Good morning, and welcome to Wilson Sons' Earnings Call for the Second Quarter of 2022. Today we have with us Fernando Salek, the company's CEO, Fabricia Souza, the CFO, and Arnaldo Calbucci, the COO. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, and we will have simultaneous translation for those who wish to listen to the English version. During the company's presentation, all participants will be connected in listen-only mode. At the end of the presentation, we'll begin the questions and answer session for industry analysts. Before proceeding, we would like to mention that page three of the presentation contains the usual disclaimers on forward-looking statements for your reference. Now, we would like to turn the conference over to Fabricia Souza. Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our earnings conference call. Let's start on slide five by talking about safety, which is one of the key material priorities for our company. In 2021, still under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, our safety results fell short of our own benchmark, which led the company to take numerous actions. These actions have proven to be assertive, and we have already noticed a recovery in our performance. The last lost time accident occurred in September 2021, reducing our lost time injury frequency rate to 0.3 incidents per million hours worked, which reinforces that we are on the right track with the measures adopted. During this quarter, we published our first sustainability report in compliance with the Global Reporting Initiative, or GRI, which in July was nominated as a finalist in the services category of the ESG Investing Reporting Awards. In the second quarter, our shipyard delivered WS Centaurus, the most powerful tugboat in Brazil and the first of a series of 6 90-ton bollard pull vessels joining our fleet over the next two years. The vessels follow the International Maritime Organization Tier 3 standard, and the new hydrodynamic design improves hull efficiency for an estimated reduction of up to 14% in greenhouse gas emissions compared to previous technologies. During the period, the Salvador terminal contracted the acquisition of 12 fully electric yard tractors to implement the first electrification project of this nature in Brazil, which will contribute to reducing our carbon emissions. To reinforce our ESG strategy even further, we hired an executive with almost 30 years of experience in this agenda to lead the sustainability department. All these actions contribute to the development and continuous improvement of our ESG practices and operational excellence, strengthening one of our strategic pillars. Turning to slide seven. Here, we present a summary of our consolidated results. Although the operating performance of the container terminals was impacted by global logistics bottlenecks, as we will discuss later, our net revenues increased 6% this quarter to BRL 540 million, with highlights including the price and volume improvement in the International Logistics Division, Allink. The increase in the average revenue per maneuver in towage is also a highlight, as well as the higher operational activity in the offshore support bases, and also the growth in conversions and dry docking services for third parties in our shipyard unit. Despite the revenue increase, EBITDA declined 9% in the quarter to BRL 201 million, negatively affected by the equity income from our offshore vessel joint venture, with the Brazilian real depreciation impacting balance sheet items such as deferred tax assets and net monetary items. Excluding equity accounting effects, the company's EBITDA was slightly above the comparative in Brazilian reals and grew 8% in US dollar terms. Net profit decreased 86% in the quarter to BRL 16 million, mainly reflecting the impacts of exchange rate variation on the company's results as the Brazilian real depreciated 11% over the US dollar against a 12% appreciation in the comparative period. Negative exchange rate effects amounted to BRL 50 million, of which BRL 18 million are impacts on deferred tax assets, mainly due to US dollar-denominated loans, and BRL 22 million arising from Brazilian real-denominated monetary items of the offshore vessel joint venture. Excluding these effects, the company's net income would have increased by 21%. In the accumulated first six months of the year, EBITDA was 2% below the comparative period in Brazilian reais. This was mainly affected by the decrease in container terminal volumes due to vessel call cancellations and the shortage of empty containers. Although there was a 4% increase in US dollar terms. Net profit increased 8% in the first half to BRL 160 million and was 13% above the comparative in US dollar terms. We now move to slide eight. Here we highlight the financial performance of our main business units in the quarter. Container terminal revenues remained resilient as global logistics bottlenecks impacting operational activities were offset by improved warehousing with increased container dwell time in both terminals. In US dollar terms, revenues rose 7%. The Rio Grande Terminal was the most impacted by logistical bottlenecks and shortage of empty containers, registering a volume decline due to 38 vessel call cancellations and three blank sailings in the quarter. In the Salvador Terminal, volumes grew 4%, mainly driven by an increase in transshipment, despite the negative impact of the empty container shortage and 17 vessel call cancellations in the period. In towage, revenues grew more than 3% to BRL 262 million, with a 5% increase in the average revenue per maneuver. The improved revenue mix reflects the drop in container ship calls, which have a lower average price. In US dollar terms, revenues rose 12%. Our offshore support vessel joint venture continues to show a recovery. Net revenues grew 61% with a 29% increase in operating days and a 25% improvement in the fleet average daily rate. Another highlight this quarter is our International Logistics Division, Allink, which posted a 36% increase in net revenues to BRL 36 million. This result reflects the high levels