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

A very good morning to you, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the conference devoted to the performance of Grupa Azoty Group in the second quarter of 2021 and in the first half of the year. Our performance will be presented by Mr. Marek Wadowski, Vice President of the Management Board of Grupa Azoty S.A. here at the location at the Warsaw Stock Exchange. And we will have also other speakers joining us remotely. They will be Tomasz Hryniewicz, President of the Management Board of Grupa Azoty Pulawy, Vice President of the Management Board of Grupa Azoty S.A.; Mr. Michal Siewierski, Vice President of Management Board of Grupa Azoty Police; and Mr. Andrzej Niewinski, PhD, President of the Management Board of Grupa Azoty Polyolefins. Here at the stock exchange, we are also -- we also have Mr. Grzegorz Kuberski, Corporate Control and Department Director of Grupa Azoty S.A. I'll now give the floor over to Mr. Marek Wadowski.

A very good morning to you. I had the pleasure of being here to present the financial performance of Grupa Azoty Group for the second quarter of the year. On Slide #3, you will see the agenda of the meeting. First, we'll start with the situation and performance of the entire capital group and then move on to discuss the performance of Pulawy and Police as well as our major investment flagship investment of Polimery Police. Moving on to the summary of the quarter, the second quarter, I'd like to first draw your attention to the fact that in the second quarter of the year, since mid-May, we have had a new Management Board of the capital group. We have also decided to discontinue our POM business. That is polyoxymethylene business, which was communicated to the market. At Grupa Azoty Pulawy, we opened a granulated fertilizer plant. Other highlights and events after the first quarter related to our activities taken in order to be compliant and become compliant with the European Green Deal, which has gained a lot of importance for the group. We're going to a quarter summary. I'd like to first emphasize that in the analyzed quarter of the year, our EBITDA -- comparative EBITDA went up quite significantly by more than 80%. I'm speaking about comparative EBITDA because we have to remember that last year, we had sector compensation both for 2019 and 2020. So it's worth pointing out that the growth of our EBITDA figure was possible despite a major cost pressure on the feedstock side, especially gas, natural gas side. Let me emphasize that the price of natural gas is currently the most significant driver of our performance. And despite this growth, our comparative EBITDA went up still significantly in the entire first half of the year. The situation is quite comparable. We have had a considerable growth EBITDA despite significant cost pressures on the feedstock side. Quarter 2 was -- in 2020 and also 2021 was still a pandemic-stricken quarter. The effect of the pandemic across the group was diversified. We obviously felt the pandemic pressures on the feedstock side in the Plastics. In terms of Fertilizers, the pandemic did not have any significant effect on the demand in the market. And we see quite clearly that the performance of Grupa Azoty are still seeing a rebound -- post-pandemic rebound. And on the one hand, we see a good sign that it's a recovery, economic recovery. On the other hand, however, we still are aware of the fact that Poland is one of the countries that did not have -- has not yet had a group resilience to -- an immunity to COVID-19. Therefore, we must still take into account that in the coming periods, we'll still feel the effects of the pandemic and obviously on the supply chain and demand. So I believe that the remaining period of the year, the remaining half of the year will still be stricken by the restrictions introduced due to the pandemic. Moving on to a short summary of our macro situation and the market situation. As I said before, the gas situation is very difficult to us, with major increases of natural gas prices especially in 2021. Truth be told, the financial performance of Grupa Azoty Group will depend to a major extent on the development of gas prices in the second half of the year. And the price of gas will be the major driver behind our EBITDA. And we see -- we have seen in 2021, also a major growth in CO2 emission allowances. This has become a major cost driver as well. So as I said before, the European Green Deal is becoming a major driver for us. And any initiatives introduced to drive down CO2 emissions are taken into account, analyzed, and we're trying to implement them as the time goes by. And we expect that the market -- situation in the market will remain positive. However, as I said before, the main driver behind our performance are the gas prices. The next slide presents the increase of our costs by 60% quarter-on-quarter -- year-on-year. Obviously, due to positive economic situation, we managed to increase our revenue -- sales revenue. However, the increase in revenue was mainly driven by high costs, especially in our flagship business, Fertilizer business. We see quite clearly that the prices are going up, and those prices -- the growth in prices are driven by prices of feedstocks. As far as the first half of the year is concerned, the situation was quite similar. We saw a major increase in costs and a major corresponding increase in revenue. Moving on to the general landscape of the market. I would like to emphasize that in terms of our Fertilizer business, the situation is quite good. It looks promising not only in Poland but also around the world, especially