Corbion N.V. (CRBN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the Corbion Full Year Results 2021 Analyst Call on the 25th of February 2022. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this call is being recorded. I'd now like to hand the conference over to Jeroen van Harten, Investor Relations Director. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Emma. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Corbion Full Year 2021 Investor Call. Today with us, as usual, Olivier Rigaud, our CEO; and Eddy van Rhede, our CFO. My name is Jeroen van Harten, Investor Relations. As usual, there is an accompanying slide deck available from our website if you go to corbion.com Investor Relations, Financial Publications. There, you can download the deck in the webcast, and you should have received a link. You can also find it on the website, you can follow along with a presentation by Olivier and Eddy and after which we'll go into Q&A. So with that, I'd like to hand over to Olivier. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Jeroen, and good morning, everyone. So let me start and get you through the major highlights. So we start with organic sales growth, which was [ up 15% ] in our core business, and this growth has been driven by all the 3 business units. We're going to come back to the detail later on. We delivered an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 135.8 million, so a 12.7% margin, down 7.6% versus 2020. We embarked across the second half of last year to very firm pricing actions and the successful practicing rounds having effect us from January 2022. We also had a very high investment level to support the 2025 advanced plan growth momentum. And last but not least, we made very strong progress on our sustainability journey where we are ahead of schedule. Now let's dive into SFS. SFS delivered a net sales organic growth of 10.8%. We had although a dip in Q4 related to an unforeseen outage in our Blair, Nebraska plant, and we're going to come back to that. The growth momentum was both in preservation and functional systems, whereas in preservation, we continue to gain market share in the natural preservation space. And we also saw a very strong growth into new products, primarily antimicrobial solutions. In our functional systems there, we've had a very, let's say, also nice growth. We've been also developing really new solutions, helping our customers to reformulate and tackle some of the raw material shortage and challenges that happen related to COVID. Next to that, we started to growing some HSM categories such as dairy and clean label products. We've also been very encouraged by the strong sales and innovation pipeline and primarily also the conversion rate that is pretty high, close to 40% when usually we are below the 30%. And on this benefiting from the strong investment we made in technical sales applications lab and, of course, from plant resources into the various regions. Across the year, we look at our portfolio as well with the disposal of our frozen dough business back in Jan 2021 and also the acquisition of blending business in Mexico called n Granolife helping us also to support our key accounts in that country. Moving now to last, Lactic acid & Specialties there as well. An impressive net sales organic growth of 17% with all the subsegment performing extremely well. We had high growth of lactic acid deliveries to our joint venture with total energy for PLA, but the other segments as the green solvents grew also more than compensated due to the depression we had in the agrochemical segment, where some regulatory changes of reduce our sales, but all in all, remain very positive. And we expanded actually our capacity in Netherlands Gorinchem to still continue to supply this business in this growing segment, primarily in the electronics in the years to come. On the medical biopolymer, if you remember, this is a segment that suffered in the COVID times from the postponement of elective surgeries. And this has been resumed post-COVID, so we see an uptake there. And we have also a very strong prospect into the slow release drug delivery systems, both, I mean, with our customers but also through our joint venture with MedinCell. So where we have reached some major regulatory milestones. Now, last but not least, our Incubator that is, as you know, primarily composed of our Algae Ingredients business. We've had very good sales with an organic growth of over [indiscernible] and that is primarily related to our omega-3 DHA business. We've seen more and more adoption in the aquaculture sector, but we have also been able to improve our customer spread and reach across last year. So this is also a very promising because it's, of course, generating more lean as we go forward. In the meantime, the R&D organization of the Algae business has been able to further improve our yield efficiencies. So both these next to the higher volume helped to offset the higher cost of raw material and freight. So we are still very confident and basically are reconfirming our breakeven target for this year in 2022. Moving to some of the major investment program we do have today, all 3, starting with indeed Algae, where basically this year, we are further devoting the plant in Brazil in Orindiuva, so extending our fermentation capacity. And also improving our operational efficiency to prepare for the 2023 growth. The second one I'd like to highlight is related to natural ferment specialties in Peoria in the U.S. We are there, we are doubling our fermentation capacity. This is on very high-end specialty footprints that are opening new areas for us in terms of specialty preservation areas and more inhibition products. Moving onwards to the last one, the biggest one is our new lactic acid plant in Thailand as you might remember. So this is a [ EUR 230 million ] CapEx investment where we are on track to start up in 2023. Actually, you might see on the picture, we move from civil engineering to ours erecting the first agreement. So we've already started to recruit part of the operators, and they are being training other locations across the carbon network as we speak. Obviously, some challenges are happening still related to logistics and profit, although so far, we've been able to manage pretty well in this environment. So this project is well onstream again to kick off in 2022. Now before handing over to Eddy, as a last point, I'd like to highlight some significant progress on ESG matters and sustainability. Across last year, we surpassed our greenhouse gas emission reduction target. So we reached a 27% reduction already in 2021, where our target is a reduction of 33% by 2030. We've also made very strong progress in renewable electricity, where we are at 79% already. So we are going to revisit our targets in the course of 2022. And of course, we'll come back to you in the next quarters. And of course, importantly, is that we got reconfirmation on the several ratings that I will not detail now but basically, that shows a very strong commitment on these measures. On this, let me hand over to Eddy to go through the details of the financials.