of demand and better revenues from both shipowners and terminals. Looking ahead to the second half of the year, we believe that the challenging scenario for container terminals may show some signs of improvement depending on the resolution of port closures in China, especially in the case of Rio Grande. This recovery is also subject to the reduction of call cancellations and an increase in the availability of empty containers. In our businesses related to the oil and gas industry, we expect the recovery trend to continue with new contracts, both in our offshore vessel joint venture and in the support-based division. Moving to slide nine. Here we present an update on the global supply chain crisis and the recent impacts on the company's terminals. We understand that the logistics crisis scenario is not only a national issue, but a global situation that has impacted maritime and port operations worldwide, maintaining port reliability at extremely low levels of less than 35%. The situation is not simple at all. Recently, the International Transport Forum, an organization linked to the OECD that aims to study and analyze transport modes and their impact on economic development, published a report called Performance of Maritime Logistics, in which the current logistics crisis scenario is the main focus of study. According to the report, the crisis is due to a combination of a series of factors, from port congestion to the active fleet capacity management by shipping lines, which has attracted greater regulatory attention recently. Adding to this complexity, with the continued risk of lockdowns in China, the prospects of strikes in European and North American ports, and the peak season in the third quarter, the consensus view is that this scenario is likely to remain challenging throughout the second half of the year, and probably also during the first months of 2023. Our container terminals continue to suffer the impact of this scenario, experiencing high levels of vessel cancellations and blank sailings, resulting in lower operational performance for Rio Grande in particular, due to a more pronounced cargo imbalance, as import volumes only account for a quarter of its deep-sea volumes. Also, with freight rate increases and the empty container shortage, some shippers have been opting to ship their goods on general cargo vessels, including cargoes rarely transported via breakbulk. Moving to slide 11. On this slide, we can see some of our liquidity and leverage ratios, which as you can see, have remained solid as a result of a resilient balance sheet and business performance. Bank debt rose in the quarter mainly due to Brazilian real depreciation, increasing the reported balance of US dollar-denominated debt. New disbursements of BRL 65 million from the Merchant Marine Fund related to the construction of new tugboats and fleet maintenance dry docking, as well as other disbursements, offset BRL 74 million in loan amortizations in the period. Net bank debt of BRL 1.5 billion increased 11% compared to 31st December 2021, reflecting the payment of BRL 196 million in dividends to the company's shareholders in April 2022, as well as the impact of the Brazilian real depreciation mentioned above. In terms of cash flow movements, the main outflows in the period were the BRL 70 million in CapEx, mainly for the construction of new tugboats for the company. As a result, we ended the period with almost BRL 151 million in cash. Our leverage ratio remains low, although it has increased slightly to 2x net bank debt to EBITDA as a result of dividend distribution in the quarter. In terms of debt profile, 81% of our bank debt is long-term, and 67% is financed by the Merchant Marine Fund. Well, the presentation ends here, and I'd like to invite you to the Q&A session. Thank you. We will now begin the questions and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please dial star one. If you'd like to remove your question from the queue, you can dial star two. Please hold while we poll for questions. Once again, if you'd like to ask a question, please dial star one. If you'd like to remove your question from the queue, please dial star two. Please hold while we poll for questions. Once again, if you'd like to ask a question, please dial star one. If you'd like to remove your question from the queue, please dial star two. We will now continue with questions asked via text. We received a question from Pedro Fonseca from Edison on what business segments we have the most room for price increases to offset cost inflation. I'll answer that. Fernando Salek is speaking here. There is a cost inflation. Historically in our negotiations, we have been able to incorporate cost inflation in our price discussions, and normally we're successful at that. We received one more question here about the Offshore segment and how it has been recovering. They ask if we could speak a little bit about the current demand and price scenario and medium-term perspectives. I'll pass it on to Arnaldo Calbucci, our COO. Well, the Offshore segment has shown improvements in Brazil and in the world. This is caused by increases in oil prices and definitely by becoming more aware that oil is a fuel that will be necessary for a long time as we transition into a more green matrix. People are more aware of that now. Demand around the world has gone up from 50%-70% in the utilization of support vessels. In Brazil, these figures have been even more expressive. We have seen higher demands and improvements. Of course, not great improvements, but a good price improvement. Perspectives are good right now and for the next few years. Please hold while we poll for questions. We received a question from Marcelo Arazi from BTG Pactual asking about margins for the end of the year, considering this challenging scenario should continue. Marcelo, from our margins perspectives, we expect them to stay at the healthy levels they are in right now throughout the next half. We don't expect any margin compression caused by any challenges in this current scenario. