Companhia Brasileira de Alumínio ($CBAV3)

Hello. Good morning, everyone. I'm Amabile, the Investor Relations Manager at CBA. Welcome to the earnings call for the first quarter of '26. We'll have Luciano Alves present as the company's CEO; and Camila Abel, the company's CFO and Investor Relations Officer. We'd like to inform you that the presentation of this event will be available on the CBA's Investor Relations website, where we'll also provide the recording of the event after the session. [Operator Instructions] Before proceeding, we would like to clarify that some of the statements contained in this presentation may include statements that represent expectations about future events or results, which depend materially on -- sorry, that depend -- some of the information contained in this presentation may include statements that represent expectations about future events or results, which depends significantly on general economic, political and business conditions in Brazil and in the global markets, as well as existing and future government regulations, among other factors. Operational data may affect CBA's future performance and may lead to results that differ materially from those listed in such statements. Now to begin our presentation, I would like to invite Luciano. Luciano, please, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Amabile. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for participating in one more CBA earnings call. Let's start off with the main highlights for the quarter. Our adjusted EBITDA reached BRL 466 million with a margin of 20%, the highest level since the fourth quarter of '24, reflecting the company's strong performance, as well as improvement in the market prices. We had a sequential improvement also in the cost structure with a reduction of 4% compared to the previous quarter, mainly due to higher generation of our own energy after the entry of the Serra do Tigre wind complex into operation. On the ESG agenda, CBA remains as the only primary aluminum company in the world on CDP's A list and was recognized for the second consecutive year in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook for '25. Finally, I want to highlight the signing of the agreement of the sale of [indiscernible] stake in CBA to Chalco and Rio Tinto [indiscernible] end of January '26 and is still subject to other legal regulatory approvals. Now we're going to discuss a little bit of the scenario of the alumina market. So in the first quarter, the company get into a surplus in a more relevant way with a positive balance of approximately 637,000 tonnes. This movement is mainly linked to the seasonal slowdown observed in China due to the Chinese New Year festivities that happen every year, and this also reduces the economic activity temporarily in China. On the other side, on the demand in China, there was a retraction in primary aluminum consumption, reflecting the seasonal slowdown also that I just mentioned, but also a slower pace in the renewable energy sector. And outside of China, there was a slight increase in demand with driven by the cyclical resilience recorded at the beginning of the year and an important highlight also of the Indian market, where the demand would grow at the fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth in this market. In supply, the level of production remained relatively stable, combined with a slower or weakened demand led to the surplus. I just mentioned the CRU adjusted its supply expectations for the year now considering a 0.7% contraction in global production, mainly reflecting supply disruptions in the Middle East as a result of the war. Now moving on to the next slide, looking at the behavior of global aluminum inventories in the first quarter of '26. You can see the days of consumption, which closed again at 52 days, repeating the level observed in the first quarter of '25. Despite this one-off increase due to the reasons I explained in the previous slide, the levels remain historically low, reinforcing the understanding of a still adjusted market with little slack or space between supply and demand, which contributes to sustaining a firmer feeling in the price levels. This movement mainly reflects the seasonal retraction of demand throughout the quarter, influenced by the impact of the Chinese New Year, and it also temporarily reduces industrial activity in addition to greater caution in investment-intensive sectors. But the market was supported by segments connected to the energy transition, although a bit slower than in the past. When we look at the official inventory volumes on the LME and SHFE, there was a distinct regional dynamic, right? So there was an increase in the inventories in SHFE in China directly associated to the seasonal effect in China and also the inventories in the LME dropped. So in general, the combination of inventories that are still low in historical terms and the stability of the volumes recorded reinforce the perception of an adjusted market in the short term, even despite the seasonal effects observed in the first quarter. On the next slide, during the first