Ternium S.A.

Ternium S.A.

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Q1 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptMay 6, 2026

Máximo Vedoya

In Mexico, apparent steel consumption fell around 10% in 2025, driven by uncertainty triggered by US trade actions. In 2026, however, we see an improvement.

The Mexican government has been actively working to mitigate the negative effects of US trade measures on the Mexican economy by defending the local industry against unfair imports from Asia. These actions not only support the continued development of the Mexican industry, but are closely aligned with the US government's own trade strategy.

Plan Mexico is also central to this effort, as it promotes industrial development, increase domestic content in manufacturing, and strengthen regional supply chains. In this same line, last week, the steel industry and the Mexican government signed a landmark agreement to prioritize domestically produced steel in all public procurements, a clear sign of the opportunity ahead.

Taken together, these policies support our expectation of a recovery in Mexican steel demand. In this context, we expect volumes in Mexico to continue improving in the second quarter, driven mainly by the commercial market.

The significant destocking that took place across the value chain in 2025 is now giving way to a normalization of apparent demand. Beyond that, we are seeing early movements in several infrastructure projects, which could add meaningful demand in the coming quarters.

Turning to our Pesquería project in Mexico, the ramp-up curve of the cold rolling mill and the galvanizing line are running ahead of plan. We expect both lines to be operating close to a full capacity by October.

The slab facility is also advancing in line with expectation. This project is central to our strategy.

It will significantly increase our vertical integration in Mexico, reduce our reliance on externally sourced slabs, and enhance our product capabilities across automotive, industrial, and construction applications. Importantly, as the automotive USMCA rule of origin enter into effect next year, this facility will position Ternium as a key player in meeting a growing demand.

In this respect, I am pleased to share that we have been granted a patent in the United States for our new electrical steelmaking process, which will enable us to produce exposed steel at scale. This innovation leverages the integration of direct reduction at the same site.

In addition, innovations such as virtual stamping solution, which utilizes artificial intelligence to streamline certification process for the automotive industry, reinforcing our drive for operational excellence. This commitment continue to be recognized by our customers.

In February, we were honored by Ariston Group with their Strategic Partner Award, the highest recognition for quality and partnership. In April, Ternium Mexico received the 2025 John Deere Crop Award and achieved the partner level, John Deere's highest distinction for cost, effective, and long-term collaboration.

In Brazil, steel consumption remains broadly stable, with some sectors showing resilience, and others facing more pressure. The automotive industry continues to perform well, with production expected to grow around 4% this year.

On the other hand, sectors like agribusiness we have seen weaker demand. A key challenge in the quarter was the significantly increase in steel imports, up around 30% versus the previous quarter.

This import accelerated ahead of the government's antidumping measures on cold-rolled and coated products. This has resulted in elevated inventory levels of imported material in the market, which we expect to normalize by the second half of the year.

As this trade defenses measure gain traction and inventories level normalize, we expect Usiminas' market share to improve. However, it is also worth noting that import pressure is not limited to China.

Volumes from Southeast Asia, particularly South Korea and Vietnam, has increased significantly, reflecting the indirect effects of China oversupply on the region's trade flow. In March, we were honored to welcome President Lula to the official inauguration of the Roberto Rocca Technical School located near our Rio de Janeiro plant.

The school provides full-funded technical education to young people from the surrounding communities, offering them access to a world-class education. Built with an investment of $50 million, we expect to welcome close to 600 students by next year.

In Argentina, after a 2024 record one of the lowest steel consumption levels in two decades, the market began to recover in 2025. However, 2026 did not start as we had expected.

Demand is growing unequally. Mining, energy, and agriculture are performing well.

Automotive remains at reasonable levels. Constructions remain soft.

Metal-mechanical and home appliances sectors are lagging, affected by weak domestic consumption. As I bring my remarks to a close, I am pleased to share that Ternium has once again been recognized as a Sustainability Champion by the World Steel Association.

This recognition is granted to companies that integrate sustainability into their core strategy, combining environmental management, safety performance, innovation, and responsible community engagements. Looking ahead, we are constructive on our market and our ability to continue improving performance.

