Grupa Azoty S.A. (ATT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Foreign Language] Please go ahead.

Welcome to the presentation which will summarize the 2020 at our group. Grupa Azoty recorded a consolidated revenue from sales at PLN 10.5 billion and a solid EBITDA at PLN 1.3 billion with EBITDA margin at 10.6% (sic) [ 12.6% ]. Net profit in 2020 came in at PLN 355 million, down year-on-year. However, we should stress that it has been a record-breaking year in terms of revenue and I'm speaking about 2019. Due to pandemic crisis, 2020 turn out to be better than expected and recorded a lower performance year-on-year. However, it was still in line with our expectations. I will discuss it in more detail later on during the presentation. I'd like to, first of all, present the Management Board of the Capital Group, starting with Mr. Tomasz Hinc, President of the Management Board; Mr. Witold Szczypinski, Vice President of Management Board as well as Director General of Grupa Azoty [ Tarnów ]; Mr. Mariusz Grab, Vice President of the Management Board; Mr. Filip Grzegorczyk, Vice Present of the Management Board, who joined us on 15th of December last year; Mr. Grzegorz Kadzielawski, Vice President of the Management Board; and a Member of the Management Board, Mr. Artur Kopec; and myself, speaking to you, Tomasz Hryniewicz, Vice President of the Management Board as well as the President of the Management Board of Group of Pulawy. Major events and development of 2020 includes, first of all -- will include, first of all, the fact and overall comment that we have finalized at the beginning of this year, last year's negotiations with the Malopolska Region's authorities on the agreement to cooperate closely to advance air and climate protection goals, and our undertaking was to reach climate neutrality in our production units as well as our activities conducted in the Malopolska Region. This will include a far-ranging work in order to protect the climate as well as creating a wider potential for renewable energy sources, which will be masked as well as a network of ECO advisers on climate issues as well as the activities taken to promote an improved energy efficiency of our units. We will strive to achieve this climate neutrality and also circular energy targets at the same time, trying and striving to improve the efficiency of our production units, for instance, in terms of granulation unit at Pulawy for ammonium nitrate. In order to meet the expectations of our shareholders and stakeholders as well, we have introduced advanced production processes and advanced products, classified in line with our classified part of the so-called Green Chemistry, the directions which we are pursuing. We have also intensified our activities in order to deliver goals in line with the European Green Deal objectives, including Fosfarm production line, which are modern and environmentally friendly NPK fertilizers, which provides nutrients in a rational way and efficient at the same time, as I said, is in line with the requirements of the European Green Deal. And we also revamped our presentation of our products and also across the group, we have revamped our approach to sales of fertilizers. The Fosfarm line is a line of compound fertilizers, which will be manufactured in line with the rules of both circular economy and also sustainable development. They are enriched with calcium, magnesium and sulfur and also macronutrients, such as copper and zinc. And calcium magnesium and micronutrients come entirely from regenerative sources. We have also cooperated with a -- cooperation with Gdanskie Zaklady Nawozów Fosforowych Fosfory, which was rebranded into Grupa Azoty Fosfory. The same applies to a company in Chorzów. Therefore, we will be maximizing the benefits of the strong brand and the brand potential of Grupa Azoty. In order to meet the NEC Directive to reduce ammonia emissions into the atmosphere, we have introduced a new product, Pulrea+NIu (sic) [ Pulrea+INu ]. This is urea containing inhibitor in order to meet the requirements, lay down the directive to reduce ammonia emissions into the atmosphere, and there's a necessity to implement that directive into the Polish legislation, which is also in line with the European Green Deal and compliant with its requirements and targets. Those products will allow us to reduce our emissions into the atmosphere and the application of urea containing an inhibitor, as we have mentioned previously, will be a requirement in Poland as of August 1, 2021. But this product that has already been offered at Grupa Azoty for several months now. This is a result of our NEC corporation between [indiscernible] and Tarnów and also our subsidiary, Grupa Azoty Chorzów. Together, obviously, with the key companies of the group, [ Kedzierzyn ], Pulawy and Police and customers of this product. So a part of this technology was taken over from Compo Expert, our subsidiary, which is yet another example of intra-group synergies. Other major developments in 2020. Grupa Azoty support farmers and soil testing using scanners -- soil scanners, Agrocares. Using those scanners, we can perform quick soil analysis for farmers all around Poland. And based on positive experience with this technology, all group representatives working with farmers across the country will be equipped with such soil scanners as of this year. Thanks to those scanners, the resulting soil analysis report will be available on to -- over to the farmer's telephone within just minutes after the test. And therefore, the farmer will receive precise recommendations regarding mineral requirements for each part of the farmer's plan. As a result, the farmer can immediately take action in order to appropriately -- apply appropriately selected Grupa Azoty Group fertilizers with a specific nutrients, with Agro technical tool in -- together with specific software, they'll be able to control the fertilization of their crops. And obviously, this will result in better quality of crops and also better crop protection. This is also a response to the requirements of the European Green Deal, which will call for revamping of the economies in terms of agriculture into more pro-ecological economy. Grupa Azoty also started the commission and pre-commissioning of the facility for the production of ammonium nitrate-based granulated fertilizers and the capacity of the 2 new lines is approximately 2,600 tonnes per day, which is 820,000 tonnes per year. This is the total capacity. This will meet the requirement from large agricultural farms -- agricultural producers. The budget was at PLN 340 million (sic) [ PLN 430 million ] and the production line for ammonium nitrate-based granulated fertilizers and for ammonium nitrate and calcium ammonia nitrate will have the production capacities of 1,200 tonnes and 1,400 tonnes, respectively. Applying granulated fertilizers will improve the efficiency, especially for large area farms, which translates directly into the carbon footprint. These type of products is also preferred by our foreign consumers and customers and also the demand for such fertilizers is expected to grow continually in Poland as well. Grupa Azoty continuously and actively has partners, still partners with the Lukasiewicz Network, and we are proud to say that we have joined the Lukasiewicz Index, which aims to promote listed companies, engaging and devoted to R&D activities. And the index includes listed companies of the Warsaw Stock Exchange of the -- both the regulated and alternative markets, new connect market, which cooperates with the Lukasiewicz R&D Network. The list was announced in April 12 this year, but the index quotations have been published every day, and one of the requirements to join the index was to cooperate with the network as of April 1, 2019, up to the 31st of January 2021, and we have met that condition because we have cooperated -- we have partnered with the Lukasiewicz Network since its very inception. The next slide presents and discusses the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Our measures