in India or Brazil, we -- where we see major increase in demand for fertilizers and we expect that demand to continue in the future. However, taking into account that the price of natural gas, as I said, are still growing, I believe that this segment as well will be under cost pressure. In terms of compound fertilizers, we see 2 additional elements, phosphate rock and especially potassium salt. Potassium salt is especially important at Police, which I believe will be discussed in more details by Mr. Siewierski. In terms of our Chemicals business in the analyzed period, we have had good performance. And we see again quite clearly a significant growth in feedstock prices, especially in OXO alcohols. We see quite clearly that the demand is strong. And as a result, we are able to translate a major part of feedstock prices -- an increase in feedstock prices into price of our products. However, we still need to emphasize that as -- it often happens that these feedstocks are transported over long distances. So we take -- and so you must remember about logistics costs. In terms of the Plastics segment, we see quite clearly that there was a strong rebound post-pandemic, and we see a strong demand for plastics, a little slower in the automotive business due to product -- problems with the production of automotive product in terms -- due to the unavailability of chips, for instance. In the white goods segment, we saw -- we have seen a strong demand. And therefore, we expect the situation to continue and to look up in the future. Moving on to one of the major cost drivers, and that is CO2 emission allowances. I'd like to emphasize that in the presented and analyzed quarter, we changed the value estimation of the number of free allocation of CO2 emission allowances due to the -- mainly the decision of the Ministry of Climate and Environment. And in the second quarter, we saw a one-off event, also a one-off improvement by nearly PLN 100 million on that account. However, you must remember that this is a one-off event. And I would like to emphasize that the final figure will depend on the actual volume of production in the coming years, in successive years. Therefore, we should not assume that those free allocation of -- allocations of CO2 emission allowances cannot be expected on a straight-line basis, so to speak. Moving on to our performance by segment. Please note that our EBITDA is mainly -- or was mainly driven by the Plastics segment in the second quarter, which reported a significant increase in the performance due to a solid recovery after the pandemic and high demand in other segments. The other segments contributed to our EBITDA to a lower extent in the second quarter. In terms of the first half of the year, again, we see that the Fertilizers segment had a negative contribution to our performance. But as I said before, this segment is under a lot of pressure related to natural gas prices. In the presented period, EBITDA in the Agro Fertilizers segment went up quite significantly compared to -- especially when we compare to clear EBITDA that is net of compensation we received last year. It should be noted, therefore, that speaking of the prices of feedstocks, we reflect higher prices of, especially, natural gas. In the Chemicals segment, EBITDA went up again, net of compensations we received last year, and we therefore see a strong economic recovery in that segment. And again, as I said before, we saw a significant increase in the prices of our feedstock. However, we expect the Chemicals segment to fare well in the remaining part of the year. In the Plastics segment, it is worth pointing out that last year, our EBITDA came negative. And so our EBITDA went up quite significantly. And in this particular segment, we saw a quite significant recovery year-on-year, in which -- by which I mean we have taken full advantage of the recovery post pandemic. Our financial situation is stable and solid. The cash that we have available -- had available at the end of June came in at nearly PLN 900 million. Net debt-to-EBITDA is at 2.25 in accordance with the covenants -- bank covenants and the maximum -- let me remind you that the maximum ratio is 3.5. Therefore, we can see that we are on the safe side, obviously. We have CapEx spending planned on projects related to units at Police, but we obviously have free resources for those investments. So therefore, I can point out that our situation is quite stable on the financial side. In terms of our investments and the CapEx projects, Polimery Police obviously is a project that we will discuss in more detail in a minute. The stage of advancement is around 60% -- or nearly 70% at the end of July -- at the end of June. The power generation unit, which is something that -- which is a unit that we really need for this particular project, the advancement is at 40%. And let me emphasize that in addition to our power-related -- power generation-related investments, we also invest in other areas of our activity at Police, those 2 remaining investments. In terms of our CapEx spending, in quarter 2 alone, we're talking about PLN 432 million, which went up year-on-year compared to the second quarter of 2020. However, it should be emphasized that the level of that spending depends obviously on the CapEx schedule, the spending schedule. We are now into more advanced stages of those investments. And this is why -- this is where the growth comes from. In the first half of the year, our total CapEx in -- went -- came in at PLN 1.346 million (sic) [ PLN 1.346 billion ]. I'll now give the floor over to Mr. Niewinski to discuss our flagship investment at Police -- Polimery Police.