In Mexico, the combination of normalizing demand, supportive industrial policies, and the ramp-up of our downstream projects position us well for the quarters ahead. In Brazil, as trade defenses measures gain traction and imports inventory normalize, we expect to see a healthy, competitive environment.

In Argentina, we continue to monitor the recovery closely while maintaining our operational discipline. Across all our operations, our team remain focused on driving efficiency and lowering costs, and we already seeing the benefits.

Overall, the recognition we continue to receive from our customers reflects the quality of what we are doing every day. We are confident in Ternium's ability to deliver even stronger performance in the periods ahead.

With that, I'd like to move to a review of our quarterly performance. Pablo, please go ahead.

Pablo Brizzio

Thanks, Máximo, and thanks, everybody, for participating in our call. Let's review our operational and financial performance for the first quarter of this year.

Starting in the webcast presentation, page number 3, we can see that the adjusted EBITDA increased sequentially by 21% in the first quarter, in line with our expectations and reflecting margin improvements. Looking ahead, we expect adjusted EBITDA margin to continue increasing, supported by higher revenue per ton, particularly in Mexico and Brazil, partially offset by higher cost per ton across our main markets.

Let's move to the next slide. Net income for the first quarter of 2026 reached $372 million.

This reflects improved operating performance, stronger net financial results primarily driven by foreign exchange gain in Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil, and positive deferred tax results. Deferred tax gain amounted to $122 million, driven mainly by currency fluctuations in Argentina and Brazil, and inflation effects in Argentina.

Net income in the quarter also included a $48 million loss from the quarterly update of the value of a provision from ongoing litigation related to the acquisition of a participation in Usiminas in 2012. Let's turn to page 5 to review the steel segment performance.

Overall, shipments were broadly in line with the previous quarter. In Mexico, volumes increased, supported by solid commercial market activity.

This was driven by more effective trade defenses against unfair imports, healthier inventory level across the value chain, and a seasonal recovery in demand. In Brazil, Usiminas prioritized profitability in the face of increased cost volatility, particularly in energy and logistics, resulting in a modest sequential decline in shipments.

In the Southern Region, demand softened, reflecting weaker industrial activity in Argentina alongside typical seasonal factors, leading to a sequential decrease in shipments. Looking ahead, we expect shipments to trend higher, mainly driven by Mexico and Argentina, as trade measures gain traction in Mexico and demand conditions gradually improve across both markets.

Let's turn to page 6 to review the performance of our steel segment. Steel cash operating income improved during the period, driven by higher margins resulting from realized prices gains, which were partially offset by higher raw material and purchased slab costs.

On next slide, the mining segment reflects a different dynamic. In this case, shipment declined sequentially due to operational disruptions in Brazil caused by an unusual, intense rainfall.

Finally, let's turn to the cash flow and balance sheet performance on page 8. The company continues to generate strong cash flow from operations, although this quarter we saw an increase in working capital driven by an increase in trade receivables mainly due to higher steel prices and volumes in Mexico.

We anticipate that sales will grow in the second quarter of this year, likely requiring a further rise in working capital. Capital expenditures continue to reflect our progress in the expansion of our industrial center in Pesquería, now mostly focused on the construction of the slab-making facility.

Finally, we ended the quarter with a net cash position of $327 million. On top of our capex needs, the cash position decline included a $350 million payment for the acquisition of Usiminas shares from Nippon Steel, partially offset by a $150 million loan collection from Techgen, our non-consolidated energy joint venture that supplies power to our operations in Mexico.

Okay. This concludes our prepared remarks for the first quarter.

We will now be happy to take your questions. Thanks, and please proceed with the Q&A session.

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, please press raise hand.

To withdraw your question, you can leave the queue by clicking on put hand down. Our first question comes from Mr.

Rodolfo Angele from JP Morgan. You may proceed.

Rodolfo Angele

Hi, good morning. I think now you can hear me.

Máximo Vedoya

Yes.

Rodolfo Angele

Okay. I wanted to just hear your thoughts on two aspects that I think are relevant for Ternium's future performance.

