Good morning, welcome to the First Half 2023 results conference call of Befesa. I am Rafael Pérez, CFO of Befesa. Today, we have with us Javier Molina, Executive Chair of Befesa, and Asier Zarraonandía, CEO of the company. Javier Molina will start with an executive summary of the first half. After that, Asier will explain the business highlights of the period, covering steel dust and aluminum salt slag recycling. I will review the financials with a focus on cash flow, net debt, and our hedging program. Asier will close this presentation, providing an update on our growth plan, as well as some thoughts about the outlook for the second half of this year. Finally, we will open the lines for the Q&A session. Before getting started, let me remind you that this conference call is being webcasted live. You can find the link to the webcast and the first half results presentation on our website, www.befesa.com. Let me turn this call over to our chairman. Javier, please. Thanks, Rafael. Good morning, everybody. The first half of the year has been characterized by a challenging macroeconomic environment. Despite these difficulties, Befesa has delivered solid results. Although revenue have increased by 8% compared to the last year, driven by the integration of the zinc refining operation in North America, EBITDA in the first half was EUR 95 million, 20% down compared to the previous year. The main driver for this decrease has been higher zinc treatment charge, up 19% compared to last year, lower zinc prices, which are down 25% compared to the same period of last year, as well as higher coal price, which are up 25%. All these negative effects has been partially off-offset by higher zinc hedging price and lower operating costs, driving by productivity improvements and lower natural gas and electricity prices. Our aluminum business has continued to show a strong performance during the first half of the year, benefiting from strong margins and a decrease in the energy prices in Europe. Asier will explain the performance of the steel and aluminum business in more detail later. From the strategic point of view, during the first half, we have continued integration in the U.S., including the zinc refining plant, which is improving its performance gradually with higher utilization rates. The U.S., we continue with the refurbishment works on the plant in Palmerton, Pennsylvania. In China, where the steel productions continue to be weak, we continue to progress with the first steel dust recycling plant in the province of Guangdong, one of the most prominent province in China. Nevertheless, as we explained in the past, we can modulate the speed of the investment. We are adapting to the current situation in China. With regards to the outlook for the rest of the year, overall, we expect a stronger second half of the year compared to the first half. This is based on expected overall higher volumes on the second part of the year, combined with a gradual decrease on coal price through the year and some recovery on zinc price, which at the current level, are scratching the zinc cost curve. Finally, on ESG, in June we published our ESG report for 2022, which include the reporting on EU Taxonomy, Scope 3 emissions, as well as a chapter on green metals, where we are very well positioned with low-carbon aluminum as well as green zinc. Before handing over to Asier, I would like to thank Wolf Lehmann for his contribution as CFO over the last year. As we announced, Rafael Pérez has been appointed as CFO. Rafael has been part of the executive team of Befesa for more than 15 years, reporting directly to me. He has the required knowledge, experience, and leadership skills, and will be supported by a highly experienced team. The change in CFO will have no impact on Befesa and on our ability to deliver the global growth plan that we presented at the Capital Markets Day last November. Now, Asier will explain the business performance in more detail. Thank you, Javier. I will now provide an overview of the performance of the business during the first half of 2023. Overall, the first half of the year has been a challenging one, as explained by Javier, impacted by lower zinc prices, high treatment charges, high coal prices, and still a weak environment in China. Befesa's total revenue increased by EUR 43 million or 8% year-on-year to EUR 615 million in H1 2023, primarily attributable to the contribution from the US zinc refining operations. Befesa delivered an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 95 million, down EUR 23 million or 20% year-on-year. This decrease was primarily driven by the lower zinc market prices. Reviewing the main drivers of the year-on-year, EUR 23 million EBITDA develop many more detail. On volume, overall, approximately 2 million negative volume year-on-year impact, mainly due to the 6% decline in electric arc furnace steel dust throughput, primarily driven by the U.S. operation and the earthquake in Turkey. Price overall, approximately EUR 29 million negative price year-on-year impact explained by lower zinc and aluminum market prices. About EUR 27 million from the steel dust business, around EUR 3 million from the aluminum salt slag business. I will explain later in more detail. On cost, other, the negative impact from high coke prices have been compensated with lower operating costs in our steel dust and aluminum salt slag business, in this case, mainly through lower energy prices. Turning now to the results from our