CapEx. So now we will have the OpEx of the restaurant, this modular restaurant, this will only impact the OpEx and what we will have in terms of gains because of this new capacity. The new demand at the port is quite large. So what we're doing is anticipating OpEx and that 11 term, which is working with 11 hoists continuously, 24/7. And this represents an enormous volume of cargo that this new equipment has, that we're going to use them that are already there.

We have 15 of these cranes in the port. Last year, we operated at full capacity with 9 cranes. This year, we're going on to using 11 cranes in continuous capacity. With maximum capacity, we will be using 13 cranes simultaneously at peak moments with a relocation of labor, of course. This is a challenge. We began the year when we began to survey the hiring of the eleventh team. The gap was up 400 different positions. And this means 320 positions in Santos, we're still missing 200 additional people. There are 80 that should be coming in during April, and we intend to conclude the setup of this eleventh team at the end of May. So it's OpEx, and we're going to continue following on with the CapEx that we presented during Investor Day. Now to demolish the building before and to have more space in the yard, we have created this new eating space.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Our next question comes from Joao Frizo from Goldman Sachs. You may proceed with your question.

[João Francisco Frizo, analyst]

[Interpreted] Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking my questions. I would like to gain more color in terms of your box rate expectations for 2024. When we look at the first quarter, there was a relevant increase of price quarter-on-quarter. How much do you attribute to an improvement in mix, import/export? And how much is due to the negotiation of contracts with smaller shipowners? Looking at 2024, you're going to have a positive impact because of volume because of what has happened with the competition. And I imagine this additional volume will come at a higher price. Thinking about this, does it make sense to think that the box rate floor will be the floor for the entire year 2024?

[Ricardo dos Buteri, executive]

[Interpreted] Well, thank you very much for the question, Joao. This is Buteri speaking. Regarding the box rate, your analysis is quite correct. The issue of the import mix. We have a higher volume of full container, and because of the traction of the global market of imports. Imports growing 15%, transshipments growing 21% means that, in fact, the box rate presently is at a very high level. Your analysis about mix and full imports is correct. It's not any factor that will show a change of services and the mix that we're working with presently at the company. I think that was made very clear in -- or will be made very clear in the first conference call for the first quarter 2024. Now the floor of the first quarter 2024 can be considered for the full year. Now instead of having additional calls, we had 200,000 TEUs as a buffer.

Just to give you an idea, in the month of December, we worked with an additional 35 ships, but we altered the profile of spot service to regular service. And the spot services are being serviced by the regular people. I would like to make the most of this moment to demystify your analysis, very respectfully. So, do not think that the greater volume comes from the competition. The competitors volume that, as an asset, boils down to two services. So far, we have done two scales of one of the service, and the other is for only 40 days. Basically, if you focus on the results of the first quarter, there is no influence of that volume that you're allocating so much weight to. It truly hasn't had an impact on our volume.

And I will paraphrase Antonio Carlos. We're working with the strategy that we adopted, and the buffer and services based on a curve that began in the fourth quarter of 2023 with a trend towards continuity where imports grow. French shipment has a structural ease of allowing the passage of larger ship for cabotage, so this box rate that volume and the results will tend to be very robust. My final comment, therefore, is that you should understand is that we're not hostages and we're not linked to a single client. The example that I gave you of [ Latam Max ] and the phaseout of ships from 8,000 to 13,000 TEUs will give to Santos Brasil 150,000 full containers a year. That service is already ours. It's simply a phase in and phase out of ship. It means having 150,000 more containers in an existing service because of consignment. You can base yourself on 2025 grew and consider 150,000 more containers existing besides the services in Imbituba that are being negotiated. And everything we have told you about how we're preparing our largest asset to enhance the ease for the shipowners.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Our next question comes from Gabriel Rezende from Itau BBA. You may proceed, sir.

[Gabriel Rezende, analyst]

[Interpreted] Good morning, Antonio, Daniel and Ricardo, the two questions that are in -- You have spoken at length and the message is very clear that you will have an acceleration of EBITDA in 2024. You also spoke about the acceleration of OpEx to accommodate the volume growth in the company. How should we think about margins in terms of our modeling?

[Ricardo dos Buteri, executive]

[Interpreted] Of course, EBITDA will increase in absolute terms, but which will be the margin dynamic considering the mix, considering the higher prices that you just commented on.

[Gabriel Rezende, analyst]

[Interpreted] If you could also speak quickly about the capital structure of the company. You reinforced in the release last night that the level of debt after some years reflects the amortization of the capital structure. Now with the drop in the interest rate, you have a structurally higher margins. So which is the target that you are looking for, for the company?

