(04/27/2015) Paranapanema (PMA), Brazil’s major copper producer, ended the 1st quarter of 2015 (1Q15) with net income of R$ 72.4 million and net margin of 6.1%. With this result, the company zeroed the losses accumulated in recent years, which in Q1 2014 amounted R$ 234.4 million and went for a cumulative profit position of R$ 32.4 million. The net income was of R$ 1.2 billion, 11% higher than the same period last year.

This is the sixth consecutive quarter in which Paranapanema has improved outcomes and evolution of its margins. The gross margin reached 10.6% this quarter compared to 6.9% in the 1st quarter of 2014. The Adjusted EBITDA of R$ 108.9 million grew by 92% in the same comparison, with Adjusted EBITDA margin of 9% higher than 4.4 percentage points.

“The evolution of our margin is the result of a labor-intensive cost control and the pursuit of markets that offer better awards. This quarter, due to a more challenging scenario in the domestic market, Paranapanema exported more, taking advantage of the values of the international market awards”, says company president Christophe Malik Akli. About 52% of the company’s net revenues in Q1 came from exports, especially of primary copper (cathode).

The total volume of sales grew by 12%, reaching 71,900 tons. Primary copper (cathode) sales totaled 24,700 tons, an increase of 28%, while Copper products (wire, rods, bars, tubes and laminates) registered growth of 6%, reaching 47,200 tons.

The company invested R$ 23.9 million in the first quarter of 2015 and kept the Capex guidance for the year (R$ 190 million), most of which will be allocated in the next two quarters for the reform of the Sulfuric Acid Unit in the plant of Dias D’Ávila (BA) and to complete the transfer of straight tube lines from the plant in Capuava (SP), which was shut down, to the plant in Utinga (SP).