Braskem - Earnings Call - Q2 2025
August 7, 2025
Transcript
Speaker 0
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to Braskem's second quarter of 2025 results conference call. With us here today, we have Mr. Roberto Ramos, Braskem's CEO, Mr. Felipe Jens, Braskem's CFO, and Ms. Rosana Avolio, Investor Relations, Strategic Planning, and Corporate Market Intelligence Director. We inform you that this event is being recorded. The presentation will be held in Portuguese, with simultaneous translation into English. All participants can choose which language to listen to and see the presentation in, using the "Show Captions" and "View Options" buttons, as well as the "Interpretation" button. After Braskem's remarks, first we will announce in English. The event will be held in Portuguese, with simultaneous translation into English. All participants can choose which language to listen to and see the presentation in, using the "Interpretation" and "View Options" buttons, respectively. After Braskem's remarks, there will be a Q&A session.
At that time, further instructions will be given. After Braskem's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. At that time, further instructions will be given. This event audio will be available on the investor relations website after it concludes. We remind you that participants may choose what language, but may submit questions to Braskem's board, which will be answered by the Investor Relations department. Before proceeding, we'd like to clarify that any statements that may be made during this conference call regarding Braskem's business prospects, projections, operational and financial goals constitute beliefs and assumptions of the company's management, as well as information currently available to Braskem. Future considerations are not a guarantee of performance and involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, as they refer to future events and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur.
Investors and analysts should understand that general conditions, industry conditions, and other operational factors may affect Braskem's future results and may lead to results that differ materially from those expressed in such future conditions. Now, I'll turn the conference over to Ms. Rosana Avolio, Investor Relations, Strategic Planning, and Corporate Market Intelligence Director. Ms. Avolio, you may begin your presentation.
Speaker 2
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We appreciate everyone for participating in Braskem's earnings call for the second quarter of 2025. According to the agenda on slide number three, we will start with the main company's highlights in the period, which can be found from slide number four. In the second quarter of 2025, the performance of the industry continued to be affected by the continuation of the downturn in the petrochemical industry in addition to the global tariff uncertainties. In this scenario, the utilization rates of petrochemical plants remained stable in relation to the previous quarter, especially in Brazil and the assets in the United States and Europe, both with 74% of utilization, while Mexico, impacted by the general maintenance shutdown, showed a drop of 35 percentage points in its utilization rate when compared to the previous quarter.
In addition, Braskem recorded an average global accident frequency rate of 1.11 events per million hours worked, well below the global industry average, which reinforces the non-negotiable commitment to the safety of the company's operations. Regarding its results, the company reported a consolidated recurring EBITDA of $74 million, 67% lower when compared to the first quarter of 2025, in a phase of a challenging conjunctural scenario. In addition, despite the lower working capital consumption when compared to the previous quarter, the company presented operating cash consumption of $31 million, an increase of $129 million compared to the previous quarter. Regarding its debt profile, the company ended the quarter with an average debt maturity of about nine years and with more than 68% of the maturity as of 2030.
Braskem's cash position at the end of the second quarter was approximately $1.7 billion, sufficient to cover debt maturity in the next 30 months, not considering the international revolving credit line available in the full amount of $1 billion and maturing in December 2026. The company's total liquidity, including this line, ended at approximately $2.8 billion in the quarter. Now, let's move on to the next slide. The performance of each segment of the company will be presented below, starting with Brazil on slide six. The petrochemical plants in the Brazil segment presented an average utilization rate in line with the first quarter of 2025, with emphasis on the gas-based plant in Rio de Janeiro, which operated at 95%.
Regarding sales, the volume of resin sold in the Brazilian market and in the international markets were higher compared to the previous quarter, impacted by the anticipation of purchases in the transformation chain due to the lower prices in the international markets in the quarter, due to tariff uncertainties and the market's expectation of price increases throughout the second half of 2025. As for the international spreads that impacted the segment, although the average resin spreads increased in the quarter due to the 17% increase in the PE spread, the lower PP spread at 4% had an influence on the results of the business.
Recurring EBITDA for the segment was $152 million, 24% lower than the previous quarter, mainly impacted by the stock effect of feedstock acquired in the previous period, the appreciation of the average real against the average dollar in the period, and the increase in fixed costs and other expenses resulting from the reclassification of expenses from the corporate unit to the business due to changes in the company's organizational structure. Now, let's move on to the next slide, please. In the second quarter of 2025, the utilization rate of the green ethylene plant was 71%, 16 percentage points lower than in the previous quarter, impacted by the inventory optimization carried out in the period. On the other hand, sales of green polyethylene were higher due to the increase in demand from new and existing customers, with emphasis on the higher volume sold in Brazil compared to the previous quarter.
In this context, the green polyethylene business was 18% higher in revenue in conjunction with the company's ETBE business. The positive quarterly results benefit the company's transformation journey, focusing on its migration to renewables pillar with the objective of strengthening the resilience and longevity of the business. Currently, the presence of its own innovative ecosystem focused on developing renewable solutions and the strategic partnerships established through SustainEia and Braskem CM support the advancement of this journey. Now, let's move on to the next slide, please. In the United States and Europe segment, the plant utilization rate remained in line with the second quarter of 2025 compared to the previous quarter at 74% of utilization. On the other hand, the volume of PP sales in the segment was higher than in the previous quarter by 7,000 tons.
Despite the higher sales volumes, the segment recurring EBITDA was negative by $8 million, mainly impacted by the following inventory effects due to the average cost of goods sold, referring to the feedstocks acquired in the previous period, which partially offset the improvement in spreads in the segment, and the higher SG&A explained by the reclassification of expenses from the corporate unit to the business due to changes in the company's organizational structure. Now, moving on to the next slide, we'll discuss the segment Mexico. In June, the general maintenance shutdown of Braskem Idesa plant began, which significantly impacted the segment's operation in the period that operated at a utilization rate of 44% in the second quarter of 2025.
The volume of polyethylene sales in the period was also lower compared to the first quarter of the year, impacted by the lower availability of products due to the scheduled shutdown and also the lower supply of ethane by Pemex, impacting the inventory formation process prior to the general maintenance shutdown. In this scenario, the segment's recurring EBITDA in the period was negative by $9 million, also impacted by the lower spread of ethane-based polyethylene in the period at about $95 per ton, and the higher expenses of the storage and ethane tankage due to the scheduled shutdown, which was partially offset by the positive impact on other revenues. Now, next slide. In the second quarter of 2025, the Mexico segment's performance was impacted by a combination of significant factors.
The reduced domestic ethane supply in recent months, below the volume contracted with Pemex, has posed an additional operational challenge, especially in a context of a downturn in the global petrochemical cycle, where international spreads are expected to remain challenged in the short and in the medium terms. These factors have exerted additional pressure on Braskem Idesa results, which operate with a significant debt structure, imposing constraints that require continued attention to cash reservation and financial discipline in this segment. Now, next slide. Moving on to the next chapter, I will discuss the consolidated results of the company, starting with the updates regarding the work fronts in Alagoas. By the end of June 2025, all work fronts in Maceió continued to advance according to plan. The relocation and compensation front continued to show evolution in its indicators and ended the semester with 99.9% of execution of the residents' relocation program.
