Grupa Azoty SA

WSE:ATT

Earnings Call Transcript 2021-Q1

[Tomasz Hinc, executive]

During the first quarter, ladies and gentlemen, Grupa Azoty Group reported consolidated revenue of PLN 3.360 billion and our EBITDA stood at PLN 305 million, while net profit in the period came in at PLN 86 million. These financial highlights are consistent with our earlier estimates with which you, obviously are familiar with -- are familiar.

Our results should be considered relative to the very challenging environment we operated in the period. Last quarter, we saw very high dynamics of rising prices of raw material and very fickle and changeable weather, supply chain and the disruptions, which show the whole range of the challenges faced by the group and the need to be flexible in an extremely volatile business environment. I'll discuss this.

I will discuss now the main highlights and the Group summary of these highlights in the first quarter of the year. The Supervisory Board of Grupa Azoty appointed on the 18th of May this year, the new management Board of Grupa Azoty S.A. for the new 12th term office. And Mr. Tomasz Hryniewicz was appointed as the President. Mr. Mariusz Kadziolka was appointed as Vice President of the Management Board of Grupa Azoty. Filip Grzegorczyk was appointed as Vice President; and myself, as Vice President of the Management Board. Mr. Grzegorz Kadzielawski, who's appointed Vice President of the Management Board. Mr. Marek Wadowski was appointed Vice President of the Management Board, and Mr. -- last but not least Mr. Zbigniew Paprocki was appointed as member of the Management Board.

Let me add that Mr. Kadzielawski was a member of our supervisor board for many times -- many years. So he has a lot of knowledge of the group.

Other highlights was included the group joining the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance. This alliance was launched by the European Commission in July 2020 in order to promote hydrogen as a competitive energy carrier across Europe.

And at Grupa Azoty, we are conducting both economic and technical analysis of the production of hydrogen from renewable in order to produce the so-called green hydrogen. Joining the European Clean Hydrogen Alliances is, therefore, a natural step in that direction. It's also worth pointing out that half of this hydrogen produce in Poland comes exactly from Grupa Azoty production facility. As a reminder, Grupa Azoty is also very actively engaged in consultation on the Polish hydrogen strategy.

On 11th of May, we also announced that we entered the market of fully biodegradable plastics. And we launched a pilot production line for the production of thermoplastic starch with a collection capacity of 300 tonnes per year. This is happening is a response to the directives of the European parliament, promoting the area of circular economy.

Moving on to our investment program. We are continuing our ambitious investment program. And the CapEx figure for the entire Grupa Azoty Group in the first quarter of 2021 were PLN 914 million, of which growth CapEx accounted for PLN 632 million investments connected with business maintenance. We spent PLN 34 million, mandatory CapEx stood at PLN 216 million and other, including the purchase of finished goods and the purchase of components amounted to PLN 31 million.

The lion's share of the group spending is on the polythene -- Polimery Police project. This is the flagship project of the group, amounting to PLN 552 million and on the construction of the power unit at Pulawy, for which we allocated PLN 201 million. The current stage of completion of the Polimery Police project exceeded the 57% mark. But I believe that this project will be discussed in more detail by Mr. later on.

Let me only remind you at this point that in February, due to the -- out of the ], we receive the confirmation of the conditions precedent to the credit facility agreement had been fulfilled, which means that we successfully closed the final stage of the process in tenders to secure debt financing for the Polimery Police project.

Let me now move on to the detailed discussion of the performance of the individual Grupa Azoty Group companies. Ladies and gentlemen, as I said at the very beginning, it's a very challenging first quarter of 2021. All of the leading Grupa Azoty Group companies generated net profit. And most of the group companies, the revenue was higher year-on-year. And in the case of the company's stand-alone, Grupa Azoty S.A.'s revenue has remained flat at last year's level.

In the case of Compo Expert, the first quarter turned out to be the record-breaking quarter in the group's history significantly also contributing to the group's EBITDA. Both -- and also Grupa Azoty Police and Grupa Azoty Kedzierzyn also reported higher EBITDA than last year. We will discuss it in more detail later on. Those results are a prove that Grupa Azoty Group is able to flexibly adapt to the very unprecedented and nonstandard pandemic reality.