Thank you very much, Olivier. Good day, everybody. So let us start with the profit and loss accounts. So I'm happy to announce that on the sales line, it's the first time that we have been performing above the EUR 1 billion threshold. So we came out with [ EUR 1.07 billion ] sales line which underlying organic growth has been featuring at 15%. So it's a very nice development and it's also alluding to catered by all units that are active in. We also finished on a strong note in Q4. So there, the organic growth was close to 12%. Then EBITDA, organically, a decline of 7.6%, and that is then also expressed and the reduction in the margin from 60% last year. So 2020 remain to 12.7% as a margin for the full year in '21. Then a bit lower in the P&L, you see adjustment line, quite a positive of EUR 10 million for last year. Three main components there. We have been divesting the plot of land in Breda in the Netherlands. We've been divesting frozen dough activity, which was in the managed for exit strategic column. So those were clear positives in terms of book profits and that has been offset in some way by an impairment we had to make on one of the biopolymer initiatives leading the FiberLive technology. So those in aggregate are making up the EUR 10 million net positive. Financial income expense less negative than in 2020. That is more that 2020 was -- I said it's too much negative reflected because there was a valuation on intercompany loan, which suppressed that level, which we did not have that much in '21. Results for venture is a very nice step-up that really exemplifies the nice progress we're making in PLA joint venture. And taxes quite low for the year, and that is again related to this great artist, Plot of land in the Netherlands, where we had fiscal losses that we could value on the balance sheet. So that gave us a onetime positive. So that brings us all together result after tax and also earnings per share of a 7% growth over 2020. The one on the next sheet, one of the key themes is all about the high volatility in input cost inflationary cost environment we and all of us are in, I think about raw materials, packaging, freight, high input cost. You see table on the right-hand side, measured over 2 years, we're looking at $165 million increase for both the core and the noncore, and we are happy to announce that we have successfully increased prices to fully compensate those increased costs. Those compensation have materialized in some way already starting in the second half of last year, but will become much more visible in the beginning of this year onwards because that is where the far, far majority of these price increases will materialize and increase pricing. Acknowledging that we are having this volatility in the outside growth, and we expect that also to continue, we've also moved to more flexible pricing structure in our contracts. So read it as less long duration, where typically, we have 1-year contracts, we're now looking more to quarterly contracts when it comes to pricing, to help us to be more adaptable. And then in all these dynamics, if you purely look at, you have higher sales that you're passing through for cost, while your profitability is not necessarily moving on that, mathematically, that gives some dilution effect when you look at that in margins. So let's then go to the different units. Sustainable Food Solutions for the whole year, an 11% growth. Q4, the growth is somewhat suppressed by 3% growth organically. But we have to take into consideration that like Olivier was saying, we did have the temporary production outage in our U.S. electric acid plant. And if we would not have had that situation then you're typically looking at a growth rate of close to 9% for the quarter. So not unlike what we've seen in the previous quarters for the year. And the same is true when you look at the margin development. And so the margin development is quite a drop for the full year, but especially also in Q4, there, again, this outage gave us a margin drop. If you would eliminate that, you're looking for Q4 more to a 9% margin development versus a 7% reported in this table. Next one is Lactic Acid division. They are even on higher growth rates organically, 70% for the year, a very strong finish for the quarter in quarter 4, 25%. And then on the margin development, more stable, I would say, compared to 2022, 2020 at 19.4% for the full year and close to 16% for quarter 4. Incubator, very nice development on the top line, of course, coming from a small base growing very nicely, at close to 150% for the year, and 70% for the quarter. There's very much volume development behind it, of course. And that expresses also in an ever lower or less negative, I have to say, EBITDA delivery on the total incubator unit of the minus EUR 12 million versus the minus EUR 18 million for the full year in 2020. Joint Venture, these are figures on a 100% basis. Also there, strong growth delivery. Organically, net sales has been growing just over 28% for the year, while the margins stay pretty stable in the 30s range 34% for the full year and 31% for the quarter 4. Noncore. This is really much the U.S. most business that we are reporting in there. It's nice to see in that business, although we manage it for value that we have seen there a nice growth of 13% organically for the year. And the EBITDA has been at about EUR 80 million versus the EUR 24 million the year before. So pretty stable as such. The net debt bridge, the left side is the ending position of 2020. Right side, end position '21. So yes, our net debt has increased quite considerably over the year. The cash income is to be write as the operational cash flow without working capital movements. So that is a clear positive deducted by interest and tax. Working capital is quite a negative, and that is really expressing the higher debtor positions and also the higher inventory positions caused by this more increased inflationary cost environment. CapEx, we have a heavy CapEx program last year, EUR 150 million. Dividends we've paid as all the previous years at [ 33]. We did receive some dividends and earn-out from the JV. Yes, we've been divesting the frozen dough and Breda. We did one acquisition in Mexico in the middle of the year. Lease arrangements have to be captured in net debt. So it's not always a cash out, but it is in a debt position. So that's all the extension when we come to leases, you have to cater for. And then the other is really reflecting the year-end dollar position, which was a stronger dollar than the year before, so that is used to be valued at different rates. Then we move to free cash flow. This is picturing every time a position of 12 months. So each common represents a 12-month rolling. Clearly, small positives over the last couple of years, where you see in '21 a negative free cash flow development being caused by two components. On the bottom part, you really see a relatively high cash flow related to investments. So that's not only the CapEx components but also the acquisition we did in Granotec Mexico in the middle of the year and then offset somewhat by the divestment proceeds and the dividends from PLA. But all in all, with '19, quite an investment year. But also on the other component, the operating cash flow, quite a reduction compared to previous years. Three main drivers there, again, the cash being invested, if you make all like that in working capital, most notably debtors and inventory. It is also higher taxes that we had to pay. Think about also when you have a divestment of frozen dough with a book of you need to pay taxes on that. So that was a bigger outlay, and then some other provisions outlays that we had as well. So that all in all, explains the negative free cash flow development. With that, I want to give it back to Olivier.

