Mahle Metal Leve SA

BOVESPA:LEVE3

Q2-2025 Earnings Call

[Operator]

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the video conference of MAHLE Metal Leve to discuss the results for the second quarter of 2025. This video conference is being recorded, and the replay may be accessed at the Investor Relations website of the company. The presentation is also available for download. We informed that all participants will only be watching the video conference during the presentation and following that there will be a question and answer session when further instructions will be provided.

Before proceeding, I would like to reinforce that forward-looking statements are based on beliefs and assumptions of MAHLE Metal Leve's management and on information currently available to the company. Such statements may involve risks and uncertainties as they refer to future events and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors, analysts and the general public should consider that events related to the macroeconomic environment, business segment and other factors may cause results to be materially different from those expressed in such forward-looking statements.

Present at this video conference are Mr. Claudio Cesar Braga, Chief Financial Officer and Investor Relations Officer; and Mr. Daniel Brasil Alves, Marketing and Corporate Communications Executive. Now I would like to turn the floor to Mr. Claudio Braga, who will begin the presentation. Mr. Braga, you may begin.

[Claudio Braga, executive]

Thank you, Rodrigo. Good afternoon. Thank you for your time and interest in attending this call. As you may see, the agenda -- there are several topics. But when we go through the slides, there's not so much information, but it's rich enough to potentially trigger questions or discussions. As we're all going through, everyone knows that there is a moment of uncertainty regarding present and future, especially this political environment that it's not a commercial discussion with the United States. It's not about trade. It's political. So you'll see on the slides that tariffs that started in April at 10% changed significantly throughout the period. And more recently, in August, they were increased to 50%. And the figures that we'll discuss today and the impact embedded there still reflects the 10% from April to June only.

During the presentation, we'll refer to many things discussed in the first quarter. So this quarter had not any negative news. I would say that in terms of commercial sales and acquisitions, it was positive in my point of view, and Daniel will address that. But when you consider the overall performance of the first quarter, the indications remain valid. In general, there are some highlights and the overall market view that Daniel will show as well as Item 4, the performance of MAHLE Metal Leve's net revenues. Then I come back to talk about the financial results of the company and financial management, and then we'll have the Q&A session in the end.

Rodrigo announced that today, it's Claudio -- myself, Claudio Braga and Daniel Brasil, who will be presenting the -- making the presentation and an overview of the macro data. Just looking at absolute figures or percentages main due to a superficial analysis and even some wrong conclusions. So we noticed a significant increase in sales of BRL 2.6 billion. And as you will see with Daniel and myself, we have to remember the acquisitions we made in the last quarter of 2024. So when we compare this first half of the year, it does include 2024. These are considerable values, the acquisitions of compressors and thermal aftermarket that we have the Athena project. We also have the acquisition of the minority interest in ARCO. ARCO is not a subsidiary of us. So it's not consolidated into financial statements. It will be in a line in assets, and it has the benefit of dividends that may be paid out. But in the financial statements, the acquisition of Arco is not so transparent.

In terms of margins, EBIT and the gross margin, these are still quite positive percentages. But when we make a crude analysis quarter-on-quarter, that may induce to errors somewhat due to acquisitions, as we'll mention later, but also due to the effect of hyperinflation so we'll continue to talk about hyperinflation in Argentina. We need 3 years lower than 100% levels to make sure that it doesn't come back. And looking at the macroeconomic data, the government performance and the population in Argentina that they're doing a very good job. Inflation rates are going down to more reasonable levels considering Latin America background. And going back to hyperinflation, we have to recap that there was a huge devaluation in December of 2023 that in theory doesn't have an impact in the presentation, but it had an accounting impact in the first quarter that was very -- it's a booking adjustment due to hyperinflation. And now that we come back to normal figures when I compare without the effect of hyperinflation, I'll have percentages that are closer to reality.

So if there are any questions regarding that during the slide presentation, feel free to ask them. You see where we are present. Most of our operations are located in the state of Sao Paulo and a very important plant in the south of Minas Gerais State, and we have the list on the right side of the map. We have a sales office in the Panama city with a project we are developing in this South Pacific. And -- and then going back to the next slide, I'll turn the floor over to Daniel.