Thank you very much for this introduction. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Grupa Azoty has been implementing the Polimery Police project. We are having certain technical glitches, but we're good now. So again, Grupa Azoty Police is introducing and implementing a major project with a USD 1.8 billion budget. The progress of our work is currently at 73%. In terms of key highlights and subprojects are concerned, on the left-hand side, you see a gas terminal, offshore gas terminal, where you can see the silos, 2 for propane and 1 for ethylene. The outer shield has already been completed. We are now waiting for inner. Hyundai also informed us that the onshore part of the terminal has been completed as well. So we now have remaining work to complete, which you also -- which you can also see on that particular picture. On the left -- on the right-hand side, you can see a PHD (sic) [ PDH ] unit and the power generation block and the cooling towers and the cooling units and polypropylene tanks and the highest tower in the middle, which we were able to install on-site without any problems. This is the heart of those -- the project. That is the reactors where the dehydrogenation process will be performed. On the left-hand side bottom of that picture, you can see a polypropylene unit and you can see the batteries of blending silos as well as a concrete -- reinforced concrete unit where we will install a feeder and 2 reactors, which are clearly seen. Again, this is where we'll produce polypropylene and copolymer. On the left-hand side and bottom of the slide, you see the logistics part of the polypropylene unit and the most specific part of it. This is the storage -- these are the storage silos, which have been -- which were installed in June and are now currently being developed. And other units are added. The most important highlight of that project was the proposal to the terms and conditions of our EPC contract. We received them on July -- on June 27. Hyundai expects us to increase the fee payable to them by EUR 127 million and also to extend the schedule for the project by 181 days. They also proposed a number of technical changes in line with the current stage of advancement of that particular project at Police. So in summary, at that point, we are analyzing those proposed changes in terms of their technical content. And after we have completed that -- those analyses, we will start negotiations with our partner. We keep -- we believe that we will be able to complete those negotiations successfully because we believe that those proposals by our partners are not justified entirely. Thank you very much.

On the following 2 slides, you see financial highlights and financial performance of Grupa Azoty Group's companies both in the second quarter and in the first half of the year. So we now would like to focus on 2 companies, 2 subsidiaries, Pulawy and Police. So I will now give the floor over to Mr. Hryniewicz to discuss the performance at Pulawy.

