Randon SA Implementos e Participacoes
BOVESPA:RAPT4
Randon SA Implementos e Participacoes
BOVESPA:RAPT4
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[Presentation]
Good morning. Welcome to our conference call for earnings for Q4 2023 and full year 2023. Before beginning our event, it is being translated simultaneously into English and also interpretation to sign language.
[Operator Instructions] This conference call is being recorded and will be available after the end of the event in our website ri.randoncorp.com.
As you saw in the opening video, 2023 was full of projects and many victories. Our CEO, Sergio Carvalho, will talk about this; and Paulo Prignolato, the Director of Finance; and Mr. Angeletti will also talk about each vertical. We will have with us in the Q&A session, the Director of IR, Hemerson De Souza, and our Finance Coordinator. So I invite you to participate in our Q&A session.
As you saw in the opening video, 2023 was full of projects and many victories. Our CEO, Sergio Carvalho, will talk about this; and Paulo Prignolato, the Director of Finance; and Mr. Angeletti will also talk about each vertical. We will have with us in the Q&A session, the Director of IR Hemerson De Souza and our Finance Coordinator. So I invite you to participate in our Q&A session.
Please click the Q&A button or send your question by ZAP. You can send us questions at any time. If we don't have time to answer all the questions live, we will get in touch after the closing. Before passing the floor to our directors, I must tell you that the information given here are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks and uncertainties. They refer to future events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur.
Now I pass the floor to our CEO, Sergio Carvalho, to begin the presentation.
Good morning. Thank you for being with us in this earnings call. I would like to begin highlighting the excellent year that we had in the company. Another period when we evolved a lot, apart from changing our identity, Randon to Random Corp. We also carried out many projects. We won awards, new businesses. We attach value to our people, the planet, and we had initiatives that are having an impact on the present, but are fundamental for our future.
In terms of results, we reached most of our objectives that we had in the guidance 2023, including with absolute record in EBITDA. Paulo will give you more details about the main financial indicators. I'd like to comment some highlights of our business verticals in a year that was such a good year.
We had spectacular results in Fras-le mobility, showing once again that we're on the right track, with the right strategy, with a powerhouse of replacement, strong brands, and also capture of synergies. Apart from this, this year was very special. We expanded our position, we also made the acquisition of Juratek and also now with Compos, inaugurating new production line, that will also us to really handle the growing demand for these products. Another vertical that has many reasons to celebrate is auto parts.
In a year when the production of trucks dropped almost 40%, much higher than initial initiatives. We were able to show in a strong way, the capacity to adapt ourselves and the resilience of our business model in all the companies. We made progress in sales for replacement, export market, agriculture, apart from internalizing some production processes, which allowed us to have stronger margins even in this complex scenario.
This vertical has gained relevance in the last few years in Randon Corp with many projects that are a success, and we see a lot of potential to continue growing in a fast pace. Also, I'd like to talk about digital and financial services, which had a great progress in Randon Bank and also sale of pool sales. Also at DB had a marvelous years beyond the initial expectations, NDB, the company that we acquired in Q1 2023, apart from capturing synergies, it shows us great possibilities to expand business. We trust in this vertical. Our verticals, advanced technology and OEMs were important for us to make progress in many fronts, especially new projects, such as the modular platform and new solutions, both in vehicles and the treatment of services using niobium in NIONE.
I could mention dozens of other highlights to show everything we did in 2023, but I want to leave an important message. Randon Corp is much more than a company of capital goods. We are a full ecosystem of products, services, solutions aimed at mobility, being a reference in innovation and technology. In 2024, we will have a year to show this even in a better way.
In this line, I'd like to comment on 2 topics, 2 things that happened recently, and I'd like to highlight them. On February 28, we announced through a material fact, a loan of BRL 500 million with IFC, an institutional known all over the world to really make even stronger our ESG efforts. It will be distributed among 2 companies and will be used for eco-friendly products and also climate change, yesterday with the results, we announced the guidance for 2024.
As you were able to inform the value show that our expectation is very positive and we trust in the resilience and potential of our business. We hope a robust growth in the volumes in auto parts and recovery of commercial vehicle market, increase in replacement parts and good volumes for semitrailers. Although we have some drop in some markets abroad, we continue with our strategy in the long term to have more global exposure, especially in developed markets.
Our EBITDA margin is on a robust level and shows the strength of our model. We have businesses with higher profitability, and they are getting stronger and stronger inside Randon. Investments give us conditions to be more and more competitive, efficient, adding production capacity, and also taking care of new demands from clients that are relevant for our future.
I'd like to conclude thanking you, our investors. We worked with a lot of dedication during the year to be closer to capital markets. We had many meetings, events, road shows. We're happy that our work was well recognized once again with awards from institutional investor in many categories and also IBRI APIMEC Award with the best practices of RI. And we also had 1 of the 5 best annual reports in Brazil. So we will intensify our actions, and we hope to count on your participation. There are many good things coming in the future. Thank you. And now I pass the floor to Paulo to continue with the presentation.