[Daniel Alves, executive]

Thank you, Claudio. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for attending MAHLE Metal Leve's results conference for the second quarter 2025. So here, we have the overall highlights for the second quarter. The first being the approval by the Brazilian government of the increase of ethanol blend and gasoline from 27% to 30% and biodiesel from 14% to 15%. The purpose is to decrease the imports of fuels and also to have greater price stability and boost the production of ethanol, which is in line with the programs of MOVER and Fuel of the Future, Combustivel do Futuro. The second item is sustainable car program with tax reduction for vehicles produced in Brazil with Flex-fuel 1 liter engines. This is in force. And in the last 2 weeks of July, there was an increase in sales. When we look at July compared to July last year, the sales of vehicles grew by 1.2% and only looking at 1.0 liter engines, there was a much higher growth. So there was an effect.

And in the sales of August, we see an effect, not only a reduction in IPI tax, but additional discounts were given by carmakers. And that helped to increase the sales of vehicles and production. The third item is green tax rules that were announced, reducing IPI tax for efficient and sustainable cars. As a reference light vehicles, the base rate is 6.3% for IPI, and it can go from 1.65% to 9.4%. So more efficient vehicles that are greener vehicles will pay lower IPI and more premium, more powerful engines, vehicles that pollute more paying higher IPI tax. So we believe that that's a fair way of imposing IPI tax, differentiating the tax rates according to the characteristics of the vehicles.

The next item is import tax on electrified vehicles that increased as of July 1, going from 18% to 25%. The regular import tax rate for internal combustion engine vehicle is 35%. So the BEV vehicles had a lower import tax. And they are -- the tax is returning to gradually to higher rate. So it's now 25%. Those who are in this market look -- saw the discussion between BYD and [indiscernible]. BYD was asking a decrease in import rates to CKD and [indiscernible] was -- had the opposite view, and then the government find a midterm for that, something in between. So there is a dispute between car manufacturers that are already produced domestically and those that are being installing their plants in the country. So the country -- the government came to something in between to please both sides. So the U.S. government has imposed 50% tariffs starting August 6. So tariffs imposed on MAHLE was 10%. And as of August, they changed to 50% and we'll talk more about that later on.

And at the end, acquisition of new businesses in line with our strategy. There was a project for carbon canisters that dust filters, oil filters and ducts, so filters in general, and other project for intake and exhaust valves that are produced in our plant in Argentina in Rafaela for diesel engine valves for light vehicle applications. And the last projects turbo engine components, piston pins, rings, bearings and thrust washers for light vehicle applications in the Asian line. These are the main highlights for the first quarter -- second quarter of 2025. Now moving on to the next slide. Here, we see a market overview, sales and production, Brazil and Argentina and production in North America and Europe.

The first 6 months of 2025 compared to the first half of 2024. On the first line, we see sales of light vehicles in Brazil with a growth of 5%, 1,132,000 vehicles sold. In Argentina, significant growth of 84.6%, reaching 299 vehicles. Since the second half of last year, Argentina is in a recovery trend, much higher, reaching a much higher level. So that's also helping in the production of Brazil and consolidating Brazil and Argentinian markets, we see a growth of 15.4%. Now moving on to heavy-duty vehicles. We had a growth of 1.2% in the semester. This is a market that's somewhat lower, weaker, and there has been a drop in sales in heavy-duty vehicles lately, mostly influenced by high interest rates. Although we project good harvest in agriculture, the growth was not high. In Argentina, 9.1% and totally in Brazil and Argentina, 9%.

Now the projection for year-end in terms of vehicle sales. In Brazil, the prospect is for [indiscernible] for 6.6%. Now it is at 5%. For heavy-duty vehicles, 1.3%. In Argentina, prospects of closing at 49%. That's because the second half of last year, the level was higher, so the comparison basis is higher. And for heavy-duty vehicles, we envisage growth of 30%. So together, Brazil and Argentina, we expect growth of 12% in sales of light vehicles and 3% for heavy-duty vehicles. At MAHLE Metal Leve’s, we are a bit more conservative. So for light vehicles, we envisage 8% and for heavy-duty vehicles, a growth at 0%, so moving sideways.

In production in the semester for Brazil for light vehicles, a growth of 8.1% from heavy-duty vehicles, 3.9%. In Argentina light vehicles, the production grew by 15.6% and heavy vehicles, Brazil plus Argentina, 9.4% growth in light vehicles and 5.3% for heavy-duty vehicles. Expected figures for closing of the year, Brazil plus Argentina, we project 6% to 8% of growth and for heavy-duty vehicles, plus 1% and minus 1%. So in heavy-duty vehicles, the trend is somewhat negative and maybe even 0, minus 1% in terms of production. Now moving on to the European and North American market, the 2 main destinations of MAHLE Metal Leve’s parts exports. The production of light vehicles in Europe saw a decrease of 4.4% and heavy-duty vehicles, 12.3% drop. In North America, minus 4.6% and 26.6% in heavy-duty vehicles. So adding Europe and North America, we have for light vehicles, a drop of 4.5% and heavy-duty vehicles, 19.1%.

