In addition to allocating investments to its plant 2, Usiminas is planning investments for Coqueria 3, also in Ipatinga
A Usiminas announced this Thursday, the 25th, that the Board of Directors approved the investments made in the Company's blast furnace plant. Emergency and definitive repairs to Coke Plant 2 at the Ipatinga Plant will cost R$ 1,1 billion. Of this total, BRL 57 million will be invested by the end of 2022, BRL 97 million next year and the remainder of the investment, BRL 951 million, between 2024 and 2026.
Another investment in the total sum, according to Usiminas, is the supplemental investment of R$ 633 million for the renovation of Blast Furnace nº 3, also at the Ipatinga Plant, justified mainly by the inflationary effects on all costs involved in the approved project originally in 2019. The current value of the renovation of plant 3 is now R$ 2,72 billion, distributed in R$ 619 million until 2021, R$ 650 million in 2022, R$ 1,2 million in 2023 and BRL 252 between the years 2024 and 2025.
Usiminas maintains the expectation of investments in power plants for the year 2022 at R$ 2,05 billion and declares that the investment estimate for 2023 is around R$ 2,4 billion.
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Usiminas shares slump with investment in Ipatinga plant
Usiminas shares had a drop of more than 6% after the company announced an investment higher than expected by the sector for the reform of coke oven 2 of its Ipatinga plant. The sector was expecting expenditures in the order of R$ 500 million, the R$ 600 million more in investment equivalent to close to 5% of Usiminas' market cap, observes analyst Daniel Sasson from Itaú BBA.
In this sense, with the amount of expenses, Usiminas is practically building a new coke oven, according to a buyside analyst. Usiminas had already signaled to the sector about the need for repairs in the coke oven in the second quarter.
Usiminas also inspected R$ 633 million in expenses with the renovation of coke oven 3 at the same plant due to the impact of inflation on project costs, approved in 2019. The updated value of this renovation increased to R$ 2,7 billion .
“This blast furnace is very old and, in order to continue operating, the company needs to renovate it. Regarding coke oven 2, the problem is the same, but until recently this need for repair was not mapped by the market,” said a manager.
The company remained with the estimate of investment of BRL 2,05 billion for 2022 and is estimating an investment of BRL 2,4 billion for the year 2023. In the reform of the coke plant, most of the expenses, BRL 951 million, will be concentrated between the years of 2024 and 2026. In coke plant 2, the highest expenditure forecast is in 2023, with R$ 1,2 billion.
According to Thiago Lofiego, from Bradesco BBI, the magnitude of the investment for renovating the coke oven was not a very pleasant surprise.
Thiago predicts that the estimated investment for Usiminas will rise from R$2,1 billion to R$2,5 billion in 2023 and from R$1,3 billion to R$1,9 billion in 2024. negative, Usiminas is having excellent results, it ended the second quarter with net cash of R$ 455 million and this additional investment should not affect the company's balance sheet in the coming years.