In a nutshell, our macroeconomic factors, obviously, involve the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. They still persist. But we see the percent of recovery. They're already around the corner and the World Bank forecast that Poland GDP could grow to -- by 3.3% in 2021 and up to 4.2% in 2022.

Also Statistics Poland announced that in the first quarter of 2021, Poland industrial output sold increased by 7.9% year-on-year and also workforce productivity, as measured by output sold by employee, by own employees, was also on the increase. And the PMI index for the manufacturing sector came in at 63.4 points, which is the highest level recorded since June 1997.

As for our energy commodities. The turmoil in the economy, the economic turmoil had a bit of impact on growing energy commodity prices. The electricity prices in relation to the first quarter of 2020 increased by the 55%. We unfortunately expect that those electricity crisis will stay at the same level. And hard coal prices went up by 19%. And here, too, we expect that the price level will hold. Group companies have contracts in place, securing the contracted volumes, and they are executed as planned. So we see no surface between that area.

As regards to gas, more than 98% of the gas consumed across the group in the first quarter of '21, gains from and mid-January prices in Asia hit record highs as the result of very severe cold weather. European markets reacted sharply and nervously, and the gas prices shot up in to EUR 19 to EUR 26 per megawatt hour. Afterwards, gas in Europe consistently fell to the level of EUR 16 at the end of February. However, in March, we saw a slow but steady increase in spot gas prices. And obviously, the weather was the key driver with the produce in Europe remaining below long-term average.

Asia remains a more attractive market for LNG suppliers. Therefore, LNG supplies to Europe remains very weak. Gas prices were also supported by rising coal and CO2 emission allowance prices, which broke the psychological barrier of EUR 40 per tonne in March, making gas a more attractive alternative to the power industry. Gas stocks in the EU were declining rapidly. And as a result, the gas prices in European have, in the first quarter of 2021, increased almost -- by almost twofold year-on-year. Those factors, combined with the upgrade of the Norwegian gas infrastructure scheduled for May, based on that, we can expect the relatively high prices later this year as well.

In the first quarter of 2021, prices of CO2 emission allowances continued. Allowances on the electricity market recorded in the range of EUR 31.42, continuing the strong upward trend started in the last quarter of 2020. The price of 1 EU allowance increase 3x over 12 months relative to the very memorable low recorded in March last year, and reaching EUR 42 per tonne at the end of the first quarter and EUR 49 per tonne at the end of April. As you probably know, the first session in May saw the prices rising above EUR 50 per tonne.

The upward trend accelerating in the first quarter was spurred directly by the green light given by the European leaders in December last year to the European Commission's ambition proposal for emission reduction targets in the European Union that is 55% emission reduction target by 2030. This booming global energy markets -- these booming markets created a favorable cascade for speculation funds, which can, I'll say, high rates of return on their investments in emission, which obviously spurt prices as well. The dynamic market situation, obviously, had an impact on the group's performance.

In the first quarter of 2021, the Grupa Azoty Group recorded consolidated revenue of PLN 3.3 billion, up 8% year-on-year. The main drivers for the increase in revenue were price increases across all Grupa Azoty Group's segments, going up by PLN 235 million, supported by the simultaneous growth in sales volumes of compound fertilizers, up PLN 23 million as well as chemicals, up by PLN 38 million. However, these increases were offset by a PLN 21 million decline in plastics and an approximately PLN 113 million decline in nitrogen fertilizers mandated due to weather conditions, which resulted in an extended application period well into the quarter or in the second quarter and a high level of last year's stocks.

Revenue growth was also supported by Compo Expert, as I mentioned before, in the amount of PLN 76 million, both in terms of prices, up PLN 26 million and volumes, up PLN 57 million. The higher euro to PLN exchange rate was also a positive driver behind the group's consolidated revenue.

EBITDA generated in the first quarter of 2021 amounted to PLN 405 million and was down 8% year-on-year, mainly due to the higher dynamics of growth in fixed prices relative to the price of products as well as the growing prices of CO2 emission allowances. The increase in price of energy commodities, with gas prices going up by over 70%, electricity by 5% and whole as well, reduced the overall results by PLN 257 million. Higher price CO2 emission allowances were estimated at PLN 47 million.

