Empresas Copec SA
SGO:COPEC
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Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Empresas Copec's First Quarter 2022 Results Conference Call. Today's presentation and the first quarter '22 earnings release are available on the company's website at www.empresascopec.cl and also on our Investor Relations website, investor.empresascopec.cl.
Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this presentation may include market outlooks and forward-looking statements, which are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Empresas Copec management and any information currently available to the company. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions because they relate to future events, and therefore, depends on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions and other operating factors could also affect the future results of Empresas Copec and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. This presentation contains certain performance measures that have been adjusted with respect to IFRS definitions, such as EBITDA. [Operator Instructions]
I would now turn the call over to Mr. Rodrigo Huidobro, Chief Financial Officer of Empresas Copec. Please go ahead, sir.
Okay. Hello, everyone. Thank you very much for joining this conference today in this new format, where we will be taking a look at the results for the first quarter 2022. I'm joined today by our Investor Relations department, led by Mr. Cristián Palacios, who you know and also by people from Arauco, led by Mr. Gianfranco Truffello. They will be all helping us out here in the Q&A session at the end of the presentation. And as was said before, let me remind you that we'll be taking questions through the chat that has been included in this platform. So please feel free to send your questions along the way while I present here.
Having said all that, let me move over to the presentation and start out by giving you a -- an executive summary of what was the first quarter of 2022. We had an EBITDA of $959 million, which is higher year-on-year, and that is explained basically by the better performance of the forestry and energy segments. In the case of forestry, we had good prices in pulp and wood and good conditions in general in those 2 segments. In pulp, we've been seeing good performance for the last few quarters, and that helped during this last quarter. In panels and sawn timber, we've been seeing very good margins in general. That was partly offset by lower volumes in this particular quarter, but in general, very good conditions.
Pulp prices and volumes improved year-on-year. And EBITDA has increased quarter-on-quarter in the wood segment, partly offset by a drop in the pulp segment. In relation to energy, we had a significant increase in fuels volumes that is definitely above pre-pandemic levels and the recovery has shown a very positive trend. So recovery -- the post-pandemic recovery continues very strongly. So volumes are already above pre-pandemic level. And we showed an increase in EBITDA in our 3 main divisions: the Copec Chile, Terpel and Mapco year-on-year and also quarter-on-quarter.
In the case of liquid gas, we had a somewhat reduced EBITDA because of the high propane prices, which has meant reduced margins in general. In terms of our projects and the main developments for the quarter, we have continued to ramp up Mina Justa, so production continues to go up. All of this is in a very positive context of pricing. Arauco has announced the first bale of production at MAPA for late third quarter 2022. So the start-up process is going to begin in a few weeks, but the first production is going to come up by -- come out by the end of third quarter 2022. And in terms of debt structure, we continue to see a drop in our net debt-to-EBITDA metric this time reaching 1.9x EBITDA.
In terms of ESG, we have also achieved some major milestones during the quarter. The energy segment continues to make progress in electromobility and several developments for energy transition. And in the case of Arauco, we have announced that there's a goal of waste revaluation, 100% as of 2030. We'll give out some more detail of all this further on.
Let us see the EBITDA now in a historical context, $959 million, which compares very well with the last quarter and is slightly below the third quarter 2021, but it's definitely above 38.5% above the first quarter 2021, and 6.4% above the last quarter 2021. So $959 million is our EBITDA and $619 million is our net income, which is almost 200% above the first quarter 2021 and almost 30% above last quarter. This includes some extraordinary effects coming from the sale of assets, which we will detail further on.
In terms of the explanation for the increase in EBITDA in relation to the first quarter 2021, we have an increase basically at the forestry sector. You can see there that it's a $229 million increase on the figure recorded in the first quarter of 2021. In the case of energy, we also have an increase, which is basically explained by the higher volumes we mentioned. To the right-hand side, you can see the composition of our EBITDA for this quarter, pretty much in line with the usual 60% coming from forestry and close to 40% coming from the energy division.
In terms of net income, you can see an increase of 171% on the figure recorded in the first quarter last year. So $619 million is the net income for this quarter, and it improves because of both operating and nonoperating factors, all of this offset by higher taxes, of course. In the case of Arauco and Copec better operating and nonoperating results. In the case of Copec, strongly influenced by asset sales, which we gave [ way ] to a one-off effect in results. We can also highlight the contribution coming from Mina Justa through our subsidiary, Alxar Internacional. That continues to grow, and this time in this quarter represents a contribution of $64 million to our total net income.