steel dust recycling business. Steel dust delivered EUR 67 million EBITDA in the first half, down EUR 28 million or 29% year-on-year. Overall, the year-on-year EUR 28 million decrease in EBITDA was mainly driven by the 25% decrease in zinc LME market prices. The volume level was negative by around EUR 2 million EBITDA year-on-year impact. As explained, mainly due to the earthquake impacting operation in Turkey and the U.S. operations beginning of the year. After the earthquake occurred in Turkey in February, we successfully restarted operations in March, and our plant in Iskenderun has been operating at normal levels since there. Total steel dust volume in the first half was 592,000 tons, which is 6% lower than the last year and reaching an average utilization rate of 70%. However, steel dust volume in Q2 has been 6% higher than Q1, and we expect this trend to continue. Overall, steel production globally has been weak during the first half of the year, as it shows on page 11, with Europe down 10%, U.S. less 3%, or Turkey and Korea less 7%. Despite this, in Europe, we achieved solid volumes, which helped us to run our European plants at strong utilization levels. In China, volumes were weak, driven by a delay in the recovery of the economy activity, with steel production below pre-COVID levels. The price level was overall negative by about EUR 26 million year-on-year, with main price components being EUR 27 million negative impact from lower zinc LME prices, down 25% or close to EUR 900 per ton year-on-year to around EUR 2,600 per ton on average for the period. The EUR 6 million positive impact from higher zinc hedging prices, which is up 1% year-on-year to around EUR 2,350 per ton average, helped us to fully offset the unfavorable increase of zinc treatment charges, which was set up 274 per ton for the year 2023, versus 230 per ton in 2022. Regarding the cost of the level, the pressure from higher coal prices was offset by the positive impact through the productivity and synergies. With regards to the Befesa's coal price, after reaching an all-time high level in Q1, the Befesa's coal price started to moderate in Q2, 3% lower versus Q1. However, the first half average coal prices was 25% higher versus last year and is still around 90% above the 2019-2021 average levels. Revenue in the steel dust business increases by EUR 49 million or 13% year-on-year to EUR 403 million, mainly attributable to the contribution from the US zinc refining operations. Consequently, EBITDA as a percent of revenue stands at 17% in the first half, versus 27% last year. The year-on-year profitability decrease is mainly driven, as explained, by the lower zinc market prices, the unfavorable zinc treatment charge increase, the higher coal prices, as well as the zinc refining operation contribution to revenue, but not yet to the EBITDA in the first half. As we saw on page 9, zinc LME prices have significantly decreased in the first part of the year. Zinc prices have historically rebounded strongly upon touching the C90 curve. This is something that we have seen many times in the past during periods of strong economy stress. Zinc price is currently trading around the C90 cost curve, which should balance supply, demand, and hence provide price support at these levels. Regarding coal prices, on page 10, you can see that after reaching an all-time high level in the 1Q 2023, Befesa's coal price saw a small reduction in the Q2 of 3% versus Q1. The first half 2023 average coal price is still around 90% above the 2019-2021 average levels. In Q3, we are starting to see further normalization, which hopefully will continue over the rest of the year. Natural gas and electricity prices continue to normalize during the Q2 back to average levels of 2021. Moving now to the results of our Aluminium salt slag recycling business. Aluminium Salt Slags delivered a strong first half, with EUR 28 million EBITDA in the first half, up 17% or EUR 4 million year-on-year. The year-on-year EUR 4 million EBITDA improvement was mainly due to the lower cost, primarily through lower energy prices, partially offset by lower aluminium market prices. Regarding volumes, our salt slag and SPL recycling volumes slightly decreases by 1% year-on-year to 171,000 tons in the first half, primarily due to the ramp-up of the Hannover plant, which we completed in the Q2. Our aluminium alloy production volumes increased by 3% year-on-year to 87,000 tons in the first half. With these volumes, we operated our plant at solid utilization rate of about 85% in secondary aluminium and close to 75% in salt slag on average. Overall, as you see in the EBITDA walk, no EBITDA impact year-on-year from the volume level. The higher secondary aluminum volumes were offset with lower salt slag treated. With regard to prices, aluminum alloy FMD market prices showed a 12% or around EUR 300 per ton decrease versus last year to around EUR 2,250 per ton average in the first half. This negative price effect was partially compensated with year-on-year higher aluminum metal margins and resulted in about EUR 3 million negative price effect that you see in the EBITDA walk. The cost or the level of the EBITDA walk shows around EUR 7 million EBITDA positive effect year-on-year. This was driven by lower operating costs, mainly through the lower gas and electricity prices. Befesa's gas and electricity prices reduced further in the Q2, around 20%-25% lower versus Q1, and back to 2021 average levels. Befesa's average price