Good morning to you that follow us in this video conference of results, the last for 2023. As Sergio mentioned, we had a very intense year, full of relevant deliveries for the company in many aspects. I will now present the consolidated indicators that reinforce our strategic pillars and show how the company grew and evolved in the last quarters.
Beginning with net revenue, you can see in the graph, the amount we had in the quarters of 2023 and year-to-date. I'd like to highlight that the guidance was reached, and this is important if we consider the drop of 40% in the production of trucks in Brazil and the impact from Argentina.
Next, I will comment on the factors that had an impact on revenue of Q4 2023. The seasonality of the period with less working days and also holidays and vacation. We in turn, the continuous drop in the production of trucks has affected auto parts and the negative effects of the strong devaluation of the Argentinian peso. I'd like to give you more details about this. As you must have seen in the second semester of 2023, the Argentinian government had made many actions to reduce the instability that was threatening to paralyze the economy of the country. And in December with the new government, we saw what we expected a strong exchange rate devaluation together with inflation in the period had a great impact on our indicators.
The accounting norms foresee that the accumulated results will be adjusted to up-to-date indices from the beginning of the fiscal year. With this, we had to a reversal of net revenue, BRL 156 million in Q4 2023. This effect had an effect in all the indicators like CPV, operational expenses, financial results and taxes. The details you find in our release on results. We'd like to highlight that although Argentina is going through a complex time, it is important for the automotive segment.
Our operations in the country have had a good performance. We bring now the numbers in dollars for export markets. International sales grew year after year, especially due to the acquisition of 2 companies abroad. Hercules in the U.S. and Juratek in the U.K. and more exports to the U.S. from Brazil, not only for OEMs, but auto parts and movement control. In Latin America, the scenario was more complex. Apart from the impacts of Argentina, there was a strong drop in the Chilean market for semitrailers and also in other countries in the continent. The international scenario remained complex with wars, inflation and instability in logistics.
For the time being, this is making difficult to do business in some countries, but I would like to say that even with the adversities in the short term, for us, it is still fundamental to expand the business abroad, especially in developed economies that are less susceptible to market fluctuations. Now going on to consolidated EBITDA, we have stability in the indicator in Q4 2023, in relation to the same period in the previous year. But the highlight is that we closed the year with the highest EBITDA level in our history with highlights in quarters I would like to say recovery of margins for OEMs. Esteban will explain this, stability of cost with raw materials and nonrecurring effects that had a positive impact in the period.
As I mentioned previously, the scenario in Argentina had an impact on all accounts, some more, some less, depending on their characteristics. And consequently, EBITDA was also affected. Apart from the exchange rate devaluation, there was a creation of the country tax on -- and -- right now, it is 17.5%. Together, they penalized some indicators by BRL 49 million in Q4 2023. As an offset, we had positive effects in monetary correction due to inflation, with this impact and with the reduction in demand in important markets, I would like to say that we reached the guidance, the resilience that we want was only possible due to our diversified businesses.
Concerning investments, I'd like to highlight some important investments for the company. In OEM's, we focused on improvements in the manufacturing line of Hercules in the U.S. with modular concepts. In auto parts, the Castertech in Mogi Guaçu, the construction is almost ready. And also, we will deliver this year the green equipment. These that I mentioned are fundamental in building our future, especially the green boiler where we will use biomass. And in the case of the boiler since it is connected to our public commitment to reduce greenhouse effects.
Talking about indebtedness, you can see on the screen how much our net debt dropped during the quarters. Our leverage reached 1.03x the EBITDA of the last 12 months. This was possible due to the reduction of the need of working capital on the part of the company with a rigorous control of inventory accounts, clients and taxes. We also had a drop in the cost of the debt due to the drop in interest rates. We have a solid financial situation. The control of leverage is something that we do all the time. We are trying to diversify financing. And one of the movements we did, as you know well, was a loan from EFC explained by Sergio.
It was the first time in the company's history that we used this instrument to take out loans. And it is not only resources, but we will accelerate our sustainable development with this loan.
I'd like to close my part talking about our shares. We closed 2023 with 48,000 shareholders. The group that increased the most was that of foreigners which went from 20.4% to 24.9%. In the same period, our market cap had an increase of almost 54% reaching BRL 4.1 billion in 2023. Finally, I'd like to highlight the payment of dividends to the company's shareholders that grew a CAGR of 27% from 2018 to 2023, contributing for the creation of value in the long term for investors. Now I'd like to pass the floor to Esteban for his presentation.
Good morning. It's very good to have you with us in this conference call. Beginning now I'd like to show you the market. During the year, we saw consecutive drops in the truck market. In the table that you can see, you can see that we had a drop of 37% in production. Here, we should remember that 2022 closed with accelerated production to really have an inventory of Euro 5 trucks. Now we are recovering. OEMs are announcing the recovery. We already have the volumes for 2 months, showing that production is being recovered. In semitrailers, the demand was booming in 2023, different from the truck market. Some especially in Agribusiness and industrial. So the replacement market continued with excellent performance, reaching the best year in revenue in this segment.