Going on to some more detail on the numbers. You can see there, once again, our net income is up to $619 million. And our EBITDA is up to $959 million. In terms of operating income, we have higher results at Arauco, explained by the better prices and volumes in pulp and also higher margins in woods and panels. In the case of Copec, we have better results related to higher volumes and also better margins. And all of this is partly offset, operationally speaking, by the fact that Abastible’s margins are somewhat lower than last quarter last year because of the high international propane prices.
In the case of nonoperating income, we have some interesting effects here. First of all, we have the net income coming from associates and joint ventures, which has gone up, and that is related to the good performance of Sonae, which is our joint venture in the panel division. And also the very good performance of Mina Justa, which as I mentioned before, has been increasing its contribution to our results.
And in the case of other income, we recorded here some effects coming from the sale of assets. We have a sale of assets carried out by Mapco, the subsidiary in the U.S. sold 20 gas stations for a total revenue of $89 million and a total profit before tax of $47 million. So that comes up in or other income. And Arauco continued to sell forestry assets, which were part of the operation that we announced last year. These were remaining asset sales at Arauco this time for $33 million and with a profit before tax of $22 million. All of that, of course, is offset to a some extent by higher taxes coming from the higher tax base -- increased taxes coming from a higher tax base.
In what relates to our financial ratios, we have everything performing quite well actually. We have the return on capital employed up to 15.5%. EBITDA margin up to 13.1%, all of which compares very well with the previous quarters. And in terms of our credit metrics, net debt-to-EBITDA, we're down to 1.9x, having reached some point couple of years ago a peak of 4.6x at the time when we were facing the worst stages of the pandemic, and we were also facing the need to go ahead with our large investment projects, MAPA and Mina Justa at that point in time.
That has gone down quite rapidly to the current 1.9x. With all that, we have a very well -- a very good credit position and also a very well-balanced debt schedule for the coming years. And basically, in relation to that, we are already refinancing part of our maturities for next year. And along with -- along those lines, we issued a local bond in the local market here for $207 million, and some more detail on that further on.
Diving deeper into forestry. Arauco showed an EBITDA of $595 million, which is pretty much in line with the last figures it has recorded over the last few quarters. It has a stronger operating income, which stems basically from increased sales in pulp, better prices and volumes when compared to the first quarter last year in pulp. And that is all partly offset by an increase in costs, which has, as you all know, heard the whole industry, and in this case, basically due to logistics and chemicals.
In the case of wood products, we have also seen progressively increasing margins, and this is associated to higher prices basically in sawn timber and panels, and partly offset by a drop in volumes in both cases, in both segments. With all that, as I said before, we've reached an EBITDA of $595 million, together with that a favorable net income influenced basically by the sale of assets and a higher tax on a higher asset -- higher tax base.
Some more detail on pulp. You can see that the EBITDA for pulp is up to $325 million, as you can see in the graph here, which compares very well with the $210 million recorded in the first quarter of 2021 and a little below last quarter in the fourth quarter of 2021. In terms of year-on-year, we had costs going up in the low double digits for all fibers basically. With respect to last quarter, we had EBITDA going slightly down because of lower volumes and costs also rising by between 5% and 13% depending on the type of fiber. In general, prices going up with respect to last year and also with respect to last quarter, whereas volumes have increased with respect to last year and have gone down with respect to last quarter.
Some comments about the pulp markets. In general, we've seen prices increasing during the first quarter of 2022, and that is basically because of supply factors. We've seen a tight market in terms of logistical restrictions, and that has given way to a very tight market that -- where any disruption causes prices to rise quite significantly. On the demand side, China was stable and unlike previous years, we did not see a drop in demand following the Chinese New Year.
Europe has continued to show strength in the markets in general, and this is due to high economic activity, low imports coming from China in general and also a major disruption, a prolonged strike in one of the Nordic producers there that has also disrupted the market. You can see there that inventories are a little bit above historical levels in the case of softwood and pretty much within historical levels in the case of hardwood. So a very healthy market overall.