of gas in the first half was approximately 50% lower year-on-year. EBITDA, as a percentage on revenue in the Salt Slag segment, remaining strong at about 35%. Rafael will explain the financial section. Thank you, Javier. Turning to page 13 on hedging. Befesa's hedging strategy remains unchanged and continues to be a key element of Befesa's business model, providing zinc price visibility, lowering the impact from zinc price volatility, and therefore improving the stability and visibility of earnings and cash flow throughout the economic cycle. Our zinc hedge book includes close to 300,000 tons of zinc payable, hedged, equivalent to 65%-75% of our zinc exposure, up to and including July 2025. We have two years of hedges on our books at increasing hedging average prices, around EUR 2,400 per ton in 2023, EUR 2,500 per ton in 2024, and around EUR 2,650 per ton for the first half of 2025. In Befesa, we have been doing hedging for zinc price for more than 15 years, and it is right now, in moments like this, with falling zinc prices caused by weak economic outlook, when the hedging proves its value. The hedge book, at current price levels, has a mark-to-market value of more than EUR 100 million. Turning to page 14, the cash flow, net debt, and leverage results. On the EBITDA to cash flow bridge, starting with 94.7 adjusted EBITDA, and to the left, walking to the right. Working capital was up by around EUR 28 million year-on-year. This is very much driven by the usual Q1 seasonality impact without cash consumption in Q2. Interest paid increased year-on-year by 13% to EUR 13.4 million in first half 2023. This was explained by two elements. The higher margin applicable to the Term Loan B, which increased in December 2022, by 25 basis points to Euribor + 2%, due to the increase in the leverage ratio. On the other hand, the year-on-year higher Euribor from 2% last year to 1%-3% applicable in first half, 2023. As a reminder, our long-term capital structure, consisting on a Term Loan B, is 50% hedged against increases in the interest rate. Taxes paid reduced by 29% year-on-year to EUR 11.4 million in the first half of 2023, resulting in an operating cash flow of EUR 42 million in first half, 34% or EUR 32 million lower versus the same period of last year. Very much driven by the lower earnings. CapEx wise, in the first half, we spent EUR 43 million in maintenance CapEx, including expenditure related to the final recovery of our Hannover plant and related to the operational excellent projects in the US Normalizing for the Hannover recovery CapEx, regular maintenance CapEx amounted to roughly EUR 30 million in the first half. Growth CapEx for the period was EUR 10 million, including the remaining expenditure for the Henan project and CapEx related to the refurbishment project at Palmerton in the US Overall, total CapEx of EUR 53 million in first half, normalized for about EUR 13 million for Hannover spend, total CapEx will amount to around EUR 40 million, which annualized, will be equal to approximately EUR 80 million. Well aligned with the EUR 85 million-EUR 95 million CapEx guidance for the full year 2023. After funding working capital, interest, taxes, and CapEx, total cash flow amounted to minus EUR 18 million in the first half. Cash on hand stands at EUR 143 million, which together with our entirely undrawn EUR 75 million revolving credit line, provides Befesa with a strong liquidity well above EUR 200 million. The EUR 567 million net debt, with the EUR 191 million LTM adjusted EBITDA, results in a net leverage of 2.96 at Q2 closing. Now back to Asier on growth and outlook. Thanks again, Rafa. As we have explained in the past, the decarbonization is a global mega trend that will drive the increased production of electric arc furnace steel, making our natural market grow significantly in the coming years. We have a well-defined growth plan consisting of nine projects in Europe, China, and the U.S., to capture the growth opportunities that we are seeing in the market. The first part of the investment plan will focus on the U.S., with the refurbishment of the Palmerton plant, which has already started with the demolition works on one of the two kilns and the signing of the EPC contract. As explained in the past, the refurbishment of the Palmerton plant consists of the upgrade of the two kilns in the plant, one at a time, in order to capture the growth that the North American market is going to experience in 25 and beyond. The first phase of the project will be completed by the Q3, 2024, while the second phase will be completed by beginning of 2025. The second focus of the investment plan is China, where we are developing the third plant in the province of Guangdong. With more than 120 million people living in the province, Guangdong is one of the richest in the nation and the largest car manufacturing location in China. As explained in the past, our growth fully depends on Befesa, which means that we can accelerate or slow down the investment depending on the development of the markets where we want to grow. The current situation in China, characterized by a weak economy environment and weaker steel production, makes us be more cautious and adapt to the situation in the country. We are monitoring the evolution of the market and don't expect to invest in the plan in 2023. Anyway the question in China is not if the economy will recover, but when will it happen? On outlook, as explained by Javier, we expect a stronger second part