On the other hand, Compo Expert supported the group's EBITDA relative to the first quarter of the previous year, contributing PLN 22 million to the group's results. The OXO business reported EBITDA higher by 3.5x year-on-year, and the results of the segment were also very stable.

As you can see, EBITDA bridge was mainly affected by increases in product selling prices, going up by PLN 235 million combined with a simultaneous increase in the flexible cost of production by PLN 234 million, mainly due to higher natural gas prices, which drove down EBITDA by PLN 246 million. The decrease in other operating expenses mainly associated with the Polimery Police project, including the sale of infrastructure last year. The increase in other revenues was driven by higher demand for sale of heap due to third-party clients as a result of lower temperatures. As regards selling costs and general administrative expenses and total savings amounted to PLN 11 million compared with the same quarter last year.

I should emphasize at this point that the group's financial situation is solid and stable. And group cash and cash equivalents provide an additional guarantee of our liquidity amounting to -- as at 31st March 2021 amounted to PLN 434 million together with cash in bank, the group has 3 financing limits amounting to PLN 7.4 billion as of March 31, 2021, of which Grupa Azoty Polyolefins, special purpose credit limits for the financing of the Polimery Police project amounted to PLN 5.1 billion and a free reverse factoring limit of PLN 296 million. In summary, total cash and refinancing limits as at March 31, 2021, amounted to PLN 7.8 billion.

Moving on to discussing the group's segment performance in more detail. In the first quarter of 2021, the Agro Fertilizers segment reported the highest contribution to the group's revenue at 60%, including 16% generated by Compo Expert Group. The Chemicals segment's contribution was 24%, and the Plastics segment generated 12% of total revenue.

On the next slide, #15, on market environment. You can see market spreads for nitrogen and compound fertilizers. Those prices followed an upward trend. And in the first quarter of 2021, they went up on average by about 6.5% year-on-year, including an increase of more than 8% for nitrogen fertilizers and more than 4% to compound and specialty fertilizers. At the same time, the key factor behind the cost of nitrogen fertilizer was the gas market, obviously, which had an impact on ammonia prices as well. It was a significant driver behind the pricing strategy of all fertilizer manufacturers and both gas prices and high prices of CO2 emission allowances as well as unfavorable weather conditions, extended the application season and the pricing policy was, therefore, continued. Additionally, a disruptive demand-supply balance for fertilizers, resulting from, among the other things, such as imports, supports high price levels.

I will report now about the agricultural market. In the first quarter of 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic had no significant negative impact on the Polish agricultural sector, which obviously makes us very happy, at least in Poland, in the agricultural sector in Poland. And the crops are currently considered to be at very good level, despite the persistent low temperatures we are still experiencing.

It is estimated that in the second quarter of 2021, the situation in the agricultural market is not expected to change significantly. And according to the agency for restructuring on modernization agriculture, the payout level of direct subsidiaries is estimated at 98% out of the total, which most likely means that the domestic agricultural sector has received most of the subsidies.

The Fertilizers segment in the first quarter of 2021 reported an approximately 5% increase year-on-year. And as prices increased, there was a parallel decline in the sales volume of nitrogen fertilizer, going down by nearly 12% due to the extended application of nitrogen fertilizers, even for the second application into the second quarter. This decline was offset by compound fertilizers, where sales volumes went up by [ 2% ] year-on-year. The positive volume effect in compound fertilizers drove up a higher year-on-year revenue by PLN 80 million, including over PLN 50 million contributed by Compo Experts.

Lower imports of competitive fertilizers also had an impact on the domestic market. Lower nitrogen fertilizer sales were caused by a significant shift in the time of application caused by unfavorable weather conditions, a lingering winter, minimizing the negative effect of strong increases in gas prices was also a challenge we had to face, especially in the period that those declines were reported in previous years.

However, it should be remembered that the end of the first quarter is, by no means, the end of the nitrogen fertilizer season. And for the reasons we have discussed, we expect that the seasonal sales of nitrogen-based fertilizers will be extended, and the volumes will be moved on to months to come.

The Chemicals segment. As regards to titanium white and in the past quarter, quarter 1, we saw strong interest from buyers, significantly higher than expected in the typically low season coinciding with the full winter period. Despite the limitations due to COVID-19 and the winter weather, demand was surprisingly solid.