Ladies and gentlemen, our performance in the first half of the year, especially in the second quarter, was -- as my colleague has mentioned, under a strong cost pressure due to the high prices of feedstocks and CO2 emission allowances. Benzene prices also increased considerably, which, in the case of Pulawy, is a feedstock use for caprolactam production process. In the area of liquidity management, highlights included the conclusion of external financing agreements in the form of factoring group agreements. These are group agreements. So we also took part in it to provide a liquidity reserve for the company. The second quarter general shareholders' meetings were held in group companies. And despite the pandemic and the pandemic-related difficulties, companies managed to pay a dividend for -- from 2020 net profit. At this point, I'd like to mention that thanks to the understanding of the owner, Grupa Azoty Pulawy will -- have decided to retain net profit entirely within the company and appropriate the net profit and return earnings to CapEx projects at PLN 300 million part -- compared to PLN 800 million of the total budget. In June, we launched a granulated fertilizer unit. It was brought on stream at Grupa Azoty Pulawy. I will discuss this major highlight later in this presentation. Also in June, we signed a lease agreement for a plot of land, of -- on which Mkango Polska plans to build a rare earth separation plant. The unit will use the company's energy and feedstocks. And once the technical conditions are satisfied, the byproduct of the refining process, that is ammonium nitrate solution, can be used in the company's installations. So we can see that we have a number of advantages and benefits for our company on this project. Moving on to the summary of the quarter. Grupa Azoty Pulawy Group's consolidated revenue grew both on quarterly and half yearly basis. Year-on-year, the Q2 revenue grew by nearly 65% and by nearly 30% in the first half of the year. EBITDA amounted to PLN 121 million and was slightly higher than in the second quarter of the previous year, while the EBITDA generated in the first half of the year of PLN 229 million was lower by nearly PLN 60 million compared to the previous corresponding period. But it was a period -- it was a very challenging period. You have to remember that we had a positive contribution on our performance of the sector compensations we received for 2019, which was accounted for in the first half of 2020. We're talking about more than PLN 400 million. This was recognized in other income and also PLN 23 million accounted for in manufacturing costs. So this was a one-off event. And without that one-off event, we can say that our EBITDA went up by PLN 9 million year-on-year. We are -- we also saw an 11% growth of our EBITDA. And this was reflected on our net profit both for the second quarter and in the first half of the year. As our -- my colleagues have mentioned, these results were under pressure of price increases for natural gas especially because we have produced fertilizers at Pulawy, and we have been stricken by those prices increases, especially for natural gas but also for benzene and CO2 emission allowances as well. So the scale of those increases was unprecedented. We have partially compensated those increases by our price increases but also the sales volumes as well as revaluation of CO2 emission allowances. And we must emphasize that both in the capital group and at Grupa Azoty Pulawy Group, we analyzed the proposed prices in the market. We listened to the voices, listened to the comments of our clients -- that is farmers, especially, but we needed to take into account the significant increase in the cost of our production. However, we are very happy to see a rebound in melamine production. These are very promising signals, and we are also keeping our fingers crossed on continuing demand for melamine and the forecast -- as well as the forecast increase in the usage of those products and consumption of those products. We see a number of positive -- other positive trends, especially for coolant. We see a growing trend in terms of our sales. We have also