The same percentage also applies to the number of proposals submitted for the financial compensation and relocation support program, of which about 99.5% were accepted and 99.4% were paid. In parallel, the execution of the closure and the monitoring of the salt cavities is still being implemented after the provision of all actions, if necessary, that ensure that the 35 cavities reach a maintenance-free stage in the long term. We highlight in this quarter the approval by the ANM of the confirmation of the sealing of cavity 18. With this, there are already six naturally sealed cavities. Regarding the financial provision, the total provision for the Alagoas event was about R$17.5 billion, of which about R$13.1 billion have already been disbursed, and approximately R$439 million have been recorded in other obligations payable.
Therefore, the total balance provisioned at the end of the second quarter of 2025 was R$4.7 billion, 8% lower than the balance at the end of the first quarter of 2025. Now, let's move on to the next slide. In the second quarter of 2025, despite the greater working capital management when compared to the previous quarter due to the resilience measures implemented, the company presented a cash consumption of R$175 million, given the results presented in the quarter. The lower recurring cash consumption, when compared to the previous quarter, of approximately R$1 billion was mainly influenced by lower semi-annual interest payments on the debt securities issued in the international market by the company, which are concentrated in the first and third quarters of the year. Considering the disbursements from Alagoas, the company presented a cash consumption of R$1.5 billion. Now, let's move on to the next slide.
Braskem ended the second quarter of the year maintaining an extended profile of its corporate debt, with an average maturity of nine years and 68% of the debts concentrated as of 2030. Considering the company's liquidity level, the available cash of $1.8 billion is sufficient to cover its obligations for the next 30 months without considering the available international credit line in the amount of $1 billion. Finally, the corporate leverage stood at 10.59 times at the end of the second quarter of 2025 due to the lowest EBITDA in the last 12 months. Following our agenda, we will move on to the next slide. Thus, we conclude the overview of the second quarter of 2025, and I will now comment on the company's resilience and transformation program.
The outlook for the international petrochemical industry remains challenged in the coming years, where by 2030, China will continue making significant investments in the expansion of ethylene and propylene chains using various feedstocks. This represents a significant increase in salt capacity, with more than 40 new cracker plants, increasing ethylene capacity by about 100 million tons and propylene by around 70 million tons, which reinforces the expectation of oversupply and increased idleness in the sector. The average idle rate of ethylene production, without considering a rationalization of the industry, already shows an upward trend, and the data projects a growing gap between supply and demand by the end of the decade, which will put pressure on the margins of the entire industry. Next slide. In a challenging chemical and petrochemical scenario, it's important to highlight the importance of the chemical industry for Brazil.
The national chemical industry is home to the fourth largest chemical industry in the world, responsible for 11% of the industrial GDP and occupying the third position among the largest industrial sectors in the country. The chain generates 2 million direct and indirect jobs and is present in practically all segments of the economy, from fertilizers to pharmaceuticals, from personal hygiene to pesticides. In addition, it's an important competitive advantage. The production of chemical inputs in Brazil is now the cleanest in the world, with carbon emissions up to 51% lower than those of the main international industries. However, despite its relevance and potential, the Brazilian chemical industry faces important structural challenges. Today, the industry operates with the highest level of idleness in history, reflecting the growing pressure from imports and an uncompetitive cost structure.
In the case of the Brazilian petrochemical company, the production based on naphtha will continue to present a growing gap in competitiveness in relation to ethane, challenging the margins for the producers who use naphtha as a feedstock. Now, let's move on to the next slide. In this context, Braskem remains committed to the execution of the initiatives set out in its resilience and transformation program, with a focus on overcoming the structural challenges of the global petrochemical industry and the national chemical sector. In this scenario, the company has been implementing initiatives aimed at sustainable value generation, with an emphasis on maximizing EBITDA and generating greater cash. Now, moving on to the next slide.
Regarding initiatives related to the defense of the Brazilian chemical industry, Braskem, together with ABITIM and other companies operating in the sector, reinforces the importance of implementing mechanisms to protect the national industry in order to ensure greater competitive balance. As an example, Bill 892/25 stands out, which establishes the special sustainability program for the chemical industry. PRESIC aimed at promoting the sustainability and competitiveness of the sector through fiscal incentives. Braskem reaffirms its support for the approval of the project, recognizing it as an essential measure to strengthen the entire production chain. Additionally, with the proximity of the end of the special regime for the chemical industry, RAIC, scheduled for the end of 2026, it's urgent to adopt measures to ensure the competitiveness of the Brazilian chemical industry in the face of the structural and conjunctural challenges of the sector.
For Braskem, the resumption of the tax credit on the purchase of feedstocks to the level of 8.25%, a rate originally approved in the implementation of RAIC in 2013, represents an opportunity for competitive equality, creating value for the entire chain and for the country. Additionally, with the end of RAIC, the proposal would be the institution of a new financial regime between 2025 and 2029, with incentives for the purchase of feedstocks and for the expansion of the production capacity. At the same time, the approval of anti-dumping measures is essential to correct market distortions and protect the domestic markets, especially in the face of the growing pressure caused by the increase in imports made with unfair pricing practices.
Several countries, such as the United States, Europe, China, and South Korea, have already implemented robust policies to encourage the chemical industry, with trillions of dollars in subsidies, support for innovation, and trade defense mechanisms. Although each adopts specific strategies, they all share the same goal: to strengthen the chemical industry, an essential basis for several other production chains, in addition to generating significant multiplier effects for their economies. Now, let's move on to the next slide. Within the transformation pillar, the optimization of naphtha-based assets is one of the company's objectives, aiming firstly to maximize the utilization rate of the most competitive production lines, such as the one in Rio de Janeiro, which operated at 95% in the last quarter. Another advance was the approval of resources via RAIC investments of initiatives that enabled the expansion of the capacity of PVC assets in Alagoas.
Meanwhile, the company is also evaluating the hibernation of the least competitive production lines globally, which considers the criteria such as plant age, technology used, production cost, scale, and operational synergies, aiming at a greater efficiency and profitability. Now, let's move on to the next slide. In relation to this front, we will seek to enable the expansion of our gas-based assets, with a focus on greater competitiveness and the resilience of the business by expanding the use of a more competitive feedstock. This includes projects to expand gas-based capacity, the expansion of the flexibility of petrochemical plants in Brazil, and initiatives that ensure the operational stability of our crackers, such as the recent expansion of our own fleet dedicated to transport ethane between the United States, Brazil, and Mexico.
