Turning to Page 7 of the presentation, you can see that the top -- on the top left, the cash used in operating activities was $3.7 million in Q1 2020 and compared to cash generated from operating activities of $6.9 million in Q1 last year. This decrease was mainly due to lower profitability. AMG's annualized return on capital employed was 7.7% for the first quarter of 2020. AMG finished the first quarter of 2020 with $192.4 million of net debt. The increase versus year-end levels was mainly due to the significant investment in growth initiatives during the quarter, especially the vanadium expansion.
AMG's balance sheet is sound, and the company enjoys significant liquidity. As of March 31, 2020, AMG had $208.9 million of restricted -- of unrestricted cash and equivalents and total liquidity of $372 million.
That concludes my remarks. I would now like to pass the floor to Eric Jackson, AMG's Chief Operating Officer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric E. Jackson, AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group N.V. - COO & Member of Management Board [5]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you, Jack. Prices for all of our products were substantially lower in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the first quarter of 2019. Again, the extent of the decline in prices is most clearly illustrated by ferrovanadium, where sales prices fell by more than 70% quarter-over-quarter. This resulted in compressed margins and lower earnings. However, as Dr. Schimmelbusch has previously stated, all of our operating units are run rate EBITDA positive even at today's low price. This underscores our focus on productivity, cost reduction and risk management in all of our operating units.
Operationally, we are responding decisively to the dramatic impact of the global pandemic and the related upheaval in the aerospace and automotive industries and end-market demand. We are focusing on things we can control. We are aggressively reducing operating costs, managing working capital and cutting SG&A expenses across the company. We have implemented a hiring freeze, reduced staffing levels where appropriate, adjusted production levels to meet lower end-market demand and furloughed employees where necessary. We've reduced staffing levels total short term and permanent by approximately 15% from year-end. We have reduced professional fees and research and development costs and renegotiated supplier and service provider contracts where appropriate. We continue to be focused on driving operating cash flow and have reduced, eliminated or deferred capital spending on nonstrategic capital projects.
That being said, we continue to progress our important strategic initiatives in spent catalyst recycling, the expansion in Zanesville, Ohio and our joint venture with Shell Catalysts & Technologies as well as our lithium project in Germany. AMG continues basic engineering for its lithium project in Zeitz, Germany, and has committed in excess of $140 million to date in engineering contracts, engineering and construction contracts for the Zanesville facility.
These projects have not been significantly impacted by COVID-19 and are on schedule. They are fundamentally sound and will drive AMG's earnings growth in all market conditions. The financial performance of our Critical Materials business units has been impacted by falling prices, most dramatically in vanadium and chrome. We do believe, however, that these businesses are low-cost producers when compared to our competitors and using publicly available information. We will come out of the other side of today's depressed market in a very strong competitive position.
AMG Technologies delivered solid results in the quarter with orders for turbine blade coating and remelt furnaces being particularly strong. AMG Engineering successfully completed the installation of the first ceramic matrix composite vacuum furnace and passed the final acceptance test at its customer's location. This represents a significant achievement in AMG Engineering's ongoing new product development program.
As Dr. Schimmelbusch noted, we're grateful to report that we have no active confirmed COVID-19 cases globally. To protect the health and safety of its employees, AMG continues to implement preventive measures, such as practicing social distancing, remote working when possible and restrictions on travel.
I would now like to pass the floor to Dr. Schimmelbusch, AMG's Chief Executive Officer.