The prospects for closing of the year 2025, 5% drop in light vehicles and minus 20% for heavy-duty vehicles. So this is a market in a downward trend with no prospects for improvement in the second half of this year. Now moving on to the next slide. We see the development of net revenue from sales for the first quarter 2025, second quarter '25 and first half of '25. So first -- second quarter in domestic original equipment growth of excluding -- 79.3% excluding the acquisition, 79.3% would be 18%. Original equipment exports, a growth of 2.4%. There is a foreign exchange gain. So we're talking about the revenue in reais, but it's being offset by the market that is going -- the downward trend in the market. So this doesn't change with the acquisition. It remains at 2.4%.

Adding the revenue from original equipment, 39.8% growth and minus acquisition there would be 10%. In the domestic aftermarket, a growth of 11.4%. Here, also excluding the revenue from acquisitions, the growth would have been 6.3%. In the aftermarket export, revenue grew by 19.1%, totaling 12.6%. Excluding revenue from acquisitions, the growth would have been 8.3%, totaling a growth of 28.1% in the quarter without the acquisition, 9.2% a strong revenue even for organic figures of the second half of 2025. Now for the first -- comparing first half of 2025 to the first half of '24, Original equipment domestic, 82% growth, excluding revenue from acquisition, 20%, which is higher than the market. We see the light vehicles production grew at 9% and heavy vehicles at 5.3%. So 20% growth in revenue without acquisitions regards market share increases, especially filters, carbon canisters and market share in distance.

From original equipment export, there was a drop in revenue by 2.2%. Here, there is a positive effect of foreign exchange, but the market is going down in U.S. and Europe in the North American and Europe. So it dropped by 2.2%. And sales are aligned with the market. No loss of market share in original equipment exports. Now talking about domestic aftermarket 10.7% growth, excluding acquisitions, the growth would have been 5.3% and aftermarket exports, a growth of 6.4%. There has been a recovery compared to the second quarter, a growth of 19%. So we see a recovery compared to the first quarter. And the total 10% for aftermarket. Without the revenue from acquisition, the growth would have been 5.5%. The market is positive. There was a growth of 14% in used vehicles year-to-date. So that helps in aftermarket figures and also a policy -- a pricing policy and market share gain in aftermarket. In total, 26.1% growth in revenue, excluding sales from the acquisition, it would have been 7.2%, which shows an increase in revenue. Now I turn back the floor to Claudio, and I'll be back in the Q&A session.

[Claudio Braga, executive]

Thank you, Daniel. I was going to make a joke, but I don't know if it's worth making most of the good news we had to talk about that Daniel has now given. But let's go into the financial figures. Again, we like to be transparent as we always explain hyperinflation. It's included -- the effect of hyperinflation is always included in our explanations. So it's the middle column, IAS 29 that impacted the second half of 2024 and the second quarter of 2024 and also removing from the second quarter of 2025 inflation. So the darker gray columns are reported figures. And for comparison purposes, we included 2 extra columns with IAS 29 for both periods. And what would be the second quarter of the 2 years without the effects of hyperinflation for comparison purposes.

So what we saw from Daniel's talk, MAHLE Metal Leve, even without the hyperinflation effect had a significant increase in removing from this BRL 1.350 billion, the acquisitions, there -- that's part of aftermarket. So for MAHLE Metal Leve is positive and negative. So if it offsets itself, so BRL 200 million, we had still a growth of 9% to 10% in sales. This is part of the good news that Daniel conveyed. We are making new projects, developing with new customers, but there are also price adjustments in general in the market. The gross profit is a bit more worrisome. In absolute figures, there is an increase, a significant increase, even considering -- not considering inflation. When you see the percentage, there is a reduction of 2 percentage points. So even without hyperinflation. So some of the factors are the same factors explained in the first quarter.

There is a different composition of sales of compressors and thermal in industry, which is aftermarket because we know that margin in aftermarket are much higher than in OEM. And in compressors, the aftermarket accounts for 10% of sales, while at MAHLE Metal Leve without the acquisitions of [ thermos-compressors ] aftermarket is 43%. So this mismatch between aftermarket and OEM will drive all the margins on sales down. So we'll see further on that we should not come to the conclusions that acquisitions were not assertive. As you will see, they were rather positive for MAHLE Metal Leve. However, in the percentage of sales and just stressing that while 2024 remains a comparison period, the -- giving more transparency, if we look at all the lines, and then I'll talk about the net income, you'll see that there is a higher difference in SG&A. That continues in the second quarter, the same explanation. We had atypical expenses in freight, outbound freight, not inbound freight.