As an example of an initiative to expand gas-based assets is Transforma Rio, a project to increase the capacity of the petrochemical complex in Rio de Janeiro by 230,000 tons, with equivalent expenses of fee. So far, R$233 million have been approved for the contracting of conceptual and basic engineering studies. The final investment decision of the project is conditioned to the signing of a long-term ethane supply contract and the use of resources within the scope of RAIC investments. In addition to promoting a greater competitiveness for the company, the project has the potential to unlock important socioeconomic benefits for the region, such as increased revenue and national collection, in addition to the need for around 7,500 jobs during its execution. Now, let's move on to the final slide. To conclude, I would like to reinforce our priorities that guide our actions in 2025.
We will continue to advance in the transformation of our assets with a focus on competitiveness, efficiency, and sustainability. This journey is essential to ensure the resilience of our business in the face of the challenge of the sector. At the same time, implementing contingency initiatives for the petrochemical cycle, with special attention to the financial preservation and cash flow management, ensuring solidity and responsibility in our decisions. We will also continue our work in the competitiveness agenda of the Brazilian chemical industry, seeking measures to promote competitive equality and strengthen the sector as a whole. Finally, we will maintain our commitment to the agreement signed in Maceió, fulfilling each stage with transparency and responsibility. All this without giving up safe actions in our operations. Safety is and will continue to be a non-negotiable value in our strategy, guiding Braskem's every action and decision.
Thus, we conclude the presentation of Braskem's results for the second quarter of 2025. Thank you very much for everyone's attention. We will now start the Q&A session. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now start the Q&A session. To ask a question, please click on the raise hand button or send your question using the Q&A window. To remove your question, click again on raise hand. Our first question comes from Gabriel Coelho Barra. Gabriel, you may proceed.
Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two of them. We discussed a lot about measures to improve the company's results and how to improve resiliency. When we look at micro numbers and spreads, as you mentioned, there is a longer delay in recovery for the spreads than we had expected. This is, in fact, taking longer than we imagined. The company's leverage peaked at almost 3x for this quarter. I know there's matters related to costs, but this is rather high leverage in our perspective. This does make us a little concerned about the leverage rate and the company's bottom line.
Also, on the topic of the recent interview that the company gave, talking about sales of assets and bringing in a potential partner for a green production, I'd like to see if Roberto or Felipe perhaps can tell us a little bit about how you can work in a more difficult and compressed spread scenario and bring the company to a healthier portfolio. You mentioned a lot about green, but could you also talk about other assets that may be discussed or perhaps about rationalizing capacity? What is the route to improve the company's leverage over the coming years? The second question, I think, is inevitable, but we must discuss the company's control. I know it's complicated for you, but we must comment also about the recent press conference you gave with regard to Petrobras.
Could you give us an update about how these discussions are going with Tannudis and the different investment plans and perspectives and so on? I think you've also looked at other players as well and their proposals. Could you give us an update, a broader update about how these discussions are going? It would help us to understand more about the future of the company and this context of the divestment of Novo Nordisk over the past few years. Thank you. Hi. Can you hear me? All right. Thank you. Thank you, Gabriel. Good afternoon once again. With regard to the company's financial status, in fact, as you aptly put it, it's a double-digit leverage rate, largely not due to debts, but due to non-fulfillment of EBITDA.
As we've discussed over the half of the year and recently in the conference call, there are a number of measures that we can bring in to bring these levels to lower numbers. They are things we look at in our strategy. They largely involve growing our EBITDA. We have a transformation plan called Fly Up to Green and Switch to Gas, which is going to significantly improve our productivity and, as a result, generate EBITDA for the company and consequently give us more comfortable levels when it comes to leverage. Part of that strategy also involves, as you mentioned, liquidity initiatives for the company that touch on not just the measures that we've just presented with regard to competitive standing, competitive equality with regard to the Brazilian petrochemical industry, so that we can remain on the growth agenda and impact positively on the EBITDA.
Also, as you mentioned, Gabriel, the company is not focused on selling assets to generate cash as long as there's something more important, which is the transformation plan. Assets, and we've always said this, Roberto has said this in all of our conversations over this time, assets that are not necessarily directly linked to the company's future, which is our transformation plan, they may potentially be monetized in part or in whole, and thereby generate some cash for the company. Of course, in times when our liquidity is tighter, this becomes more important. This is not a sale that is solely focused on that. It's actually part of a much greater and more structured plan, which is our transformation plan.
These are parts of the transformation plan that remain tightly connected to everything we've been discussing about with you when it comes to a potential reduction in shareholder stake in any one of these assets. Roberto? Yeah, I'll take the second question. Just to remind you, Gabriel, in classic situations like this one, what we aim to do is to manage working capital as well as we can. We work with our suppliers to lengthen payment plans and work with clients to tighten our receivables plans. We have a number of different initiatives. They are all being pursued very diligently. It's relevant to mention that at the price level for resins today, levels that are imposed by the growing imports of products that arrive here at levels lower than they're practiced in their respective countries where they're produced. This is an imbalance that must be corrected.
It depends on us to show the severity of this to the Brazilian government and for them to make the necessary measures. With regard to the sales of Novo Nordisk and with regard to Braskem, it's important to remind everyone that when you have a company interested in purchasing the other, the purchasing company researches the company they're interested in purchasing. That's the due diligence process. As part of the due diligence process, it's inevitable that you will have a management presentation or the management five. In other words, a presentation to the future purchasing company's management, presenting your plans and how things are going. This is what we have done, and it's what we always do whenever such a situation arises. There's nothing special. I always repeat this, and unfortunately, I cannot make my message be correctly received, but we are not part of those negotiations.
We are not party to these meetings and discussions because we cannot control the Braskem shares that are owned by other shareholders. That's up to the individual shareholders, the banks, or the other companies. I can speculate, but I mean everyone can speculate. I know that there is a level of exclusivity that was granted, which I believe expires on August 20-something. We are waiting to see whether or not this operation or this trade will be completed. You know our schedule, our day-to-day is significantly occupied by our business, so we really can't waste a lot of our time mulling over this topic. I always say this, whatever shareholder comes to control Braskem, the challenges that they will encounter are the same ones we have today. Resolving those challenges involves our management, our capacity to implement the necessary solutions.
Therefore, wasting our internal time and energy trying to become involved in a negotiation that does not truly pertain to the company, but instead to its shareholders, does not really add value. It actually consumes a lot of our energy. Excellent answer. Thank you, Roberto and Felipe.
All right. Next question comes from Tasso Sousa Vasconcellos with UBS Investment Bank. You may proceed, sir.
Hi, everyone. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. Roberto, on the topic of your last comment and also with the interview you gave earlier, you mentioned that a new controlling shareholder could potentially revise some of the company's plans. Where do you see greater room for these changes? Some kind of geography change or in the company's business model or the product mix? Are there other locations where this type of change, more drastic ones, can occur? Also along those lines, what impact might those changes have to the process, whether that is in use or burn of our cash or in improvements to operations in the very short term? The second question, which is, I think, for Felipe, the company burned cash in the order of $700 million in the first half of this year.