Going on to the numbers by vertical. Here, we see the information of OEMs. With the highlight for Q4, we have recovery of margins in relation to previous quarters with a better mix with more value-added products, an increase in sales in industrial sales with more tax and container bases. Second best revenue for semitrailers in the history of the company, expanding the sales in this vertical. And the drop of sales too in the export market due to the effect of Argentina already explained and a reduction of sales to Mercosul in Chile, compensating the drop in these regions, we had an increase in volume to the U.S. quarter after quarter, and the strong drop of inventories of semitrailers that helped NCG and the company's cash position.
Randon closed the year with 29% participation market share in the Brazilian market. The new orders are coming well, and there is good visibility for the portfolio in 2024. Now we have on the screen auto parts. So this was the vertical that had most of the challenges in terms of drops in volume due to the drop in the production of trucks, but had resilient margins. So the last time we had a drop in the truck market 12 years ago, our auto parts companies had much greater impact in their results, both in revenue and margin.
So highlight for Q4 in our auto parts companies were growth in the revenue for replacement with a highlight for JOST and Master and progress in the sales in export markets due to more brake systems exported to the U.S. and also Europe and South America. A drop in sales of cast parts in the agricultural market due to the production of machines for the sector and more operational expenses especially due to the construction of Castertech plant in Mogi Guaçu.
For 2024, we have good perspectives for this vertical with higher truck production and higher bus production. The first 2 months of this year have already showed this more positive scenario. Now we have also movement control, which had a spectacular year, not only due to the good demand of the market, but due to the strategy to strengthen the brands and greater availability of products.
In Q4, Fras-le Mobility continued selling friction materials for replacement. There was an increase in revenue from OEMs especially in India and Asia, the companies from India and Asia, also in the European market with the acquisition of Juratek in the U.K. When we do the analysis, we see a drop in the sales to the export market in 2023, even with progress in regions that I mentioned. And here, the main factor is the effect of Argentina. So many things can be seen in greater detail. And this is available in our Investor Relations site. These effects also had an effect on EBITDA with a drop of 5 percentage points in the margin in the period.
Talking about this indicator, it is at an excellent level. Fras-le Mobility has a structural expansion in the margins with a new level of profitability. Concerning financial and digital services, the greatest highlights in Q4 were record revenue from Randon tool sales consortium more than 2 million in credit sold and a new level for quotas that were negotiated. Expansion of the revenue of Randon Bank, postpaid freight, which was developed in partnership with Randon Ventures, very profitable in comparison with other products of the bank, and also revenue from DB, a company acquired in Q1 2022.
Also, the excellent performance of Giant, which has good consolidated results. This unit finished with more than 1,000 assets that were rented above the expectations. Concerning EBITDA in relation to the previous year, in Q4 2022, we had the positive impact of adopting CPC 47, which added BRL 30 million to the EBITDA of that period, bringing accumulated effects of the year in 1 quarter.
Now the last company, I'd like to show CTR, which is our technology center had recovery in sales to OEMs. Apart from this, it is investing in expanding the portfolio with new services in Latin America. So active and passive safety test for vehicles. So they have had sustainable growth in this unit. Auttom our industrial automation company had a drop in revenue due to projects that were delayed by clients. EBITDA of the period was impacted by some factors, such as reorganization of processes and structures, closing of Auttom projects with lower profitability and expenses with maintenance in tracks and labs.
Before closing, I'd like to invite you to evaluate our work based on institutional investor. We always use your feedback to improve our practices and our work in the capital markets. The QR code to answer this survey is on the screen, please answer. I thank you now.
Now I will pass the floor to Caroline to begin the Q&A session.
Thank you for the presentation. Sergio, Paulo, Esteban. We would like to begin the Q&A session.
[Operator Instructions]
Our first question will be from our analysts from BTG Pactual, Fernanda Recchia.
Good morning. 2 points I'd like to see more color. First, the guidance of 2024. Maybe you could comment on the assumptions to get to these numbers, especially revenue and margin. It would be interesting to help. What are you considering in terms of volume to get to the margin apart from volume and price? What are the variables to get to 14%, 16%?
With the scenario we have in mind whether you should be closer to upper or lower, and the second point, I'd like to explore the pipeline of M&A. In yesterday's call, we were able to explore this with Hemerson for Fras-le, but we'd like to see the pipeline of Randon. So how do you see new M&As in the future, something that is -- what can we expect in terms of M&A in the next few months?
Thank you, Fernanda, for the 2 questions. I will distribute them. Sergio can comment what we have behind the numbers, also the resilience of our operations and next for Esteban to talk about new projects and M&A in the future. So let's begin with Sergio.
I will begin answering here concerning the guidance. So traditionally, we have the running rate, something we have been doing based on the performance we had in the previous year, excluding the one-timers. So this is our baseline. In terms of revenue, we're foreseeing a recovery on the part of the market, especially trucks and buses, trucks due to the prebuy that happened in 2022, which hurt and caused a drop of almost 40% in trucks in 2023, therefore, hurting auto parts in a significant way. And this is one of the verticals that has a large contribution to our results.