There was a mismatch in demand because of -- in aftermarket coming from producing plants, but the producing plants had their capacity committed to OEM, which is the main purpose, the main target of the plants also because of contracts they have. So this mismatch in demand generated in aftermarket imports above the regular levels but also generated additional outbound freight in the producing plants and aftermarket. So what is in terms of mismatch are freight expenses that affect SG&A. In total, we're talking about BRL 10 million. This is not a situation that tends to remain. It is going back to normal. If you see the detailing of the financial statements, our inventories quite higher than it would be regular levels because of this mismatch between production capacity and the demand for OEM and aftermarket, especially in the first quarter, that's a situation that tends to be normalized in the second half of the year not so much in the third quarter, but towards the end of the year, it will go back to regular levels. But so far, this is what we have to report. And in addition to the impact of hyperinflation and acquisitions of compressors and thermal, also repeating what we had explained in the first quarter, there were strong impacts, especially in Rafaela plant in the first quarter, one of the main factors was the mismatch between hyperinflation because it was a productive plant in Argentina.

Most of our expenses are in local currency. Pesos remain at lower inflation rates, but still high. While Rafaela is a fully export, a plant that fully -- only for exports. So there was a mismatch in the foreign exchange rate. Of course, it's a very profitable operation. But until the Argentinian government is able to stabilize the economy of the country, that generates a mismatch for us in terms of results. This is what happened in the first quarter. This is mismatch between foreign exchange and inflation is slowly going back to regular terms and decreasing. And the production and sales of vehicles in the North America decreased considerably, that also has an impact on our volumes. We made the necessary adjustments in operations in terms of labor and fixed costs, but sales is the main line. So when sales decrease, that has an effect in all other lines. This is a macro thing.

We don't know how long this will last in the North America and Europe. But within the local possibilities we have, we're trying to minimize the potential impacts. In the first quarter, we had in aftermarket in Garin, Argentina, normalization of prices that will remain. I insist on this because this is very important. When you say normalization of prices, it may allow you to think that we don't have adequate margins for the aftermarket in Argentina, which is far from reality. In the past, it was a more controlled market for -- with import quotas. That's how the previous government controlled the trade balance. We have a plant that exports and aftermarket imports everything. We didn't have to abide by quotas, and we dominated the market.

Now in Argentina, with the Mile government, it started to allow new entrants. You probably heard that very often in order not to lose market share, we are normalizing or going back to price levels in Argentina closer to the reality of Chile or Brazil. So it's far from being a bad business. But when you compare period-to-period, there will be lower aftermarket margins comparable in Argentina when compared to Brazil that's extremely healthy. But Argentina is also healthy. Due to the demand of aftermarket and OEM companies. We don't lose any sales. So in order to keep the current service to distributors and customers, we imported high volumes. They are not shown in the slides, but you can see a high increase in inventories in the financial statements. But inventories cost money because you're bringing goods not from local plants but from China or India. Of course, there are higher costs in customs or freight. And there is also a transit period until it reaches our shelves.

So the time it takes for imported goods is much longer than when bringing parts from production plants that are located 100 kilometers or 60 or 80 kilometers away. So this inventory levels tends to go back to historical levels in aftermarket Brazil operations until the end of the year. Daniel has also talked about the tariffs. In principle, tariffs that started in April at 10% rate, then political trend got into it. And now it reached the level of 50%. We don't know what's going to be in the future if it's going to go up or down. But 50% came into force in August only. So it doesn't contaminate these figures. The effect of tariffs on the financial statements of the first half of the year are still very small. The representativeness of the U.S. and our sales is also shown on the financial statements. We talked about that in the first quarter, and it remains valid.

It is an important market for us. And a point of attention, although it doesn't have an immediate impact on our books, but what concerns us the most there are several test forces thinking about a potential contention to maintain the results in a possible or if a macro crisis happens, not looking at the tariffs that we are subject to, but looking at the macroeconomic effects such as massive unemployment or depreciation of the real, none of that is happening or is predictable, but we're looking at all possible scenarios. So if tariffs tends to go back to normal in Europe, it went to 30%, then ended at 15%. Now Mexico and India remains at higher rates. So without trying to know what's going to happen to Brazil in the future, we're trying to measure potential future risks and start some contention actions. But in the snapshot we had for the first quarter, like we said in May, although it started in April, it didn't impact the first quarter. It was part of our earnings release call in May.