What is your perspective or your forecast for the second half of the year? Is the company perhaps going to be more cash neutral closer to the end of the year? Are we still going to work under a scenario where the company continues to have a little bit of cash burn? Is there a significant improvement to spreads without the government's intervention such as RAIC, PRESIC, and anti-dumping for 2026? Those are my questions. Thank you. Hi, Tasso. I mentioned that in theory, because any future controlling shareholder that comes to have control over the company will have the right to analyze and criticize the company's actions. I'm convinced that our strategy is the best strategy applied to our reality because it focuses on neutralizing our weaknesses and maximizing our strengths.
Minimizing or neutralizing our weaknesses means ceasing consumption of naphtha as feedstock and starting to consume a more profitable feedstock. In terms of emphasizing our strengths, I have a SWOT analysis in my head. We have to minimize weaknesses and threats and maximize strengths and opportunities. In terms of maximizing strengths, that's about our migration to green. That means increasingly ramp up production of green products, polyethylene, but not just polyethylene, and adjusting production of fossil-based products to our success in converting the naphtha to gas bases. I'm talking about theories here, but in my mind, in my perspective, that's the best strategy that Braskem can pursue. This does not necessarily mean I am utterly correct. It could be that some potential new shareholder could wish to emphasize one area or another. I was talking about theories.
I was not talking specifically about one particular point that could be highlighted or downregulated. Now, with regard to financial health and banks, investors, and analysts, our strategy, given the industry's status, now I should mention that the industry constantly consumes cash for two years now. That's not just Braskem. Our major international competitors, I won't name them, all have significant cash consumption year after year and an increase of other metrics. They ran into some problems, and we ran into problems that they didn't occur, which pertains to the salt mine. This includes the Chinese competitors. They're building 32 tons of ethylene, and yet they're running their plants at under 70% utilization rates because they overbuilt plants and the market hasn't absorbed that much material. We remain with our strategy with an awareness that it is the correct strategy.
If such a time comes when a new controlling shareholder changes our strategy and calls upon us to change our tack, so we will do. This doesn't mean that any of these strategies are more correct than ours. What we need to do is to spend less to improve the performance of our plants and to seek out products that give us better EBITDA. That is exactly what we're doing. Perfect. On the topic of what Roberto said, which is exactly the answer to your second question, Tasso, yes, we should still consume some cash in the second half of the year, less so than in the first half, largely based on all of these measures we've been discussing, announcing, and really hammering on about with regards to improving productivity, improving initiatives to improve our feedstocks and energy inputs at these plants.
As we've mentioned, performing other potential improvement measures, whether they are creating our green business, improving the creation of our green businesses, making sure that it has the necessary resources to expand, and to ensure that all of them will create cash, if not by the end of this year, at the longest in the very short or medium term, so that we can deleverage, improve our EBITDA, and reduce our consumption of cash in the more immediate term. This is a major focus of ours. We are involved in all of these measures, whether that's through a VPL or economic value or liquidity or different financial measures that allow the company to reduce the cash consumption within 2025 because both spreads and volume forecasts are not going to be very different for the second half of the year than they were in the first half of the year.
As a result, our ability to generate operating cash within the company is something we are going to focus on through all of these initiatives. Excellent. Thank you. That's very clear.
Our next question comes from the with Banco Bradesco BBI S.A. You may proceed, sir.
Thank you, Roberto, Felipe, and Rosana. Thanks for the call. I have two questions. I'd like to understand the main takeaway that the company has sent to bondholders. The bonds are trading under 70 at face value. I know that there's many bonds coming to term, but most are in 2028. For my second question, I'd like to understand whether today you see the assets that Braskem purchased in the U.S., such as Dow among others, as strategic. Back in 2010 and 2012, the company really wished to increase its participation in the U.S., for instance, through the Cracker Project in Philadelphia, and for a number of reasons that didn't occur. I'd like to understand how strategic these assets are within the company's strengths portfolio. Thank you. With regard to our U.S. plants, they are an integral part of our strategy. Maintaining these plants in the U.S.
is of essential importance for us because that is where two of our three main laboratories are located: the Pittsburgh Laboratory, which is focused on technology, products, and catalysts for polypropylene, especially, but also polyethylene, and the Lexington Laboratory, which is focused on our line of green products. Along these lines, one of our projects is to produce green polypropylene in the U.S. based on corn ethanol. Therefore, the plants there are essential for us to process propylene or propane, the green propylene that we would then create. We have no doubt that these plants are essential for us. I'm personally not a fan of thinking about selling assets to amortize debt. Now, with regard to the bonds, as you asked, Braskem has a conversion plan for gas and for green that involves investments, very large investments. For instance, just one of them involves a $700 million investment.
To finance that, you will finance that through a bank financing during construction. After construction, you necessarily must migrate to long-term financing to match the assets and funding in terms of terms. You can't mismatch short, long-term funding or financing. Whether we use bank financing or our own financing, we need to migrate to capitals. Any type of migration that would be done with Braskem's debt. This would be considering that Braskem would need to reprofile its debt. This would prevent us from gaining access to this capital's market. This would impede us from our transformation plan and the investments we must perform. In terms of financial technical discussions, it makes no sense to reprofile Braskem's debt. Furthermore, I believe that this is a mistaken diagnosis. Braskem's problem is not the size of its debt, but its current EBITDA. It is resolved by increasing our EBITDA.
We increase EBITDA through all of these resiliency measures and tariff and commercial protections that we aim to obtain from the government. This will increase Braskem's EBITDA to the levels that we had five or six years ago. As a result, our net EBITDA ratio will stop being relevant. In 2028, Braskem's EBITDA level will be much higher than it is today. For me, in my opinion, this is a very superficial view of Braskem. It's about bringing in a medication for a wrong diagnosis. If you know finance, this is not the right diagnosis. Thank you, Roberto. That was very clear.
Our next question comes from Bruno Montanari with Morgan Stanley. You may proceed, sir.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I'd like to follow up on some of the topics that were discussed. I think Vicente's last question is due to a headline that was published recently that said you may be thinking of selling the U.S. assets. Based on your response, I can see that that is not the case. I'd just like to double-check whether it is totally out of the question. Another topic along those lines, on the topic of restructuring the portfolio and reassessing strategies, this is something we've seen discussions for some time now, quite some time now. Currently, no real structural changes have occurred. My question is about timing. What do you see in terms of expectation for performing that transformation, given that the leverage rate has reached numbers that are kind of critical and the double-digit rate?
My second question, when we think about the government's support for the industry as a whole, which makes sense, and you mentioned that various other regions have these types of incentives. However, your results in those regions where the incentives exist were worse than here in Brazil. What types of additional measures would be needed in the U.S., Europe, or Mexico for the company's results to improve? If I may ask a third question, I understand that you are not party to the Novo Nordisk negotiations, but the company's management is involved in assessing Braskem's articles. I'd like to ask you about tagalong, the tagalong clause, and what in the company's opinion would be a trigger for that to count as change of control. Would it be only the total divestment of Novo Nordisk, or would it be Novo Nordisk losing effective controlling status and becoming a minor shareholder?
