Now, regarding the segments, if you look at them structurally one by one in industry, the house appliances and buses, all of them speak about growth. There’s positive data from construction. We follow this with cement and long steel. There is a carryover of works in the residential sector. And the government signaling positively to my house, my life, this should accelerate. So the industry for automobiles has maintained a very positive scenario compared to previous years. I don’t foresee great concerns in terms of what will happen with apparent consumption in the market. But of course, we have the problem of imports and competition. The isonomy of competition, what happens at CSN that makes it different from other plans is that we have a portfolio.
We have 50% of ordered products and our strategy has never changed. It was always the same. We work with a horizontal integration, looking at all suppliers, looking at the entire value chain. Our horizontal integration has increased. We work with end users, customers. Partnerships have increased in all sectors with civil construction, spare parts for automobiles, agricultural machines. What is going to make CSN more positive in terms of recovering margins and market this year is the price recovery. So structurally, we would have to move towards a cost of slab of R$ 3, 000 per ton. We reach R$ 4, 000 or more, R$ 4, 200, R$ 4, 300. Presently, we are at R$ 3, 400, R$ 3, 500, and structurally, with the actions undertaken, we should reach those R$ 3, 000.
As Benjamin mentioned, we need to work at full steam. There’s a purchase of slab that was successful R$ 1, 000 per year, which helps us to work in terms of margin, working in the domestic market. We have to work on added value, on quality, on the fragmentation, on the 70% to 80% of spot sales, to position ourselves in all sectors. And what made us different in the fourth quarter was our participation in the international market, leveraging our price positioning. So in the markets that we have selected Portugal, Germany, United States. We are a local player. And through time in those markets, you will see that we will work closer with the end consumer. So this is the strategy. Nothing different. It will materialize. And there are very clear signs.
Our margin was $37, $38 per ton in the third quarter. And it has reached $70 per ton, increasing twofold. Nothing like the $300 we reached in 2021, 2022.
Operator: Our next question comes from Leonardo Correa from BTG Pactual.
Leonardo Correa: I hope everything is well. Good morning to all of you. Two questions in the steel segment. Martinez to go back to the competitiveness of steel. For many years, CSN was the winner with an enormous competitive edge, with a very low price, with verticalization. What draws attention when we look at the figures and the graph of the presentation is the cash cost for a slab of $700, a bit below $700, in a scenario where slabs are being sold at a lower price internationally, and BQ in China negotiated at $550, $560. So there’s a mismatch compared to global price parameters, your cost in the steel. And of course, this has a relevant impact on your margins, besides the issue we are aware of, competition versus imported products, and low purchasing power.
If you could focus more on cost, how do you foresee that evolution to $600 per slab, the R$ 3, 000 as you mentioned? Secondly, it allowed me to go back to the anti-dumping rates, all of that discussion that has gained recent traction in Brazil, but still pending a solution that will be agreeable to all players in the steel market. We accompanied your problem with dumping with steel sheets. And what the government has done so far is marginal, minor help for pipelines and rebar. So how has your request been received for steel plate? And why haven’t you asked for anti-dumping for other lines as well? These are my questions. Thank you very much.
Luis Martinez: Thank you for the question, Leo. Now I read the report today, and that’s exactly what is written in your report. It’s truly perfect, and that is what happened with CSN. I truly don’t need to comment on this, and it speaks very clearly to the diversification, integration, not putting all the eggs in the same basket, and what we do commercially and the wealth of our product portfolio. Now this is something I wanted to mention because I was quite impressed with the results of the report that you launched today and that I read this morning. To answer the second question, and I’m going to mention everything I have read about these points, I would like to praise the Ministry for Development of Industry and Commerce, especially the Technical Corp at CSN.
We’re going to follow the rules of the World Trade Organization. We have no choice. The world is globalized, harmonized, and I obtained the regulations of the World MO, and we worked with them, and it was very good work. We recompiled the data. We presented the period. We spoke about all the players, market data. What is coming from China, and they heard our request, and there’s an unheard of willingness in the steel sector of making this anti-dumping research in Brazil and call it provisional and shortening this process so that it is 90 days or 120 days at the utmost, so we want this anti-dumping of metal sheets repainted and others who end in 90 days to be implemented in 90 days and according to the calculations we carried out with this ministry this anti-dumping margin is not lower than 50%.
So this is an account and it has been presented for templates now. Yes, CSN is also exerting pleasure for compensation of anti-dumping in galvanized products and long steel. The coming week we have meetings with the technical people, we have three or four meetings in Brasilia with [Dr. Tatiana and Dr. Marcela] and the entire team is going to explain what is happening in the sector. What also happens because of the ministry is that we have to offer details of what happens in the supply chains, the value chains. We have to break some paradigms and that is what is interesting because the government has begun to understand things that are said, that are published, but that are not true and not to call them lies. So this is what we are fighting for.