First, there's been a lot of discussion on USMCA. If you could share your thoughts on what happens there and what it means in terms of different scenarios for the company's performance.

I also wanted to hear from you a little bit about the expectations for the slab market in terms of pricing outlook for the remainder of the year, especially. That's all.

Thank you.

Máximo Vedoya

Thank you, Rodolfo. Let me start with the USMCA question.

As there has been a lot of discussion and talks about USMCA. Look, I believe there will be a deal between US and Mexico.

As the US administration through the USTR and the Mexican government through the Ministry or Secretary of Economy holding meetings. There is a formal meeting on the 25th of May, which is going to start formally the revision or the discussions of the USMCA.

Most of that discussion are probably going to be on discussing mainly stricter rule of origin and some other issues that have arise. I think my thoughts on this is that this is going to take some time.

I am positive there is going to be an agreement, but I don't know exactly the timeline. Probably won't be by the 1st of July, and probably would get most of this year.

This is my thoughts of what is happening in the USMCA. There is also some discussions going on on the Section 232.

As I always said there is an incompatibility between Section 232 and USMCA. It doesn't make sense make Mexico subject to 232 in steel, as the US has a steel trade surplus, a very big steel trade surplus with Mexico.

I know the Mexican administration has also stated that there is a priority while the USMCA is negotiate that there has to be a relief in steel and automotive Section 232, and I know they are discussing this during this following weeks. Nevertheless, I think it's important that the Mexican administration, as I said a little bit in my remarks, Rodolfo, has been very proactive in launching initiatives to strengthen the steel consumption in Mexico.

While all this is going on, the Plan Mexico, the target measures against unfair competition, the imposition of tariff for countries that don't have trade agreements with Mexico, all this, I think it's a very active way of the Mexican government to attack the problems of the Mexican economy while these two things are negotiated. In the end, I think USMCA, as I said, is going to be renewed, probably with much tougher rule of origins, which I think it's a very good thing, but I'm not that certain on the timing.

Probably the timing it takes a little bit more longer. I hope with this large answer, I did answer your question, Rodolfo.

Rodolfo Angele

Yes, you did. Thank you very much.

Máximo Vedoya

The slab markets, what did you refer with the slab market? Exactly.

Rodolfo Angele

Just, it's just a market that I think it's more unique overall in terms of how pricing dynamics work. I just wanted to hear your thoughts on what do you see, especially on pricing, what do you expect for the coming quarters.

No,

Máximo Vedoya

prices as it has been in most of steel products has been increasing recently. Clearly, the increase in fuel increases the logistic for slabs.

Also, there has been some increase in iron ore and in other raw materials, which have made the slab market a little bit more expensive. As from all our production, our buying of slab is not as big as it used to be because most of the slabs come from our Ternium Brasil facility.

Nevertheless, we are buying in the market, and we are seeing some increase in that. Is compensate probably with increase in prices in finishing products also.

Rodolfo Angele

Okay. Thank you very much.

Máximo Vedoya

You're welcome, Rodolfo.

Operator

Our next question comes from Mrs. Timna Tanners from Wells Fargo Securities.

You may proceed.

Timna Tanners

Hello?

Máximo Vedoya

Hello. Yes, Timna.

We can hear you.

Timna Tanners

Oh, fantastic. Sorry.

Máximo Vedoya

I wanted to

Timna Tanners

ask if I could about a few things. One is to follow up on the USMCA discussions.

The US government is more interested in granting relief on tariffs if there's a construction of production in the US. Just wondering if you would expand your US presence.

Also wondering, along those same lines, about hearing about a Mexican dumping case against US galvanized imports, if you could address those.

Máximo Vedoya

Timna, we are not thinking in making some production or increase production in the US now. We don't have that as a plan today.

Second, there is a dumping case against cold rolling products. There's not a dumping case against galvanized in Mexico.

At least to the US. There is a dumping case in galvanized against Vietnam and I think other countries.

Timna Tanners

I've heard that Mexico was working on one against the US. I thought that could be positive for your operations.