Roberto, before I start on the topic of the assets, I want us to be very coherent about everything we do and everything we discuss. Again, everything comes down to our transformation plan that we have announced and have approved and have discussed exhaustively now by Roberto and that we have discussed at length and have received strong feedback that this is the route that many, many of the company's shareholders believe is the most correct way to address the challenges imposed by the fact that the global petrochemical industry is in. Given all of that, the existing assets, whether they are more aligned with the plan or less aligned with the plan, they may always, and that's not just today, stop being part of the company's portfolio in whole or in part.
As Roberto mentioned, the question of the U.S.-based laboratories, these laboratories are extremely important for the company's transformation plan. They are absolutely in line with our future and all the measures we've put in line. The asset itself is, without a doubt, an important and relevant asset. It has generated cash and EBITDA more strongly in the past, and it is likely to grow again in the future. We're always going to assess them as long as that doesn't deviate us from our transformation plan, as Roberto also mentioned, in the company's growth so that we can address our leverage, which was also questioned by Gabriel's first question. It's important for us to be clear about this topic that everything results from our transformation plan.
Things that are within or outside of the plan may be more or less susceptible to potential monetizations, be they partial or total, depending on the assets we are discussing specifically. With regard to the transformation, actually, many, many steps are being taken. We're not just discussing them. For instance, in Rio de Janeiro, we have Transforma Rio. It's one of the largest investments that has ever been announced in the Brazilian petrochemical industry. It is extremely relevant, and it's one of the key components of our transformation plan. It is in full steam, the R$233 million plan. It's a R$4 billion investment. There's a team with dozens upon dozens of people involved, along with Petrobras, working specifically on this topic to make sure that all the expenses are accounted for, including RAIC expenses every month.
This is a project that is in full motion, as well as our green project, as we've mentioned. It's currently at a reasonably advanced phase. We are looking at potential interested parties, parties who may be interested in a share of our green company, which will be here in Rio Grande do Sul and Bahia, as well as Thailand. This is a process that, as you well know, generally takes several months or more than a year to be completed. We began in late 2024 at full steam on the first half of the year. These players are engaging in their due diligence for these assets. They are dedicated, and the project is moving along very, very significantly. There's also the topic of Alagoas, as we've discussed here.
This agenda has been exhaustively discussed and worked on with various different stakeholders, whether they're public, private, class associations, all aiming to improve the productivity of our PVC plant and, as a result, optimize our feedstocks, which provide the necessary material for that plant to produce. There's also a R$88 million investment in that plant to improve its productivity. There are actually two major projects that were approved, both for new technologies and for producing PVC itself, 15,000 tons. We have over 30,000 tons of PVC coming in. All of that makes the set of these plants, which had been suffering because of their technology and age, as well as the age of some of their components, especially the provision of feedstocks, which now make that plant—this is actually very recent news—have a completely different profile than what occurred during the first half of the year.
I would say that this has concluded. These measures are now complete within our transformation plan. Lastly, before I pass the floor back to Roberto, the question you asked about whether or not there is a tagalong, this is a highly legal question. As you mentioned, there is a clear definition in the company's articles, which is open for anyone who wants to read and interpret what is written there, with regard to what does or does not trigger a tagalong clause. As Roberto also mentioned, we are not currently spending our time to analyze that because if and when that occurs and moves forward and those proposals are officially submitted, the banks that hold them, Novo Nordisk as well, with regard to any proposals that may come to be made with regard to the Novo Nordisk shares, at that time, if and when that occurs, we will discuss that.
This is a highly legal discussion, which, of course, will at some point need to be defined. On our part, this is not something we are provoking or defining. Roberto, I will answer the other questions on the topic of the results from the U.S., Germany, and Mexico. Mexico has our best results by far. Their EBITDA is much higher than the EBITDA at our other plants because it's a much more modern site. Its thermal and energy profile is much more efficient. They suffer from lack of feedstock because our feedstock supplier consistently fails to provide us the necessary levels of feedstock. We had to invest in a terminal to import ethylene from the U.S.
With the end, as I mentioned last week, with the end of the halt and the beginning of investment in the plants, we are now going to start operating at a level, a capacity level that really owns up to that complex. You will see that the EBITDA margin is many times higher than what we have in Brazil. With regard to Brazil, our polypropylene plants in the U.S. and Germany are not integrated. That means we buy propylene from suppliers. The price of propylene has fluctuated because we can purchase polymer-grade or refinery-grade propylene. In the past, there was a spread between these two types of propylene. We capitalized on that spread to buy the cheapest one for us. This arbitrage was somewhat reduced. What we saw in the U.S. in the first semester was atypical. These plants have given us $1 billion per year in cash flow.
The news from this journalist, who is very well informed when it comes to Braskem, I don't know what his sources are, $1 billion from the U.S. plants, that's something we had every year. We're talking about a whole other level of value. In Germany, our two plants in Germany suffer from the same problems that all of the European petrochemical industry suffers. The cost of energy in Germany tripled when it comes to the end of using Russian gas and moving to U.S. gas. The value tripled per BTU. The cost of energy reflects that. As a result, we are aligning our supply contracts for those plants so that we can gain access to less expensive propylene. There's a crisis in the petrochemical industry in Europe as a whole and in Germany in particular. The billiard table has all the billiard balls in motion.
We're working to recover everything that we can.
Our next question comes from Nicholas Faber-Sachs. You may proceed, sir. Our next question comes from Leonardo Marcondes with BofA Securities. Your line is open, sir. Alô,
Speaker 0
tudo bem?
Speaker 2
Hi, hello. Can you hear me?
Speaker 0
Boa tarde, pessoal.
Speaker 2
Ok. Good afternoon, everyone. Roberto, Felipe, Rosana. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two questions as well. First, I'd like to ask how you see the capacity closure dynamics in the short, medium, and long term, let's say 2025 and 2026. Within that context, I'd also like to understand if you have any forecasts with regard to the time evolution topic that has arisen in China and how that could impact capacity closures in the short term.
Speaker 0
want to know about these levers.
Speaker 2
My second question pertains to the value leveraging and whether that could help the petrochemical industry in Brazil. I'd like to get your opinion about the timing for these measures. Do you think that anti-dumping is something that might be discussed in the next GSX meeting?
Speaker 0
What can be expected as well?
Speaker 2
Or any other meetings, including urgent ones, with regard to timing? How do you see the timing for these measures? Thank you.
Speaker 0
Felipe, let me answer the first part.
Speaker 2
Felipe, let me answer the first part of your question. You and Rosana can answer the others.
Speaker 0
Pergunta que eu vou cumprir.
Speaker 2
Unfortunately, this is the last question I will be able to field because I sadly have a commitment I am already late to.
Speaker 0
Exclama.