Out of the 100% of sales to the U.S. 75% of our clients had agreed some way or the other to reimburse the company. So some clients were paying for that on the customs clearance that we are responsible for. We present our report for imports in Brazil and customers reimburses. So there are always going to be a mismatch in terms of time with a negative impact in the month and the customer reimbursement 1 to 3 months later. But this is all uncertain at the moment, if we were realistic, if we were on the other side as importers, if imported products became more expensive by 50% in terms of import taxes, this would be something that would concern us. And so we're working trying to contain that -- those problems.

On the next slide, you see that the same explanation applies for semester figures. We're talking about close gaps. There's not a higher deviation. Figures for last year, not without considering adjustments for hyperinflation EBIT. Margin is a bit higher, but there was a legal procedure with the Limeira city hall for benefit we had. It was a legal discussion that took some years, and there was a favorable decision for MAHLE Metal Leve at the appellate court last year, and that has an impact on EBIT. That was a one-off effect, and it won't be repeated.

Now moving on to acquisitions, trying to provide transparency. It's not that we don't want to be transparent. If you remember the presentations we made in September, October last year, especially compressors operation is quite relevant to us. You see the details of valuations made by independent companies last year. However, when you look at clients, we're talking about 3 clients -- if we provide too many details, too much transparency on these operations, that may be not so positive for the company in the short run. But being as transparent as we can be, you can see when we say sales that is the first odometer on the left, in terms of revenue, we're performing much higher than we have. So the needle is to the right. So we are selling more than we expected to see, which is positive. So we're performing above future reality.

Now moving on to the center. we see EBIT that's much above valuation. So in addition to selling more, the operational results of the company is way above what we expected and paid for. That's very positive for us. And we have a third on the ride, odometer, which shows a return on invested capital, which is significantly above what was expected in the valuation. So the main factor is the indicator in the middle. So if we remember last year's discussions, we purchased the cash for compressors of the previous owner of the company. But from the moment we started discussions, the cash and banks was way higher, and that was helpful. That was used to pay dividends for MAHLE Metal Leve and that increased by cash and banks and also leveled the dividends that I had to pay in the dividend payout. So that was beneficial for MAHLE. So my indicator is almost twice what I expected in valuation.

Now going to the net financial results. If you look at the second quarter, you see a delta quarter-on-quarter of BRL 25 million, BRL 24, less than BRL 9 million. And the atypical or items are different from the first quarter is that when you look at the second line of net foreign exchange gains or losses, it is negative in the second quarter by BRL 13 million. whereas in the first quarter, it was a foreign exchange gain. So that's due to the appreciation of real compared to euro. When we talk about tariffs and potential impact on sales to the United States, there is no debt backed by dollars. So all the transactions made in 2023 were funded back in euros.

So even with the impact in the U.S. market because of tariffs imposed or other facts that will not affect our capacity to pay that. And even so, when I look at our sales in euros, date of exports in the following months, even with the decrease in the demand from the European market, that is still far from affecting our capacity to pay those debts. When you look at the lower chart, you see a steep drop in cash and cash equivalents due to payment of dividends and the second amount of acquisition of Athena in April, compresses in thermal. So that impacted the second quarter because it was in April. So going back, we'll see a similar impact in this last quarter because the third installment of the acquisition price is due in October. So we have to pay for this acquisition. So cash is affected by that.

Also, cash and cash equivalents are affected by significant payment of dividends. So far from the levels of 2023, which there were retained earnings that were used to pay those dividends. Now we're going back to regular dividend payout. This year, we made a -- we retained some earnings improved in the April of around BRL 50 million to maintain our cash and cash equivalents healthy. But there would be a reduction of BRL 180 million. And in addition to that, there is also inventory -- over inventory for the aftermarket that tends to be regularized until December. So all of that has had impacts on cash. The next column show a position of our debt. You see a major difference in short term. Short term applies to 12 months in the future. No concerns for this year. Now this steep difference is due to the indebtedness of 2023. There was a significant debt in 2023, and we paid dividends and we didn't have enough cash. So we had to go to the banks for credit. And this will end in the first half of 2026, which for us is a short term. Nothing that affects exports.