of the year compared to the first half. From the volume point of view, we expect higher volumes overall. We continue with the strong operation in Europe and the U.S., with China gradually improving after a challenging economic environment in the first half. We also expect better performance on the zinc refining plant in the U.S. From the price point of view, as explained earlier, zinc prices have historically rebounded upon touching the marginal cost curve in the C90, driven by a supply-demand rebalance. We also expect coal prices to continue the normalization of prices that we are seeing in the Q3. Basis on the both, we expect a stronger second part of the year. Looking ahead, for 2024, we expect a strong earnings growth, driven by better hedging on the books, expected lower TC, higher volumes, and normalized zinc and gold prices. Thank you very much. Thank you, Asier. We will now open the lines for your questions. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star followed by two. If you're using speaker equipment today, please lift the handset before making your selections. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. We have the first question from Sandeep Peety from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Good morning. I have two questions. I'll take one at a time. Firstly, if zinc prices and coke prices remain on spot, what level of EBITDA should we be expecting for 2023? Can you help us understand what assumptions are implied in your lower end and upper end of the guidance range in terms of zinc price, energy costs, China plant and zinc refining assets? Sorry. Thank you, Sandeep Peety. Well, obviously, we were expecting the question. The case is that, as I said before, this is a combination of many things no? What I can say is that the zinc prices has been affected, especially in the last two months, and we don't expect that it's going to happen for the rest of the year. Today is above EUR 2,500, we think that it's going to be there. Coke prices, what I can say is that we are watching in the next quarter, that the price for the petcoke, you know, where, as an example, European plants have dropped in the range of EUR 100. The question is that it's a combination of all the headwinds that we are having, as I say, treatment charges, zinc prices, China valuation, zinc refining, you know, ramp up, everything that has been affected to the Q1. We are considering that it's gonna not affect or affect less in the second part of the year. Having said that, you know that we are not giving exactly assumption for the year, because at the end of the day, every one of you are modeling, and we cannot enter into one by one assumptions. This is a combination of everything that would make us to be in the position that the second half is gonna be stronger than the first one. We will land obviously somehow in the low level of the guidance. Thank you, very clear. Second question, today you have disclosed EBITDA of EUR 10 million-EUR 20 million from your Palmerton plant at EUR 60-70 million of CapEx. Based on those assumptions, and CapEx of sustaining CapEx of EUR 2 million per NM, tax rate of 25% and WACC of 8%, I get to an IRR of 17%. Can you help us understand how is greater than 30% IRR calculated and the payback period of three to four years? Sandeep, this is a good summary of your calculation. Basically, you manage better than me. What I can confirm is more or less those amounts of investments, probably the amount of the EBITDA level and IRR. Yes, I think that our calculation is in a range of 15 or above 15. The main question here is how many tons you are considering that we are going to capture with the new situation of the American market in the future. Yes, we can confirm those kind of things because it's the same that we were discussing in the November Capital Market. There are not many changes in the medium term. The storm is coming in the 2023-year, end of 2022 and during the 2023 is where we are in the middle of a perfect storm. But we see the future or the near future starting 2024, no changing for us. We do think that we are going to driven in the business in better waters in the future, no? No changes, and I think that we can confirm that we see the same for the Palmerton project as we explained it in the past. Just an extension. Your implied profitability for zinc refining asset is EUR 20 million-EUR 30 million. Can you confirm that? Yes, in long run, yes. I think that probably in 2023, we are not going to reach this for the whole year. This is difficult because the ramp up is in the Q1, especially, I will ramp up some in the Q2. Second half, sorry. Second half, we see that the plant is more stable and 2023, again, probably we will not reach those levels, but we're sure that 2024 and onwards, we will be there. In the 10-15 or even better years of 20, this is the maximum that refining can have. Perfect. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Michael E. Hoffman from Stifel. