Orica Ltd

ASX:ORI

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q4

[Delphine Cassidy, executive]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome, and thank you for joining us today. We're here to present Orica's 2024 full year results. I'm Delphine Cassidy, Chief Communications Officer, and I'm delighted to have you with us today.

Joining me in the room here in Melbourne is Sanjeev Gandhi, our Managing Director and CEO; and Jamie Crough, our CFO. Both Sanjeev and Jamie will be presenting shortly. We value your participation and we'll ensure that there's ample time for questions after the 2 presentations. Please feel free to queue up, and we'll address your questions as soon as possible.

But before we start the presentation, can I kindly ask you to go to Slide 2 and read the disclaimer. Thank you. And with that, I hand it over to Sanjeev.

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

Thank you, Delphine, and welcome, all. I'll start by talking about this unfortunate and very sad tragedy we had where we lost a colleague in India due to a traffic accident on a public road where an Orica vehicle was stuck from behind by a third-party heavy haulage truck. We conducted a very thorough investigation and have implemented the learnings across our operations and the entire fleet to prevent such incidents happening in the future.

At the half year, we mentioned that our serious injury case rate was a focus area for us. Our serious injury case rate has improved over the last 4 years, reducing from 0.210 in FY 2021 to 0.117 in FY 2024. This is best-in-class in industry.

Despite this improvement, our key focus remains on fatality prevention and the prevention of harm. This year, we have recorded 0 significant environmental incidents and loss of containment remains a key focus globally. This demonstrates our commitment to maintaining high environmental standards across our operations globally.

Turning to our approach to people and community. Our people are our #1 asset. Retaining our talent and diverse workforce remains a priority. We have made significant progress on diversity over the last 3 years. This will remain an area of focus for us as we continue to drive improvement in the representation of women across our total workforce and in senior leadership.

Fostering a strong culture of belonging is a key priority at Orica. This year, more than 69% of our people around the world responded to our all employee culture and engagement survey called Our Say. Our employee engagement score of 89% significantly outperform comparable industry benchmarks, reflecting the very strong culture we are building.

Turning now to community. We are on track to achieve our 5-year community investment target of at least $15 million by 2025, having contributed $14 million since 2021. This includes investments made to the Orica Impact Fund, regional contributions and matched payroll giving.

Our key areas of strategic community investment are education, environment, health, well-being and social welfare. These investments are vital in supporting the communities where we operate and ensuring sustainable development.

Turning now to Slide 5 and the financial results for the financial year of 2024. As we continue to execute on our strategy, I'm pleased to share the significant progress and achievements we have made this year. Our performance has seen a remarkable uplift and the quality of earnings delivered by our team is just outstanding.

This year, we achieved our highest EBIT in a decade, a clear testament to our strategic execution and operational excellence. Despite the significant planned turnarounds at our manufacturing plants at Kooragang Island, Yarwun and in Carseland, we have delivered these outstanding results.

Our underlying earnings increased by 15% to $806 million, and our net profit rose by 11% to $409 million. This growth was driven by the increased uptake of our premium products, advanced blasting technology, innovative digital solutions alongside our continued commercial discipline.

We are pleased to report increased earnings across all of our segments, including our newly reported Specialty Mining Chemicals and across all of our regions. This growth reflects the strength and resilience of our business.

Our stronger earnings have also translated into robust operating cash flow, reinforcing our financial stability and capacity for future growth. Our return on net assets have improved by 20 basis points from 12.6% to 12.8%, demonstrating our efficient use of resources and commitment to delivering shareholder value. Additionally, our earnings per share pre significant items increased by $0.052 to $0.864 reflecting our strong financial performance and commitment to ensuring shareholder returns.

This year, we made 2 highly strategic and complementary acquisitions, Terra Insights and Cyanco. We successfully completed the Terra Insights acquisitions on 29th of February 2024, seamlessly integrating it into our business and achieving early success in cross-selling opportunities and delivering on our investment case.

The Cyanco acquisition finalized on 30th of April 2024, and it has already shown early integration success, including enhancing safety and reliability systems, optimizing our network to improve customer security of supply and expanding our technology and services portfolio. Integration will continue into FY 2025, and we forecast a full year of contribution next year.