continued the -- our partnership with the national agency for reserves. So we have provided coolant that was used in the production of the vaccines for --against COVID-19. We have also continued our partnership with one of the retail chain store, which uses our coolant for their operations. This all translated into a sharp increase in our sales volumes and margins in that area. Moving on to the segment results. In the Agro segment business, accounting for the largest share of the Grupa Azoty Pulawy Group's revenue, nearly 82% in the second quarter and 83.5% in the first half. The share of the Plastics segment was almost 14% in the second quarter, going up by 6.1 percentage points year-by-year. In the entire first half of the year, the share was almost 12%, up by nearly 3 percentage points year-on-year. In terms of the revenue of the Agro segment, it was also higher year-on-year obviously due to higher volumes of melamine and sales of volumes of melamine. We, however, have to remember that EBITDA went down by PLN 16 million due to high gas prices, and it also went down for the first half of the year, year-on-year. In terms of the Plastics segment, the nearly threefold increase year-on-year was mainly due to higher prices and sales volumes of caprolactam. An improvement in the segment's results was also recorded in the first half of the year, with revenue going up by PLN 101 million -- or nearly PLN 102 million year-on-year. Please note that the dynamic growth in the segment's performance was a positive EBITDA reported for the second quarter, up by nearly PLN 12 million year-on-year versus the second quarter of 2020. Please note that the segment's EBITDA also went up by over PLN 2 million compared to this first quarter of 2020, but it still remained negative. This is due to the benzene prices because the pricing formula both for -- within the group and also in respect of external clients is postponed to a certain extent. Therefore, we see major decreases for benzene at that point. However, those movements, up and down movements, will balance out during the year. Therefore, what we see in the first half of the year should contribute positively -- significantly positively to caprolactam performance at Pulawy and EBITDA. Moving on to our investments. In the second quarter, Grupa Azoty Pulawy Group, we continued our CapEx program. And the unit for manufacture of granulated ammonium nitrate-based fertilizers reached the most advanced stage of completion. In addition to production lines, the project includes Poland's most advanced packaging unit and seasoning halls. As you probably remember, in July 2020, we launched the pre-commissioning and commissioning of the first production line, and the ceremony was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin. The first product was manufactured in the summer of 2021. And by the end of the quarter, continuous production should be in full swing, and it is. Other investments are also underway, including construction of power units, upgrade of the nitric acid plant and construction of new units, such as the upgrade of a steam boiler and the second-ever investment of the capital group. That is the construction of a power-generated unit power plant, which will replace obsolete or old steam boilers. So the stage of completion of that project is also progressing as planned. We plan to complete the project as planned, and we have also that -- [ relative ] conclusions, and we are doing our best to complete that investment as well. In 2021, the group also plans to spend nearly PLN 1 billion on property, plant and equipment as well as on intangible assets. Due to the advanced stage of our investment projects in the second quarter of 2021, our consolidated CapEx amounted to PLN 264 million, more than twice as high as in the second quarter of 2020. In the first half of the year, in total, our CapEx amounted to PLN 553 million, up by 300 -- PLN 350 million compared to the first half of the year -- of the previous year. And the CapEx structure shows an increase in mandatory investments related to the construction of our power unit at Pulawy. Thank you very much for your attention.