Speaker 2
Leonardo, something that's very clear for us at Braskem is that all of our production plants, we have 40 different plants around the world. All of them must generate positive cash flow. If they fail to generate positive cash flow, then those sites will be submitted to some kind of intervention, whether that means replacing feedstocks from naphtha to gas or a naphtha-gas blend or some other kind of feedstock, such as non-ethane, which is the case with Plant 2 in Rio Grande do Sul, which we plan to run with propane. The plants that fail to adjust to all of these interventions we can make to improve productivity, well, they have no reason to exist. We will hibernate or shut down plants that generate negative EBITDA after all of the corrective measures we can undertake. Of course, this needs to be done in an orderly manner.
With regard to the previous question, you don't shut down a plant overnight. You have business commitments you need to uphold. You have employees you need to reassign. You have commitments you have signed to the different contracts you need to comply with. You don't implement a decision like this overnight. We are constantly analyzing all of our assets. I assure you that those assets that cannot return to generating positive cash will be shut down in time. Thank you. That's clear. My question was more on the topic of what you see in the industry, because there's low capacity to close, not Braskem, but the industry as a whole. I'm wondering if you've seen anything different or if you have any different expectations with regard to the more mainstream consulting services that people generally follow.
In that sense, if you have any kind of perspective about the time evolution matter in China, which was really a hot topic over the past couple of weeks. With regard to China, I'm sure you saw that the Chinese government opened a process to define what petrochemical plants will be removed from operation. The Chinese model is about building an electric fence, as they call, which determines the need for a given product in the petrochemical industry, polyethylene and polypropylene. They allow the various actors, whether they are private or public, federal, municipalities, to build their plants. They provide credits and tax subsidies. Those plants are built. The production capacity comes online all at the same time. They engage in an internal destruction process. It's a destructive type of capitalism that is applied in China. After everything is on the table, the government decides what remains.
This was done on the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics. This process is occurring more slowly than we imagined. One of the things we expected, we hoped, for better prices this year is we expected this process, especially in Europe, would occur more quickly. It did not occur more quickly because the governments at each of those countries or regions tried to prevent plants from being shut down. They start granting subsidies here and there and different easements along that process. As a result, they change the different price signals. They change the optimal allocation of capital. Plants that shouldn't continue to run remain online. I'm sorry. I do need to apologize again. Thank you all for being here. I leave you in the very capable hands of Felipe and Rosana. Thank you.
Roberto, I'm just going to add something. You're right. We have been following this movement. People mention capacities that used to be there. On the other hand, there is a willingness of China to meet the demands of its internal requirements so that they are less dependent on the rest of the world. When we look at the capacities that are going to be included in China, this was also in the presentation we made in relation to the capacities. We see there's a large capacity of PE and PP. Maybe the foundation of PP may be more positive for the years to come when compared to PE because the self-sufficiency movement by China started before. If we look into the future, we see that China is likely to reduce its new capacity of PP for the next years.
On the other hand, polyethylene, which stands at 70% of self-sufficiency, we understand that this is going to affect the capacity. You asked about the consulting firms. We have contact with specific consultants from the sector. What we do is to have a potential rationalization of the world. It's an exercise when we consider the base case. We assume which would be the decision of another entity to close down a unit. We have to consider other aspects, such as contracts they have with the suppliers. It's difficult to understand what the other is going to be. We have been following up on what the rationalizations are going to be, especially major competitors. As you said, they do not move at the speed that we expected. If we compare, for example, with the financial crisis, for different reasons, but in a way, they also impact the supply and demand rationale.
When we look at the environment, when it was better in relation to the impacts of the financial crisis, we saw that 27% of the industry closed. It takes a while. We have been monitoring what China has been doing. We have the rationalization model that we adopt. We understand that those who are likely to shut down are those whose technology was old, which is not our case. China has been putting in the market a lot of capacity, as I mentioned. The rest of the world, for them, we do not see a lot of changes. Even we do not see that they are going to, we do not see the announcements of new capacities. I believe that when China reaches this self-sufficient level, we are likely to have a better balance of the spreads. Year over year, we have been observing some change, some improvement.
It's difficult to understand what the rationalization is going to be. We believe that this is going to take about two or three years. There's also the point of anti-dumping. Yes, anti-dumping and RAIC. Let me tell you a story of the anti-dumping process. In fact, first providing a context. Today, we have a context, which is the most competitive feedstock at the global level. Without any doubt, it's ethane in relation to the price of the molecule and also its conversion from ethane to ethylene, and also the cash cost based on Europe. It's competitive and cost is very large, especially when we consider all the agendas that we have in relation to the industry protection. This is what we observe. Let's get a reference, an average price.
The international reference of the product that is produced in the United States and sold in the United States, it's from $300 or $500 higher than the price of exports. This is where we see the damage. We are talking about exports of imports of $900 or $1,000. From the technical viewpoint, the company really believes that the legal arguments for the anti-dumping to be approved are underway. There are two important moments to consider. This investigation process started in November 2024. Following the legal rights, it will end up to May next year. Considering all the points that I shared beforehand, as we see the preliminary report, unfortunately, we do not have any expectation of when this is going to become public. We are going to look for this anticipated approval.
Unfortunately, we do not have a specific deadline, but it's important to mention that anti-dumping is a very technical agenda. We really believe that this is going to be approved. I don't know if it's going to be anticipated, but it has enough technical arguments. We're also talking about the production chain as a whole, which does not involve only Braskem, but all the chemical industry, which is an industry that has been hurt and hit by many actions or actions coming from China, also affecting the profitability of the industry. The industry as a whole has been working hard to move forward together with ABC and other players of the Brazilian industry. Unfortunately, there is no deadline for this to be approved. What I can ensure is that Braskem, ABC, and the industry at large have been focusing so that this can be approved as soon as possible.
This is one of the main focuses of the company and of the industry as a whole.
Speaker 0
Thank you. That's very clear. Thanks for the answers.
Thank you, Leo. Our next question comes from Rodrigo Reis de Almeida with Santander Investment Securities Inc. Rodrigo, you may proceed.
Good afternoon, everyone. I have just a few follow-up questions. First, with regard to Green Coal. I want to ask about sources and uses. In the Green Coal, what do we expect will be involved? We mentioned Thailand and Brazil. This is a large, there's a large biomedicine project in the U.S. It's not clear for me whether that would be included in Green Coal. If there are any other additional investments, maybe in Bahia, any green ethylene plans to include that in Green Coal. My aim is to understand essentially the size of the Green Coal so that we could see how much that equity would be valued at that you aim to raise. The second part of my question pertains to the investments you intend to make in Brazil, particularly the logistics investments in Bahia. Is there reasonable volume? $180 million. I think it's something around that level.
If you are making similar investments in Brazil as you made in Mexico or logistics investments in Brazil, could you give us some context about investments about importing propane for Rio Grande do Sul? Just to conclude, this may be difficult to answer now, but it's worth a try. At Braskem Idesa, are there any plans or studies to expand the plant given that you have now completed the terminal? Since it's isolated, do you have any plans at the moment? Thank you. All right. Thank you, Rodrigo, for your questions. With regard to Green Coal, you have a great map you've outlined. Those are the main assets that are currently presented as potential assets to be part of Green Coal, including the Bahia project, which you mentioned. Yes. Remember, again, we are currently in a time of discussions. We don't yet have final decisions.