As mentioned earlier, we have continued to achieve improvements across our key financial indicators. In 2021, we commenced our journey to execute on our new strategy. Our strong earnings results today reflect the success of the progress we've made so far.

We've been consistent. We have seen consistent double-digit growth in earnings and improvements in return on net assets since 2021, which has been achieved through the diligent execution of our strategy. Specifically, we've achieved a 24% compound annual growth rate in EBIT from 2021 to 2024, reflecting our strong operational performance and strategic focus.

Our return on net assets have grown from 8.4% to 12.8%, demonstrating our efficient use of resources and commitment to maximizing shareholder value. This strong performance has translated into the delivery of significant value to our shareholders.

Our earnings per share has increased at a 19% compounded average growth rate over the last 4 years, showcasing our ability to deliver consistent and strong financial results. Additionally, we've increased dividends to shareholders from $0.24 per share to $0.47 per share, reflecting our commitment to returning value to our shareholders.

We expect this positive trajectory to continue into 2025 and beyond as we continue focusing on executing our strategy. These metrics clearly demonstrate the strong and consistent profitable growth that has delivered increased value to our shareholders. We are confident that our strategic initiatives and operational excellence will continue to drive sustainable profitable growth and shareholder value in the years to come.

Turning to Slide 7. We will talk about our sustainability progress. We made significant progress towards our accelerated climate targets as we work towards our long-term ambition to achieve Net Zero emissions by 2050. This financial year, we completed the first phase of our decarbonization strategy significantly ahead of schedule.

The installation of 2 emission abatement reactors at our Yarwun site is forecasted to reduce the site's total Scope 1 and Scope 2 emission by 50%. This installation has accelerated the delivery of our climate change commitments, resulting in our net operational Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions being 43% below our 2019 baseline, which has since been rebaselined to account for the Cyanco acquisitions. This is an amazing achievement for Orica, demonstrating that we have achieved our 2026 Scope 1 and 2 emissions targets significantly earlier than planned.

We continue to make progress towards our renewable energy targets. Our power purchase agreement for the supply of renewable electricity from the Wellington North solar farm in New South Wales is scheduled to commence in 2025. This agreement is a crucial step in our journey to further reduce our Scope 2 emissions and transition to sustainable energy sources.

Orica is also committed to reducing Scope 3 emissions associated with purchased ammonia, ammonium nitrate and major chemicals by engaging suppliers throughout the value chain. This year, Orica executed an industry first blast using low-carbon technical ammonium nitrate produced using renewable hydrogen from Fertiberia, our partner at the quarry site in Spain.

This partnership exemplifies the importance of collaboration to accelerate the development of key emerging technologies and highlights our dedication to reduce emissions across the entire value chain. These achievements underscore our commitment to sustainability and our proactive approach to addressing climate change. We are confident that our continued efforts and strategic initiatives will drive further progress in our emission reduction journey contributing to a more sustainable future for Orica and for our stakeholders.

This year, as highlighted on the previous page, we have made significant progress towards our climate targets. Since FY 2021, we have invested over $100 million in sustainability projects. This substantial commitment supported by state and federal government funding has driven a 43% reduction in our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.

Most importantly, these efforts have provided us with over $200 million in benefits related to the avoidance of legislative penalties in Australia and Canada. This demonstrates not only our focus on sustainability, but also the tangible financial benefits of our proactive approach.

Our commitment to capital expenditure and sustainability projects underscores our strategic focus on long-term environmental responsibility and operational efficiency. These investments are crucial in positioning Orica as a leader in the hard-to-abate manufacturing sector, ensuring we remain ahead of regulatory requirements.

This year, our sustainability progress has been recognized at the highest levels within the industry in Australia. We are proud to have received the Australian Financial Review Sustainability Leaders Award for the overall winner for sustainability impact as well as the winner in the resources, energy and utilities category. These accolades reflect our unwavering commitment to making a positive impact on the environment and in our industry.

Turning now to Slide 9. As previously flagged, this year, we changed our segment reporting structure following completion of the Terra Insights and Cyanco acquisitions. The new segments are Blasting Solutions, Specialty Mining Chemicals and Digital Solutions.