Looking at the long term, you -- this is 0 deviation. We go from BRL 950 million to BRL 970 million. On net terms, on long-term and short-term debt, you see a net negative net situation of BRL 1.2 billion. So this is why we address this concern in March and April regarding the creation of reserves in order to pay for all that. We see that due to all the macroeconomic instability, especially outside Brazil, the Brazilian market performs in a different direction in our opinion, different from the U.S. and Europe. A way for us to grow a lot in addition to the organic projects shown by Daniel, we're always looking at the possibility of acquisitions, nothing on our radar so far, but we want to be financially healthy so that we'll be able to make acquisitions when we find interesting.

As for leverage, there is a difference between 0.66 and 1.17. As we compare MAHLE Metal Leve to MAHLE Metal Leve, all of you who have taken part in the acquisitions at the end of last year, our level of leverage of 0.7 is extremely low for our segment compared to the market. And 1.17, which is what we are now, is also lower when compared to similar companies. So nothing to worry about here. The next slide, we see the cash flow in detail. We have cash and cash equivalent in 2024. So we're moving towards June, we took some debt to pay acquisition of Athena in April and payment of dividends in May. These are BRL 349 million in light blue, first column. Then moving forward, we see cash generation of almost BRL 180 million positive, could be even better, and it tends to improve due to inventory levels for the -- that we have for the second half of the year. So BRL 280 million of dividend payout and the second significant outflow is payment of Athena, also taxes and CapEx, dividends. So nothing out of our regular business operations. This is the material we had to share with you.

Now I turn back the floor to Rodrigo for any questions you may have. So we are here to answer your questions. And at the end, I may come back. And if I won't come back for any reason, I thank you for your attention. The floor is yours Rodrigo.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] So far there are no questions. There's a question that came on the chat -- to the chat talking about future projections. If -- usually in November, the company's budget is subject to -- submitted to approval by the Board and then part of it becomes public, and that would be the right time to talk about future projections?

[Claudio Braga, executive]

I think Daniel and I have talked about impacts that we can't even measure, such as macroeconomic impacts, tariffs.

[Operator]

Let me see if there are any further questions. Our first question comes from Gabriel Rezende from ITAU BBA. Go ahead, Gabriel.

[Gabriel Rezende, analyst]

Good afternoon. I would just like to make a quick follow-up regarding tariffs. The presentation was rather complete. But going back to that point, I would like to understand if there is any possibility of the company falling under 25% rate tariff because auto parts have different rate at 10%. It was different from 25%. Is there any possibility that this industry could remain at 25% in your portfolio?

[Claudio Braga, executive]

Well, that's a good question, Gabriel. We mentioned in the call of May, all of that happened very fast. And no political judgment in my comments, but in erratic or very quick -- but in the snapshot that we presented in May, looking at the information we had back then, there was, according to our understanding, the possibility of some of the products we export to fall under 25%. All that evolved towards the end of July and beginning of August, when the US government indeed finished the discussions and established 50%. There is a list of exempt products. And there are the NCMs, which is the tax code that's used for customs clearance, which is not necessarily the same in the US And Brazil, but there is some equivalence.

So when you look into detail and the products that we make, which we in principle consider to be 25%, we had much of a more wider interpretation. So piston, they're exempt, are for airplanes. So this is not the type we make. And also differentiation between aluminum and steel that induced us to think that everything that became 50% went back to 10% and all that was 10% became 50%. And also, we got in touch with a customs company, a customs broker, and also a lawyer in the US and a special -- specialized lawyer in Brazil, all of them looked at the tax classification of our products in detail and all of them confirmed that 10% went to 50%.

So currently there's nothing in our portfolio that 25% rate would apply to. Argentina -- products in Argentina are lower, but in -- exports from Rafaela are taxed at 10%. But not from Brazil, because this is more of a political thing. So there are differences between Brazil and Argentina. For Brazil, the rate is confirmed at 50%, Gabriel.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] I think Jonathan had a question. I don't know if he would still like to ask the question.

[Claudio Braga, executive]

Okay, I don't see anything else, Rodrigo.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The Q&A session has now ended. I would now like to turn the floor over to Mr. Claudio Braga for his final remarks.

[Claudio Braga, executive]

Well, thank you all for your interest and your time. In any future context, as all the situation evolves, we expect positively. We'll talk again. I hope to see you in the next quarter's call. And thank you, Daniel, for your presentation and for your team that prepared all this material and analysis. Thank you, Rodrigo. And I wish you all a great afternoon.

[Operator]

Thank you. The video conference of MAHLE Metal Leve is now ended. We thank you all for attending, and have a good afternoon.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]