So the vision for this year with the recovery of trucks, and also bus program, the government bus program, we will have a stronger year having an impact on 1 of our verticals that contributes strongly for our results. We hope to have a better performance, our investments in manufacturing and capacity expansion should take us to an improvement in performance in OEMs. And all of this led us to publish the guidance we published. I know that you ask whether we will be closer to the minimum or the maximum. Right now, we're in the beginning of the year. We trust that we will be able to reach this guidance but it would be premature for us to tell you whether we will be closer to the minimum or the maximum.
Now I'd like to pass the floor to Esteban to talk about the M&As, and if we have follow-up questions, we want to hear them.
In fact, in terms of M&A, this is an important part of our growth strategy, M&As. In the last 5, 6 years, we invested in almost BRL 1.5 billion in acquisitions and they generated twice as much in revenue. So they added a lot of value to the company, BRL 1.5 billion investments brought to us something like BRL 500 million in EBITDA in the last 5 years. So yes, it's natural to continue with projects in the pipeline. Yesterday, Fras-le mentioned that, yes, there are some projects being analyzed in the U.S., in Mexico to expand the aftermarket in other geographies. And this logic also applies to the other verticals, all of them, without exception, we're looking at potential M&As, potential targets in auto parts and also looking at some things in Brazil and abroad and in OEM, semitrailers.
We continue to look at expansion, geographical expansion to mature countries, developed countries, and our vertical of financial services also has some projects aiming at continuing to expand this line of business. Last year, it represented. We saw an expansion in net revenue, business diversification to have more resilience, yes, in all verticals, we have M&A projects, some more mature. I would say that in movement control, we have some mature projects, in others they are in their infancy, but they are part of our strategy.
Just a follow-up. Sergio, maybe I wasn't clear, I wasn't asking your vision. What are the assumptions for the guidance. What are the assumptions? Truck production, range from 10% to 20%, if it's 20%, you'll be closer to the max in guidance. So I'd like to understand the main variables that you considered in the guidance to have this range of 11.5% to 12.5% and 14% to 16%?
Fernanda, our business model is diversified. As you know, and this diversification is our strength. We have many business verticals, and there is a level of complexity in building this model. What we can say, we already talked about volumes in auto parts, which is one of our great contributions for the result. We foresee a recovery in the truck and bus market. But yes, there is a possibility of volumes, better volumes with the need to replace inventories at OEMs. So if the market has a good performance and this improves things, in the beginning of the year, coherent with our forecast, it's possible that we have a greater volume than the volume we anticipated, helping to have a better performance.
On the other side, on the negative side, we have truck exports where the world economy is going through challenges. There are challenges in the world economy. And when this happens, many multinational companies, they review their exports, they analyze where they will export when they have lower volumes, this may impact the exports, especially to some markets that are supplied by Brazil. So this can have a negative effect. Semitrailers, for example, we're foreseeing another positive year but you must follow agricultural equipment, harvesting machines, tractors, there we have seen a drop.
They had a drop in 2023 in comparison with other previous years. And this year, the forecast is an additional drop. In semitrailers, we are foreseeing a large volume because there is a rate of renewal in semi-trailers that go to agriculture, have good volumes and agricultural machines are having a drop. This has to do with the renewal of the fleet of vehicles for agribusiness. If this rate, it may fluctuate this rate, the renewal rate to explain a little better Fernanda, with the advent of the fourth axle, a semitrailer for grains is now transporting more cargo and it's more interesting for fleet owners. As transporters renew or accelerate the renewal, we may have better volumes than the ones we are anticipating for this year.
The interest rate, that's another area, another point that is very important for this segment. Another vertical that is very important of our segments is Fras-le Mobility movement control company. And you followed our event yesterday. We have markets that are well diversified within Fras-le Mobility, the domestic part of Fras-le Mobility, we see with a positive outlook, but many international markets, especially South America and in North America, these economies have had challenges.
So they don't have the same growth rate that they had in previous years. And this variability is also affecting Fras-le Mobility, the performance of the international markets, including Argentina may bring a fluctuation in the segment. So these are 3 of our 5 verticals. I could talk a lot about this Fernanda. I hope I helped you with to clarify the indicators in 3 of the 5 verticals.
The next question from Lucas Laghi analyst for XP.
I would like to explore 2 segments beginning with OEMs. You mentioned a more favorable mix in Q4 that helped recover margins in spite of the segment and the domestic environment, that is challenging the competition. For 2024, I'd like to have a better idea of this segment I understood the comments on volumes.
I'd like to understand how you see the opportunity for price recovery, price increase in this two, and also, so what is this opportunity compared with this 6% in Q4 in terms of price recovery, price adjustments? And how worrisome is the risk of the harvest, harvest risk for units with price pressure for agro, which is almost 60% of the volumes.
And the second question, in auto parts the expectation of improvements in volume, January was a weaker month, February improved, I'd like to understand what we can expect in terms of efficiency of the operation, if this improvement that you expect is not that strong, so do you depend on volume to improve profitability. What will happen if we have a slower recovery? That's for OEMs and auto parts.
Your first question on semitrailers. We have a similar question from [ Gabriel Fraser ] from Bank of America. He asks about the product mix especially the volumes of fuel tanks, which were very strong in 2023, apart from the volumes in agro. I will ask Esteban to talk about the scenario in the future in 2024 in semitrailers. And then Sergio, I'd like you to comment on the market for auto parts, what we expect for trucks. We talked about the guidance. If you can give us more details, we can answer this question from Lucas. Okay, Esteban, you have the floor.