[Antônio Sepúlveda, executive]

[Interpreted] This is Antonio Carlos, Gabriel, good morning. What happened, going forward, there are 2 different factors. We had an increase, a significant increase in depreciation in the last few years. What you have presently at Tecon is something that was prepared years ago. The investments take time to mature, some more than others. So I would like to draw your attention to two points. What are we going to have? As of this moment, we will begin to grow the -- up in margin because the operational leverage of the assets that have a high depreciation level is quite large. So we will begin to have a significant interest in profit margin and in the possibility of paying out dividends. Now that OpEx that will come into the package is relevant when we compare this with the revenues that are coming in. And what was impacting the company results was that depreciation, and we were lacking the volume to leverage results. Now we have the volume. So the present day situation is that of a better balance of depreciation and cash generation is a very important point.

In our equation, what were we seeking way back when, when we began to lose market share. We were losing market share in the past because we wanted to have an update in prices. Santos prices were highly outdated. And what we see at present are high volume with better prices and better service levels because our service level is much higher than that of the competitors. This is the situation, therefore, in the OpEx that we're going to resort to. I have 10 teams. We're now working with 10 full teams. We're going to go on to 11 teams. This is anticipation, and there was a price increase in a very focused area in the area that operates the key. So this increase doesn't represent 3% of the tack-on payroll. And it's relevant when we think about the leverage we will have in profit margin, and the EBITDA margin will also grow.

We have more volumes, a better mix. The new services have no transshipment. They are import services. We capture more than 50% of the import cargo at the terminal. So all of this work that we have focused on imports, expertise and special treatment for importing clients is something that is very important in our culture. There's very good alignment. There is no reason for concern. There will be an increase in the EBITDA margin. And in the previous question, they asked if the fourth quarter of '23 represented a floor for an EBITDA margin of 50%. You can expect the growth of that margin, and we're now carrying assets that still are not producing anything. This will add an additional 60,000 cubic meters, it's going from 40 to 75 cubic meters. That's an absolute value. So you can expect a growth in margin. I'm going to give the floor to Daniel, who will speak about the level of indebtedness and the behavior of our balance going forward.

Before that, I would like to add one element. We spoke about mix. We spoke about volume and don't forget the price and we have prefixed adjustments that have already been contracted. They accompany inflation. So this also will offset any inflationary pressure of the increase of OpEx. The capital structure. Yes, we have been reducing our net cash position in the last 2 years, especially -- we have maintained that situation after the follow-on. And while we were seeking growth opportunities in organic growth opportunities. We already mentioned this. What has changed is the structural condition because of the increase in interest rates and because of the level of returns that we are seeking. And we prefer to follow a different investment strategy with higher returns and with the payout of proceeds. Now we will continue to optimize this. We have a net debt that will tend to increase. But I don't have a target for the financial leverage, but I can say that I would feel comfortable looking forward within that scenario of a very strong cash generation I think that we can work with 2x our financial leverage. Temporarily, of course, this is not forever. And why am I saying this? We're not pursuing this. But if we set forth a strategy for strong remuneration of the shareholders' capital and a magnitude that is higher than the net profit generated by the company momentarily, we may seek tools to carry out a strong dividend payout. And therefore, we would need to leverage the balance for that. But there will be a rapid deleveraging through time. So I can work with 1x-1.5x for the long term due to the nuances of the port sector, and you know it's different from other infrastructure segments like railroad infrastructure and highways charge for rates. The market dynamic is different, and we have a higher volatility.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Our next question comes from Lucas Barbosa from Santander Bank. You may proceed, sir.

[Lucas Barbosa, analyst]

[Interpreted] Good morning, Antonio Carlos, Ricardo and Daniel. Thank you for taking my question. Congratulations for your results. We have two questions. First, about the capacity expansion in Santos. We're speaking up to 2.6 million TEUs. After those 2.6 million, how modular is that capacity? And how quickly could it be implemented? Second question about the [ Latam MAX ] discussion. Could you give us more details? Does it more every week, if what you had in demand, will it already fulfill your demand? And related to that, if you have more services under demand to change ships for larger ship.