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please dial star one. If you'd like to remove your question from the queue, please dial star two. Please hold while we poll for questions. We have received a question from Cristiane Bastos from Modal, and she is basically asking how we see the business scenario from the profitability perspective and what we expect for the tugboat market. I'll pass it on to Arnaldo Calbucci. Well, we're working with a scenario of stability for profitability. The important things we're seeing this year are the acquisitions of the Starnav boats by SAAM. This is a positive movement showing that the market is consolidating. With the demand we have, this will allow us to maintain stability without expanding the Brazilian fleet. We expect to maintain profitability and as the maritime industry recovers, as the bottleneck is reduced globally, we estimate that it will still have a slight growth. Please hold while we poll for questions. We received one more question here. In July, Salvador had record volumes. Can you explain why we have this performance in this current scenario? Arnaldo? Yes. Salvador had important volumes in transshipment and shipping. This is an important movement for volume and also to maintain terminal calls. To summarize it, we've had important volumes in all segments: imports, exports, cabotage, and even empty vessels. This is related to the resilience of our strategy and a strong commercial effort that was very successful made by our team in the Salvador terminal. Yes. I'd just like to highlight something. Salvador, our terminal, doesn't have the same pronounced imbalance between exports and imports, so that helps us to mitigate the effects of the crisis. Although in Salvador we had some cancellations and so on, the availability of empty containers has not been a big issue like it was in Rio Grande. We received another question from Alex Paterson and Peel Hunt. Let me read it to you. First, he makes a statement saying that the level of investment in the oil and gas industry, in the offshore oil and gas industry, has been very weak even before COVID began. And he's asking if we have the expectation to catch up to accelerate capital investments. And if that's the case, what kind of utilization rates we expect in 2023 or 2024? Alex, I'll start answering your question. What you said is a fact. The level of investment in the industry, the CapEx for the upstream oil and gas industry has been very low in the last years. I think for a number of reasons, and even geopolitical reasons, are coming to a moment in which we understand that the role of oil and gas as a source of transition energy is essential and will be longer. Of course, oil prices changed investment logics. I do believe there will be an acceleration towards projects, but they will be selected. Brazil has a very good position when it comes to competitiveness to receive a significant part of these investments. I think that's the idea. About utilization rates, we expect a gradual recovery of the industry. As Arnaldo said before, we're starting to see that there will be a recovery in 2022. It will continue in 2023 and accelerate in 2024. We believe that gradually the utilization rate will go up, balancing offer and demand better for the market. Please hold while we poll for questions. We have a question from Pedro Moreira from The Investment Trail. The question is: What is the strategy to increase volumes in Rio Grande on the medium term after the crisis? Pedro, what we're doing and what we will continue to do after the crisis passes, this will be very evident. What we're doing is working very closely with our cargo clients, trying to recover volumes like in Rio Grande that are being exported by other ports. Due to the current crisis, part of the cargo produced in Rio Grande has been loaded in other ports, sometimes even the port of Santos. We've been making that effort. With a reduction in cancellations, we believe that this cargo will come back to us. Another point is to work on an environmental solution, which is using our barges in Lagoa dos Patos, which is a solution that removes many trucks from the road, reduces emissions, and has been widely accepted by clients who need to reduce their footprints. Another point is cargo that migrated to break bulk vessels due to high prices in loading and importing through containers. Importers and exporters were forced to export cargo in break bulk vessels, and we hope that as the crisis goes away and shipping prices go down, that they will continue to come through Rio Grande in containers. Fernando, I'd just like to add something since we're talking about the medium term here, and here I would say even medium to long term. It's important to say this: As vessels grow in size continuously, in Rio Grande, we're very well-positioned with draft conditions and so on to consolidate over time as an important hub for the south of Brazil, including the Mar del Plata region and so on. This is an important topic that we have been working on with the state so that we can move in that direction. Obviously, another important point is fostering the industry in Rio Grande do Sul so that it can have a higher demand for imports over time. Since there are no further questions, we would like to hand it over to Mr. Fernando Salek for his closing remarks. You may continue, sir. Thank you. First of all, I would like to highlight our satisfaction with the absence of lost time accidents since September 2021. In addition, we were very pleased with the resilient financial results recorded in the quarter. We recognize that the current environment is challenging, but we continue to strive to improve the world-class performance of our infrastructure, the portfolio of our activities, and the resilience and versatility of our services. We believe it is the best possible way to address the challenges of our industry, transforming maritime transport over time and creating a better future for everyone involved. I'd like to thank everyone for participating in our conference call. I hope you are well and safe. Thank you, and have a good day. This concludes Wilson Sons' conference call.
Loading workspace