CSN is seeing a favorable scenario for a flat steel price increase in Brazil of about 7.5% to 10% starting next month, the company’s commercial director, Luis Barbosa Martinez, said on Thursday.
“If demand improves a little bit and the growth that we’re seeing now in March stabilizes… I think we can post 7.5% to 10% in plans,” the executive said during a conference with executives. analysts, after revealing fourth-quarter results the night before.
“In long products, it is more complicated due to the tighter supply and demand equation,” added the Executive. Martinez recalled that the so-called “premium”, the price difference between imported steel and that produced in Brazil, in the long segment is negative at 14%, while in the flats it is “slightly negative”.
According to him, CSN has a plan to reduce production costs throughout the first half of this year, which includes evaluating new purchases of third-party boards for lamination.
In the fourth quarter, the cost of slab was 3,923 reais per ton compared to 4,133 in the third quarter and 3,673 in the last three months of 2021. The executive estimates that CSN is targeting a 20% margin for the steel segment, after 13.6% at the end of last year.
The company estimates an investment of 4.4 billion reais in 2023, after disbursements of 3.4 billion reais made in 2022, chief financial officer Marcelo Cunha Ribeiro said in a conference call with analysts on Thursday.
“We expect an important acceleration in cash generation, with a positive evolution of Ebitda that will compensate for the higher investments”, said the executive. “The positive cash flow will allow us to deleverage,” he added.
Ribeiro also said that CSN’s leverage in January was 2x, lower than the 2.21x level at the end of last year. The company continues to aim to maintain liquidity of approximately 15 billion reais and leverage between 1 and 2x.
At around 00:20, CSN shares fell by 5.73%, to 16.96 reais, on the São Paulo stock exchange, amid the biggest losses of Ibovespa, which fell by 0.55%.
Source: Terra
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