[Antônio Sepúlveda, executive]

[Interpreted] Lucas, this is Antonio Carlos. Good morning. The next step is 2.6 million TEUs going up to 3 million TEUs. Now what is important for this is the dredging of the Port of Santos on Monday. There's an article that came out that refers to the Ministry for Ports and Airports and the Port Authority of Santos, they are putting a great deal of energy to make the canal deeper and that bid will come next year because at this point, they are working with environmental licensing. And until 2026, the intention is to conclude the dredging. And this will be very important. It will change the size of the ships. You will have more services for larger ships. And this will bring about more merchandise, a reduction in the number of calls and the possibility of optimizing the appraisals for each ship. The average productivity at present, that is of 100 volumes per hour. Our expectation is to observe past this to 120 movements per hour. So we do have this element that is fundamental to get to those 3 million TEUs. And in the next investment cycle, we will have the acquisition of more cranes, precisely to use more cranes in the ships operated at Santos Brasil. Our average today, the general average for the terminal is of less than 3 cranes per ship, which is a very low average, and this will allow us an enormous opportunity to increase e-capacity. In the yard, we still have areas where we are not active with our RTTs, that are yard cranes, they are crane -- they are yard Portugal. And what we want in 2026 going forward is to increase the number of this equipment. So basically, in the future, we will be using more cranes at the key, and we're going to increase the density of our yards.

There is a third action, which is the change of the railroad. We have three large ones being operated at the Port of Santos. And this railroad terminal will be placed in a side where it will use less area of our yard. This will enable us to have more lots in our yard. Now this project is already finished. It is still underway, of course. And what we have to do is decide when we're going to put it into operation. The equation is ready and our position presently compared to the past is to anticipate the project, and this is what we will do. You must have heard about the port capacity and future growth in the service base carried out by the Port Authority of investing in increasing the capacity of existing terminals will have a larger project. And this what is part of the Ministry's project and at the Port of Santos, by tradition. Of course, we're always interested. We're always willing to be aligned with the desires of the Port Authority. We have been doing this for some years, and we're going to adjust to the project that they have put in place. It is important. They have a very secure vision of bringing more capacity to the Port of Santos. And it's worthwhile mentioning some events, a great deal of cargo in Sao Paulo is in Santa Catarina and Vitoria presently because of the fiscal incentive. This will end with the tax reform. So the Port of Santos should receive this cargo once again. And the deepening of the dredging will bring about more transshipment to Santos; it's natural. And we want to get ready for that.

We have surveyed the behavior of the port, and we always want to be one step ahead. And I think you will agree with us. We have always been 1 year ahead. We received more cabotage services. We have two ship owners, large ship owners on the coast with cabotage services at Tecon Santos. We're ready to increase the feeder. And we have spoken a great deal with these two clients. And we understand this will be an important tool in their growth along the coast of Brazil. Our strategy, Lucas, is to always have significant competitiveness for our clients. We want the clients at Santos Brasil to be more competitive than other clients because our service level is higher or because their profiles will have cabotage and we can service this. And the [indiscernible] work here is the capacity of offering transshipment. We have extremely high productivity in transship cargo. We can offer a very good price. We can make transshipment feasible for the client and offset this with the import cargo coming in through Santos. So this equation is very well set together, the projects are ready. We have no problems with funding to acquire the equipment and the size of the investment becomes irrelevant. When we compare this to the cash generation of the company, I think everything is very well tied together.

[Ricardo dos Buteri, executive]

[Interpreted] Lucas, regarding your second and third question, [ Latam Max ]. I will give you more details as requested. This service is called SSR, the service originated in Asia and the calls are weekly. It is a BSA in this service we have calls and much more. So these calls are weekly and the change of ship from 8,000 to 13,000 TEU will begin to happen in June. Notwithstanding this, this week as an extra call, we received a [ Latam MAX ] at Tecon Santos with an exclusive cargo of the owner of the ship, the CGM. So we'll enable them to understand when the ships will begin to enter in June. We know that this is the month Santos Brasil will be eligible to change the level of the ships and the test has been concluded with the [ Latam MAX ] this year, but it was still dealt with as an extra call. Now in terms of your second question, if we have more services under negotiation, yes. We have new services in the pipeline. The roadshow that begins in Asia and several other countries where our main clients -- our goal is to show exactly what Antonio Carlos mentioned, the issue of capacity schedule and the possibility of reaching the 2.6 million TEUs. And this will convey the tranquility to them in terms of levels of service and the ability to bring in more volume as of 2025. We're already focusing on 2025 and the capacity for new volumes.

[Lucas Barbosa, analyst]

[Interpreted] Antonio Carlos, thank you for a very full answer, congratulations for your results.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] The next question comes from Andre Ferreira from Bradesco BBI.