quarter, the price of aluminum and the LME kept an upward trajectory, which started back at the end of 2025 and reached its highest level in the last 4 years in April. This is being supported by a favorable environment for base metals with the LME recording an average price of $3,199 per tonne in this quarter. This reflects a combination of macroeconomic and geopolitical factors, rising tensions in the Middle East at the start of the year, which increased pressure on energy costs and oil-related products and also logistical chains, right, contributing to a higher perception of risk and really boosting aluminum prices, as you can see here on the graph. Looking at the premiums over the course of this quarter, global premiums continue to advance. The Midwest duty paid premium in the United States and the Rotterdam premium in Europe registered new increases in this period, mainly due to the supply disruptions associated to the Middle East, which is a region that is a strategic supplier of metal to both metal markets, and this kept premiums at high levels and reinforced regional price support in different markets. So overall, the combination between geopolitical factors, logistical constraints and a still favorable macro environment supported a quarter of strong appreciation for the LME and also for regional aluminum premiums. Now on our next slide, I'm going to talk about the Brazilian market. So we looked internationally now. But in Brazil, even with the restrictive interest and credit environment we're in and with a scenario abroad globally that is still very challenging, especially with the conflicts in the Middle East and their effects on oil prices, the main aluminum consumer segments in Brazil demonstrated resilience, and we're able to keep up with demand throughout this period in the first quarter. So in the automotive chain, the production of light vehicles grew 7% year-over-year, reaching 601,000 units with an emphasis on the advance of electrification, which continues to indicate a structural change in the consumption profile abroad and in Brazil. Now the Motorcycle segment maintained a robust performance with growth of 12% compared to the first quarter '25 and acceleration of 16% compared to the previous quarter, driven by the strong production in March and also the advances in exports. Now on the other hand, the production of buses showed a moderate retraction in the annual comparison, while road highway implements recorded a more relevant drop, reflecting the greater sensitivity to credit, although that in March, we have occasional signs of reaction, especially linked to agribusiness. Now in civil construction, cement sales grew about 2% year-over-year, supported by the increase in income and in the Minha Casa, Minha Vida government program, and there was a 5% drop compared to the previous quarter due to the seasonality of the period, which is natural. The Packaging segment also had a bit of a stability at the beginning of the year, but there has a positive -- there is a positive outlook for the coming years, mainly because of the World Cup and also possible increases in temperatures associated with the El Nino projections in the market. And finally, in the energy sector, the transmission continues to play an important role in the demand for aluminum in Brazil with a robust pipeline of investments and auctions that are scheduled or planned for 2026. So I think that's what I had to share. But now I'm going to pass it on to Camila as she talks about our financial performance, and I'll get back to talk to you at the end as well.

Thank you, Luciano. Good morning, everyone. Starting here with the total sales volume in the first quarter. This year, we sold 122,000 tonnes. And this volume reflects the typical seasonality, but also a more resilient mix with a greater share of higher value-added products. In the primary segment, we had total sales of about 64,000 tonnes due to the better performance also of products with higher added value, such as ingots and alloys. And in the Process Products segment, we keep a volume of 34,000 tonnes. And with recycling, where we had a drop, the drop in sales are mainly related to our credit environment that's more restrictive with high interest that we still experience here in Brazil. And even the LME quotes that are higher that also influence the dynamic of the demand, right, especially for do-it-yourself kind of construction segment. So we're prioritizing the segment of primaries to take advantage of this good moment. And then on the destination for the sales, we had an improvement in the domestic market and the liquid aluminum production was pretty much stable at 92,000 tonnes, even though there was a smaller amount of days in this quarter. That reinforces our operational strength, right? And now on the energy balance in the first quarter, we had our own generation reaching 739 average megawatts in the quarter, mainly due to the start-up of the Serra do Tigre wind complex into our portfolio, which we disclosed in the last quarter. 