We'll stay tuned there. Second, can you expand a bit more on the mention of EAF capabilities to make exposed automotive, and remind us what might be the timeframe for doing that?

Máximo Vedoya

Yes, for sure. As you probably remember, the the steel shop is going to start the ramp-up in the last quarter of between the last quarter of this this year and early next year.

As the the the operation it's a the facility is huge. I hope all of you can one day visit it because it's worth visiting the facility.

The ramp-up facility the the ramp-up curve should take at least all 2027. In the meantime, during all this ramp-up, we are going to work with the automotive customers to certify our products, certification process for all automotive products, not only the exposed material, but also all the other parts of the car needs certification.

We are working very close with all of them because they are very eager to accelerate this certification process. We are working already with them on how to accelerate this certification process as much as possible.

We have recently increased the capacity the capacity of our Ternium lab in Pesquería, which we are working in certifying all the lab equipment, we can certify part of of of the process they need in that site. The the capacity that this EAF is going to have to have the capacity of producing exposed material in a sustainable way and in a continuous way is going to be unique because of the process we are doing and all the patents we are developing, especially to decrease all the nitrogen that the EAF usually have.

This is a unique process that we are developing with our technical people and the supplier of the equipment, that is Tenova, some a sister company of us. I again, the the the timing should be around next year, probably by the third and fourth quarter of next year, that we are going to supply in a sustainable way to the automotive industry.

Timna Tanners

You'd be qualified for 2028 or qualified

Máximo Vedoya

for

Timna Tanners

2027? Yes.

Máximo Vedoya

No, the idea is to qualify everything for 2028.

Timna Tanners

Got it. Great.

Thank you.

Máximo Vedoya

You're welcome.

Operator

Our next question comes from Mr. Alfonso Salazar from Scotiabank.

Please, Mr. Alfonso, you may proceed.

Alfonso Salazar

Hi. Sorry.

A couple of questions on my end. The first one is regarding the outlook in Argentina.

I want to see if you can give us more color on what's going on and what are your expectations for future demand. Also try to understand better what's the situation regarding imports.

It seems to be more problematic than in the past. Also exports from Argentina to other Latin American countries, what is the outlook there because of the same thing, imports to other countries from Asia?

The second question is some comments on the decarbonization trends in Latin America. It seems that we always knew that it was going to take longer than Europe, but any comment on what is the outlook there as well, this trends of decarbonization and green steel?

Máximo Vedoya

Thank you, Alfonso. Outlook in Argentina, in the short term, shipments in the second quarter are going to increase because as the first quarter in Argentina is always a seasonally low quarter, no?

January and February usually are holidays in Argentina, the demand is quite Then, further down the road, I think some of the sectors present a good opportunity: mining, oil and gas, and agriculture. They are compensate by others like mechanical goods and

white goods,

Máximo Vedoya

that the demand is not very good in that final goods. It's going to be a little bit better, but we don't expect a huge growth compared to 2025.

Imports, although there has been a lot of talks about imports, we are not seeing imports in our products. We had seen some imports in the value change, but these are stable today.

I think the problem in our value change is that the demand or the consumption is not very good. That's the situation we have in Argentina.

Decarbonization in Latin America, you're saying the path is slower than in Europe. I think the pace in Europe has also decreased a lot.

There's a lot of projects that has been announced in Europe that today are not going through, and they continue building up in blast furnace. In Latin America, I can say two things.

I think one, there is increasing in Mexico, where you have the opportunity to change from coal to natural gas. Mexico will continue in a path of having probably the lowest steel production emissions per ton of production of probably the world.

In Brazil, there's more difficulty to change blast furnace. The decarbonization there is going to go through by small decreases by efficiency, but still working with blast furnace.

Alfonso Salazar

Thank you. The outlook for other Latin American countries, the demand in other countries that you source from Argentina?

Máximo Vedoya

No, the regional countries usually they don't have a huge impact in the shipments. We continue to ship to Uruguay, Paraguay.

Those are the countries that we ship from Argentina, but the consumption there is marginal. It's not going to have a huge impact in our shipments.

