It’s really not been thoroughly explained for those who do not understand what is happening. Thank you Daniel for the question.
Daniel Sasson: Thank you, Martinez. Very clear.
Benjamin Steinbruch: Now, regarding what Martinez said about import, I am in the United States. I came yesterday from Europe, I went to visit our units in Portugal and Germany and was able to speak to some people in the automotive sector, for example. What I can say is that they’re terrified with what is happening when it comes to electrical cable from China. It was something that is about to happen. It is happening. China is flooding the European ports with products that have no order. There is no sale, but they’re anticipating everything, selling products to the ports in Europe and the United States, literally inundating these markets with vehicles. I was able to ride in a Chinese car in the car of the year and I have to say the quality and the performance of the cars are impressive.
It’s going to be a worldwide challenge this issue with China and the European clearly have shown their concern with the future of the European automotive industry as a whole. It’s something that is already happening. And from the viewpoint of quality that I said to prove, I saw it, it’s an insane situation that have electric cars that go from zero to 100 in 2.1 seconds. The SUVs do this even faster. The comfort and the technical performance are fantastic. They leave nothing to be desired when it comes to European and American cars with a massive presence at the large European ports. It’s not only steel. It’s something that Brazil has to awaken to the rest of the world already has. It’s something much broader. We need to have a firm industrial policy that will enable our survival.
Different things are going to happen very quickly. When it comes to Daniel’s question about the leverage for new investments, whether they are organic or acquisition, are great concern, Daniel. My concern is about leverage specifically. We have been growing, we’re putting in new assets into the group. It’s the case of Lafarge causing triple in last year. Now we always have that in-house and external commitment towards leverage and minor falls as we had this quarter because of a sudden drop in prices of commodity of 20% impacted our results. But I can say that with the measures adopted, it is very difficult to go beyond the three times in leverage. As I mentioned, I believe that based on what we have been doing, we will quickly resume our normal margins of leverage.
And as part of this concern what makes sense for us. Our only acquisition that will enable us to reduce that level of leverage and net debt, any type of acquisition that we will have to do or any type of investment that we want to carry out organically will be calculated very cautiously to ensure they do not represent an increase in leverage. This is our prime priority. And we can only justify an acquisition going forward if something has enormous synergy with our present day business to such a point that it will become a feasible way to enhance our EBITDA because of that enormous synergy that may exist. So, you can remain comp that we will not carry out any type of investment, whether it is for organic growth or an acquisition that will break this rule.
We are fully committed with de-leveraging, and we are going to do this quickly at whichever cost is necessary. No investment will be made if it will compromise this standard that prevails within CSN.
Daniel Sasson: Well, thank you, Benjamin.
Operator: Our next question comes from Rafael Barcellos from Banco Bradesco BBI. Your microphone has been unmuted, sir.
Rafael Barcellos: Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking my questions. I wish Marco Rabello a great deal of luck in his new position and thank Marcelo for his work delivered to CSN. The first question is to Marco. If you could speak about your initial perception that CSN, which will be the projects you will devote more time to in the company. My second question about the steel market is a question for Martinez. If you could give us an overview of the market. We heard your opinion on the new quota system caused by the flow of imports. But if we could hear more about the internal dynamic demand and the price environment, we saw a drop of prices this quarter environment. Now, what will happen with this dynamic in the second quarter, and which is your price strategy vis-à-vis market share at CSN with the main products in the domestic market? Thank you.
Antonio Marco Campos Rabello: Well, this is Marco. Thank you for your wishes. Of course, this is my personal opinion, but CSN does have a great advantage centered on very important pillars for the national and worldwide economy, with a great deal of potential for growth, for unleashing value. And growth can be gained, of course, organically or through acquisitions. We have a very specific year in terms of CapEx. We have significant CapEx for this year, as mentioned. First of all, we’re going to seek funding with the best terms, with the best structures to bring a maximum return to the CapEx that we want for the year, especially in mining and in steel. There is a higher concentration of CapEx initially in both of these areas, always looking at leverage as Benjamin has underscored.
But our average cost of debt, our debt schedule, there will be a large concentration and we’re going to see how to best support each segment to bring about the best profitability. All segments are showing an enhancement in their profitability, including the steel segment. Last year, of course, it faced some production bottlenecks. And obviously, we’re going to support the acquisitions that will be carried out by the company with the best financial structure and bringing in the companies that will eventually be acquired in the different segments. Now, these are the main points of concentration for 2024.
Luis Martinez: Hello, Rafael. This is Martinez once again. I will allow myself to speak about the international market. It has been very helpful in terms of our volumes. We had the best quarter in terms of volumes. In the last five quarters, we got to 1,086,000. This was not perceived, but it is an enormous challenge for us at CSN to reach that figure as a group. As part of Benjamin’s strategy of not putting all the eggs in the same basket. That is why we have operations with operational excellence outside of Brazil. And this has enabled us to hit these volume records in the last five quarters. Now, this has just come out in Bloomberg. Biden is planning to increase fourfold the rates for china this is in Bloomberg please read this and see what is happening this corroborates what we have mentioned here.