And we will now give the floor over to the Vice President of the Management Board of Grupa Azoty Police to discuss the situation in the second quarter and in the first half of the year.

Thank you very much. Let me start with a number of highlights we saw in the analyzed period. In April -- from April to July, we had changes in the composition of our management and Supervisory Board. In April, we signed 2 factoring agreements with BNP Paribas Faktoring as well as with Pekao Faktoring. Please note that we also signed a letter of intent on cooperation for the professional inclusion of repatriated persons with the Police County Head. Moving on to the discussion of our financial performance. We should note that in the first half of the year, we reported higher figures year-on-year. Our consolidated EBITDA came in at PLN 129 million, going up year-on-year. Our net profit came in at PLN 53 million, going up by PLN 23 million year-on-year. It was important for the company to maintain our production and commercial processes, and we had no major impact on the pandemic on our business and business continuity. We also managed to maintain our profitability ratio. Our EBITDA ratio was higher than in the first half of the previous year. In the first half, we saw, first of all, an impact of higher prices of compound fertilizers, urea and ammonia year-on-year versus the first half of the previous year, which can be seen in an increase of our revenue, which was a major contributor to our performance. We also saw an increase in the prices of a number of feedstocks we use, our production, especially a twofold increase in natural gas year-on-year. In total, the changes in the feedstocks impacted our production figures in 2021 year-on-year. However, we must mention at this point that it was lower than an increase in revenue figures. We also saw major increases in the prices of CO2 emission allowances. But due to the fact that the company secured allowances for 2021, then the impact of that particular factor was limited versus the situation in the market. In terms of our financial highlights, a positive contributor to our performance was a recognition of interest rates on the loan extended to Grupa Azoty olefins as well as the valuation of our derivative instruments. And the impact on our performance in the first quarter was -- first half of the year was also significant as well as our performance of our associates, which contributed negatively to our performance. This was obviously offset by a positive contribution in the positive performance of [ any product ]. Moving on to the next slide. You can clearly see that our EBITDA was -- the contribution of our Fertilizers segment was the highest to our EBITDA. Our EBITDA went up year-on-year by -- respectively, 29% and 30%. Our EBITDA margin remains -- for 2021 remained flat year-on-year in the second quarter. However, in the first half of the year, our EBITDA margin went up by 1 percentage point. Going up into more detail segment by segment. In terms of Fertilizers, you can clearly see higher performance or better performance in the segment mainly due to higher prices of sales of our major products. However, this was offset by annually twofold increase in the prices of natural gas year-on-year versus the corresponding period in 2020. The use or the consumption of potassium chloride was a good contributor to our performance versus 2020, and the price remained still lower than in the corresponding period, which, in combination with an increase in the price of our products, contributed to higher margins of our compound fertilizers. Increases in our prices was also seen by -- in terms of our compound fertilizers going up in terms of revenue by 8%, by 46% for urea and ammonia, and 85% for other products. In terms of Pigments, you can see that an increase in average prices of titanium white was a major contributor versus the prices among the world. We also had higher -- reported a higher increase in sales volumes of titanium white. One must remember that it was offset by the sales of other products. The demand for titanium white remains strong, and the limited availability of that feedstock still increased our sales. Our EBITDA was higher, and the EBITDA margin was deviated slightly from last year's figures. In terms of investments, this has been already mentioned by Mr. Niewinski. We are in the process of implementing Grupa Azoty Polyolefins. In terms of Grupa Azoty Police, we must mention that in the first half of the year, we had 19 new investment projects for a total budget of PLN 46 million. We are also continuing 39 projects started in previous years. We continued our key investments for the power transmission project for installations for our polypropylene and dehydrogenation units. The value is PLN 56 million, and the advancement stage is at 60% with a planned completion date in 2020 -- 2022. The second investment is the recycling of hydrogen originated from the polypropylene unit of -- in -- at the ammonia unit for the PDH -- to be used for the PDH unit. The budget is PLN 30 million, and the planned completion date is 2023. The next investment in progress is the modernization and upgrade of demineralization of water, which will make us independent of the variable salinity of the Oder River. And this investment will also increase our ability to produce special waters to use by our units. The value of this investment is PLN 108 million, and the advancement is at 70% with a planned completion date in 2022. The next investment worth mentioning is the replacement of the tower -- absorption tower. The value of this investment is more than PLN 16 million, and the advancement stage is 75% with a planned completion date of -- at the end of 2022. Obviously, the 3 -- first 3 projects are related to our efforts to -- taken in terms of our Polimery Police project. We also have a construction of -- a project for the construction of storage units for urea. This is obviously a lower value project, but this will make us -- this is important for us as well. The value of that project is PLN 5.9 million with a planned completion date at the end of 2021. Moving on to our CapEx projects, understood as the capital expenditure of the capital group on property, plant and equipment. It stood at more than PLN 70 million in the first half of the year, which is comparable to the previous year's figures both in the quarter -- the second quarter and the first half of the year. More than half of our CapEx spending is our growth CapEx. Thank you very much for your attention.

Thank you for your attention. So in summary, I'd like to emphasize that this has been -- and this was a good quarter for us. We managed to improve our EBITDA figure despite feedstock cost pressures, especially the prices of natural gas.

Thank you for this presentation and discussion of the performance of Grupa Azoty Group companies in the second quarter and in the first half of the year. We'll now move on to a Q&A session. So should you have any questions, please ask them. We received a number of questions over the Internet. So the first question relates to our strategy. When will the company publish the new strategy? And will it include financial targets?

A short answer to that question. The strategy will be published soon. Right now, we're still having internal discussions within Grupa Azoty S.A., and we expect that strategy to be published within several coming weeks. And yes, it will include financial targets.

Question #2 then. The company increased the budget for Polimery Police to PLN 7.8 billion. Do you see any risk for the further revaluation and increase of the value of the project?

Mr. Niewinski will answer that question.

I have no knowledge of any increase in the Polimery Police budget. The project is implemented in the project finance formula, and it assumes certain reserves in the budget, which will be used to finance potential increase in the project-related costs. Therefore, the amount that you have given is not true. It's not correct.