have been commented or our performance has been commented for months because the pandemic period has been the period of special mobilization of our activities. We were best decision-makers to take care of health and safety of our employees and our stakeholders. As a socially responsible company, we want to be a major support for local community as well. We have donated as a group in general in 2020, more than 4 million -- PLN 4.2 million, which was donated to the institutions and to measures fighting the pandemic. Obviously, in close partnership and cooperation with the Ministry of Health and also the Ministry of State Assets, which coordinates those efforts, and I would like to extend my gratitude to this very great -- this good cooperation is a very fruitful cooperation and the approach of both ministries, thanks to which we were be able to reach all those in need in terms of the fight with the pandemic like the -- like hospitals and other medical centers. These were both monetary and in kind donations, including specialist medical equipment and medicines and also the supply of -- the transport of the patients to hospitals as well as the supplies. Grupa Azoty Group companies are also actively employing the available technologies in order to produce those products, which will minimize the risk of spread of an infection. We have also rented or made available vehicles to transport both samples and also the medical personnel. We have also made available containers in order to take samples. So there's been a lot of measures that we have taken in order to proactively combat the persistent COVID-19 pandemic. Moving on to our ESG measures and activities. These are concrete figures, including the highlights. For instance, a 10% reduction of the requirement in the demand for energy generation fuels. Grupa Azoty took a number of actions in order to improve our production processes energy efficiency. And thanks to that, we have reported a major decline in the consumption of energy generation fuels. For instance, by updating and improving our production processes, replacing our current units and facilities with more energy-friendly and energy-efficient ones, which translates directly in the reduction of also CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. Grupa Azoty takes great care in order to meet all the legal requirements and norms in terms of emissions, and we are doing our best continuously to adopt our installations and facilities to those standards, taking great care as well in order to meet all the norms of atmosphere protection against emissions. We have also saw -- we have also seen other positive impacts on the environment in terms of the emission of nitrous oxide going down 20% year-on-year as well as CO2 going down more than 17% versus 2019 as well as a 5% reduction of overall waste volumes. Same applies to PM2.5 emissions. Moving on to Polimery Police projects, a historical investment in terms of -- for both Azoty -- Grupa Azoty as and Polish economy. Hyundai, Our general Contractor, reported at the turn of February and March that the projects came at its halfway point, that it's reached a 50% stage of completion. This is great news for us. We are halfway through, and we are talking about all the processes, including procurement, engineering, construction, transfer as well as the deliveries and supply of apparatus and equipment, and we have successively and consistently received those deliveries at the construction side, starting -- including reactors to produce polypropylene. As I said, in general, all these activities came at a halfway point, a 50% stage of completion already. In terms of major milestones of the Polimery Police project on January 7, we had a formal handover of the construction site to the general contract Polimery Police. On September 29, 2020, we have received -- we received the last 2020 (sic) [ 22 ] building permits. This is a major scale of the project. This proves the major sale of that project only by looking at the number of the building permits we needed to receive. On October 9, 2020, we had to sign -- due to the pandemic, we had to sign execution -- we had to sign the amendment to the EPC contract, providing among other things for a EUR 30.2 (sic) [ EUR 33.2 million ] increase in the contractor's fee and also a 3-month extension of the timescale of project. However, as a whole, the value of the project, the entire amount of the project should be in line with our expectations and the budget. On May 31st, 2020, we executed an investment agreement between Grupa Azoty S.A., Grupa Azoty Zaklady Chemiczne Police S.A., Grupa Azoty Polyolefins, Grupa LOTOS S.A., Hyundai Engineering as well as KIND, and a consortium and syndicated or a syndicate of banks. On this slide, you will see the amount of the term loans and other facilities. The syndicate includes a number of banks, and these are also listed on the slide. On November 16, 2020, the District or Regional Court -- the District Court signed -- recorded an increase of our capital. As a result, Grupa Azoty Police S.A. shareholding structure is Grupa Azoty Police S.A. has 34.4% of our shares -- of the shares, Grupa Azoty S.A. holds 30% and LOTOS and HEC and KIND hold 17%, around 17% both. The next slide -- the next couple of slides presents a couple of pictures showing the progress of the Polimery Police project. Moving on to the next part of our presentation, Green Chemistry. We have selected a number of projects, flagship projects, for instance, the Blue hydrogen project at Police S.A. because nitrogen -- hydrogen will be a side product of the production of propylene. Therefore, we'll be able to reduce our CO2 emissions from the ammonia unit installations and also use the byproduct. Therefore, we'll be able to direct the stream of hydrogen from PDH to ammonia and Police S.A. The Blue hydrogen is based on conventional energy sourcing. However, it reduces the emissions in terms of CO2 initiatives through the use of hydrogen from directed -- redirected from other processes and also reduction of gas usage. As a result, we will be able to reduce our emissions and also utilize byproducts. The H2 product, which is dedicated to the automotive industry is another flagship project as far as these projects and laboratory of Kedzierzyn. We are developing alternative fuels and also analytical methods in order to analyze dedicated hydrogen for the automotive business. This project is in focus as well. Humic acids in -- this project involves the development of technologies for the production of humic substances, improving the quality and productivity of soil. And in 2021, we plan to launch those products, humic acids, in the market in order to increase the efficiency of the selected fertilizers produced by Grupa Azoty. The pilot production plant will be launched in the second quarter of 2021. Urease and nitrification inhibitors projects carried out by Grupa Azoty Chorzów, which is our subsidiary in line with the NEC Directive as of August 2021 will be -- there will be a ban on the use of urea -- of this particular chemical substance. So we'll be ready to meet those requirements within the timescale provided. The phosphorus and potassium fertilizers based on biomass. This project includes the use of biomass-derived raw materials in our fertilizers thereby using byproducts containing phosphorus and potassium and this project will be launched in 2021 as well. We also have micronutrients in fertilizers and other projects. Another project, which will involve the use of micronutrients such as copper and phosphorus -- copper, zinc and boron and the use of waste-derived raw materials, thereby expanding our fertilizer portfolio and expanding our footprint on new markets. Those additives will be also used in forest areas and they will be based on waste and waste-derived products -- they will be waste-derived products. Obviously plastics recycling is another project based on polyamide and Grupa Azoty as a company that introduces polyamide into the production of packaging will be able to partially meet