What we also want to show is the earnings across the regions, inclusive of all segments, as you can see on this matrix diagram. I'm pleased to report that earnings have increased across all regions and all segments compared to the pcp.

This positive performance is driven by the increasing customer adoption of our high-margin premium products, and innovative blasting technologies, which set us apart in the marketplace. Additionally, the successful ongoing integration of Terra Insights and Cyanco has bolstered our overall earnings in each region.

Let me provide a quick update for each region, starting with Australia, Pacific and Asia. Regional earnings increased by 13%, realized mainly through improved value-added product mix, driven by increased uptake of technology. Asia made a strong contribution with continued growth in Southeast Asia and in India.

In Specialty Mining Chemicals, the region successfully increased penetration of Orica's differentiated mining chemical solution offering further strengthened by the Cyanco acquisition. Demand for our digital solutions continued strong this year, including the successful launch of BlastIQ Underground, which received an industry award and global recognition. This earnings growth was despite a heavy planned plant turnaround schedule in Australia and a partial gas curtailment at Yarwun due to a pipeline issue with our supplier.

In North America, the Carseland manufacturing plant completed a major plant turned around successfully in October. The overall Blasting Solutions earnings were impacted by reduced demand for thermal coal, lower activity in the quarry and construction market in the U.S. building up to the elections and changes to some mine plans. Overall performance was supported by the Cyanco acquisition.

Significant margin growth was achieved in Digital Solutions through cross-selling between 3DG from Terra Insights and GroundProbe's radar solutions, which are used for definition monitoring within mine sites. Additionally, increased adoption of both FRAGTrack and OREPro continue to support earnings growth in the region.

In Latin America, significant earnings growth was achieved in Blasting Solutions despite declining volumes, driven mainly by the adoption of WebGen and 4D along with the continued commercial discipline. The new EBS manufacturing lines in LatAm are now fully operational strengthening our local supply chain capacity and flexibility and achieving efficiency improvements of up to 30%.

In Specialty Mining Chemicals, the team successfully entered new markets with Orica's differentiated chemicals offering despite continued competitive market dynamics and increased costs, predominantly logistics and supply chain costs.

In Digital Solutions, cross-sell wins were captured through NavStar-GNSS sold via the GroundProbe's radar solution.

Finally, in Europe, Middle East and Africa, Strong earnings growth was achieved through increased uptake of premium products across the board. From a sustainability perspective, we successfully completed the rollout of Orica's XL NEO, the world's first lead-free detonator range. Ongoing investments in our discrete manufacturing plants have improved productivity and efficiency, capturing a 15% efficiency improvement in nonelectric assembly production lines in EMEA.

In Specialty Mining Chemicals, the region achieved volume growth in cyanide, offset by increased costs, predominantly logistics costs. In Digital Solutions, the region experienced increased adoption in FRAGTrack, BlastIQ and ore track installations, along with strong sales of the Via BMR tool used for NC2 recovery assessment.

Turning now to Slide 10, where I'll provide an update across each of the 3 reporting segments, starting with Blasting Solutions. I'm pleased to report a substantial EBIT uplift of 13%, increasing from $669 million to $755 million over the past 12 months despite the very heavy turnaround schedule. This remarkable growth has been driven by increased customer adoption of our premium products, stringent commercial discipline, and the success of our advanced blasting technologies.

We have been discussing our groundbreaking blasting technology such as WebGen and 4D for some time now. As illustrated in these graphs, we are witnessing significant increases in the adoption of our key blasting technologies, including WebGen and 4D as well as our premium products and in margins like Fortis Protect, Fortis Extra and Suptech Vulcan.

This positive trend underscores the growing market recognition of our innovative solutions. We anticipate this momentum to continue as we strengthen our competitive advantage in blasting through our unparalleled global AN manufacturing and supply network coupled with our differentiated technology offering. These advancements enable us to effectively address our customers' most pressing challenges, further solidifying our leadership position in this industry.

Moving on to Slide 11. I will provide an update on the integration of Cyanco within our Specialty Mining Chemicals segment. Specialty Mining Chemicals was a new segment we announced following completion of the Cyanco acquisition. This year, we've seen an overall increase in segment earnings by 36%, driven by the 5-month contribution from Cyanco.