The next question then. Where the -- does the difference in the profitability figures come from in terms of [ Darluv ] against Pulawy? Is that an effect of melamine or any other -- in terms of Fertilizers segment? Pulawy versus Kedzierzyn.

I believe that the profitability ratio at Pulawy is higher than at Kedzierzyn. So this question, I believe, should be answered by Mr. Hryniewicz, representing Grupa Azoty Pulawy.

Ladies and gentlemen, at this point, the specificity of our plant has -- is different both in terms of simple fertilizers. That is nitrogen fertilizers and compound fertilizers. So we have different profitability figures which we report. In terms of a specific answer to that particular question, we will send that answer online or by mail.

So next question. Do you still see growing margins in Plastics and in Chemicals?

I believe that Mr. Kuberski should answer that question.

In terms of margins in Chemicals and Plastics, as you have already mentioned, these margins are now stable. They're flat right now after the vacation holiday period. The order basket -- the order book is rebounding, the plasticizers, plastics in general or the chemicals. In terms of semiconductors and chips, the situation is getting more stable. So we believe that the demand for our products in the Chemicals and Plastics segment will become stable very soon.

In China -- the next question. In China, the government is trying to cut down on the increase in prices on feedstocks. Do you see any such efforts in the Polish market or in other countries where you operate?

An increase in feedstock prices comes from an increase in natural gas prices. And this is only obvious that some companies such as China do not welcome such events. But I'd like to point out that the increase in feedstock prices relates to all countries around the world. So the demand from India or Brazil, for instance, is very important to global market where those fertilizers are sold. Therefore, in our markets, we do not see such risks. However, we obviously are trying to keep those increases in prices as low as possible, but we need to remember that such unprecedented increase in gas prices puts a lot of cost pressure on our business. We do not expect any top-down or governmental regulations to be applied to feedstock prices.

The next question also concern Fertilizers business. What are your sales figures after the introduction of urease inhibitor? Isn't it lower, significant lower?

The situation in the Fertilizers market is very good. Despite the fact that price -- the prices went up significantly, the demand still is very strong. Therefore, at this point, we do not see any such threats or risks. We obviously are aware of the fact that there is a risk of continuously growing prices of natural gas and the resistance of our customers to the growing -- correspondingly growing price of our products. But as of today, I believe that the situation in the market is quite good.

What was the effect of the free allocation of CO2 emission allowances in 2021 versus the first half of the year?

I do believe that this question should be answered by Mr. Kuberski.

So the higher allocation of free allowances for CO2 emission obviously was reflected in our production costs, and the total effect versus our initial assumptions was around PLN 90 million. And that effect was in total -- was accounted for in total in our revenue. You have to remember that the settlement of free allocation or free allowances is accounted for in proportion to the planned figures for the entire year.

Next question. What would your net debt look like at the end of the second quarter of 2021 if the PDH had been fully consolidated?

The PDH project is implemented in the project finance formula. Therefore, the indebtedness on that account is not included in net debt-to-EBITDA ratio. Theoretically speaking, if we assume that our debt would be fully consolidated, then the net debt-to-EBITDA ratio at the end of June, instead of 2.25, would look -- would stand at 2.6.

And the last question. An increase in prices accelerated still in the next quarter. Please comment on the effect on the volumes and the profitability of the Agro segment.

This question will be answered by Mr. Kuberski again.

An increase in natural gas prices will still continue to put pressures on our margins in the Agro Fertilizers segment, which obviously will impact our sales prices. In the coming quarters, we can see that the prices of gas are still growing considerably. In terms of our sales, we obviously want to adapt ourselves to the market landscape.

Are there any questions from the participants in the room? There are none. We would like to end this meeting, the conference devoted to our performance in the second quarter of 2021 and in the first half of the year. We would like to invite you to join us in the upcoming conferences. See you soon. Thank you very much, and goodbye. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]