[Andre Ferreira, analyst]

[Interpreted] Congratulations for the results. One more follow-up on the answer that you have given us on margin. At the Investor Day, you spoke about the goal. That it was natural to get to a consolidated margin of 55% to 57% of EBITDA margin. We have already seen the low of 55% in the fourth quarter. And you said that margin would be sustainable. Would you revise this expectation upwards for the long term? Or was this simply an anticipation? That is all from my end.

[Antônio Sepúlveda, executive]

[Interpreted] Long term, it's very difficult to ascertain. I think that a long-term interval between 55% and 60% is possible to pursue if we have the variables aligned: volume, price and cargo mix. What I believe will happen is that the units of containers driven by the Port of Santos will go beyond that probably. And in Itaqui, we will also have a contribution because we hope to operate Itaqui with an EBITDA margin of 65% to 70%. I would not be surprised within our outlook. So yes, it is possible to work within those parameters.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Our next question comes from Pedro Bruno from XP.

[Pedro Bruno, analyst]

[Interpreted] Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking my question. I would continue to like to speak about the capital structure discussion and focus on capital allocation. Your investments are geared to the present a terminal with a focus in Santos and that strategy of anticipating investments. However, you have a adjacent segments. You have logistics where you spoke about making more investments. Now this capacity to generate cash -- what will happen with the eventual capital allocations that are not the obvious investments that have already been mentioned here?

[Daniel Dorea, executive]

[Interpreted] Good morning, Pedro. This is Daniel. Logistics to base ourselves on an adjacent business that you mentioned. Our idea is to allow it to grow organically. We don't foresee growth through M&As for logistics. Our logistics is very integrated, integrated to the port, integrated to our assets and the clients that move between our assets. Like Tecon Santos, for example, it's very difficult to replicate now in that CEO business called logistics in Brazil -- it's now very evident to find something we like and where we are good and there is an environment where Santos Brasil is located. So in terms of logistics, we will continue on with organic investments and growth. What we have done is to invest heavily in personnel, people that are talented and are able to accelerate the growth of Santos Brasil logistics, especially for the company clients, and this has launched us a business that we are very fond of. And if we have the opportunity among the levels of return that we pursue that are close to 20% nominally is the liquid bulk terminal. In the liquid bulk terminal, we do believe there are opportunities in Brazil. It's such a good business that it is rare, so we will have more opportunistic movements instead of a growth in the portfolio. Santos Brasil doesn't want to have 20 or 30 terminals. It's not our desire. When we look at capital allocation in Tecon Santos, the conclusion of Itaqui, the returns are incomparable. I always say a container terminal yields a great deal of margin. We're going from 2 million of capacity to 3 million TEUs in 5 to 7 years. We have terminals in Brazil with containers with 1 million capacity of TEU. Santos para [indiscernible], there are very few, and it's better to build 1 million of capacity at Tecon Santos that work with a greenfield or pay a premium for a terminal in a location that will not have very strong competition. And I'm going to speak about where we're heading to and containers. If there is the opportunity for growth in Tecon Santos in Preana, perhaps in a bid or in a joint contract of Tecon Santos and verticalization of the vehicle terminal. That is where we're going to place money for containers in Brazil. Our [ monsaid ] is being pragmatic based on those opportunity instead of looking for assets and paying high premiums.

[Pedro Bruno, analyst]

[Interpreted] Simply a quick follow-up. If you can include a comment regarding grains that you have mentioned previously, simply is an update.

[Daniel Dorea, executive]

[Interpreted] Grains. Yes, we do look at that market. We survey it and I like the long-term trends for the industry, but we believe that the return of symmetries that the liquid bulk terminal and the containers give us are superior to those of grains. Therefore, we have preferred to focus on these growth avenues instead of going into the grain segment, where we would have to try to minimize some risks, we would have to bring down our trading into the company. Our risk assessment and the asymmetries of return have led us to prefer to stay outside of this segment.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Our next question comes from Andressa Varotto from UBS. You may proceed, ma'am.

[Andressa Varotto, analyst]

[Interpreted] Congratulations for the results. I think all topics have already been approached. Simply a follow-up of what was mentioned in the previous question. Your desire to allocate more capital where you detect opportunities. What we have seen in the media conversations with the SPA. It seems that it's their desire to expand through the assets they have at present going beyond what has been contracted with identification of the area and the Port of Santos, like BTP, but both players are focused on executing the present-day plan. In your view if this is the discussion that is being driven by their side or by the players in the terminals?