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. I have to ask, because most of my coverage in environmental services has been able to use pricing on things like collection fees and what have you, to pass through inflation. Why not have passed through the coke price increases in the EAF business through the collection charge? Thank you, Michael. Well interesting question as well. I think that we have to make a difference. In aluminium, we are you know, is more sensible to the cost because the part of the zinc sorry, the price consideration is perhaps lower and is more sensible to the cost of the plants. That's why we are able to transfer the costs or the higher cost to the fees, and we are, you know, increasing this profitable. That's good. In the case of the same prices, because the competition in the market that we are and the percentage of the cost that for the steelmakers has this, with the ability to manage the residues, makes very difficult. That is an immediate transfer of the fees to the steelmakers. Long run, on a couple of years, you can increase the level. We have as well some formula basis, but normally based on the same prices. It's not so clear that you can transfer immediately the fees and the cost for that. Having said that once again, if you see the bottle half full it's going to be a temporary matter about the coke and energy prices. At the end of the day, because we are suffering this and coming back to the normal level, will be enough to come the profitability. Good. It's true that it's not an immediate transfer system regarding the prices in the same business. Okay, I'm not sure I totally heard all or understood all the answers to the first person's question. What I, what I think I heard was that if zinc prices stay at the current spot market and coke prices continue to correct, we'll be at the low, but lower end of the current guidance. We should have modeled towards about EUR 200 million of EBITDA. You listen. Did I get that correct? Michael, you listen more or less. It's a combination. I mean, if everything remains as it is, probably it's going to be difficult, but we do expect changes in these four or five effects that we are suffering in the first half. Same prices, we don't see it's going to be in this level for the year. It happens, we will see what the other effects are. The coal prices are getting down, definitely. I don't know. We don't know now exactly the level of the drop, refining of the after refining in U.S. coming better for the first second half. The synergies in U.S. are to come in the second part as well. We expect to deliver better. And then let's see China, that looks like, with the last announcement of some stimulus or whatever, could be, I don't know if it's a spectacular or not, but probably, doing better definitely than the first half. The combination of all the effects makes us to be, you know, confirming the guidance. Other thing is that if you put everything in the, in the very, very bad situation, it would be difficult, but we don't see like that. We see that it's going to be, again, better performance in the second half. Okay. Then, Asier should we be assuming for operating cash flow for the full fiscal year now? I think, Michael, if we go through the cash flow statement, I think if you look at the CapEx, I mentioned in my presentation that it will be around EUR 80 million. Working capital, which is in the first half, EUR -28, I think a significant part of that should recover through the year. We can think about taxes, a very similar level to last year. The other bucket is interest rates, which as you have seen, is slightly increasing. And the we expect also a slightly increase in the second half, driven by higher Euribor. When you put everything together, I think total cash flow for the full year should be around EUR -40 million - EUR -50 million. That means we're probably at about an operating cash number of EUR 110 million-EUR 120 million? Compared to the EUR 43 in the first half. Yeah. Which finally, if you convert that into the leverage ratio, probably we will end up the year with a leverage ratio of slightly above 3x. As I have explained, we expect a very strong 2024, and therefore, the high peak in leverage will be temporarily. Okay. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Cameron Nathan from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Thanks for the presentation, Rafael. Look, first question from me. I'm interested, just in terms of China, I'm interested to get an insight into what sorts of conversations you're having with customers or potential customers. Also on China, has anything surprised you so far with the move there? Thanks. You mean customers in general, Cameron, right? Yeah. Yeah, that's correct. Yeah. Well, in China, basically, I think that the conversation with the customers is to focus on what is gonna be the production for the next month. This is basically, they should consider the orders they have and how the steel prices are in terms of cost. Normally, this is the main, you know, topic that we are discussing with them. Normally, the contracts are in place. We have formula basis in terms of steel prices in container. Everything is going well in terms of the break, you know, performance or the framework of the business. The situation there is that they depend a lot from the real estate and construction business in China, because normally, the electric furnace are producing, long, you know, long products like the bars and so, well, basically, they are suffering this. You know, the conversation are all the time about the production and product delivery. This is in general. The other point is in the Guangdong province and talking with the team makers, getting more commitment for the future. I will say that the problem is really the production, not is a problem of the business framework or the contracts and so on. This is the main issue in China, which in the end, is not very difficult to the rest of the conversation with