the requirement for the plastic -- for plastic recycling. As I said, partially, the project awaits the investment decision, which I believe will take place shortly in a couple of days to come. Biodegradable plastics, the goal of the project is to develop the technology of biodegradable plastics at Chorzów. We have had a number of successful trials and the launch is expected to take place in 2021 as well. The carbon footprint, the next -- the carbon footprint production is the next project. And also the last -- but last but not least, we have another project, waste to fuel process based on polyolefins and coal sludge to produce energy generation fuels in order to manage our waste and consistently reduce CO2 emissions, which is our major goal and overriding goal in every single process across the group. This project is awaiting. This project is in progress. Sequestration is another project, which will provide -- which will enable us to introduce the CO2 stream from the ammonia plant to the depleted natural gas deposits and there are pilot projects from our ammonia plant. The depleted natural gas deposits are located in Police. The timeline for this project is 2 to 4 years to come. Right now, the deposits are being analyzed and examined in order to assess the feasibility of the introduction of the CO2 stream to the depleted natural gas deposits. We expect that this project will allow us to reduce CO2 emissions in the production of ammonia by about 60%. Catalysts is another project, and there's more, obviously, which I could discuss. But now I'd like to move on to our consolidated financial results and facts -- and the facts and figures in terms of our financials. 2020 was the pandemic year, and this situation puts a lot of challenges ahead of us. However, I believe that Grupa Azoty as a group managed to reach solid, very solid consolidated results. All major group companies have reported positive results. This is a proof that our measures taken in the context of the pandemic allowed us to meet those challenges. Those challenges of this new unprecedented situation. And in our opinion, and in the opinion of the management Board, the measures that we have taken, the [indiscernible] measures that we have taken, will minimize the impact, the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which could affect to the continue of operations to the Grupa Azoty Group remaining a functioning and going concern. As you can see, the -- as you can see on this slide, our results were quite solid. And especially in terms of net profit, both for the parent company and also Pulawy, Police and Compo Expert was higher in comparison with in 2019. The same applies to quarter 4 of 2020. As you can see, our major companies closed the last quarter of the year with solid and positive results. And the end of the year was a period that brought a lot of concerns to us because the scale of the pandemic went up again after a slowdown a quarter before. However, it's turned out that quarter 4 was pretty solid for us. And we have managed to show a net profit, as you can see in the last column for every major company across the group. Our products are sold around the world. The major market, obviously -- is obviously Europe. For logistics reasons, around 50% of our sales is located in Poland, followed by European Union countries and other European countries, thanks to the acquisition of Grupa -- the Compo Group and also the synergies upon -- on consolidation. We are also present around the world in other continents. In summary, we sold 50% of our products -- Agro products in Poland, 50% in general. However, in plastics, the majority of our sales came from other European -- the other countries, foreign countries. This slide presents our standing versus the competitors. As I said, the revival of the fourth quarter of 2020 allowed us to increase our consolidated revenue by 4% versus the previous quarter (sic) [ year ]. Combined with the support that we received in terms of both compensation and also remedial measures. It allowed us to increase our EBITDA by nearly 50% -- 48% versus previous year -- versus quarter 4 previous year. I will discuss it in more detail in the slides to come. I have received a lot of questions concerning this matter. Therefore, I will be answering your questions from yesterday and today in the morning, and I will try to receive -- to answer them as I speak. Macroeconomic factors presented on the next slide. Polish economy rebounded quite nicely after a drop or a sharp decline in the economic activity due to the lockdown and the pandemic. According to the estimate of European Commission, GDP in real terms went up due to higher exports and also due to consumption from households and the economic -- and the trade balance. The last quarter of the year, unfortunately, was a major challenge as new infections went up sharply and limitation in economic activity had to be introduced again in order to contain the spread of the pandemic. This unfortunately muffled the economic activity, especially in certain businesses and sectors. As a result, fourth quarter of the year, unfortunately, showed a drop in GDP. Inflation in Poland in 2020 went up sharply or noticeably, especially due to higher prices of services and food. There was also a certain role played by the increase in administration fees, for instance for removal of waste, household waste and industrial waste and also prices of energy. Moving on to effect -- an impact of the pandemic on the chemicals industry by segment. The COVID-19 pandemic had no significant impact on our assumptions in terms of the production and a contract-based sales in the Agro segment, which turned out to be the most resilient segment for -- in the very difficult period of the pandemic. Obviously, we had certain impacts due to, for instance, closing of the borders. This was a major -- or this was a challenge for us in terms of our logistics. However, those restrictions and limitations were pretty local and the same applied to quarter 4, not only to the entire year 2020. On the other hand, the prices of major crops went up by around 15% to 20% year-on-year. The production of plastics on the other hand is directly connected to electro and automotive segments. And these were the segments that were mostly affected by the pandemic with a number of plants closed down. The restrictions introduced in 2020 resulted in reductions of both demand for and prices of caprolactam and polyamide. In March 2020, we had first need that production units can be -- could be closedown across all the entire value chain for plastics production. A major drop year-on-year was reported in the second quarter, obviously. After the traditional slowdown in the summer months, we saw a rebound and revival in economic activity. The situation in the plastics business up or improved. And the last month of 2020 brought a continuing revival and increase in demand. Therefore, we are cautiously optimistic looking at 2021 and the quarters to come. Our situation in the plastics business, unfortunately, continues to be affected by the general difficult economic situation all around the world and the countries which are main markets, this will depend on are continuing measures to contain the spread of the infectious disease, COVID-19, but as I said, we remain to be cautiously optimisticin this area. Melamine produced at Pulawy in the early stages of the pandemic. We saw a drop in demand. Obviously, this has an affect on prices as well. But at the same time, global producers were seem to also reduce the supply, especially in China and in Southern Europe. However, we saw an improvement in May already. And as far as 2021 is concerned, we are hoping to see an increase in melamine prices driven by high demand. And this will also translate into the expected rebound in margins as well after the very difficult year 2020. For OXO alcohols, we can say that in April 2020, there was a reduction of the prices, which is a downward trend for polypropylene and also lower demand due to the pandemic and its impact on the