[Antônio Sepúlveda, executive]

[Interpreted] Andressa, good morning. This is Antonio Carlos. We're focused on this project, and I can speak on behalf of Tecon Santos could increase its capacity by an additional 1 million TEUs. We would go from 3 million to 4 million TEUs. There is no impediment, no greater impediment in truth. The regulation we have at present would make this possible, but it's not something simple. You're going beyond the scope of the contract, and you have to work with a new economic financial equation. It is a very long path and you need time to do this. At this present moment where we have the consolidation of studies, you have to explore the regulatory part, speak with the agents involved. And to do this, you need to have enormous alignment with the public interest. This is the main engine in the management of administrative contracts, and we're trying to reach an understanding in this. We don't want to do something that will later be debated. It's important that all agents be aware that this will be the best thing for the port. It can be the best thing for Santos Brasil or for the Port Authority. It has to be the best thing for the entire port system. And this is the understanding that we are seeking.

They are consolidating the projects for future expansion at the Ilha Barnabé at the depth of the estuary. This is also being concluded. There is a demand in the port and you have to service that demand and [ clearing ] that time line, you have to see how to do that. So I think that additional capacity of 3 million TEUs at Tecon Santos. I think BTP before its expansion will have a gain because it has a contract for new investments. This will also enhance the operation there. So the port will have a period before doing this. But the trend in Santos is one to concentrate cargo. You need large terminals, and it's useless to distribute this in several terminals because there will be no focus on transshipment. And I think this is going to guide the new projects of BTP, Tecon Santos and Viola that are authorized terminals and have greater flexibility. Now the trend in Santos is for concentration. I spoke about two events, the dredging that will make it possible to use larger ships without the need of waiting for the tides to come in and leave the port. This is very important. And the tax reform to level out the fiscal conditions between the states, and it will make a great deal of cargo go back to Santos. I think this is very important for concentration, and this is what will guide the decision. The technical part of studies, that's the easiest part. And that's what we're doing at present. The more delicate part is reaching a common consensus and this is what we're attempting to do at present.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] Our next question comes from Christian Mattias from Livance, he says: "Good morning. Congratulations for your results. If you could comment on the reasons that reduce the dwell time even with the growth in volume. Additionally to this, can we expect a recovery in the logistics department in terms of volumes, especially in the bonded warehouses?"

[Ricardo dos Buteri, executive]

[Interpreted] This is Ricardo, Christian. Thank you for your question. In true behavior of dwell time, it's increasing since the fourth quarter of '23. And in 2024, we have had even a greater growth vis-a-vis the last quarter, last year. It's at 3 additional days than what we observed throughout 2023. Now regarding the bonded warehouses and the secondary zones. Last year, of course, this bonded warehouses had a greater retraction. When there's a drop in import, the wet terminals with greater volume returns, higher amount of cargo and the dispersion of cargo outside of the primary zone in the port is greater. Now what is happening at present is a concentration of services in the left margin. which means we have to maintain a retention -- high retention at the Port of Santos to offer excellent services and make sure that the surplus and all of these new services are transferred immediately to the bonded warehouse in Santos. From among venue services that we received, to give you an idea, almost 20% were already clients of Santos Brasil. They already have a relationship and a contract with us that additional 80% of portfolio of new clients still being negotiated and depending on the profile and the urgency of removing their cargo that we can choose by having the imported cargo to remain in Guaruja or in the Con Santos. So we are maximizing all of the assets of the primary and secondary areas with that volume and with the concentration happening in the net margin, according to what is best for the client, but dwell time is on the rise and sending these volumes to the bonded warehouses is happening quite efficiently.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] [Operator instructions] As we have no further questions, I will return the floor to Daniel for the closing remarks for the company.

[Daniel Dorea, executive]

[Interpreted] Well, before I thank all of you and simply to underscore the previous response. So we don't have doubts the dwell time for the fourth quarter of '23 dropped vis-a-vis the fourth quarter of '22 because of the very high dwell time we had in the fourth quarter of 2022 because of the operation of the federal revenue, but is stable compared to the third quarter of 2023. So the behavior of the dwell time has not changed vis-a-vis what we saw in 2023. And there is an upside. It has increased as Ricardo has just mentioned, simply to clarify that doubt. Once again, I would like to thank all of you for your attendance. We hope to meet you again for the first quarter of 2024 earnings results. Thank you for being with us.

[Operator]

[Interpreted] The Santos Brasil conference call ends here. We would like to thank all of you for your attendance. Have a very good day.

[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]