Celulose Irani, a Brazilian producer of corrugated cardboard, closed the second quarter with a net income of R$ 174.7 million, representing an increase of 21% over the second quarter of 2013.
The main factor behind this growth was the integration of the sales of the Corrugated Cardboard Packaging area of the Industria de Papel e Papelao Sao Roberto S.A. (SP) to IRANI's business. In line with the net income is the adjusted EBITDA, which also showed an increase, in this case 10.3% higher than 2Q13, and it totaled R$ 34.6 million in the quarter.
The sales volume of the Corrugated Cardboard Packaging segment progressed well when compared to 2Q13 and totaled 47.20 thousand tons. The increase presented by IRANI, 39.5%, is higher than the market outlook - the Brazilian Association of Corrugated (ABPO) data fell by 3.4% in the same period - also due to the integration of the Sao Roberto plant.
In contrast, the Packaging Paper segment decreased 37.9% and ended the quarter with 17.1 thousand tons. The reduction was due to sales for the subsidiary Sao Roberto which, from 1Q14, were eliminated on consolidation from the integration of the business into the IRANI operations.
The sales volume of the resins segment also decreased by 12.5% and reached 2.2 thousand tons. In this case, production suffered due to a variation in the supply of gum rosin resin on the spot market.
In the second quarter the Company raised U$ 70 million through a pre-paid export operation, which will be used to finance the working capital needs of the Company's exports. The amount must be paid by IRANI in up to seven years.
Aiming to continue growing with value, Irani made investments of R$ 30.245 million this quarter. The main investment made in the period consisted of the expansion and modernization of Paper Machine I (MP I), which added 3,000 t/ per month to the total paper production, from July. Another highlight of the second quarter was the signing of the Letter of Intent with the Government of the State of Santa Catarina for the expansion of the industrial unit located in Vargem Bonita (SC). The planned investment is approximately R$ 600 million spread over five years.