With the onset of the high season in April, we see increased demand for titanium white. It is expected to continue and will be supported by low availability of imported titanium white volumes and the biased strategy to maintain safe stock levels and uninterrupted production. European contract prices went up in response to a booming market in China, high shipping costs, increased demand and higher costs of titanium white raw material.

In the first quarter of 2021, the DOTP prices went up by 46.8% versus the first quarter of 2020 due to the problems with the availability of OXO alcohols, the availability of plasticizers in European market, which was also lower. This was particularly evident in March when 3 key producers of plasticizers announced a force majeure event. In the near future, we expect price stabilization in the OXO area, crude oil and master prices and the availability of propylene are the key drivers in that area.

If propylene processors, reopen their plants while producers announce maintenance shutdowns, propylene prices may return to a growth path which will consequently stimulate prices -- increases in prices in the OXO segment. Currently, there is a solid demand supported by lower imports from more distant destinations. This is mainly due to high freight costs and problems related to logistics.

Moving on to the next slide, #18, the Chemicals segment despite a revenue growth of PLN 129 million, it was not able to maintain last year's EBITDA margin mainly due to high gas prices, which affected the performance of the melamine and technical-grade urea businesses. On the other hand, solid results were generated by the OXO business, which took full advantage of the market situation with a noticeable spread increase. Better results were also recorded in the sulfer business. The pigments business, on the other hand, maintain a very stable 2020 level -- margin level.

Moving on to the Plastics segment, European Plastic segment market. In the first month of 2021, we saw high material price, raw material prices and continued solid demand from all processing segments resulted in higher prices of caprolactam and polyamide, combined with supply limitations, such as low inventories as well as regional and global headwinds experienced by some producers.

Price of key raw materials in the first quarter of 2021 versus the first quarter of 2020 had a varying impact on EBITDA, given slightly higher benzene prices combined with slightly lower phenol prices. However, it must be stressed that compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, average European quoted benzene prices in the first quarter of 2021 increased by 59%. And average phenol prices went up by 20%, reaching levels not seen since the second half of 2018.

On the back of the strong demand growth as of the second half of 2020, the pandemic also caused a shortage of shipping containers as well as a sharp increase in prices, especially inroad from Asia to Europe. The hurricane season in late 2020 in the U.S.A. and the subsequent February storm on the Gulf of Mexico, the coast, temporarily stopped production of much of the U.S. chemicals sector producers.

In Europe, both planned and unplanned shutdowns led to force majeure events and supply shortages. The weak-long blockade of the Suez Canal in late March also put more pressure on supply, which resulted in high prices as well -- as many products are heavily dependent on imports from the Middle East.

The first quarter of 2021 also saw high demand for virtually all PA6 applications as well as limited supply. The demand for PA6 was high across all major industries, including the very key sectors such as automotive, electronics, appliances, construction and packaged food. For the remainder of the second quarter, demand and supply situation in all PA6 application markets and the price of petrochemical feedstocks are expected to drive up prices.

In the coming months, demand will depend on the activity of end consumers, obviously. And for the remainder of 2021, the outlook remains optimistic, which obviously, makes us very happy, although still very cautious with the pandemic still in the background. In such a dynamic market environment, the Plastics segment recorded an increase in revenue, 4% year-on-year from PLN 373 million to PLN 387 million and an increase in EBITDA margin from a negative level in Q1 2020 to 2% in Q1 2021.

EBITDA grew from minus PLN 2 million to PLN 8 million on the back of higher margins. It should be also mentioned that currently in the Plastics segment, it covers the result of GA Polyolefins. Without the contribution from Grupa Azoty Polyolefins that is PLN 4 million in 2020 and PLN 11 million in 2021, EBITDA increase of the Plastics segment proper would be PLN 7 million. The segment revenues were supported by continuing demand in target industries and limited market supply of polyamide in the market combined with an increase in contract prices based on the benzene formula.