Alfonso Salazar

Perfect. Thank you.

Máximo Vedoya

You're welcome, Alfonso.

Operator

Our next question comes from Mr. Marcio Farid from Goldman Sachs.

Please, Mr. Marcio, you may proceed.

Marcio Farid

Great. Good morning.

Thanks for the opportunity. Obviously, another follow-up on USMCA and Section 232.

I think what's changed maybe this time is that, obviously, Mexico has put some import barriers to steel coming into the US coming into Mexico to try and reduce triangulation as well, or rerouting. I'm just wondering, right, once assuming, Section 232 to Mexico is either removed or reduced, do you think the the competitive environment would be different versus where we were, a few years ago when we did not have those import barriers?

I remember well, I think in Mexico, imports about 40% of all the steel that that you need. Just just wondering if you can think about a structural change in terms of the competitive environment between, North America or Mexico and the US.

Second point, demand was very weak in Mexico last year. I think it was down 10%.

Part of the reason was, as you mentioned, destocking, but also weak activity as companies wait for better visibility on on their relationship with the US. You mentioned restocking help has been helping pricing.

I'm just wondering if you're seeing demand or activity also recovering, or we need to see a final agreement with the US for investments to really resume in Mexico. Those are my questions.

Thank you.

Máximo Vedoya

Thank you, Marcio. The first question about the triangulation and the efforts that the Mexican administration is doing control this, I think there is already a structural change.

I think the Mexican administration, way before Trump was elected and all this discussion began, was very focused on increasing the value-added content of all what is produced in Mexico. Mexico was a huge exporter, but the value added of those products, the regional content of those products were not very high.

Plan Mexico, which President Sheinbaum already announced in her campaign, was a plan for doing exactly this, for changing this dynamic. All the things that the Mexican administration is doing, as you mentioned, are a way of decreasing the dependency of Asian products, especially in those products that Mexico or the region is able to produce.

The clear example of that is steel. I think there is already a structural change, and probably this is going to be even better once the 232, as you said, is reduced or removed from the side between Mexico and the US.

Clearly, you are correct in your assessment. Regarding the second question, Marcio, there is a demand increase in Mexico.

It's not as high. Worldsteel has just released that the demand in Mexico is going to grow around 4% in the year.

Considering that the demand decreased by 10%, as you said, in 2025, it's not a huge increase, but it is an increase, and we are seeing some recovery in demand. I expect that this is going to be higher once the USMCA or where the USMCA is going is more clear.

We are seeing this increase, at least in a small pace, but we are seeing it today. I hope that answered the question, Marcio.

Marcio Farid

Yes, for sure. Thank you very much for the details.

Máximo Vedoya

You're welcome.

Operator

Our next question comes from Mr. Rafael Barcellos by Bradesco BBI.

Please, Mr. Barcellos, you may proceed.

Hey,

Rafael Barcellos

good morning. Thanks for taking my questions.

First question, last week the Mexican government signed an agreement which I believe they called as an agreement for the promotion of this Mexican steel industry, right? I just wanted to understand when do you expect that these measures will finally translate into incremental demand for the country, and what else you think the government can promote to incentivize the sector in the short term?

As a second question, in your outlook, you mentioned a bit of the cost pressure that we have seen for all industries, and I understand that steel is not an exception. If you can elaborate a bit more on what we can expect for cost in the 3Q, for example, could be helpful.

Thank you.

Máximo Vedoya

Thank you, Rafael. The agreement in Mexico, as I said, is an agreement between the government and the steel industry of Mexico to commit that all Mexican steel is used in those infrastructure, mainly infrastructure.

I think it's very important because there was already a commitment to use Mexican steel, but in some cases, especially all this new infrastructure that is coming by Pemex, by CFE, that is the electricity company, that are investment, joint investment between public and private sectors, this is going to be an impact in the demand of steel, especially with all the investment in gas lines, in renewable energy, solar and wind, it has a huge consumption of steel. It is important in that sense.

I don't expect the investments to start in the next quarter or in the following, but I think that by year-end, all this effort that the government is doing will have an impact in demand. Too early to say how much, but it's going to have an impact.