This is going to start being better defined as we start closing the plant window and receive more proposals from interested parties so that we can price them, qualify them, and really quantify everything and determine what is included and what is not. This is just a topic to be discussed. The matter of SAF, which used to be considered, it is green, but it's not part of Green Coal at the moment. It's a little different. I am mentioning it just to mention that there are still discussions to be had. We have not yet hit the hammer on anything yet, much less put it to the board for approval. With regard to logistics, yes, we are going to request some logistics investments in Brazil to implement the transformation plan that Roberto mentions for importing ethane and propane here in Brazil.
As we see that develop, at the moment, we don't yet have any definitions. Creating a terminal is a possibility as we did in Mexico, but it is not a certainty at all at the moment. We don't yet know whether it would justify creating a logistics company. This is part of our list of initiatives. You are correct that it is part of our transformation plan. You're correct that we are looking at the best way to make the best possible use of our structures to implement these assets. Lastly, today at Braskem Idesa, our installed capacity there is 1.05 million. For the first time, it's going to be able to run when the terminal enters. It is going to run at full operation for the first time. We are now moving to 1.2 million tons. This is being discussed.
At the moment, we are not yet certain about the right timing. When we see how the plant operates, when it's at full swing, and the matter of the global petrochemical industries and spreads and volumes and all of those external questions, external to Braskem and external to the petrochemical industry as well, we need to look at all of that in order to make these decisions. I would say that your answer is we don't yet have a definitive answer.
If I could add something related to the transformation point, there are some considerations I would like to make. Bahia is already flexible. It already has this flexibility. You're right. The investment was in the order of $100 million. We can have this option of purchasing ethane, and we have been exercising this possibility a little bit less in the past because the price of oil dropped and therefore naphtha price. We already have this flexibilization in place. It stands for about 15% or 20% of what we process in terms of ethane. We can create value. We can attract value of something that we have implemented in 2017, and we are using this flexibility. In relation to the south, even though the plants we have in the southern regions are very older, we understand that they can run propane or.
We understand the investment is going to be lower because different from the $100 million that we invested in the past. We understand that Bahia can run propane, so the investment would be lower. Future, all the studies are still underway. If we wanted to convert into ethane, we would need to make the calculations to see how much the investment would come to. In fact, we can extract value related to the flexibility, something that was planned beforehand in the past. As to the plant expansion, what's important for us to look at? We have never tested the plant 100%. It's important to understand that we can optimize the plant so that it can run above 1.05 million tons without any investments, any additional investments. This is going to be our total focus. The plant can produce how much?
The imports terminal already considers a capacity of imports of 80,000 barrels per day, which is much higher than the capacity that we need. Any expansion would be something to be discussed in the future. That would also include the need for a higher capital. As we mentioned in the call, we talked about Mexico and the stability when we work with Mexican products. This is our total focus, how we can operate the plant without additional CapEx and improve the effectiveness.
Excellent. Thank you. Thank you, Rosana and Felipe.
Our next question comes from Luiz Felipe Carvalho with Banco BTG Pactual S.A. You may proceed, sir.
Hi, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. Given the current time, I will ask just one question. Felipe, to recap everything that was asked during this call and all your answers, I am currently rather more concerned about the timings and the emotions of everything that has been raised here. Because when we look at the spread dynamic that you yourselves publish or any consultants and the slow times in reducing capacity in other countries, the cash burn and the debt level, and we are discussing the transformation process, I become very concerned because at the end of the day, two years from now, we may be discussing, I will disagree with what Roberto said, we may be discussing reprofiling the debt two years from now.
I'm wondering, at what point in time do you believe that this button will or may need to be pressed in order for us to make more drastic decisions in order to keep the company sustainable? If we compare 2025 and 2026 with the current scenario, the company is going to reach 2027, very close to the 2028 term, with a much worse debt leverage level. At what time do you believe that, you know, given the RAIC, Braskem, and anti-dumping, do you perhaps consider accelerating the process? A new article was published from another journalist about the same topic, about potentially selling the plants in the United States. At what point would that sense of urgency raise among the management in order to make more drastic changes about those questions? All right, Luis.
In fact, your question involves a number of different variables, many of which we control, and many others of which we do not control, such as the exact date when the anti-dumping will be published or the increase in RAIC, or the size of the plant. Those have important impacts on the company, and we manage all of that and draft scenarios about when which scenarios may occur. To give you an analogy, it's like playing billiards, but the balls never stop moving. I don't have a precise tactical answer I can give you right now. We know that I can tell you this is something we do, we consider many different scenarios internally so that if one of those more severe liquidity scenarios comes up on the horizon, we will be able to make a decision ahead of time. As Roberto mentioned, this is not our current scenario.
This is not what we predict will occur, but it may occur. Unexpected tariffs, countries invading other countries, and other events that fall completely outside of our control. We need to be prepared for these scenarios. Many times, they do have an impact on the company. What I can tell you is that we are very alert to this agenda. This is not a secondary topic in our priorities. On the contrary, both among the management and among the board, we discuss possible strategies and possible measures to be implemented in order to address any potential situations that may arise, many of which we've discussed during this call, in order to effectively implement those strategies. I just saw what you mentioned here on Global Reporter, who has just published about this. This corroborates what we said earlier, namely, and what I affirmed to you right now.
We are, in fact, looking at this agenda, making the necessary measures. It's important to always take a step back, look at the macro concept. We have a compass, which is our transformation plan. I again say this was approved by the board, the administrative council, by everyone in attendance. It was tested by numerous stakeholders, many of whom are our bank financers, such as you and other consultancies and other bondholders and stakeholders. They have all confirmed, you have all confirmed that this is the route for us to follow. There's nothing to add or remove from the plan we are pursuing today, which is liquidity measures and economic valuation measures in the very, very short, short, medium, and long terms. We are significantly focused on this agenda.
Every time there is a potential for liquidity within this period, as you mentioned, 2026 to 2028, which is when we start seeing substantial results. The results are occurring at this exact moment, results of the transformation agenda, reassigning some less efficient plants, changing our feedstocks, and this puts an end to the cash burn, which we had in the past to start being cash positive. This is occurring at this exact moment. We have these medium to long-term measures as well, starting to generate results. While that occurs, we implement other measures as well, at potential total and partial monetizations. It's important to make something clear and to strongly establish, Luis, that our plan remains. Nothing has changed.
Increasingly, what we see is the sense of urgency that it must be implemented without deviating from the three pillars, which are resiliency, the equality of the petrochemical industries, which the gas fly up the green. We are not deviating a single inch within that strategy, using that sense of urgency so that we never need to come to that scenario that you mentioned now. We will only discover what happens in the future if things occur or don't occur at the speed and intensity that we are scheduling. We do expect things to occur at the speed and intensity that we forecast. You're right. We may potentially need to accelerate some additional measures within the transformation plan in order to prevent deviations from it so that we can prevent any of those events that you predicted. Thank you. That's very clear.