In terms of the outlook, we usually see a seasonality during these couple of months, demand tends to go down. We haven't seen signals in that regard during this year, in particular. So the outlook is good. In Asia, we have seen supply lagging demand in general. So inventory levels are low. Europe continues to be a healthy market, very strong. No paper inputs coming from Asia and basically continue -- we'll continue to see the effects of this strike that lasted very long at this major pulp and paper producer.
All in all, so far, we see quite a lot of stability at current price levels for the second quarter of this year. And you can see the net prices in China, now as of May this year, they are up to $835 for hardwood, $1,010 for softwood and $1,115 for dissolving pulp. So quite a strong trend -- upward trend in prices over the last few weeks.
In the case of wood products, we are showing an EBITDA of $331 million for this quarter, which is up with respect to last quarter and also significantly up with respect to the first quarter of 2021. This relates basically with prices going up, as you see here, prices for panels and for solid wood when compared to last year or to the last quarter, they are significantly up. And all of this is offset to a certain extent by drops in volumes in both cases. But all in all, a very good quarter once again for our wood products, which basically relates to demand coming from housing starts and also from home remodeling and residential restructuring. And these are trends that have held for long and apparently, they continue to be there.
In relation to the outlook, the particle boards and MDF in general are very good market. We think they could remain positive for the next few months. In Mexico, we have seen some slowdown but anyhow, the market is very, very good and basically at historical levels. We also see signals that it remains strong for a while. In the case of remanufactured products, this is strongly related to housing starts and also repair and remodeling. All are trends which have been held strongly for a while. And therefore, we see signals of the market remaining strong for some months. There's also a limited supply because of some logistical issues showing up in this market.
In the case of plywood, we also see good demand, and we also have seen a restricted supply in this particular case because of Russian producers that are not placing their production in the market. So all in all, for North America, which is almost 60% of our sales, we see signals of a good market remaining for a while.
In South and Central America, Brazil, which is our largest market, has shown some signals of being somewhat lower than last year. We also see some more supply for MDF. All of this could lead into some more exports to other countries, which has an effect, of course, on the other markets as well. So a little bit of caution there in Brazil.
In Chile, we have seen a lower construction activity in general, but this hasn't impacted the market significantly so far. In the case of Argentina, we see signals of a strong market being stable for the rest of the year. Asia and Oceania is a smaller market for ourselves, and we have seen some more competition coming from Asia in general for wood and panel products, but nothing very significant so far. So still a strong market as well, at least for the first half.
Moving on to our energy division. That's it for forestry, and then moving on to energy. We also had quite a good quarter. In the case of Copec, or fuel division in Chile. The consolidated EBITDA for the quarter amounted to CLP 252 billion. The functional currency is the local Chilean peso, so CLP 252 billion, which compares quite well with the first quarter last year. There have been higher margins in Copec in Chile and also in Terpel, Mapco, a part of that having to do, of course, with the FIFO effect on inventories, which is especially strong at Terpel.
Volumes are also strongly up. In the case of Terpel, we've got almost a 20% increase in volumes. In the case of Chile, almost 10% increase in volumes. So in general, this reflects a new situation, no significant restrictions anymore related to mobility and related to the pandemic. And together with that, we've seen -- particularly in the case of Chile, we've seen quite an interesting increase in the total number of vehicles, which also, of course, hits -- positively hits the fuels volumes.
A brief comment on the lubricant segment as well, which has been performing progressively well. And this has to do basically with new commercial strategies, which have worked very well. And the margins -- unit margins have been [ incurred ] to some extent because of increasing costs of inputs, but by anyhow, the division is performing quite interestingly. All of that, of course, is offset to a certain extent by higher taxes coming from a higher tax base.
Some more operational figures. In the case of Copec Chile, we saw industrial channel volumes here going up by 1.1%, so slightly up. Whereas gas stations volumes went significantly up by 16.5%. Our market share continues to be quite stable at our traditional 58% figure, so pretty much within our historical ranges. And in terms of the outlook going forward, we continue to see gas stations volumes growing above pre-pandemic level. This is, as we've mentioned before, this is a market which has quite stable commercial margins in general with some volatility coming in from FIFO effects and also some variations in the industrial margins, which tend to be more volatile than the gas station margins. We see our network very well positioned with sustained leadership and also a very good competitive positioning for networks. So all in all, we would think there's a good scenario for fuels going forward.