Yes. Thanks, Eddy. So as a recap and before opening to Q&A, let's go through our 2022 outlook. Starting with net sales organic growth where we guided towards 15% to 20% organic growth for our core activities for 2022; committed to reach the EBITDA breakeven in AlgaPrime DHA business this year; input costs, we will discuss further, but we successfully increased our price to fully compensate for additional input cost. We still expect some input cost to continue to rise and this might require additional pricing action. But as Eddy said, our quality contracting approach is providing us the flexibility to do so. On adjusted EBITDA margin, we are guiding towards 12% to 15% range and on capital expenditure towards EUR 200 million to EUR 230 million CapEx for 2022. On this, I would open the floor to Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Mr. Alex Long from Barclays.

I've got three, if that's okay. First one, just in terms of the outlook for 2022. I mean, it would sound like that you're not expecting much, if any, volume elasticity from potentially double-digit pricing that you're taking to offset input cost inflation. I guess the question is what's giving you confidence here? And maybe how has year-to-date volume performance been trending as some of this pricing has landed in the core business? That's the first one. Second one would be just in terms of the 12% to 15% EBITDA margin target that you've given, can you give maybe a bit more color in terms of the sort of key sensitivities that we should be thinking about as to whether you're at the low or upper end of the range? And then just finally, just on Incubators, in terms of the kind of continued investment, I think 1% of core sales excluding Algae, can you remind us what are the main investments that you're making here. And over what time period should we expect payback, I guess, the question is can Incubators -- at what point can Incubators is as a whole move to positive profitability?

Okay. So I will take the first one and Eddy the two others. So on the outlook for 2022 in terms of volume, what is giving us confidence is when we look at our pipeline, both innovation and commercial pipeline, we've been working a lot over the last couple of years to enhance this pipeline across the three views. And we feel pretty good as we see the conversion of the project coming in. So at the same time, when we look to the contracting position despite the very strong price increase, we will not see any, let's say, major big volume losses in that pricing round. And that's next to the quality and the solidity of the pipeline. This is the second point that keeps me confident in terms of volume delivery for 2022. Obviously, this doesn't necessarily include what if things would be railed further with the Ukraine crisis. But as we see today and as also we see the start of 2022 because we have -- already almost a month behind us. We remain confident on these volume. Eddy maybe you want to pick up the EBITDA question.