I will now move on to go Grupa Azoty Pulawy Group, which I am the President of the Management Board of. The Grupa Azoty Pulawy Group's consolidated revenue in the quarter 1 2021 amounted to PLN 1.011 billion, up by PLN 58.1 million or 6.1% year-on-year. Consolidated net profit amounted to PLN 33.4 billion in the first quarter of 2021, down by PLN 47.3 million or 58.6% relative to quarter 1 2020. The main drivers of the of the Grupa Azoty group's performance included increase in natural gas prices, above 70% as well as high prices of fertilizer products, technical grade urea, melamine and caprolactam. In terms of sales to third parties, Agro segment was the greatest contributor due to the composition of the segment, obviously. And the contribution stood at 85.2% in the Agro segment. Higher revenues were also reported across all segments of the Grupa Azoty Pulawy Group. The consolidated EBITDA of Grupa Azoty Pulawy group in the first quarter 2021 stood at PLN 107.7 million, down by PLN 61.8 million or 36.4% versus the first quarter of 2020.

On account of price increases, EBITDA went up by PLN 81 million but dropped to PLN 23 million on the back of lower volumes. However, those results were mostly affected by the prices of raw materials, especially natural gas. Another significant driver were the higher costs of CO2 emission rates, up by over PLN 25 million year-on-year. Due to high prices of emission allowances, we must remember that we had other baseline across the Grupa Azoty Group and other accounting treatment, which we announced in August 2020 in the current report. All in all, the cost of sales increased by PLN 124.2 million or by 79% compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

Moving on to a segment breakdown. In the Agro segment, EBITDA went down by PLN 58.6 million year-on-year. The Agro segment's revenue increased by PLN 21.7 million or by 5.1% on the back of higher sales prices, especially of melamine, ammonium nitrate and urea, which translated into revenue growth of 75.8%. Unfortunately, lower sales volumes were reported, which resulted in a decline in segment revenue by PLN 34.1 million. These were related to, as I mentioned previously, in -- to the maintenance works carried out in that period and due to winter -- lingering winter. In accordance with our scenario, it shows that we'll see a positive shift in May and April. Unfortunately, the melamine segment had a number of breakdowns in melamine production units as well as certain mechanical problems. And melamine synthesizer, which has also been mentioned that we -- the maintenance works carried out in that period were shifted year-on-year. The cost of products, goods and materials sold went up by PLN 104 million or 17.9%.

In terms of Plastics, the EBITDA of the Plastics segment fell by PLN 9.7 million year-on-year. The increase in revenue in the Plastics segment by PLN 3.4 million or by 3.5% was driven mainly by higher selling prices, which translated into a revenue growth by PLN 3.4 million. The cost of products, goods and materials sold increased by PLN 12.5 million or by 12.7%.

The main factors behind the increase in the cost of production of caprolactam apart from higher price of benzene was a sharp increase, obviously, in the price of natural gas. As you know, it is a feedstock in the production of caprolactam intermediate products.

Moving on to our investments in the first quarter of 2021. Grupa Azoty Pulawy Group incurred capital expenditures of approximately PLN 289.5 million. The largest CapEx with earmarked for the following projects. Construction of a power unit-based on coal fuel, integration of the nitric acid plant and construction of the new units for the production of nitric acid, granular fertilizer plant based on ammonium nitrate and modernization of the steam boiler to reduce NOx emissions. And last but not least, replacement of the TG1 turbine units. In 2021, the group plans to incur expenditure on property plant and equipment as well as on intangible assets in the amount of PLN 996.9 million. We successfully and consistently concluded contracts for investment projects and the value of signed but not yet completed major contracts as of March 31, 2021, is approximately EUR 756.8 million. For obviously reasons, most of these investments are located in Pulawy. Our ongoing investment program and the need to secure financing was one of the main reasons behind the recommendation of the management board of Pulawy to allocate the entire profit for 2020 to statutory reserve capital.

And let me mention at this point that our priority is always to continue our investment program, and we see no delays at that point, which means that any planned commissioning and launches should progress as schedule.

In summary, the first quarter of 2021 brought about the third wave of the pandemic and a high COVID-19 incidence rate, which also affected Grupa Azoty Pulawy. However, fortunately, the increase in sick leaves, absentees has no impact on our production processes. As the group of the entities comprising our Grupa Azoty Pulawy Group is very diverse. The impact of the pandemic on the operations, performance and financial situation was vary but also mitigated. So we can say that, in general, this year's lockdown had no significant impact on the group as a whole. And as I said, our major CapEx investment plan progressed as scheduled and our growth plans as well.