Same thing in the case of Terpel, we saw a good EBITDA. In the case of Terpel, it's COP 362 billion, which compares very well both with the preceding quarter and also with the first quarter last year, basically stemming from better volumes and also revaluation of inventories, the FIFO effect, which has been particularly strong this year, and which is an accounting effect that hits our margins in this case positively, in this scenario of rising fuels prices. The growth of volumes in general has been very strong, 20% at the aggregated level. And this is explained basically by increases in Colombia by 20% here. Panama increasing 18%. Ecuador, Dominican Republic and Peru, all of them growing quite significantly.
Especially worth mentioning the aviation segment, which has already reached pre-pandemic levels, and that is especially worth noticing here in the case of the countries where the aviation segment is particularly strong. Colombia, we have a strong aviation segment. In the case of Dominican Republic and Peru, we also have a large part of our sales coming from the aviation segment, which explains this very high increases with respect to the first quarter last year.
In the case of Mapco, we have an EBITDA of $15.6 million, which compares well with the corresponding EBITDA from the first quarter of 2021, also an EBITDA that is little higher than the immediately preceding quarters as you can see here. And this is although volumes went down a little bit related basically to high prices. We saw volumes going down a little bit, some elasticity there, but the EBITDA was strong because of very good unit margins. Unit margins in this case tend to be more volatile than in our other divisions.
Mapco has been working, as we have commented before, we're working on margin stabilization for fuels, operational efficiency, improving the product mix or looking for the optimal product mix at convenience stores and also gas station renewal and network optimization. And part of that has to do with the sales operation we announced this quarter, more of which will come later on.
In the case of Abastible, our liquid gas division, we saw some lower margins in general, that has to do basically with increasing propane prices. So it's very -- becoming harder and harder to pass those through to the final customer. So we've seen a reduction in margins. In the case of volumes, we've seen an increasing volumes in Chile and Ecuador with a quite interesting increase of 2% and 5%, which has been partly offset at the consolidated level by decreases in Peru and Colombia of 4% and 1.6%. EBITDA goes down to CLP 21 billion compared to CLP 29 billion last -- in the corresponding quarter of last year.
Some operational comments here. The volumes in the bottled segment in Chile decreased and that has to do basically with higher prices and also increased competition. However, volumes in the bulk segment have continued to rise, and that explains the overall rising volumes in Chile of 2%, market share, however, has been increasing in general. In Colombia, we've seen the bulk volumes increasing as well, but margins decreasing because of the very high propane prices.
In the case of the bottled segment, and this has been a pattern in all countries basically, we've seen that high prices have led to substitution for other sources of energy basically. So customers have been gradually switching to other sources [indiscernible] because of the high prices of propane. And that's exactly what we're commenting here in Peru. Rises in prices have led to substitutes and also to other informal brands gaining market share. Good performance, though, in the bulk market in Peru. In the case of Ecuador, quite good performance of the market growing 5.3%.
And then moving on to other investments. Alxar Internacional, which is the subsidiary through which we take part in Mina Justa, as I said before, it has been showing increased contribution to our net income. This time with $63 million coming from Alxar Internacional. Sonacol has a better net income. This is measured in Chilean pesos because of higher volumes that have been transported over this quarter. In the case of our fishing division, Igemar, better performance compared to last year, basically because of better operation figures. And in the case of our natural gas divisions, Metrogas and AGESA, which we don't consolidate, one is up and the other one is down with a net -- with a total net contribution, which is pretty much stable with respect to last year.
Let me move now to the highlights of the quarter. And let me remind you to please submit any questions you might have through the Q&A chat that has been included in this platform. We made official the figure for the CapEx this year. It's $1.87 billion of which approximately $700 million will be devoted to maintenance of our asset base, approximately $500 million to $600 million will be covering the completion -- the remaining CapEx for MAPA. And the rest has to do with basically a lot of projects, many of which we had postponed over the pandemic. A lot of small projects related basically to efficiencies and optimization of production. Part of that, for example, has to do with the fact that Mapco is rethinking its network of gas stations. So it's sold part of its network, and it's going to invest in some of -- on the remaining geographical areas where it's being concentrated. So that's the sort of projects that we are tackling through this CapEx this year.