the other areas and the steel makers. Very clear. Thanks. If I could, just a very quick follow-up. You know, in the steel market, there's been a lot of talk around green premiums. Given your kind of alignment with this market as a zinc producer recycler, I'm just interested to get your thoughts. You know, do you think this will become a reality? You know, is it already becoming a reality and starting to come into conversations at all? Thanks. I do think, or we do think that this is already a reality. Other thing is what is the premium for this reality, right? I think that everyone is very interested in our think in the US market as an example, because it's the only one being green field around the world. The conversation with the steel makers, especially for the growth plans and for the future, are considering as well somehow, exchange of dust and waste and change for green zinc. Definitely the answer is yes. I think, and we think that is a reality. The world is not gonna be back. I think that the green zinc, in this case, is gonna be good, but it's early to say if there is any premium on the back of this or how much premium is gonna be, that I consider that will be somehow a premium for us. Great. Yeah, thanks very much. I'll jump back in the queue. Thanks. Thank you, Cameron. Sorry. The next question is from the line of Lasse Stüben from Berenberg. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. Maybe just two questions to start with. If can we just discuss the development of coke prices again, just to make sure we understand the dynamics. I think you mentioned that they're down 3% versus Q1. You know, when I look at some of the indices in the market, some of these are down, you know, 30%, 40%, 50% since the beginning of the year. It'd be good just to understand how your coke price dynamics work and, you know, is that 30%, 40% decrease something we should be looking at for Q3 and Q4? The second question I would have is, you sort of mentioned that, I might have missed this earlier, but that volumes in steel dust recycling should improve. Can you just run me through sort of why you're confident that that will happen and what the basis for that assumption is? Thank you. Thank you, Lasse. Well, regarding coke price, as we have explained it in the previous calls, we have a combination of different coke prices with different, you know, evolution of the market. We have petcoke, which is driven by issues regarding the availability of the refining, oil refining and so on, and the market dynamics of this sector. The metallurgical coke that is still high, I think it's like not driven by the same issues that the thermal coke and the others, and well, depends as well on the locations and traders and broker situation with this. The third one is the anthracite, which is driven by other things, especially in the area of Europe, well affected by the Ukrainian issue. The fact is that in a perfect storm as well, the last Qs, since the second half of 2022 until now, the coke prices has been at a very high level, and we were not, you know, observing signals that is decreasing, but now we are observing this. As an example, I put before, for the Q3 petcoke, the whole European plants is dropping $100, coming from $240, which is absolutely crazy price that we never saw before. Now, coming back to $220, $130, $110, is a logical and normal level. It's still perhaps on high, but it's normal levels. Still, met coke and anthracite, we don't see in the other regions a reduction. Again, we'll see, because definitely it's not increasing, but I think that is, well, it's both reduction, and we hope that the reduction should be higher for the next months and period. Question is when it's gonna happen, and always you need couple of months to allocate your needs to the reality. It's not something like you guys can say, Okay, this is like following the LME or the market prices that you can even hedge. I think it's something more complicated. On the other hand, nothing to be unmanageable. It's a matter to be close to the real consumption that you have. As with the second question about why we see the steel dust, second part strong as well there's again a combination of many things, no? One, starting for the volumes. We had, as we explained it, you know, production side, very low starting of the year in U.S., and we had the problem in Turkey with the earthquake and everything has made that we have a kind of delay in the expectation for 23 that now we don't see. I mean, U.S. operation are coming strong at the levels that we hope. I mean, considering the contract we lost last year and so on, but the level is quite considered. That in the first half was not. Second, we see that with this level of production, we can implement finally- Hello, everyone. Apologies, because I think we have a problem here with the line. I think, Lasse, are you still there? I think I see an operator. I think I see it was answering a question to Lasse from Berenberg. We can continue with the Q&A, and maybe Lasse can go back in the queue. Yes, Lasse, you are now live again. Great. Okey I think that question was clear. I was just asking about volumes in the U.S. I'm not sure if there's much else to add, or volumes overall, sorry in steel dust. Maybe just a final question. Can you just give us an update on. You mentioned the zinc refining asset. I think you were targeting positive EBITDA by sort of the end of Q4. Is that still on track? Or what's the update on operations in