The second question, sorry?

Rafael Barcellos

Cost.

Máximo Vedoya

The cost. It's going to be an impact in cost, but for Ternium, it's not going to be a huge impact.

The big impact is going to be in logistics and import of some slabs, and some logistics cost in Brazil and probably in Argentina. It's probably that is going to compensate, as we said in the outlook, by also the price increases.

I think that the real risk, let me say, of the conflict in the Middle East is that if it's not resolved quickly, it could cost more a recession. We are thinking that that's the real risk for us.

We see a little bit increase in cost, but again, more than compensate by the increase the prices of steel are having.

Rafael Barcellos

As a follow-up, sorry, can you just elaborate on what you're seeing as for cost trends in the 3Q and on the price side, understand that prices are outpacing the cost increase, but can you just help us understand, in your view, what is the main driver for this recent good price momentum that we are seeing in Mexico?

Máximo Vedoya

The good momentum, I think, is everywhere. You see in Europe prices increasing, you see in Brazil, you even see in China prices increasing.

I think part of that is motivated by the increase of cost, which is bigger, that increase in Southeast Asia and is bigger in Europe than it is in the Americas. I think that's the motivation, Rafael.

Rafael Barcellos

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Mr. Caio Ribeiro from Bank of America.

Please, Mr. Ribeiro, you may proceed.

Caio Ribeiro

All right. Good morning.

Thank you for the opportunity. I have two questions linked to your investments at Pesquería.

First off, as you complete your upstream investments this year, what are some of the investment avenues that you're contemplating right now? Right, where does the Musa expansion fit in within your list of priorities?

Then secondly, assuming that you don't greenlight another investment right away or a large investment like the Pesquería upstream, downstream investments that you've done in the past years, those capex figures, they should drop considerably versus your recent run rate, which together with that earnings increase that you get from your investments, should drive significantly higher free cash flow generation in the coming years, right? With that in mind, just wondering how you think about dividend payments going forward.

Is there room, in your view, to boost those to cover a larger part of that positive free cash flow generation that you should have in the coming years? Those are my questions.

Thank you.

Máximo Vedoya

Thank you, Caio. The upstream investment, as as I said before, we will start the ramp-up curve by the end of the year or early next year.

It's still a long way to go. Today, the big investment that, as you say, we are analyzing is the expansion of Musa.

Usiminas continue to analyze the different alternatives we have regarding capex and the cost of production and the material that we can take on each one of these alternative. By the end of the year or early next year, we have to take a decision, or we will have a decision on where to go on that.

Those are so far the investments we are considering. We are not seeing yet a necessity or the willingness to make another large investment so close as to bringing Pesquería project online.

Capex is going to decrease. As you remember, 2025, we had $2.5 billion of capex.

This year, it's going to be lower than that, much lower than that. Probably in 2027 is going to be even lower, around $1.2 billion or $1 billion.

Regarding the dividend, if the numbers improve and we have generation, as we have a track record that our dividend has a very good yield. Although we decrease a little bit the dividend, or the board decided to decrease a little bit the dividend because all the uncertainty, which I completely agree, still the yield dividend with the price of Ternium's ADR today, it's around 5%.

We will probably continue with this policy of taking a good dividend.

Caio Ribeiro

That's clear. Thank you very much.

Operator

Our next question comes from Mr. Caio Greiner by UBS.

Please, Mr. Caio, you may proceed.

Caio Greiner

Hello. Good morning, everyone.

Two questions. The first one on Brazil, I wanted to hear your thoughts on the strategy that the company has following the recent antidumping duties implementation for the operations that you have there, especially at Usiminas.

I wanted to know if you're going to favor, over the next few quarters and maybe even years, higher prices, higher profitability, value over volume, somewhat of what we saw during the first quarter, or if the strategy is going to be more in the sense of gaining market share, expanding volumes. If that's the case, I wanted to know how much do you see in terms of volume gain potential over the next, again, quarters and years, and if you believe that you have enough capacity for this amount of volumes that you could increase going forward.