A brief comment on the local bonds we issued. The local market had not been very active during this year, and we were able to issue $207 million in quite good conditions. These are all bonds that are linked to inflation. So they have a real rate of 3.2% and 3.5% on for 10-year and 21-year tenures. Overall, we think it was a good issuance, which allows us to be gradually refinancing the maturities we have for next year.
The Mapco asset sales, Mapco is, as I said -- as we have said before, rethinking its network and trying to optimize its network. And as part of this process, it went ahead with the sale of 20 gas stations in the U.S. in areas which were quite far away from the main geographical areas where Mapco operates. So the truth is that these gas stations did not have a lot of synergies with the core of the geographical areas of Mapco. They were located in Arkansas, Virginia and Kentucky. And the total proceeds coming up from that sale was $89 million, generating a one-off net income of $47 million pretax. And as I said, this decision is in line with the strategy of focusing in the core geographical segments and potentially divesting gas stations which are not close to this geographical core.
As we previewed for MAPA, MAPA is coming to the end of the construction stage. We have already commissioning work starting at several areas or flushing, water runs, steam blow outs are in progress. Some -- quite a lot actually of areas are already in operation. So water intake, the external biomass system, the power boiler, the recovery boiler and so on and so forth are all areas that already have begun their start-up. We expect to continue this start-up process and to have the first production coming out -- first bale coming out by the end of Q3. And as we had said before, we continue to estimate the total CapEx related to MAPA at $2.85 billion. So a bit fair of the current status of the MAPA projects, which is very well advanced.
In the case of Mina Justa, we have been growing through this ramping up process since the second quarter last year. We have actually completed 1 year of operations in March. During last year, we produced in total 85,000 tons. The sulfide plant has already been operating at full capacity. And in the case of the oxide plant, we are expecting to complete the ramp-up during the fourth quarter this year. With all that, we expect to produce this year, a total within the range of 115,000 to 134,000 tons of fine copper.
During the first quarter, we had a production of 28,000 tons. Total profit for the company was $160 million, and the EBITDA for the company was $275 million. Let me just remind you that we have 40% of that, and we record this through incoming associates. We were able to sell 4,800 of cathode sales and 25,000 concentrates, and we reached a total cash cost of $1.1 per pound, all of which is pretty much along the lines of the budget.
And then going on to ESG. We have some ESG milestones here. Copec Voltex, which is the name of our electromobility division has continued to make progress in different areas and in different countries in electromobility. We were awarded a tender, which was carried forward by the Ministry of Energy and the Energy Sustainability Agency in Chile, which involves setting up chargers for electrical taxis, which are going to operate in Chile.
Likewise, we have gone ahead with some initiatives in other countries. In the case of Ecuador, we inaugurated the first electric fast charging station during April, and we expect to have a network of 9 charging stations of this sort by the end of the year. Also in Colombia, we began operations in 2 new charging terminals. One of them is -- or both of them are for buses -- more than 400 buses in Bogota. And this means that we are now the largest supplier of energy for electrical buses in Bogota with a market share of more than 50%, so more than the market share of Terpel, which is about 45% in fuels.
Along the same lines, Abastible is also working. This is our liquid gas division, and is also working along the lines of energy transition. And in line with that, it has acquired a company, which is specialized in sustainable energy services, it's called Roda EnergĂa. And involves a series of services such as energy, water management, engineering and project implementation, electromobility and so on and so forth. And Arauco has also worked in fire prevention strategies, and the wildfire season has ended. And Arauco has -- had 11% less fire events, which is good. Although the total surface affected has been greater than last year, which was especially low actually.
Some steps there related to our firefighting efforts, and it's worthwhile to note that more than 30% of the fires fought during the season took place in the properties of third parties. And so Arauco helping out third parties also in fire prevention.
And then the waste revaluation goal in Arauco. Arauco's pulp division has committed to reach 100% of revaluation of waste by 2030, which means basically transforming waste into products such as concrete, cement, soil improver and other final products. The current percentage achieved is 56% in Chile and 30% in Argentina. So we expect to move forward and reach 100% by 2030.