the US zinc refining asset? Well, I think as I said before in the question that I think Michael or Sandy raised, the idea is that we don't change our target to have the range of EUR 10 million-EUR 15 million in the future. This is that if we can probably we can in the fourth quarter or no later than next year 2024 right? Again, this is something that we will monitoring and we'll come back with the results on how the plant is doing. What I can say is that it's more stable. The plant is reaching good levels of production, and well, we will be in the next step to increase this to the almost 100% optimization rate when those EBITDAs will come. Hopefully, will come in the last quarter of the year or something like that. We will confirm. That obviously will be much better than the first half of the year. Okay, understood. Thanks. I'll jump back in the queue. Thank you, Lasse Stüben. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. The next question is from the line of Mubasher Irfan from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Hi, thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to check on the CapEx guidance of EUR 50 million-EUR 60 million for the China plant. This is higher than the CapEx you have previously spoken about for China plants. Can you just help us understand why this is higher? Around what CapEx should we assume for the additional Kinzer these in this plant? Thank you. Thank you for the question. Yeah, we can confirm that in the guidance is not included, the Chinese, the Chinese CapEx for 2023, because we are considering that the Chinese project will come more in 2024, in view of the current circumstances in China. We are obviously doing things there, but it based on the, on the authorities of the of the industrial zone, preparation of the lands and so on, but it's not on our, on our investment.We are gonna try to we basically, we have not considered investment in China for the, for the last part of the year. Thanks for that. Sorry, if I wasn't clear, my question was more around the overall CapEx that you mentioned for the Guangdong plant, EUR 50 million-EUR 60 million. Previously, you have talked about, like, I remember EUR 42 million number for a new plant. I was just wondering if we should take EUR 50 million-EUR 60 million as the new CapEx guidance when we are thinking of new plants in China? Basically, I think that is, we are providing the EUR 50 million-EUR 60 million. It's a range that will be probably more in the EUR 50 million. The other thing is that the inflationary pressure and the, and the things that come is making us be a little bit conservative. I think that the range of EUR 50+ million, less 10% is the typical amount that we talk. In the previous plans, we talk about EUR 40 million something, and that was more or less well because we were in on budget. I think that is more realistic now under the current circumstances, and with the Guangdong conditions of the land and everything, to think in the range of EUR 50 million. The EUR 60 million probably is a very high range that just if anything comes. Again, when we are progressing the project, we can give more color about the CapEx side, because now we have still in a very earlier step. Thank you. That's very clear. Thanks. We have a follow-up question from Sandy Peety. Please go ahead. Hey. Hi, thanks for taking my question again. Just a very, very quick question on zinc prices. Zinc realized prices came in below the benchmark price prices, despite your hedging in place that were above benchmark price. Can you help us understand what's happening? This is happened for the second time during the year, ie., in 1Q and 2Q. Thanks, Sandy. I don't know if we are getting you very well. You mean that the blend zinc price is higher than you were expecting, and what is coming from the second half, or what exactly is the question? Yeah, no, the blended price is lower than the benchmark price, and this is despite your hedging, which is above the benchmark price, at least in 2Q. Benchmark price. Well, I think that the blended price is not a matter of comparing with benchmark or the market, because it's depending on the hedging and the real zinc prices as well, and the moment that we sell. Rafael, you can. Sandy, the blended prices, as we have explained many times, is basically the average, the weighted average between the hedged volume and at the hedge price, with the unhedged volume at the average spot price okay. That's the calculation driven by that. Let me go into the details of the Q2, and I'll get back to you later after the call. No problem. Thank you. You're welcome. We have another follow-up question from Cameron Nathan. Please go ahead. Thanks, all. I just wanted to ask a quick question on the recent CFO change as well. Appreciate the sensitivity of the issue, I just wanted to see, are you able to comment on the change? Can we expect any changes on, you know, things like grade strategy and also how the balance sheets run from here? Thanks very much. Thank you. I will answer the. This is Javier. I will answer this question. Well, what, as I said in the speech, after nine years of successful collaboration, Wolf Lehmann has decided to pursue new opportunities outside of the company. We don't have anything special to comment about that. It's a personal decision, and we have a good agreement to finish our relationship. Later on, we have decided to appoint Rafael Pérez, that has been 15 years in the company. He has the knowledge, the