If you don't, what would be the strategy there? Relighting a blast furnace, could it be on the pipeline?

Or is that more in the sense of just purchasing more shares and raising capacity utilization? The second one, just a follow-up to the previous capital allocation question.

Máximo, you mentioned that you don't have plans of doing another large capex project while you still have the Musa investment. Could it be on the pipeline to, again, perform corporate simplification measures, more bottom-up or in-house initiatives like the Usiminas stake that you acquired during the first quarter, or anything related to Argentina?

That would be very, very helpful. Thank you.

Máximo Vedoya

Thank you, Caio. The first one, if we have to choose between the two strategy you said, probably is the first one.

We don't want to produce more in order to sell something that the market doesn't need. We will always prefer the first strategy.

It's clear that with all the measures that the Brazilian government is taking, as I said, Brazil is kind of a little bit late. Mexico, US, Canada, Europe, even India, are taking measures a little bit more quickly than Brazil.

Nevertheless, the trade measures in Brazil, it's a very good first step in the very right direction. If unfair trade comes down, probably will increase also volume.

We are going to be very cautious. Regarding our capital allocation, Pablo?

Pablo Brizzio

Thanks for letting me answer one question. Hi, Caio.

How are you? Yes, regarding capital allocation and following on what Máximo said before, we are in the middle of a huge capital allocation structure taking into consideration the rest of the capital expenditure in the facility in Mexico, with the dividend payment, and with the working capital increase because of the increase in volumes and decrease in prices that we saw.

This year, as we will be moving from a net cash position to a net debt position. Next year, you are totally right that we will be reducing the level of capex, but we will sustain probably the other outflows of capital.

This could lead to an increase on our cash position, which is not bad, and would prepare us for any opportunity that may appear in the market. Among these opportunities, you know that we have talked a lot in the past, and we have worked a lot in order to simplify our corporate structure, and this is on our list of priorities.

If there is an opportunity to move in that direction, clearly is something that we need to fully analyze and to carefully analyze, because it's not that you have an opportunity and you can take it immediately. You need to do all the calculations in order to see if it's the best way to proceed.

Together with that, as Máximo re-explained, continuing with the dividend is a policy that we have. If there's opportunities to improve that, if the number reflect it, it's something that we will consider.

Additionally to that, we take, if you want, some rest analyzing a next capex plan, internal capex plan, because the effort that we have to put in order to take these projects to work is very significant. As Máximo explained, we need to go through the ramp-up, the certification.

This takes some time. That's why usually when we have this big capex plan, then we take at least one or two years to design the new ones.

As also it was explained here, we still believe that Ternium has opportunities to grow in all our markets, especially Mexico and in Brazil. There will be opportunities for us to analyze, but it will take some time for us to analyze them and present it to you.

Caio Greiner

Maybe just a follow-up to the second one as well. In terms of volume gains in Brazil, Máximo, you mentioned that if unfair trade comes down, you should be able to increase volumes as well.

Do you see the current capacity that you have in Brazil as enough for the volume gain that you could have for an expected market share gain? Or could you think about an alternative of, again, relighting one of your blast furnaces there, think about maybe relighting or revamping Cubatão?

Thank you very much.

Máximo Vedoya

Caio. Today we have spare capacity in Brazil, especially in the Cubatão plant.

As it's a plant that is not working at full capacity, and we will also have slabs available from our Ternium Brasil facility in Rio once we don't have to ship as much slabs to Ternium Mexico because of the upstream project coming online. Yes, we have capacity in Brazil to grow, and I think it will be enough if imports go down in Brazil.

Caio Greiner

Thank you very much, gentlemen.

Máximo Vedoya

You're welcome, Caio.

Operator

That concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn it back over to Mr.

Máximo Vedoya for closing remarks. Please, Mr.

Máximo, you may proceed.

Máximo Vedoya

Thank you very much, all, for joining us. We welcome, as usually, any feedback or additional question that you have.

In the meantime, have a great day. Bye.

Operator

Ternium's conference call has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation.

You may now disconnect and have a good day.