company. We also -- there were also logistic problems related to timeline -- timeliness of the supplies to the European market, especially from Asia. After December shutdowns for overhauls, the demand started to go up gradually. And the improvement of the market situation supports a positive outlook for 2020 as a whole. However, titanium white was a segment that was impacted. Mr. Kadziolka will probably discuss it in more detail. At the very beginning of the pandemic, there was a slump no large slump, but the second part of the year and second half of the year saw a rebound and even a very high demand as for this time of the year, higher than expected. So all in all, throughout the year and the scale of the entire year, titanium white was not impacted as much as expected at the beginning of that difficult year. But the factor about the impact of the fundamental factors was increased or deteriorated by the fact that we have a pandemic, especially in terms of the requirement for energy and also the prices as well as CO2 emission allowances and oversupply of gas on the other hand, translated into historically lowest prices of gas, even below the breaking point in terms of its profitability. Unfortunately, the third quarter saw other effects, which is the lower demand for electricity. In the fourth quarter of the year we saw increased demand. As a result, quarter-to-quarter, prices went up. Due to the recorded declines in revenue, both the parent of Grupa Azoty S.A. and also other group companies, we decided to take steps and take advantage of the financial support mechanisms under the Act on Special Measures to Prevent COVID-19. That is the Anti-Crisis Shield 4.0, especially at the turn of the third and the fourth quarter of the year. In order to save jobs across the group, we decided to avail ourselves of the financial support. As a result, the support received through aid, PLN 45 million (sic) [ PLN 65 million ] in total, most of which we received in the third quarter and the rest in quarter 4. The next slide presents our revenue across the group. Revenue went down by 7%. However, the figure is still solid. The performance in both the revenue figure is still solid, especially in comparison with a record-breaking year of 2019. On the one hand, this is due to higher sales volumes in Agro Fertilizers and also high price specialty fertilizers, combined with a weaker demand from the markets where our chemical and plastics products are sold, which I mentioned before. The revenue generated -- net profit generated in the last quarter was in line with our expectations and throughout the year as well. And therefore, we believe that it is a solid figure in the very difficult challenging year of the pandemic. Our consolidated revenue went up year-on-year. And net profit stood at -- in the fourth quarter, and the net profit stood at PLN 92 million in comparison with a loss reported a year before in last quarter of 2019. Our consolidated EBITDA stood at PLN 1.3 billion. And the EBITDA margin was in -- keeping with the record-breaking margin of 2019, which we are very proud of. EBITDA margin stood at 12% in the fourth quarter, going up year-on-year. As you can see on this slide, major drivers of our EBITDA level was the stability in the Agro Fertilizers segment. As I already mentioned, this is the segment that fared best in the pandemic period. There was also a strong -- but there was, on the other hand, the strong impact of epidemic on the plastics segment. Other drivers include the low price of natural gas and obviously, the Anti-Crisis Shield as well as compensation for the increase of electricity prices, we'll discuss it more -- in more detail in the slides to come. EBITDA bridge versus 2019, the major negative impact was due to the lower prices. We -- and also the cost of CO2. However, it was offset by a change in volumes, a reduction in costs and also the compensation and financial support received under the Anti-Crisis Shield. EBITDA was impacted more by those factors in terms of higher prices of feedstock. However, lower prices of other feedstocks had a positive impact on our EBITDA, especially in terms of benzene and phenol, propylene, and the major negative price was due to the prices of energy and coal. In the fourth quarter, there was a positive impact of changes in volumes versus first quarter of 2019. And obviously, compensation also under the Anti-Crisis Shield. Negative drivers of our EBITDA was due to the decrease in natural gas prices and lower feedstock prices and also lower prices of main products had a positive effect on EBITDA in the fourth quarter of the year. Other operational activities was the -- are the the write-downs reported in Chorzów and [indiscernible]. Your questions concern -- the number of your questions concern the details on the compensation that we have received. Therefore, we are showing this slide, which presents our compensation received and recognized in 2020, broken down into individual companies. Parent companies Grupa Azoty Pulawy and Kedzierzyn received a decision from the Energy Regulatory Office to award compensation for 2020 for energy under the compensation scheme for energy-intensive sectors and subsectors. And as a result, we recognized those amounts at PLN 85 million in other revenues, other operating revenue. And also reduction of energy use costs. You will see the exact amount of compensation received. In total, we received PLN 130 million (sic) [ PLN 133 million ]. As a result, we reported PLN 218 million. By segment, you will see that the compensation was received mainly by Agro Fertilizers segment, 65%; chemicals, 25%; and plastics at 10%. In the third -- in the fourth quarter of the year, the compensation was recognized as follows: PLN 10 million for Grupa Azoty S.A., Grupa Azoty Pulawy PLN 37 million plus Police, PLN 6 million; Zak -- Grupa Azoty ZAK, PLN 13 million. All in all, we received PLN 70 million for the fourth quarter. This was a multi aspect, a multi-stage process. We need to analyze our economic indicators and also technical parameters that is the consumption of energy in individual areas, the prices of energy and also the assumptions in terms of how we can -- which amounts we can compensate for. We have estimated those amounts in our financial statements, preliminary, and then it was verified and reviewed by the auditor, BDO, also in the context of our assumptions for the year, and those amounts have been reviewed and verified. We presented those announced and our preliminary amounts and also the estimated performance. I'd like to thank our auditors for this hard work. And a very smooth cooperation in that area, we up slide for compensation within the prescribed time limit, and we are waiting for our agency decision by the Energy Regulatory Office by September -- by the third quarter of 2021. All our liabilities under credit facilities loans are met on a timely basis, and there is no threat that we will exceed those time limits. We have umbrella credit facilities combined with real cash flowing, both from euro and in PLN. And also a multipurpose facility, which is managed by the parent company depending on the demand for funds across the group. So we are moving and transferring those limits, depending on what is needed across the entire group. We also have free limit and multipurpose facilities and also other types of facilities. Our financial standing is solid, there are no major threats or risks that this standing will be -- will deteriorate in the future. We are meeting the covenants under our loan agreement with facility -- credit facility agreements in order to meet any higher demand. Our net debt at the end of 2020 stood at a PLN 2.6 billion. And net debt-to-EBITDA was at [ 2.1 ] in 2020. Moving on to our investments and CapEx projects Grupa Azoty will continue and continues to loan -- the investments we started in previous years. Our main CapEx projects include, obviously, Polyolefins project, we have discussed before, with share in that structure accounts for about or more than 50%. Obviously, construction