As we have previously announced, we also successfully launched the new line of our phosphate products, which are modern and environmental-friendly compound fertilizers. I Should also add that on March 22 and 26th this year, we had an internal audit held at Pulawy to recertify the integrated quality environment and safety management system and to move on to the requirements of the new health and safety standards.

ISO 45001:2018. The audit was success -- was a success and the company received a recommendation to maintain the certificate of the integrated management system for compliance with the current appointed applicable standards.

Thank you very much for listening, and I will now give the floor over to Mr. to discuss the performance of the Grupa Azoty Police Group.

[Unknown Executive]

Good morning. In the first quarter of 2021, at Grupa Azoty Police Group, we reported consolidated EBIT and EBITDA higher than in the corresponding period 2020. Our EBITDA figures will be presented in more detail on the following slides.

On a stand-alone level, the parent company reported also net profit of PLN 42 million, it was also higher than in the previous year. The first quarter of 2021 was the first full reporting period in which the parent company no longer had control over Grupa Azoty Polyolefins, which was consolidated based on the equity method. And its contribution to the group's result is recognized in the income statement under share of profit of equity accounted associates. And currently, Grupa Azoty Police holds a 34.4% stake at Grupa Azoty Polyolefins. The consolidated net profit for the first quarter of 2021 amounted to PLN 15 million, down PLN 7.5 million year-on-year. A significant item affecting the consolidated net result in the first quarter of 2021 was profit loss on shares and associates accounted for using the equity method, which was down PLN 25.5 million.

It's related mainly to Grupa Azoty Polyolefins resulting largely from the valuation of the company's financial instruments, heading cash flows of the Polimery Police project, which were executed in accordance with the requirements of the credit facility agreement and resulting from the secured financing in U.S. dollar and payments in the euro, for which no hedge accounting can be applied. In the reporting period, there was no significant negative impact of the pandemic on the -- on our operations and key processes.

In terms of sales, there was no negative impact on demand for compound fertilizers and nitrogen products. The demand for titanium white remained very strong. The company was also not affected by increased sick leaves, absentees among our employees, which would -- could obstruct continuity of its operations, and we did not see any production limitations due to the pandemic.

Revenue increased by 11% relative to the first quarter of the previous year as a result of dynamic rise in market prices of compound fertilizers, ammonia and urea. Revenues amounted to PLN 780 million, and it was one of the higher figures reported for first quarter of the year over the last few years.

The consolidated EBITDA for the first quarter of 2021 stood at PLN 61 million, up by over PLN 80 million compared to the figure reported in the first quarter last year. At the stand-alone level, the company's EBITDA was also higher in the first quarter of 2021 year-on-year, up by nearly PLN 15 million. The realized EBITDA level was driven up by higher sales prices across almost all products groups following the marked improvement in the global market situation.

Moreover, our figures were also driven by higher sales volumes of compound fertilizers, reductant solutions from the RedNOx Group as well titanium white. It also had a positive contribution to the results. The favorable impact of sales was offset by the significant increase in the price of natural gas relative to the corresponding period last year.

In the case of the company, it was about 74% of average, which was mainly due to lower supply of LNG to Europe, and consequently, low gap stocks in European warehouses. We also saw increases in the prices of crude oil and CO2 emission allowances as well as coal. However, the company has, to a large extent, secured allowances for 2021 on the back of purchases made in previous years. Therefore, the impact of this factor was significantly lower in comparison with the market. The purchase prices of the following feedstocks were lower than in the first quarter of 2020. This -- these included potassium salt. However, the impact was much lower than the negative consequences of the rising gas prices.

In the Fertilizers segment, the revenue for the first quarter of 2021, which is over PLN 600 million, clearly above the corresponding quarter of the previous year. EBITDA in the segment stood at nearly PLN 40 million, which is up by over 30% versus the first quarter of 2020 with EBITDA margin higher by 1 percentage point. The Fertilizers segment's performance in the first quarter of 2021 was driven by 2 opposing trends.

First, significant improvement in the segment sales with a marked increase in selling price of compound fertilizers, especially phosphate fertilizers as well as nitrogen products as well as higher sales volumes in general of fertilizers. And second, significant increase of natural gas prices, prices of CO2 emission allowances as well as other energy commodities, such as electricity and coal.