With all that, we are ending the presentation, and we invite you to please post your questions through the chat that has been included in this platform for those purposes. I'll hand it over to Cristián, who will be taking the questions, consolidating them and moderating the discussion.
[Operator Instructions]
Thank you, Adier. Okay, we have the first question coming from Isabella Vasconcelos at Bradesco BBI. How should we think about capital allocation decisions and dividends ahead? And what businesses do you see with more growth opportunities?
Yes. Going forward, we should continue to invest according to our traditional philosophy, which basically means long-term investments in areas where we have competitive advantages, focused, of course, in energy and natural resources, long term, in general, means by definition, including a very strong component of sustainability. In forestry, we will continue to look for geographies that have good conditions for the growth of trees and thereby, which are very competitive in the forestry sector. .
In the case of energy, of course, we will continue to try to add as much value as possible to our existing networks and also a very strong component will be looking for complementary assets that might make sense in this energy transition scenario, as we have been doing already. So those are the areas where we will be allocating capital going forward.
The dividends will be determined basically by our financial policy. We have published a financial policy, which is very much in line with what we have done historically, which is basically that we are a very prudent company in our debt structure. We look for a net debt-to-EBITDA level long term, that lies between 2 and 3x. That's our objective, our long-term objective. And we aim to look for these CapEx opportunities along the lines that I just mentioned, even where the case that we do not have any significant CapEx opportunities going forward and we met the required 2 to 3x EBITDA, of course, as we had done before. We're more than willing to propose to the Board eventually additional dividends as we did last year, of course. But the dividend policy is basically determined by the -- our financial policy and at the same time, looking at the CapEx opportunities we have going forward.
Thank you, Rodrigo. The second one, again, from Isabella Vasconcelos and the same question coming from Carlos De Alba at Morgan Stanley. If you can comment and provide some details on the impact of inventory revaluation in Copec and Terpel in 1Q? And what are the expectations for second quarter?
Total impact for the first quarter, if I'm not mistaken, is somewhere around $25 million to $30 million for Copec plus Terpel during the first quarter of this year. And then in relation to the second quarter, we will probably see a positive effect once again. We've continued to see the fuels prices in general rising. So it's probably too soon to say how much exactly, but we will continue to see a positive effect in the second quarter, most likely.
Okay. We have [ a lot ] of more questions from Carlos De Alba basically related to reasons of why divesting 20 Mapco gas stations? And what's the expected reduction in EBITDA generation arising from those sales?
Yes. Well, the reasons, I think I went through them during the presentation, but just as a reminder, we are permanently looking to optimize our networks. In the case of Mapco, actually, one of the drivers we saw when we first bought the company was the possibility of optimizing the network in different ways. And this is one of the ways in which we're doing it. We looked for gas stations that were not very relevant in terms of contribution to the gas stations -- to the total gas station generation because they were quite far away from the main areas were Mapco operates.
So it made a lot of sense. And the -- this is also in line with the sale of assets that we have gone through over the last few years. We are looking for assets that may be worth in the hands of other investors. And this was, of course, the case. Together with that, we will look very closely at the geographies, the core geographies where Mapco operates. And Mapco will go ahead with an investment plan in its core geographies, meaning looking for additional sales points and remodeling also existing sales points in the core geographies where it operates. So all of that basically will allow us to optimize the network. The total EBITDA generation is probably around $5 million to $7 million for the gas stations we sold. That's a ball figure -- a ballpark figure.
You are muted, Cristián.
Thank you. The other one is what are the planned uses of cash now that leveraging -- leverage is at lowest level in at least 6 years?
I think we covered that. We have this financial policy. We have the guidelines for investing going forward. The guidelines for expansion and this CapEx philosophy that I've described. If we find projects that are significant along those lines, we will go ahead and tackle them, of course. If we do not have any major projects going forward, we will be more than willing to think of eventual new distributions to shareholders as dividends, like we did last year.
Next one is on forestry. So this goes to Gianfranco. Carlos De Alba and -- at Morgan Stanley and Leonardo Neratika, they are asking about the expected production for MAPA this year and how much will be sold to clients? And how confident are you with the startup in late 3Q? And again, when volumes should be arriving to Asia basically?
Okay. Yes, starting from the first day at the end of the third quarter, we think that most probably, we will be producing about 250,000, 260,000 tons. And from that, we think that about 180,000, 190,000 tons will be sold this year. Most of the volume will come in probably November, December to the market. So at the end of the year, probably volume is going to go through the market. .