of an energy unit at Pulawy, and construction of new unit for the production of nitric acid and granulated fertilizers. I will discuss it in more detail when we discuss the situation of Pulawy, and also, the new energy project at [indiscernible]. We're also delivering our mandatory CapEx. And the CapEx for 2021 is planned at PLN 3.7 billion, mainly based on, at that stage of work at Polimery Police. We have -- not only continuing our very ambitious projects, but we're also planning new CapEx projects as we are well able to finance new projects as well with our long-term credit facilities and credit lines, and therefore, a risk that we will not deliver the plan, investment is very low. And pro environmental investments are reviewed across the group. And in terms of the feasibility of acquisition of preferential nonbank credit sources of funds, such as the European Banks or the national support programs. The planned CapEx for 2021 also includes the spending on Polimery Police projects in line with the time line of that project. You also asked about the details of our CapEx for 2021. PLN 1.8 million for the Polimery Police project and for other companies as well, around PLN 200 million in other companies -- group companies. And the structure of feedstock costs is presented on the next slide. That structure remains the same versus the previous year. As you were well aware, gas is the main feedstock, representing 20 -- more than 20% of consumption of feedstock across the group, followed by energy, coal, potassium salt, potassium chloride, phospate rock and propylene and other, which includes feedstocks, accounting for less than 2%, such as dolomite rock, ilmenite or titanium slag, [ Pack-G ] packaging. We are also showing a detailed breakdown for each company on that slide. As far as gas is concerned, total gas consumption in 2020 was at 23.2 terawatt hours, most of which was consumed by -- was delivered from [indiscernible], and obviously, most of it was consumed by Grupa Azoty. Pulawy at 10.8 terawatt hour, the gas consumption in 2020 went up across the group. As our facilities, for instance, in Police went back to normal in terms of production, we saw the lowest -- historically lowest prices of gas especially in Germany. And also the lowest average annual price, going down by 1/3 versus 2019. The record high stocks of gas, obviously, due to warm winter and the lockdown period was also reported in 2020. Especially due to the fact that supply from Russia through Ukraine could be put on hold. As a result, we met our targets by 55% -- 54%, which put a lot of pressure. And also, we saw a lower demand for LNG, which translated into higher supply of energy -- of LNG to Europe. The competition between LNG and pipeline supply dropped down prices below the level of variable costs even for Russia for deliveries in -- from Russia. Obviously, the production was reduced, especially for the U.S.A. by more than half, especially in the beginning of the year, remaining low in Europe in the fourth quarter. Moving on to CO2 prices. As you probably know, we saw a lot of dynamics in emission allowances prices, which is shown on the chart. However, Grupa Azoty is taking measures on an ongoing basis to lower and reduce the impact of those variable prices on our performance through ongoing monitoring of the market and also by purchasing our emission allowances on other markets, good or favorable market conditions for methane in order to balance the risks of those prices on our performance, especially in terms of term purchases for Q2 reporting period. The next slide slide presents energy commodities and electricity prices and coal prices and the current rise in the prices of fuels and also new emissions. The electricity prices is going -- are going to the level reported in 2018, and the contracts we have secured will secure the required volumes in terms of electricity, and we are awaiting for the national regulations on the level of relief for the charges incurred as of the 1st of January 2021. As for hard coal prices, 2020 saw rise in prices, and we are expecting to -- those prices to remain at the last quoted level. There is a surplus on the Polish market, both on the part of the producers and also customers. We have long-term contracts securing the required volumes of hard cold, and they'll also guarantee continuing or continuous deliveries as needed across the group. Moving on to individual segments. You can see a pie chart showing the percentages. Our major business is the Agro Fertilizers business, which is obviously no surprise with the share and revenue in 2020 at more than 46%. And the acquisition of Compo Fertilizers reinforced our presence in that segment with a 15% share. Plastics went down by 2 percentage points versus 2019, which we believe that it's still a slight drop in the very difficult pandemic year. In the revenue in the Fertilizers segment in 2020 stood at PLN 6.3 billion versus PLN 6.7 billion a year before, with EBITDA margin at well, 12.9% versus a slightly higher margin a year before at 14.4%. Those results show that the pandemic did not have a major negative effect neither for volumes or revenue, going up year-on-year and a stable demand made us focus more on local lockdowns and the logistics of our deliveries, and despite an increase in the price -- sale and the prices of gas year-on-year, it was also a major driver. However, overall, we were able to remain very profitable in terms of our business, one exception is specialist fertilizers at Compo Experts. Moving on to the Chemicals segment. Pigments played a major role with EBITDA margin at -- in the fourth quarter at around 50%, versus 10% a year before in the fourth quarter of 2019. OXO alcohols went up year-on-year, and also quarter-on-quarter by PLN 17 million versus a loss reported in the fourth quarter of 2019, mainly due to higher decline of polypropylene versus other product, growing up our performance to 9% of EBITDA margin. Across the year, Pigments show PLN 50 million in EBITDA with high EBITDA margin at around 14% versus around 12% last year. As a result, in general, the Chemicals segment fared well year-on-year. However, in terms of sulfur, we saw an impact, going down by PLN 14 million, but still, there is a progress versus the previous year. And melamine with EBITDA at minus PLN 60 million. In OXO alcohols, we saw major drops in the prices of oil. In [indiscernible], especially in the second quarter of the year and a lower demand for petrochemical feedstock due to limitations and restrictions across the world, affected the demand. The only area with a relatively high demand was the production of food packaging and also health protection products with demand starting to rise after the summer period. And as the injections -- vaccines programs started, the demand started to rebound. And also it was followed by higher demand across all the OXO alcohols segment as well. We will continue probably to see higher demand for plasticizers and the quotations in prices are expected to stabilize this year, combined with higher demand. Obviously, much will depend, as you know, on the situation in terms of the spread of the pandemic and obviously the limitations introduced in individual countries, which could affect both the demand and, in general, the economy in those countries. Titanium white, was also impacted by lower prices and consumption of gas and lower prices of other feedstocks, combined with higher sales volumes, going up by around 3%, and the problems to contain the spread of the pandemic made a lot of people to stay -- to remain at home, which allowed us to take overhauls and also paint our houses, which also drove the demand. In terms of the demand -- the demand for titanium white, the last part of the year proved to be a surprisingly good period for us. In terms of melamine, contract prices of melamine in the European market went down by nearly 9% year-on-year due to lower demand. In the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, we saw limited supply from major global producers, especially