High prices in natural gas -- higher price of natural gas compared to the previous corresponding period, significantly impacted the Fertilizers segment's performance. At the same time, higher segment sales and lower prices of some raw materials used in the production of compound fertilizer, such as phosphate raw potassium salt and sulphuric acid made it possible to somewhat offset the negative impact of rising gas prices.

In the Pigments segment, segment revenue stood at PLN 96 million, slightly above the Q1 2020 figure. EBITDA stood at PLN 16 million, only approximately PLN 2 million down. This is below the level reported in Q1 2020 with a margin going down by 2 percentage points.

However, it's still be considered against the market reality, and we consider it to be still very solid. In the Pigments segment, high demand for titanium white was reported in the first quarter of 2021. To a large extent, higher volumes and sales prices offset the favorable impact of rising natural gas prices. In addition, there were changes in the consumption structure of main feedstocks due to trade restrictions affecting the segment's main customer, large volumes of iron sulfate from the landfill also decreased significantly.

In terms of our CapEx program over the 3 months -- first 3 months of 2021, Grupa Azoty Police group spending on property, plant and equipment as well as intangible assets amounted to PLN 24 billion. And the key investments were continued, including modernization and expansion of the water treatment and demineralization station, which will make Grupa Azoty Police independent of the periodic increased salinity of Oder River and enable its use as the only source of supply.

This investment will also make it possible to secure supplies of demineralized water for Grupa Azoty Polyolefins installation. And also upgrade of the Police main transformer substation, which will support the electrical power distribution for the plant propane, the hydrogenation and polypropylene unit. In addition, we have the following projects in progress, recycling of a steam of pure oxygen or hydrogen as a byproduct for propylene dehydrogenation of polypropylene unit and the ammonia production plan. The value of this project is about PLN 30 million and also a replacement for the absorption power to maintain continuity of operation of the sulfuric acid unit in order to avoid potential failures. This investment is worth over PLN 16 million.

In terms of the Polimery Police project, I'll now give some more details on this flagship investment. It is in progress and as planned. We have received 46 pieces of large-sized equipment at the construction site, including a propane polypropylene splitter, which weighs around -- which weights 889 tonnes polypropylene tanks transformers necessary for the operation of the future power system. And as reactors for the production of polypropylene. In the first quarter, assembling installation of the equipment also started.

Blending silos, which were previously prefabricated on site or installed on foundations. These are the key components of the PP installation in which propylene will be stabilized. In the area of the handling and storage terminal, outer shell of an ethylene tank and propane tanks were -- was completed, and the installation of support structures and roof sheeting for the propane tank is nearing completion. On completion, hence, will proceed with the roofing operation and begin the installation of internal tanks. Work is also underway to dredge a portion of the fairway waterway covered by the Polimery Police project.

In the first quarter of 2021, Grupa Azoty Polyolefins purchased precious metals, that is platinum and palladium, necessary for the production of Oleflex and SHP catalysts.

In summary. In terms of our highlights, I would like to point to the fact that on February 26 this year, we received from the credit agent a confirmation that the conditions precedent for -- to the credit facility agreement had been fulfilled. As a result, after fulfilling specific conditions for the first disbursement of as well as on fulfillment of additional conditions for its disbursement, Grupa Azoty Polyolefins may apply for the disbursement of funds from the facility secured for the Polimery Police project. This means that the final stage of the process of obtaining debt finance was successfully completed, as Mr. Hinc has mentioned before.

On the 29th of April, Grupa Azoty Police, the police Seaport Authority as well as General Director for National Roads and Motorways signed a letter of intent to make a land property available for the construction of the Western Ring Road Szczecin. Grupa Azoty Police also donated PLN 100,000 to the Polonian Medical University for the purchase of laminar flow cabinets where the process of characterizing and preparing the isolation of the coronavirus RNA takes place.

It was yet another contribution of the company to the fight against the coronavirus. Since the pandemic outbreak, we have donated more than PLN 1 billion to that purpose.

Another highlight was the fact that on the 30th of April, the Supervisory Board dismissed all members of the management board for the -- of the 8th term of office and appointed members of the management board for the next term.

Thank you very much for your attention.

[Tomasz Hinc, executive]

Thank you very much for this exhaustive discussion of our performance in the first quarter of the year. And thank you for joining us. Thank you very much. Goodbye.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]