Yes. So the range that we have guided for this year is 12% to 15% EBITDA margin for the core. Maybe before we go into sensitivities, within the year, we've also guided that the margin profile for the first half of '22 will be lower than the margin profile for the second half of this year. Why? That is because in the second half, you will have the full contribution from all the sales prices that are phasing in, in the early part of this year because not all prices will be here in as per the first of Jan, a big share, but not all. So that is one thing in terms of phasing. Second thing is also that we see a higher volume development for the second half versus the first half. . Then your question on sensitivities, yes, I would say that the biggest unknown or sensitivity out there is what is going to happen in terms of the whole input cost inflationary environment. I mean, if things stay put where they currently are, then this is exactly what the guidance is showing you. But what happens if another big disruption or crisis or whatever happens in terms of logistics overall not think about what's happening in Europe at the moment is on the eastern side. Those are sensitivities that, of course, we'll move it more to the left or to the right in this margins side. So that's on the margin sensitivities. Incubator. So indeed in 2022, we are confident in making the EBITDA breakeven position for the DHA business, that's the omega-3 business in Incubator. Then besides that, yes, we have also activities going on in other Algae-based -- Algae Ingredients initiatives. So that is still clearly in an investment mode, but all catered for future growth and future profitability, but that takes some time to develop. We're also working on a coal polymers platform within incubator. We've always guided this in our framework that the aggregate of those activities, one, we are in investment mode. We will benchmark that within 0.5% to 1.5% of core sales. So with the current level, that is not more than 5 -- between EUR 5 million to EUR 15 million per annum. And every time when something matures to a positive contribution, then there comes a time that you spin it out of the incubator and host it in an existing or in a new leg. So the incubator has always been meant to be run over a longer period of time in an investment mode, I would say. But again, we've framed that we've kept that in that range that we've provided.

The next question comes from Sebastian Bray from Berenberg.

I would have a few, please. My first one is on the capacity expansions ongoing on the group. Has Corbion Total decided whether the PLA JV will for additional capacity raise financing internally, i.e., itself or whether Corbion will have to inject this financing? Secondly, just if I take a step back and ask about group CapEx more broadly. It looks as if there's substantial capacity additions across the group will last into 2023. We haven't heard anything yet on France lactic acid monomer capacity that will be needed for the PLA facility. Is EUR 230 million per annum the new normal for the next few years? My final question is on the Algae capacity. Could you give us some idea of the existing market share of this business relative to the global market for fish oil? Or more specifically, what is the level of CapEx that will go into expanding the capacity here?

Sebastian. So maybe we start with Algae and then we can build on the other CapEx related questions and PLA. On the Algae business, so today, the primary focus is to replace wild fish oil by our sustainable solution. If you consider the global market for wild fish oil, it's roughly about 1 million metric tons market. And we are primarily shooting for the salmon aquaculture specific market where this is 400,000 [tons out of this 1 million. So you can see this is a very wide market, pretty big, many, many opportunities. And it is primarily driven, of course, with cost/functionality, but also there is a major sustainability impact that we see becoming more and more relevant. Now we are still very early days because as you know, we want to prove that our business model was working and the first step is breakeven. But obviously, the intention is not to stop to breakeven. We have two initiatives going on. One is to enhance our product portfolio. The other is to, of course, improve further our yield. So last year, if you remember, we made a major step by increasing the yield massively with nearly breakthrough. And we have a second step probably in the course of basically late this year where we will have another step up in yield. That, I mean, again, should help us to then get into black territories on that business. The other thing we are looking at is to then open a totally new market, primarily until about pet nutrition where omega-3 brings a lot of functionality for pet nutrition, which is also much higher margin businesses than the aquaculture. Now the first thing we want to do is to get this business breakeven in black territory before thinking about any new plant there is still quite a lot of room of what we can do with minimized CapEx in Orindiuva, Brazil. So there is no plan to have a massive investment into group band. What we are doing right now, for instance, to really enhance this capacity and improve operational efficiencies is in the order of magnitude of EUR 15 million of fund for Algae. So I think maybe I would add on to Eddy on, let's say, your question is on, is EUR 200 million the norm. Eddy you can take this one.