We have many things to say concerning OEMs. I prefer to make a division between domestic and international markets. In the domestic market, what we see the estimates we're very aligned with what the associations have sent, 85,000 units per year. I'd like to highlight. It's a strong market. We have been defending the idea at the normalized market for agro implements. This 75,000, 85,000 semi-traders this year will not be different. For being us, since it's a strong market, we've seen that competitors have been more rational in prices. This is positive. There is a challenge we know. But less pressure than in Q3, Q4 of last year.
Another factor, this market gives us a good -- we have a good visibility of backlog. The first semester, we have already closed. We are accepting deliveries for second semester, some of the products in August. So this shows that it's not only market projection. We already have orders for the first semester.
In terms of portfolio, our mix we have felt something very similar to last year in spite of the problems in the harvest, lower harvest. So -- we -- the semi-trailers represent 60% of our portfolio, there is a drop in the harvest, especially in the Midwest, but it's going to be the second best harvest in Brazil.
Our clients in agro that they have a high inventory. They will have to transport the grains that are stored to make space for the new grains. And as Sergio said, the fourth axle with larger semi-trailers the trucks are really carrying more grain, and the clients have to renew their fleets because their cost will go down.
Concerning price recovery is we are always working on this. In the first quarter of this year, we still have some sales from Q4, so they should put pressure on the margin of Q1, but we hope to recover price and margin gradually between Q2, Q3, we should see a recovery in a significant way, not only due to seasonality at the end of the year, but due to greater manufacturing efficiency and a greater dilution of fixed costs.
Now talking about export market, the scenario is different. We talked about this in the conference call in the previous presentation. And in the guidance, we see a drop of revenue in the export market coming especially in the U.S. and Latin America.
In the U.S., last year was relevant in terms of revenue. This year, demand has dropped. We had observed this drop in Q3. We talked about this in our call in Q3 and some sales that had been delayed were canceled. They did not happen in 2023 and will not happen in 2024.
This shows that the scenario in the U.S. is under pressure for Q1. We hope that in the second semester, this will change, especially in the U.S., the countries in Latin America, we will have challenging year this year. But there is this beauty of the diversification of business and our domestic market can compensate the drop in the export market. Sergio, I'd like you to supplement.
You are correct, Lucas. For us, the most relevant point is to comment this diversified model we have, consumption goods and services. We have 35% of our revenue coming from this and growing. So we're more and more resilient. Last year, we talked internally. It was -- we went through a test.
One of our largest verticals had an impact of almost a 40% drop in the market, and we were able to maintain our revenues even with such a large drop in one of the verticals. Within Auto Parts, we're also diversified. We went after more exports and sales for replacement aftermarket. And this drop in 40% had a smaller impact.
We were able to recover. So the strength of Randon Corp is in this model where we can make adjustments to compensate difficulties we may have within the harvest risk, supplementing what Esteban said, there is a great gap between the production capacity in Brazil and the storage capacity which is much lower than the growth rate of the harvest.
So they cannot -- they don't have where to store. The harvest will come, and they have to transport it even with greater drops in these, we are seeing the businessmen are capitalized in agro, also the executives in transportation are capitalized, we have a strong portfolio in this area, and they continue buying products in a strong rate. And we have the same levers to work on.
So replacement, also railway sector, showing signs of recovery, also a drop in volume, as you mentioned, would allow us a greater normalization of operations, greater operational efficiency due to lower pressure on production, so higher volumes, if we have higher volumes in an abrupt way, we always have inefficiencies. Auto parts we mentioned, if there is a renewal of inventory.
So this can surprise us with higher volumes when companies replenish their inventories, this from OEMs, they are signaling healthy volumes, OEMs in 2024. I believe we have a potential in this segment, we can have positive surprises from the market in 2024. As we said, there are concerns, exports. That's one concern in this sector. So we prefer to be optimistic, but optimistic being optimist and also being cautious.
Now the next question from the analyst, Gabriel.
Good morning. Two questions. The first, I'd like to know about the investments in Hercules in the U.S. growth in volume, diversification, isn't this enough to take care of the U.S. market. That's the first question. The second, in auto parts, I'd like to understand the schedule. The construction project in Mogi when you hope to reach the capacity you wish. And also the preparation for the contract with Mercedes.
I'd like to ask Sergio to answer these 2 questions about Hercules and the new contract. We have 2 plants Castertech and Suspensys. He will talk about the construction. Just a comment in the previous answer, we answered the question from [ Pedro Dimelo ] on implements. Sergio please comment on Hercules and then the operations in Mogi Guaçu.
Talking about Mogi first, we have 2 operations that Davi mentioned, we have Castertech in Mogi, which will be part of the Mercedes project, but it will also be feeding other projects we bought. We bought a casting company. It had to be remodeled. We bought this foundry. We had to renew it. We bought a new line for pouring, and we believe that in May, we will be able to inaugurate this plant. Yes, we had delays due to strikes in customs, which the equipment arrived, but we were not able to bring them to our plants. We have to go to court to, we were able, the equipment is being installed already.