And how confident we are? We have been testing a lot of equipment. So most of the equipment is ready, as Rodrigo showed some of the parts of the mills like the boilers are producing and under operation. We just need to finalize the construction of the final line of assembly. We have 4 construction companies, 3 of them are going to end their job probably at the end of June. So we'll have the last construction company working until we are able to start the testing of that equipment. So that's why we think it's going to be the late Q3. We are more confident than we were before, but it's never 100% sure that the start-ups will start on that date. But we think that we are almost there.
Thank you, Gianfranco. And then we have Cesar Perez at BTG Pactual. Again, if you can provide some comments on where the asset allocation is going to go. Where the material cash flow to be generated would be allocated in Chile or abroad? And the second question is about the status of the sale of the gas assets. And would these proceeds to be reinvested or paid out as dividends?
Yes. I think we covered the first part about capital allocation already. So I'll move to the second part. The sales processes for Sonacol and Metrogas that we announced in the past are moving ahead. In the case of Metrogas, we -- it was an exploratory process. So we haven't made the final decision. In case of Sonacol, we already have that asset as an asset up for sale in our balance sheet. There's not a lot of news to inform at this stage. These processes have been delayed. They're also confidential, so there's not a lot I can comment.
In the case of Sonacol, [indiscernible] you've seen probably in the press some different positions among shareholders. So the process is delayed somewhat. In the case of Metrogas, we have a potential new regulation for the gas segment. So that, of course, has also meant some delays. But the important thing is that we continue to hold on to this philosophy of selling certain assets that may be worth more in the hands of specialized investors rather than in our balance sheet. We are, therefore, making the value more visible and attaining a more efficient balance sheet. This rationale continues to hold and the Mapco sale are further demonstration of that. And we will basically take our time and wait for the best moments. Now without the urgency that we had at some point because of the credit metrics that had deteriorated, that's not there anymore. So we can wait for the best moment to go ahead with these sales.
Okay. And I see one more question here, Marcio Farid at Goldman Sachs. How do you evaluate the final draft of the new constitution to Copec's business and to overall business environment in Chile?
Yes, that's -- it's probably too soon to tell. The new constitution in effect has been drafted, but there are still some pending stages which are very important, it also has to go through a referendum. And also a lot of matters are left to the law. They haven't been well defined in the constitution. So it's too soon to talk about potential impacts. .
Our company has a history of making decisions, thinking beyond political contingencies, thinking for the long run, given the nature of the businesses in which we are involved. And of course, we would like to continue to operate with this philosophy in Chile and also in the other 15 countries in which we take part always with the idea of contributing to the community, to the environment, to innovation, to our workers, to shareholders.
And along those lines, we sincerely hope that the changes will bring about some more social cohesion and some more stability. But we also hope very strongly that the changes will recognize the enormous contribution of private initiatives, of entrepreneurship of companies like Empresas Copec to the general well-being. And for that, we must be able to count on the necessary stability and uncertainties required for investments and for entrepreneurial activity.
Thank you, Rodrigo. And I see one more question here, [indiscernible] regarding Mapco, 6 years ago, the multiple paid was justified, been a growth platform in Copec. What is the role of Mapco in terms of future growth in the U.S. for the company?
Yes, along the same lines that we mentioned already, we saw, of course, a lot of value drivers when we first acquired the company. One of them was improving performance, which we have definitely achieved to a large extent. The second one was network optimization, and that involves restructuring the network, eventually consolidating the network and of course, part of what we have done now, which is selling some gas stations and building up or acquiring other ones. We continue to see some value drivers there. So we will continue to work along those 3 lines and are very optimistic about the value we can generate at Mapco.
Okay. I think we don't have more questions. So I'll turn it back to the operator. Thank you, Rodrigo and Gianfranco.
This concludes the question-and-answer section. At this time, I would like to turn the floor back to Mr. Rodrigo Huidobro for any closing remarks. Please, sir, you may proceed.
Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you all for joining today, and we expect to see you sometime during August to take a look at the results for the second quarter. Thank you very much.
Thank you. This does conclude today's presentation. You may disconnect now, and have a nice day.