It's just that the closer it comes, then the more unfavorable the company becomes should a potential deviation occur. Thank you.
Next question comes from Conrado with Safra. You may proceed.
Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. I'll try to be very to the point here because of time. My question is about the Rio Paul expansion plans. What is Petrobras' involvement in the discussions for those investments? Do you think it's coming up soon? You mentioned that it's a key component of the final decision for providing feedstocks there. Petrobras has numerous times mentioned they want to make investments in the old Campeiros region for petrochemicals. Do you see any interest for Braskem or RAIC to get involved in producing chemicals that are not resins?
Hi Conrado. Thank you very much for the question. In relation to the expansion of Rio Paul, let me provide you with a prospect. Today, Rio Paul, since it started up in 2016, uses propane and ethane as feedstock. The company is always going to try to use ethane more in order to make polyethylene. This would be the best source, in addition to being more competitive. Petrobras, in this expansion process of Rio Paul, wears two hats, one at the board, and this is what we communicated and we made it a point to reinforce today. In relation to the approval of the investment, any investment higher than $100 million has to be approved by the board. We took information to the board about the study phase. We are talking about $230 million, which were approved by the board. We do not have the final approval for the investments.
We believe that this is a project that's going to create value to the company. It's the only full gas-based plant that we have for the company. At the right moment, we are going to take it for the approval by the board. What's the proper moment? Any petrochemical project, without any doubt, starts with a contract of feedstock. Feedstock is essential for any project to continue because this is the main input and the most important input. Yes, considering the other hat that Petrobras wears, we have been discussing a new contract so that we can use the ethane that Petrobras has informed that it has more availability with the beginning of Route 3. All those discussions are underway. We are confident in the context of synergy. It makes a lot of sense because ethane has a limitation that it has, considering the heat power that it has.
It has a lot of synergy for both companies. This is something that has been going on. We are going to make it public in due time. The current agreement that we have is with Petrobras. This is a very important year because we are not only going to discuss the new contract, which is going to be so important for the implementation of the transformation strategy, but also the renewal of the agreements that we have executed. These are the two roles that Petrobras has, one at the board with a decision, and the other is related to the feedstock so that the project can become feasible. The second point, which is very important today, of course, we are still making the detail engineering and coming to the final CapEx. There's an estimate of about $700 million, which is an initial estimate.
It's very important to mention that when I mentioned about the RAIC investments and Preseka, the Brazilian industry wants to build the industry of the future using the green ethanol, etc. The approval of Preseka not only addresses Preseka in relation to feedstock and when we talk about competitiveness, but we also have to touch upon investment. We have been searching, we and other sectors as well, we are seeking for the approval of Preseka. We support the full approval of Preseka considering the competitiveness at present and also for the future. We are going to use all the resources of Preseka investments in order to implement RAIC for the implementation of the expansion of Rio Polímero. The $230 million that have already been approved by the board are being used together with the RAIC investments.
Your last question about Campeiros, any decision of new investments is related to allocation of capital by the company. It has to be compliant with the corporate strategy of the company, which is fully clear. It's clear where the company wants to go. If we have this compliance, if we have this adherence, the company will evaluate at all times and will understand what's the best allocation of the capital in terms of ROI. This is the corporate decision we have to make. Should we have any chemical-related products? At Braskem, we say that it's a petrochemical company, but it's a chemical and petrochemical company. If we talk about revenues, 20% of the revenue comes from the chemical products that we produce in Brazil. This is where we would look at.
The return of the capital employed and compliance with the strategy, which is so clear that we made clear in the beginning of the year.
Thank you. That was very clear. Thank you, Rosana.
Our next question comes from Jesus Cardoso with XP Investimentos. You may proceed, sir.
Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for the very detailed discussion. I want to ask about the results of the STE in particular. With regard to the inventory turnover, would that effect be reverted in Q3 due to the naphtha use? With working cash, would you expect a greater use due to the drop in price with regard to the composition of inventory? My question is mostly about whether Q3 and inventory and working cash is going to cause any changes. That's one question. The second is, why is the utilization rate for green TE lower? I understand that we discussed prioritization of green Co in particular. I believe that that part of the assets would have higher utilization. If you allow me a quick third question, for eliminating EBITDA in the consolidated, we had a very negative number in the quarter.
Is there something that is important for us to understand there for the next quarter? Thank you. Hi, Rajas. Thank you. Good afternoon. With regard to inventory turnover, you may have seen that in Q1, the company had cash consumption because of scheduled shutdowns due to our strategy and price provisions. We had built up inventory so that inventory improved with the reduction in Q2. That's the impact we see specifically in Q2 2025, not as a strategy for Q3, but really as a result of Q1. Now for Q3, it's going to be more in line with normal operating numbers for the company. With regard to utilization rates for green products, you may have seen in Rosana's presentation in the beginning of the call, there was a composition of inventory in Rio Grande do Sul in Q1. As a result, the utilization rate in the south was 82%, 87%.
As a result, inventory was produced, and the utilization rate dropped to 71%. You'll see that sales volumes of TE in Q1 jumped from 38 to 48 thousand tons in Q2, thereby consuming that inventory and as a result, reducing the utilization rate. With regard to the negative impact, Rosana?
The stock effect that you mentioned, in relation to the first quarter to the second quarter and the contribution margin. In the current operational rate, 50% is imported. Braskem made this change of importing more naphtha, especially when there was a change of the output of Petrobras refineries. We needed to make that shift. When we import the naphtha, from the moment we purchase naphtha, the moment it's in the stock as finished product, it has the turnover in four months. You observed there was a large drop of the oil price, especially between March and April, and as a consequence of naphtha price. The price was much lower, about $550. The naphtha was more expensive at the time. If we considered EBITDA bridge between those periods, there's about $130 million, $150 million of contribution margin. This is the difference. This effect of the inventory effect is there.
It happened especially in Brazil. There was something in this regard that happened in the United States. If you observe the quarter, the second quarter, if you look at the expectation and if we also consider the opinion of consulting companies, we understand that the oil price is going to be at $70 per barrel. This crack spread that is likely to be maintained at the regular levels, that would come to $550 or $570 for naphtha. We are not likely to see this positive inventory effect, according to your question. Lastly, in relation to elimination, without any doubt, we report the uptick from production because they are based in their values in different ways. This is related to the change that we made in 2015 and 2016. What is materially important to mention is how we see production. This is what we do.
We have an accounting movement of CFC 47 that happened, and this has not affected the client yet. There was another effect that we tried to explain along the release related to the business. We had some changes in the organizational structure of the company. All the fixed cost of the corporate unit is reported after I reported the segment EBITDA. Because of this change in the organizational structure of the company, that would amount to about $40 million. This was a different way of making the calculation. From the historical viewpoint, we can see variation in those values. If you consider modules, you can see that this is very aligned to what we have seen along the quarters. This has to do with the new logics of production. We did that because we do not want to make major adjustments in managerial aspects. Thank you, Rajas.
This concludes today's question and answer session.