The part linked to Castertech, in a few months it will be operational, and this will allow us to be better aligned in terms of demand and capacity. Today, we have to buy more products than we have to. So there is -- so it will be very positive to have this additional capacity at Castertech. In Mercedes, it's an operation of Suspensys. In Mogi in the same plant, the plant is being built. Our expectation is beginning of operation in Q1 2025.
We continue with this target. There is nothing that could make us think that we won't be able to reach. We obtained licenses, environmental licenses for construction before we expected. So we have contracts signed. There are some details here and there to be worked on, but the contract, the master contract has already been signed, and we continue executing according to plan. We trust that we will have production in 2025, first quarter 2025. So for us, everything is in accordance to plan.
Now in terms of Hercules in the U.S. with all the other initiatives and M&As, our vision for Hercules is to expand the number of products. We created a platform that is being tested right now. We're considering expansion in other product lines. But we will do this in an organic way, we're focusing more on M&A in the U.S., but thinking of auto parts, special vehicles and Fras-le Mobility too. So our vision is to continue growing in the U.S. market with responsibility, avoiding strong competition with strong names to exploring niche markets and exploring profitability instead of increasing volume with lower profitability, I hope I was clear.
Our next question comes from Andre Ferreira, analyst from Bradesco.
I have 2 questions. The first implements, we saw the market share of the quarter, 29%, a small drop, but better than the first semester. I'd like to understand concerning market share. Does it makes sense to think that in 2024 Randon will try to defend a minimum market share? And please comment among competitors that are rational, who is -- which competitor is hurting more. And also, as Sergio said, concerning M&A., he said that the focus, at least in the U.S. is related to auto parts. So we need more details. What is on the table? What is most important? Is it portfolio? Is it the region?
I will pass this first question on market share to Esteban. And I just also supplement with another question, working capital because the promotion that we made at the end of the year have the intent of reducing working capital. Paulo, please comment on working capital last year, our movements and what we hope for 2024. And then Sergio, please supplement answering about the market for auto parts in the U.S. So let's begin with Esteban, Paulo, and then Sergio.
So it's good to talk about working capital. Part of the campaign we had in Q3 last year was to anticipate, we changed software, and before updating the system and in Q1 we saw the impact in the first days of the year. So we wanted to finish Q4 with a well-known volume in our portfolio before the update in our software. So we see this recovery of market share in Q4. We always try to work with market share, 29%, 35%, but there is a greater and greater concern with profitability, and we have talked a lot to the market to look not only the market share in volume, but also value. If you look at value, it would be more than 29%. We have products with greater value added.
Now concerning competition, we don't see any change in behavior on the part of the competition. We continue considering ourselves as premium product, especially with the cost because we work on this to generate value for clients. The other competitors, some are concerned with this. The others are concerned with price. We have a new entrant, [ Gerardo 40 ] growing based on this, but we will not change our posture to generate value and defend margin. And yes, there was a movement in Q3, which had an impact on working capital. Paulo will comment this.
This is an important topic for us related to our discipline in managing cash. In the last quarters of the year, we have a seasonality in the market. At the end of last year, we had to make an additional change due to the update of our ERP software. I'd like to highlight that from 2022 to 2023, we were able to reduce by 8 days of gross revenue, our average working capital. Why is average working capital important? Because it will help us to maintain more resources in our cash and reduce our financial expenses.
So all the leadership of the company and operations and finance are involved in this. And in fact, the results were reached. We will maintain this discipline, monthly discipline, and we have some opportunities of improvement in our average working capital during the next months.
Thank you, Paulo. I'd like Sergio to comment a lot of auto parts, potential M&As and what we expect in the export market.
I hope you understand that we have difficulty in speaking about some of these projects, because we are on the stock exchange, and these negotiations, these projects, they fluctuate a lot, and until you sign the contract and pay many things can happen. We have cases where we worked on, and at the last minute, something happened, and the transaction did not happen. We have focused not only in the U.S. but in North America, Mexico as part of our efforts. We mentioned this yesterday in our conversation and Mexico is now in the place of China as the largest exporter of auto parts to the U.S. market.
Obviously, the Chinese are buying Mexican companies, but there is a lot of growth. Now thinking more -- now this is in replacement concerning OEMs. For OEMs, the U.S. is a better territory for us, why? Because you have the USMCA. You have the feeling of buy American buy in America. We are working to explore opportunities for our auto parts within the U.S., thinking more in creating a platform, a name, buying a company that is already a supplier to OEMs. And then take our technology for these products. We have no intention to do what traditional companies are doing. We have many new technologies to add and then expand the portfolio of products, expand the segment. So we're looking for a beachhead and we believe an acquisition will be the most efficient way.
In terms of financial investments, human resources and potential for the future. This is our vision, Andre. Just a confirmation Sergio, this last point.
Yes, you are a supplier there. You're thinking about commercial auto parts?
Yes.
Yes, Andre.
Let's go on to the next question, from JPMorgan, Jonathan Koutras.