60 megawatts on average. And then in 2026, we'll have a full year with this effect and this additional volume in our portfolio. Energy consumption and the volume of the contracts were pretty stable. And the average cost of the contracts dropped about 5%, mainly due to the exchange rate variation and appreciation of the real since our contracts are mainly in dollars, right? So in general, the increase in our own generation strengthens our energy balance, it increases cost efficiency and gives us more operational flexibility. Now in costs, the cash cost of liquid aluminum production ended at BRL 12,000 per tonne on average, and that represents an improvement of 6% compared to the fourth quarter of '25. mainly due to greater energy generation and also the rain period, and also the operation of the Serra do Tigre wind complex. Then we also had gradual gains in operational efficiency in the refinery improvement in the mix of the inputs, and an emphasis on the effect of better prices of soda already that we had already seen in our inventories. And in regards to the GMV -- sorry, the COGS, this is a reflection of the actual cash cost with the normalization of the refinery. In the Energy segment, the COGS of BRL 149 million grew, but that was a good reason, right, because we sold more with very attractive prices in the market, because we have a bigger exceeding sales volume since we had the beginning of the wind complex entering our portfolio. We always trade the excessive energy generated. So in the first quarter, the consolidated net revenue added up to BRL 2.2 billion, especially due to the higher prices of aluminum in reals and an improvement in our mix and better contributions in the Energy segment. So the adjusted EBITDA reached BRL 466 million, which represents a significant increase of 45% compared to pro forma that we had presented in the fourth quarter of 2025, which excluded a nonrecurring effect of reclassification of CapEx to OpEx. The EBITDA closed at 20%, which is the highest level ever since the fourth quarter of '24. Now on the CapEx, investments were BRL 183 million in this quarter, which basically represents continuity of our plans. About 70% of the CapEx was directed to maintenance and sustaining and the rest is kilns and furnaces refurbishing. And the other 10% are one-off projects for expansion and modernization that we're advancing with. And now on the free cash flow, the increase of the LME brought in a strong EBITDA due to the other factors I already mentioned, but this increase in prices also generates a negative impact that's natural in the working capital. And besides this, we also had an increase and consumption of some nonrecurring items in the business. So that led to working capital investments required with the reduction of the program, profit sharing payments and these impacts were partially offset by the reduction in the stocks. This is work we're going to be doing throughout the year. In this case, we're talking about the billets, the alloy ingots and other processed products. And we also have the use of tax credits. And then besides the highlights for working capital here on this graph, it's worth mentioning the net fundraising of BRL 238 million with the release of financing from BNDES to fund part of these investments and in March, which was BRL 250 million, which reinforced the strong liquidity that we had already had pretty strong and became higher with this additional cash. So with this, the gross debt of BRL 4.4 billion really reflects this increase due to the release from BNDES, but our net debt dropped. So we dropped at BRL 3.1 billion, benefited by the cash generation and the reduction of the mark-to-market on derivatives as well as -- and all of this is due to the appreciation of the real since 90% of our debt is in dollars. Now with this, our leverage dropped, reaching 2.71x net debt to EBITDA, and we had an optimal profile with an extended average maturity of 5.4 years and an average cost of 5.9% per year in dollars. Now I'm going to pass the floor back to Luciano as he talks about our final remarks and messages, and then we'll get into the Q&A.

Thank you, Camila. Well, to close here, I want to reinforce 3 key messages about this quarter. So the aluminum market continues to have favorable dynamics in the short term with prices supported by low global inventories, as I presented, especially in China and the Middle East and gradual demand recovery. At CBA, we've advanced consistently and for the net liquid aluminum, which is levered by the main generation of energy and also efficiency gains, and that led to relevant recovery of the EBITDA margin that reached the best levels. And we have been keeping up this and also the preservation of our liquidity. These advances really reinforce our trust in the execution and the creation of value over the next quarters. And so thank you so much. I'll pass this back on to Amabile.

Thank you, Luciano. As we do not have questions, we've reached the end of our earnings call for the first quarter of '26. We want to thank you all for your participation, and we're available for any additional clarifications... [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call]