experience, the leadership skills to manage the perfectly situation. All of you know very well, Rafael, because he has been in charge of the investor relations with all the analysts of the company, and with all the investors. On top of that, we have a strong team led by Juan Albizu, which is our global controller, who will be, that will continue supporting the CFO as he has been doing in the last year. Nothing is going to change from, in any sense. Wolf Lehmann was an excellent CFO, but he was not the person who defined the strategy of the company. The strategy of the company is defined by the board of the director, and myself, with the help of Asier also, as CEO, and this is what will continue to happen in the future. You are not going to see any change. We will continue managing the situation as we have been doing, with the same rigor and in the same way we have been doing. Very clear. Thanks, all. Thank you, Cameron. The next question is from line of Jaime Escribano from Santander. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. My question is from the Salt Slag division, which increased quarter-on-quarter to around close to EUR 8 million EBITDA in Q2. My question would be: What could we expect in following quarters, and why is the result being so high? I don't know if it's still positively impacted by the insurance payment or what's the outlook here? Second question, if you can remind us in terms of maintenance, what maintenance you need to do in the second half of the year, and whether this could also be a negative for maintaining the guidance at EUR 200 million. Thank you. Thank you, Jaime. Well, the Salt Slags division, as we have explained it, is benefiting now from the, well, better margins coming from the low energy prices and as well, because we have passed through the increase of the energy prices recently to the customers. We are still seeing this. The margins are coming better, and the idea is still to be there for a while, as much long as we can, until the market probably realize or the, well, basically organize the margins. We don't expect many changes for the second part of the year in the salt slag business. Key is the Hannover plant being back of full production, contributing with margins. All in all, I think that is a you know reliable level where we are located. The insurance matter is not affecting to the operations, to the normal annual EBITDA and to the results of the operation. It's something that is a different animal and we don't treat in the normal operations right, no? For the maintenance. For maintenance, Jaime, basically during the first half, maintenance CapEx was around EUR 43 million. Out of that, you have to consider that EUR 13 million were coming from the Hannover recovery works. If you normalize that's EUR 30 million for the first half. I think for the second half of the year, you can use the same amount. Total full year, maintenance CapEx should be around EUR 60 million-EUR 65 million. Thank you. Yeah, no, my question was more about the maintenance, the typical maintenance stoppage of plants that you need to do, which usually take place in summer, I was wondering whether this could also negatively affect Q3, I don't know if in terms of volumes, and how would you reconcile that with the EBITDA guidance for 2023? Okay, Jaime. Understood. Well, basically, as we normally do yearly basis stoppages, I think there are no differences with the previous year. Normally the Q2 and the Q3 are the weaker in terms of production, and then the fourth one will be stronger. We can say that is more or less what is gonna happen this year. We are having some stoppages of the plants in the Q2. Some of them are gonna be in the 3rd plant, nothing massively. I think that is the normal trend of the timing for the production and throughput that we are having every year. Nothing special. Okay, very good. Thank you. We have another follow-up question from Lasse Stüben. Your question, please. Hi again. Sorry, final question from me. Just on the hedged volume, what's the hedge volume for 2025 so far? I guess more of a conceptual question, but are you considering raising the proportion of the hedge volume up from the 65%-70%, or is that something you continue to keep at that level? Thanks. Thank you, Lasse. Well, for 2025, we have hedged all the way until July and including July. We have hedged the usual 35,000-38,000 tons per quarter. Okay, so that's the volume that we have considered for 2025. When it comes to extend the hedges, when we look at the current price and when the same price is at the current level, say, which is around the zinc cost curve, as I said, explained, we don't go along with the hedges. We just wait because we are sure that we are fully covered for the next full years. Over that period of time, same price should recover, and we will have the opportunity to extend the hedges for the second half of 2025, as we have done in the last 15 years. Great. Understood. Thank you. Thank you, Lasse. At this time, there are no further questions, and I hand back to Rafael Pérez for closing comments. Thank you all for your questions. You can also contact the investor relations teams of Befesa for any further clarification. We will now conclude the conference call and the Q&A session. Let me remind you that you can find the webcast and the dial-in details to access the recording of this conference call at our website, www.befesa.com. Thank you very much to all of you, and have a good day.