Two points. First, in the guidance, can you talk about -- more about investments? This amount BRL 490 million. And the second question, EBITDA. Will this result in an improvement in margin? Possibilities or more gradual?
Reminding you, Jonathan, as Sergio mentioned, considering many factors, Sergio will give you more details.
Can you please repeat the question?
I'd like to understand where -- in which verticals investments were made and the improvement in EBITDA margin in the beginning of the year or during the year.
I'll answer the first. In terms of investments, we have a year following the same levels of organic investments. They are greater in absolute numbers. They follow the same methodology that we have used in previous years. We have investments percentage-wise, greater than and more focused on auto parts as in our vertical Fras-le mobility linked to large projects as this construction in Mogi Guaçu, purchase of equipment, this has led to higher amounts.
In Fras-le Mobility, heavy investments for expansion, especially availability of electricity in Joinville. This is important for us to expand our production volumes in Santa Catarina and Fremax. In terms of individual projects, these are very relevant. We have relevant projects also in OEM's linked to material movements, work safety, et cetera. But the greatest investments percentage-wise, are centered in auto parts and centered in Fras-le mobility. I am in a remote location, I was not able to understand your second question.
I can answer, Sergio. Concerning margin, what we should expect in terms of EBITDA margin, Jonathan, we should have an improvement in Q2, Q3. Seasonality this year should not be different from historical seasonality, and this is the period of the year when we're more productive. So yes, Q1 and Q4 more smooth and second and third quarters, greater production.
Let's go to our next question from Luiz Capistrano, Itau.
Good morning. Thank you for the space. I'd like to talk to you about auto parts. Two objective questions. You mentioned -- you highlight this, the performance of joint ventures. I'd like to understand with the recovery of the domestic market in 2024, should we see a better performance in this vertical concerning Randon operations, the minority like JOST and other joint ventures which had a good performance? So what should we expect for 2024 and also exposure of this vertical to bus, semi-trailers, heavy and others, others would be buses, 7%?
Sergio, I know you have to leave commenting about performance of auto parts, especially 100% Randon Castertech and Suspensys with interesting prospects this year and in the future. And also, Luiz, this breakdown of our materials. And when we talk about OEM, we include in OEM, trucks, all the categories of trucks and bus. So this opening considers exposure to OEMs that produce trucks and buses. .
Our vision is that as we have better volumes, all these companies that make up our auto parts, Castertech, Suspensys which are a 100% ours. Percentage-wise, they should have an improvement in performance equivalent to our joint ventures. The great variable has to do with new business, when one unit has more new business, there may be a difference.
So Master has new business breaks, also brake linings. Yes, our joint venture, JOST Brasil began production last year in extended buses, this year, they should have healthier volumes, so they should contribute more. On the other hand, when we look at Castertech, cast machined drum suspension components. We have bought because we're not being able to produce in-house. So our new operation in Mogi, when it begins to operate, we will internalize part of these volumes and this should bring us a better profitability. I wouldn't expect percentage-wise, no variance, Suspensys has new business during the year, especially components for semitrailers apart from our Randon components. So we should have a good growth. Percentage-wise, we should have growth in all of them. And the second question, once again, please?
Davi has already answered. Thank you, Sergio.
The next question comes from Andressa.
First of all, concerning margin, in auto parts, we saw a drop in Q4. I believe we have seasonality effect, the update of ERP, and you also mentioned expenses linked to Castertech Mogi, the construction, where these the factors that impacted this drop in margin? And can we think of the level that you delivered, will things normalize now?
Also railway cars. We signed the media some news about an increase in investment in this sector, more investments in railway cars, so how can Randon benefit from this? Do you have orders?
I'd like Esteban to comment, reminding you that auto parts had exceptional margins with the volumes we had during the year. So we were able to sustain exceptional margins and Esteban can comment more on what we see in the future and why we sustain these excellent margins. Esteban about railway cars, there is a question about exports of semitrailers to the U.S. So please include this.
Well, concerning auto parts. First, in auto parts, they did an exceptional job. I mentioned this in the presentation. For me, it's important to say that in a year when the production of trucks fell almost 40%, our export markets increased the margin. So we have been preparing ourselves for this, and in a certain way, we accept a drop to show that our system is resilient. So we went through 2023 with minimum impact on revenue.
In terms of margin, we even increased the margins. And in the last quarter, we had this small drop but it doesn't affect the whole year. But we had seasonality vacation and the new ERP system, the new software. Now in the future, we should recover even more profits from auto parts. And looking at OEMs, you are right, concerning railway cars. It's good news. We begin to see the market placing more orders. We should take part of this market. We have 30% market share in railway cars.
This year, we have orders for 180 railway cars being produced for a client. They should be delivered during the year. And we know about 1 or 2 orders that may be confirmed during the year for delivery.
Concerning exports from Brazil to the U.S., same logic of Hercules, the market is not buying neither from the local suppliers nor from Brazil. So the demand has dropped in Q1. We believe that this is -- we believe that during the year, this should be recovered, especially in the second semester.
And now the last question from Felipe Ilenza, analyst for Citi.