in, as I said, China and Southern Europe. Producers either stop or reduce production in those installations. And the customers reduce buy stocks, the interest in melamine in Europe went down by 35% in the first part of the year, first half of the year versus previous years. So slower demand were taken advantage of by, for instance, Chinese producers and they focused on overhauls and the major production facilities. They also tackled the problem of logistics, supplies, for instance, containers. And this also had an impact on this particular segment. Analysts believe that 2021 will see a rebound margins and prices as well as demand. Contract prices went up this year compared to the end of 2020, they went up by 15%. In terms of Plastics, there were signs of a slight rebound, especially benzene and phenol. They were translated into positive EBITDA year-on-year at 1%. For EBITDA margins still, it was quite low. And the impact was quite low. Therefore, we reported a solid EBITDA on the positive side at the end of 2020, the prices of our products went down by around 300 -- PLN 200 million, combined with the prices -- the decline in prices, which was lower, it translated into lower sales volumes going down by PLN [ 54 ] million, and therefore our EBITDA -- reported EBITDA was negative. Our main goal was to deliver supplies for the packaging business, and also to adjust our supply to the demand in other sectors, such as the slump in [indiscernible]. Just quick outlook for 2021, both for strategy and investments. As you are well aware, we are working on the strategy to include -- which will include the trend -- to expect the trend for the energy and the climate action, green deal as well as meeting the humanity's needs, especially in terms of food. In terms of investment, our investments in CapEx projects, as I said before, we are continuing our largest project Polimery Police, already at a point and in line with the time frame and the schedule, and also the CHP plant at Pulawy, and a number of other projects, which are progressing as planned, there is no major impact on those timelines nor the schedules by the pandemic. Moving on to individual group companies, Grupa Azoty Pulawy. Starting with Grupa Azoty Pulawy, the consolidated revenue for 2020 stood at PLN 3.206 billion. And in the fourth quarter of 2020, they stood at PLN 859 million, going up year-on-year by PLN 2.5 million, that is 0.3%. The consolidated net profit of the capital group stood at PLN 215 million. And in the fourth quarter of 2020, it stood at PLN 47 million. In the reporting period, we saw a decline in the prices of most of our products, both for the entire year and the fourth quarter, especially in terms of main fertilizers going down by 14%, 13% and going down by 9% quarter-on-quarter. And the same applies to melamine, melamine prices going down 16% and 8%, respectively. And for capital action prices going down 20% -- unfortunately, 20% and 11%, respectively. Our consolidated EBITDA stood at PLN 522 million and in the entire year and PLN 134 million in the fourth quarter, which was higher than in the fourth quarter of the record-breaking year of 2019. Obviously, this was due to low prices of gas and electricity going down by 20% year-on-year. And also electricity prices, which went up, was partly offset by compensation for energy-intensive sectors, as I have mentioned before. Those compensations for 2020 were estimated at PLN 73.3 million for the entire year. Also the financial support received under the anti-crisis shield of PLN 25.5 million, had a positive impact as well as the reversal of the impairment loss of our fixed assets for the cost generating units of Agro. So one, as result of the impairment test, the Agro segment for 12 month of the year, EBITDA of Agro segment went down year-on-year by around PLN 96 million, which was mainly due to the lower selling prices of our products. But as I said, Agro segment was especially stable -- was particularly stable and also resilient to the pandemic and its impact also due to -- or owing to a good situation in the Agro cultural business. And also the fact that the European Commission maintained or upheld the antidumping measures for feedstocks from Russia. Therefore, we saw higher sales volumes across all the portfolio of our Agro products. Other products, just melamine, and we have not seen reported lower results. For melamine, I believe that the impact of the lockdown of our economy was mostly visible in the beginning of the year. Some of our customers needed -- they had to stop the production. In the second part of the year -- in the second half of the year, it went up again. However, the prices will remain low. In 2020, our revenue from melamine sales went down by around 20% year-on-year. The same applies to revenue for RedNOx products is going down by 15%. Moving on to investment in CapEx projects. As I said, no interruptions were experienced across the group. Our CapEx projects progress plan of our CapEx investment is at about PLN 3 billion for our ongoing projects. The capital expenditure in 2020 was a record breaking PLN 824 million, mainly -- which was mainly spent on the construction of energy production units and also the nitric acid production unit as well as new nitric acid production units and neutralization units for production of new fertilizers based on nitric acid. The same applies to the granulated fertilizers production unit based on ammonium nitrate, which I've already discussed at the beginning of the presentation. And the last investment shown on this slide, on the slide, we need to mention that in July 2020, we started the commissioning, pre-commission of the first production line. As I said, it was attended by the Minister of State Assets, Jacek Sasin. We are planning to launch the sales of those products at the end of the year. We also launched the -- or commissioned the new steam boiler on our Siekierki Plant, which should improve the energy intensiveness of the plant and also reduce the emissions of nitric oxide. All in all, at Pulawy, we saw with most major impacts and major challenges, market challenges due to mainly the pandemic, which I have already discussed before. However, our flagship segment, fertilizer segment, has shown major resistance. Of course, we saw lower melamine and caprolactam output, but we also received support, financial support received under the anti-crisis shield in order not to release any employees, in order not to lose their jobs. Across the group, we also received additional compensation for energy-intensive sectors. Other major events of the year included the fact that despite all those challenges, the company and the group was not indifferent to a sharp decline of infections due to coronavirus. As I said, we spent major amounts across the group to fight the pandemic, more than PLN 1.1 billion, addressed to medical facilities and also to the production of feedstocks to produce disinfectants, which also drove down the infection rate. We also signed a deal with the national agency, to use the dry ice, our dry ice to protect transported vaccines for COVID-19. We are talking about the temperature of minus 79 degree Celsius, which is ensured by the dry ice, which was produced at Pulawy. We also consistently continued our R&D activities, especially as regards to the European Green Deal objectives. As I said, Grupa Azoty Tarnów, our subsidiary, and part of Grupa Azoty Pulawy intensified work on the new product that is urea with urease inhibitor as a response to the NEC directive, which makes us -- requires us to use urea with inhibitor as of the first of August 2021. At the turn of the year, Grupa Azoty Fosfory, our subsidiary, launched new, modern and environmental-friendly line of NPK fertilizers. Fosfarm is the name, and these are the fertilizers, which are produced in line with circular economy requirements. Thank you very much for listening. And now we'll give the floor over to Mr. Mariusz Kadziolka, Vice President of Management Board, of Grupa Azoty Group and Grupa Azoty Police Group.