Yes. So there is, by the way, a chart in the presentation as well. But clearly, this year, EUR 200 million to EUR 230 million is a rich investment year, I would say. Within that, more than half of that spend is related to the lactic acids capacity expenses we have going on as live projects in Corbion. So that's both the lactic acid new plant in Thailand based on very sustainable profile to technology, but also in other debottlenecking initiatives in other existing plants. So that, of course, really is -- especially the Thailand plant at its peak of CapEx in this year and that will not reoccur in '23. So I would say this is higher than what you can expect normal. But again, every so often, we have to make big investments in new plant also. New peaks could happen at a certain stage. But it's not in every year, this is a norm. Your second question is the funding financing for the PLA -- add a second PLA plant in the joint venture. What we stated on earlier occasions is the JV intents and tries to get as maximum funding on its own both from its own cash flow generation capacity, but also by having external loans in the JV. We have to see when we come to the final setup, whether still a surge contribution has to be coming from the two partners at Total energies and ourselves. So it's a bit too early to say that, but I do expect, and that's our assumption that the far majority of that investment will be funded by the JV as such.

Just an addition Sebastian to the other question on the lactic acid in European footprint. The intent from the start is to supply this in the early years the PLA 2 from the current network. So -- and then we said, okay, that we were considering and we are considering eventually a new lactic acid plant in Europe at one point in time, but this decision has not been taken yet. And actually -- so we would have already some capacity available in the network to supply the PLA 2 plant in the early years. Now of course, we would had to have a better visibility before taking such a commitment, primarily, if you see the global environment on the steel price, engineering costs and so on. So -- but that was the plan from the start. So that's not an initial one full and midterm.

That's helpful. Just a quick final one. Could you remind me of the covenant level, excluding the subordinated loan? Is it 3.5x net debt to EBITDA?

No, this is 3.75.

[Operator Instructions] We now have a question from Robert Vos from ABN AMRO.

Yes. Three from my end. I have another question on capital expenditure. It seems the EUR 200 million to EUR 230 million guidance is a bit higher than I had expected and what I saw also the average expectation was a bit lower than that. Is that timing? You have explained pretty much the building blocks, but is that timing? Or do you see -- do you also see inflation in investments going forward? And related to that, can you update us on the expected costs for the construction of the plant in -- the PLA plant in France. My second question, that's about noncore. EBITDA in Q4, it decreased materially. Of course, also there, higher cost -- input costs, soybean oil, I guess, but if I'm not mistaken, you already started quite early in noncore to increase prices, and that continued in Q1 -- sorry, Q4 with almost 10% pricing. So what can you add to the explanation why the EBITDA moved close to 0 actually at EUR 1.5 million in Q4. And then my third question is also on pricing. In the comments on the PLA joint venture, you said that EBITDA margins are a bit lower because of higher input costs, higher freight costs, et cetera. However, I understood that due to the scarcity in supply and the strong demand, you could relatively easy pass on higher cost, maybe real-time cost increases are possible there. So maybe you can add some color there as well. Why did you suffer, to some extent, from higher cost? Does it mean that you have not been able to pass on higher cost in your pricing?

Yes. So Eddy, maybe you take the CapEx, I can also elaborate on the noncore later.

Yes. So on the CapEx, so again, the [ 200 to 230 ] is really reflecting the peak of the lactic acid capacity expansion, especially in Thailand. So that is a big contributor there, but also investments that Olivier has been covering in the Algae business in Brazil and the natural ferment in the U.S. Also, those are very nice expansion investments really to cater for the growth in the business. So those are all components that are in this CapEx program for this year. Inflation, yes, absolutely, that is a factor. And you see that basically in all the CapEx projects that we have going on, think about higher steel prices, delays of COVID that is always creating inefficiencies. We have given, by the way, an update to the market on the Thailand plant, what the impact was on that project only in itself. So that's also a component in these higher CapEx outlets, maybe than not what you were expecting. .

Can you give similar update on the plant in France. Is there also some higher costs involved there?