The impact of Argentina, you mentioned some effects in the P&L. The economic scenario and taxes but there was an impact of BRL 163 million through OCI, and Fras-le was responsible for most of this impact. Can you give more color about the impact from Argentina and the performance in Q1 in Argentina?
I will ask Paulo to comment the situation in Argentina. The last quarter and also Hemerson. If you can give us color, although we were affected by Argentina, our operations are doing very well there. So please tell us about the operations where and why we're maintaining the operation in Argentina. Esteban, we received the question please supplement talking about the strategy of the modular platform. How this can help in implements, especially margin, if this can help in OEMs. So Paulo, you can begin what we can expect in 2024, and Hemerson and Esteban, modular platform.
As you all know, the market in Argentina is very important when we analyze this from the beginning of our operations, the results are very positive. Of course we have to follow the rules of IAS 29 inflationary accounting. You are seeing that all companies suffered an impact in the last quarter of last year. In any way, what we would like to highlight Argentina had an inflation 12%, 13% a month. And in December, there was a quantum leap, 26% inflation in December. And when you recalculate based on this new annual level of inflation, this has to be calculated from January 1.
So the impacts were relevant. We tried not to have any bank debt in that country. All the financing we have are intercompany financing, and because of this, in OEMs, part of the impact happens in net assets, net equity, same in Fras-le, but the good news is that now, in February, inflation dropped from 26% to 13% in December, and we see good progress. The Argentinian government has been making a great effort with success. We have a positive harvest. So the scenario for -- in the first 2 months was very positive in Argentina. Of course, we may have changes, we may have further devaluation in the Argentinian currency, but we trust in the recovery of this market.
I will talk about the impact in Fras-le Mobility. We can talk about Fras-le Mobility since Randon Corp. has 52% of the shares of Fras-le. Argentina, we lost BRL 115 million in revenue in the last month of the year. And although it's in Q4, it has to be analyzed as an annual impact. We had a devaluation in the currency of Argentina. It was a great devaluation. So this also cost us BRL 62 million in EBITDA. Esteban and Paulo can also comment in terms of Random Corp.
I will talk about Fras-le Mobility. We have in Argentina. We are market leaders for many years. Very important for replacement market brands that are top of mind, a regular demand for decades now. So this places us with a leadership position in Argentina. We have a good level of margins because most of what we sell is supplied by our plants in Brazil. We manufacture in Brazil, Uruguay or China and send to Argentina. So we have a good level of margin. We also have good margin levels with the distribution in Argentina.
We have a strong model. It worked well until last year when the government stopped making payments, and we had to have more cash. Our in Fras-le Mobility, we need to manage the good work that is being done there. And so our money, our cash remains with its capacity. So we're using many instruments to have our money in the U.S. currency. We're trusting with this new government. We have some amounts, balances from the past. Everything is linked to the dollar, and we trust that the new government will be successful, as Paulo said, inflation is dropping in Argentina.
So we want to continue prospering. But I have to tell you, our business in Argentina represented 22% of our business 5, 6, 8 years ago. Today, Argentina represents 6% of our business. So the impact from Argentina is less relevant, although we have maintained our position and the impact on cash flow and results are according to accounting rules there, not only with hyperinflation, but Fras-le Mobility has few assets there. Our management is effective in cash, accounts payable, receivable. So I hope I answered.
Congratulations for the results yesterday and Davi to supplement the last part of the modular platform. Currently, we have used this technology in 3 products. The idea, this year, we want to have new products with this technology, the modular platform. It's always win-win. The client wins, the company wins and the environment wins.
So we have great expectations with modular platforms, we need to overcome the first barrier, acceptance by the market. For example, our product now is with rivets, and this happened when we began using thinner steel, but stronger steel. In the past, first, they began to buy, and today, it's a success. So tow trucks and grain trucks, trailers are there. First, we also have customization, the modular platform allows us to customize on a large scale. So with few adjustments in the line, we can take care of the clients' needs.
Reducing weight also because we eliminated weld. We're using rivets, 70% less weld, great impact on weight and easier maintenance. If you have a problem on the side, you don't need to weld the whole product again. All we have to do is change the part that had problems.
For companies, we're eliminating weld, weld is where we have greenhouse effect gases, and we have also higher labor costs with weld. In the future, it should generate a lower cost as we have more scale, this should help us to have a more efficient cost contributing and also the potential, it's easier to export. When you eliminate weld, it's like sending a kit of LEGOs in a container, and when it arrives at the destination, it can be assembled.
So this helps us, for example, transporting a semi-trailer by ship is different from sending the parts in containers. And also the greenhouse effect gases by eliminating weld, and we also have the benefits since we have less weight, there will be less consumption of CO2, less consumption of fuel and the benefit of reusing the product. So we imagine that this product can be updated as we launch new technologies, new materials. We bring back the product to our plant. We update with new technologies and return to the client without scrapping the product. So we have great expectations to have greater volumes. Now I'd like to pass the floor to Caroline for our final comments.
So this question was from [ Maga Usio ]. Thank you, well answered by Esteban.
[Operator Instructions]
Paulo let's have the closing comments.
Well, I'd like to thank the participation of all of you in our video conference with results. If you need any other clarification our Investor Relations is available. We wish you a good day. Thank you.