Thank you very much. A very warm welcome from me as well. 2020 at Grupa Azoty Police is shown on the slides. And you'll see that our performance and our margins in terms of also net profit were positive despite the very difficult condition caused by the pandemic and the limitations that is brought with it. Both at the consolidated and separate level, we reported higher margins year-on-year, higher performance. And the key was to maintain the continuing trade logistics and production processes, taking into account the global pandemic and its impact. In 2020, we saw no limitations under -- of our operations due to the pandemic, both for the company and also across the group, nor any major impact on the key processes, even though our company also operates in foreign markets and import a lot of products from -- or the feedstocks from abroad. In terms of sales, we saw no major impact or major negative impacts on our sales, so in terms of our main products, and only a slight impact locally and temporarily, which was not significant. There was also no major impact on our employment and headcount. Of course, we took action to minimize the impact of the pandemic on our processes. Therefore, we did not use any anti-crisis shield support from the government, which is only a proof that -- which only proves our solid financial footing. The activities and measures taken by both the group and the company in this very difficult period was -- we're focused on the flagship project of Polimery Police and also investment projects in the company, also closely tied to that flagship Polimery Police Project. I'd like to mention again, this was stressed before, but I'd like to stress it again, that's the key project, the flagship project, Polimery Police is close financial -- in terms of financial terms, and we reached a 50% stage of completion, that is the half point of the project. Our consolidated net profit in 2020 stood at PLN 124 million, and the margin -- EBITDA margin at 5% compared to 2% a year before. In 2020, we saw consolidated revenue at more than PLN 2.428 billion on the period of the past year, 2 years, we see that this is a major solid position and performance, mainly due to the measurement of derivatives at PLN 26 million. Financing financial operations of polyolefins at PLN 36 million, which were the main drivers. You will see the details in the company's financial statements for 2020. The structure of sales remains the same or more or less the same throughout the year and for a lot of years with fertilizers at more than 80% and pigments at 20%. The consolidated EBITDA stood at PLN 80 million, going up by 19% year-on-year. As far as the company's separate EBITDA, it was also higher than a year before at around PLN 15 million. Our performance in 2020 was positively impacted by lower prices of feedstock, especially potassium chloride and gas, which was offset, negatively offset by the consequences of energy decline and the selling prices of our products versus 2019, which was in line with general market trends. Our performance was also impacted by higher volumes of sales of nitrogen projects -- product compensation for energy-intensive sectors and also reversals of a portion of impairment losses recognized in the previous years at PLN 13 million. Segments. So our performance of the group by segment. We have 2 major segments namely, fertilizers and pigments. In terms of fertilizers, the revenue in 2020 stood at nearly PLN 2 billion, which was slightly lower year-on-year. However, we saw an increase in the fourth quarter year-on-year going up by 9% to close to 509 -- PLN 503 million. Our EBITDA went down by 4% year-on-year. However, our EBITDA margin was flat when compared to 2019. In the fourth quarter, we saw a margin going up by 1% year-on-year. Our revenue, for the fertilizer segment was impacted by 2 simple trends, mainly lower of the average prices of the feedstocks, lower prices of gas and potassium chloride and higher sales of nitrogen fertilizers. Our performance was affected by the average drop -- the drop in average sales of our products, this is the market situation, but it was also combined by higher sales of our nitrogen products and lower prices of our main feedstocks, which offset that negative trend. And as a result, we generated the margin in the fertilizer segment, despite this very difficult to year and this very difficult macroeconomic condition, but it was similar to what we reported for Police. Pigment segment reported PLN 360 million in terms of the segment revenue, which was higher year-on-year with a major increase reported in the fourth quarter of the year versus the first quarter of the previous year, going up by 36% or 22 -- under PLN 23 million. Our EBITDA stood at PLN 72 million, going up by PLN 20 million versus 2019. And our result, our performance in the pigment segment is solid and relatively high. The pigment's performance was also impacted by the reversal of impairment losses. However, if we eliminate the effect of this reversal, which was about PLN 13 million, still, our EBITDA and our EBITDA margin would remain still higher than in the previous year. In 2020, we saw lower sales volumes for titanium white versus 2019 by 2.8%. But this was obviously due to a quick rebound of the Chinese economy after the pandemic. We saw -- in the second half of the year, we saw a major increase in terms of demand for titanium white, and starting from the fourth quarter of 2020, we saw a number of increases in prices also due to high cost of transport by sea and the imports of titanium white from that markets to Europe. Once down, we managed to increase our footprint on that market. We also saw a slight average decline in the prices of titanium white at 3.4%, still lower, but it was still lower than a decline in Europe, which stood at around 6%. All in all, we saw higher EBITDA margin in segments year-on-year, lower unit costs for the consumption of feedstocks, higher prices and amounts of our sulfur -- sulfate products and also the reversal of impairment losses, which had an impact on our pigments business. Our CapEx projects at Grupa Azoty Police. Our capital expenditures stood at more than PLN 1.6 billion, of which more than PLN 1.4 billion for growth projects in relation to the Polimery Police Project. This is a major project, obviously. But as I said before, we need to remember that we have other ongoing projects in the pipeline. For instance, modernization upgrade of our water treatment or pre-treatment unit. This investment will allow us to double our production capacity. Other projects include our upgrade of our main transforming station at Police to increase the amount of electricity which we can source from the network, from the grid, which we will use to the Polimery Police Project. We also have a new storage facility project, and the construction of 2nd urea production facility in order to meet the future demand from our customers. This particular investment project is almost finished at 95% of the stage of completion. 