I think definitely. But I think, again, we are not in a position to disclose any, of course, a precise number there. But definitely, we are scrutinizing anything indeed that is impacting the level of investment in any of the CapEx actually. It's valid for PLA 2 right now. If you think about indeed, what's happening in the wider market, it's probably the worst time to -- if you think to invest in new projects. So the projects that are well engaged like plant in Thailand, [indiscernible], we are already 2/3 completed. So there is no way back there, but we are heavily scrutinizing any new type of greenfield as we speak because what's going on outside. It's not the right moment. It's probably the worst moment to build a greenfield operation. So that is, again, the things we are questioning anyhow constantly when it comes to new stuff. And this is why you have mentioned debottlenecking our charge is always positive because the cost to produce 1,000 tonnes of lactic acid on an existing current facility versus the greenfield is much more efficient. And our priority has been to indeed try to get the last 10%, 20% in each of the plants within the network before making decisions to have any greenfield anywhere. And that's the same reasoning we have on Algae, the same reasoning we have in the food for as well. And I think we're going to continue to do so as we don't have better visibility on these markets. On the noncore question, indeed, you're right, it's deteriorated materially in Q4. There are a number of reasons on that. And the thing is the whole triggering on basically our fee input costs for that business, we are buying vegetable oils. Yes, so soybean oils, canola oil and the whole thing started with the major pickup in biodiesel in the U.S. following the U.S. fuel mandate where suddenly all the crushing capacities in the U.S. have been diverted actually from food to nonfood to biodiesel, and this has created a huge disruption in the U.S. market in the [indiscernible] prices in the course of last year. What happened in Q4 that I think purchase in that business is that we have a few suppliers and major suppliers that did declare force majeure, although we had established contracts that were unable to supply and we had to continue operations by sourcing from older ones at much elevated cost, but we had to do so not to initiate our own customers down. Now obviously, there is ongoing negotiation with the suppliers in getting this volume back this year and the price we contracted earlier because these were at a favorable hedged price. So this is in the players, but this is the major reason why you've seen that. On this business, as in the core, basically, we stay very short. And we've been able to really successfully pass through so far. And there is more to come because what you can see happening with the Ukraine crisis. When primary [indiscernible] was speaking into $0.66, I mean, it was softening a little bit and now it's back up to the previous level in the any way. So there is, for sure, a second big pricing action we have already kicked in for April 1 in that business, top on what's happening in Europe. I think on your last question on the higher cost and how much you can pass through. You know to be back to -- if you look to the order of magnitude, as Eddy mentioned in the quarter, you also see that the EUR 165 million, you have to see that this applies on the procurement bill of 400 pre-COVID, yes. So -- and at that time, EUR 940 million sales on core, this is unprecedented and massive. So actually, we can always still do more. But at one point, the order of magnitude, when you go to some products you know with the 20%, 30%, 40% price increase, which is what will happen in terms of negotiation across Q3 and Q4. This is the order of magnitude that we have to pass through. And we're very happy that we've been successful into that. And knowing that there is more to come. Now with an oil price at $100 there is for sure, I mean more to come. Now the other thing that is important to mention and that is I'm sure you see that and read that many times on the supply chain disruption, you know the timing is shifting now that the most important is to secure availability more than price in many fronts. And actually, we see that with our customers in the negotiation, the customers are as worried as volume availability that Corbion can be a reliable supplier going forward and allocate volume and pricing. And we see the same with our suppliers. In these days, one of the things we are working on is, of course, you try to -- not to pay the max price and to negotiate as best as you can. But the big driver is making sure we have security of supply in this space. We've seen that not just in raw materials and fixed cost, but also in securing freight lines, containers. And you have to make sure that, yes, you have the freight and the container secured. This is, again, also a very volatile, let's say, area where, as you know, I mean, there is a shortage of 80,000 truck drivers in the U.S. right now. So just getting truck in the U.S. today is a daily challenge. So far we've been coping and navigating through that. I think we have a good organization in the place. We've been able to serve our customers. But yes, it's an ever, ever seen dense situation. We've never seen in the history. Anyhow so, we can't open to be able to really be very close and much closer to the board in terms of increasing prices. If you remember, last year, we told you that we were annually contracted for 2/3 of our business. This year, this is not the case anymore. We stay very short because yes, we went through a desorption to go to maybe a second round, the third or fourth round, whenever is going to be required for us to add a margin recovery.

Mr. Rigaud, there are no more questions. Please continue with any points you wish to raise.

I'd like to thank everyone for attending our call. And yes, we give rendezvous to everyone for our next quarterly results. Thank you very much. Have a good day.

Thank you. This concludes the Corbion Full Year Results 2021 Analyst Call on the 25th of February 2022. Thank you for listening. You may now disconnect.