2020 also saw more and very intensive work to -- related to our flagship projects, Polimery Police, which is a flagship project, not only for Police, but also for the entire Grupa Azoty Group. As I said, we have reached the 50% point of completion. We are receiving apparatus and other equipment, which are needed to the construction of this project in also tanks, propylene tanks, and propylene splitters, and also the pipeline, both over and underground pipelines, pipe silos, landing silos, and 30 storage silos for polypropylene. We will, all in all, have 60 silos to store our end product. At the port, the Police port was future terminal will be located. We are finishing or finalizing assembly work for 2 storage tanks for propane and polyethylene. And also, we are finishing the roofing for those tanks and silos. We are also deepening the water track, which is also part of the Polimery Police Project. The milestones and the progress of work make us optimistic in terms of our outlook for next picture, but we're still continuously monitoring the situation. We want to be prepared for the worst, any scenarios. In 2020, we finalized the process of financing for the Polimery Police Project. On May 13, we signed major deals and agreements for investments with the consultation of syndicates of financing institutions. Grupa Lotos, Hyundai Engineering and Korean KIND, joined the group of our contractors and our facility agent, PEKAO S.A., confirmed that our pre-conditions have been met, conditions set have been met. And therefore, the financing process was completed. It wouldn't have been possible, if we hadn't been so consistent in terms of our steps that we have taken through the issue of shares, which was earmarked for this project. The key developments in 2020, as I said, included the following major development related to our flagship Polimery Police Project. You can see it for yourself on this slide, Slide #63. Grupa Azoty Police also joined the fight against COVID-19, and we spent PLN 1 million for this cause -- on this cause at the beginning of -- since the beginning of the pandemic. We have also partnered with the University of Szczecin, and the agreement covers, among other things, joint research and development projects and implementation of doctorates and internships for students, together with Grupa Azoty Polyolefins and Grupa Azoty Police service. We also signed an agreement with the Maritime University of Szczecin, all the parties declared their willingness to cooperate to create the course of studying to educate engineering and technical staff and implement scientific and R&D projects. The ISBnews agency awarded Grupa Azoty Police the category of the most reliable one in the chemical sector for the successful implementation of the Polimery Police Project. We also received a certificate for a company promoting blood giving or blood donoring, which is awarded by the Ministry of Health and the National Blood Centre. And last but not least, the Central Institute for Labour Protection - National Research Institute awarded Grupa Azoty Police with the gold card of safe work leader in 2021, 2022, recognizing our performance to improve labor safety and working conditions. To conclude, I'd like to thank, on behalf of the Management Board, Wojciech Wardacki, Tomasz Panas and myself, I'd like to thank all employees across Grupa Azoty Police group for their involvement and dedication in increasing the value of our group and enhancing its development. I would like to also thank all the members of the Supervisory Board for their involvement and dedication. Thank you very much.

I will now take this opportunity to answer a couple of questions. I have received some in the meantime. So in a nutshell, I will read them out and try to answer them. Grupa Azoty ZAK started the project PLN 123 million worth of projects in coal. This is a gas-based project. This technology is a gas-based technology and not coal technology. A question about Pulawy. Why the upgrade project was extended to 2028 even though the budget is already at 50%? The project was supposed to be closed until 2024 as a far I remember. We have extended that timeline for old asset production lines, and this project involves both upgrade of the old production lines and also the construction of the new lines. And these parts of the project are progressing as planned. After the modernization of upgrade of the first line, we have received -- we have gathered experience. And these are lessons learned for us, which we will use in the upgrades of new -- more lines. But all other work related to the construction of new lines are progressing as planned and we'll be finalizing as planned by 2024. A question on Police. Police generated EBITDA at PLN 24 million in titanium white, which was the highest result in a number of years. Do you believe that you will still increase that result in 2021? I believe that Mr. Kadziolka described it in detail. There was a reversal of impairment losses, which had a positive effect of PLN 13 million under -- recognized under other operating revenue. But mathematically speaking, without the reversal, the situation in the titanium white market makes us very optimistic, and we can expect that this result will still increase in 2021, and especially taking into account high demand and also the fact that the price will still increase. Yes, we are expecting an improvement still. This is a traditional period that is the first and the second quarter of the year for titanium white sales. And I believe that the demand for titanium white will or is -- or has been at a very good solid level since the beginning of the year. What was your utilization of production capacities of quarter 4 of 2020 and -- versus quarter 1 2021? Do you believe that this segment will be profitable? I believe that we are seeing a rebound in the plastics segment in terms of the demand for our product, and we are adjusting our production capacities and the utilization of our capacities to the demands and the needs of the market. We cannot give you any specific data as of now because there's -- we are still early in the year. We saw a major improvement in prices and margins of OXO plasticizers. Do you believe that you will see record-breaking results for OXO plasticizers in the first quarter of -- on the first part of the year? The prices of our products on the spot markets are growing dynamically. And this, combined with the stable production output at Kedzierzyn makes us optimistic that we will see good performance in the first quarter of 2021. Thank you very much for all your questions and for participating in the event. The conference -- a gratitude to Mr. Kadziolka for his support. I wish you stay well in this very difficult period. I'd like to thank all the Management Board, all the management members, the Supervisory Board members and members of all Management Boards across the group and also all our employees. Stay well and stay healthy. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much from me as well. Stay well.

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