The integration of Cyanco has been progressing well. And this year, we have delivered on our investment case earnings. Since we have taken ownership of this business, we have already appointed and successfully integrated a new leadership team; implemented Orica's IT and cybersecurity environment into Cyanco systems; enhanced the safety and reliability of the Vinamarka plant through the safety upgrades and planned maintenance work; improved our customer security of supply by now sourcing from 3 sourcing points, Alvin and Vinemarka in the U.S. and Yarwun in Australia; expanded the solution offering we can offer customers by combining Cyanco and Orica's differentiated product and service portfolio.

We are very pleased with our integration progress, and very excited for what the next year brings in this segment with the first full year of Cyanco corporations within the Orica fold.

Turning now to Slide 12 for Orica Digital Solutions. Orica Digital Solutions is one of Orica's key growth segments as we continue to build and invest in the next generation of digital technologies and solutions, both within and beyond our core blasting business. This year, we are pleased to report that EBIT from the Orica Digital Solutions segment increased by 29% compared to last year.

This remarkable growth was driven by robust performance across all 3 product categories: ore body intelligence, blast design and execution and Geosolutions. The segment's financial profile is exceptionally strong, characterized by higher-margin products and services, low customer churn rate and significant annual recurring revenue.

This year, we have rebaselined our recurring revenue figure to include the Terra Insights acquisition. Moving forward, we will report an all-inclusive recurring revenue number that includes Terra Insights and will focus on further improving this metric in the Terra Insights business. That's an opportunity.

Let me share some key highlights for the year in each product category. In ore body intelligence, we continue to penetrate international markets with access by new product releases and leveraging Orica's global footprint to expand the geographic footprint and technology portfolio of the access business. In blast design and execution, which complements our core blasting offering, we saw continued very strong performance driven by increased customer adoption and increased recurring revenue.

One of Orica's unique value proposition is our ability to seamlessly integrate our core physical blasting capabilities with our leading digital solutions offering. We are the only ones in the industry who can do this.

This year, we successfully enhanced our 4D blasting solution with our innovative Rhino sensor technology. This integration allows us to use rock hardness data from Rhino obtained while drilling the ore body to inform and optimize the energy required in blasts loaded with 4D for optimal outcomes.

This brings substantial benefits to our customers' downstream in the processing phase. I'll take you through a use case later in the presentation.

Moving now to Geosolutions. Our monitoring business, which Includes GroundProbe and Terra Insights. GroundProbe increased its recurring service revenue and maintained a strong level of radar sales supporting further growth in the category.

This year, we achieved several successes in cross-selling by integrating TV Geomatics inSAR satellite services, GroundProbe's radar solutions and our geotechnical support services, which I will talk about later. This integration is providing our customers with enhanced deformation monitoring leading to improved safety outcomes. We are very pleased with the progress and achievements in Orica Digital Solutions and are excited about the future growth prospects in this segment.

I'll now hand over to Jamie to talk through the financials.

[James Crough, executive]

Thank you, Sanjeev, and good morning, everyone. I'll move to the key financial metrics shown on Slide 14. As Sanjeev mentioned earlier, we have achieved continued strong business performance with notable improvements in our key financial measures.

Although revenue was slightly lower due to the pass-through of reduced input costs, our earnings before interest and tax has risen to $806 million marking a 15% increase compared to the previous corresponding period. This is the highest earnings result for the company in a decade. I'll provide more details on this in the next slide.

Statutory net profit after tax has substantially increased by 77% to $525 million, which includes $115 million of net profit from previously announced significant items. And these items include profit from the sale of surplus land at the Deer Park and hearable sites, along with the release of an accrued earn-out related to the acquisition of the Axis Group completed in October 2022.

And this was partially offset by restructuring costs associated with the expansion of our global business service center in Manila, operating model changes in the EMEA region, transaction costs incurred through the recent Terra Insights and Cyanco major acquisitions, and an increase in the provision related to the operation of the Botnia groundwater treatment plant.

Cash generation remains strong across the group, finishing at $808 million. And incidentally, the 2023 financial year net operating cash flow result was the highest since 2014, and it's very encouraging to see that this discipline has been well maintained through the 2024 financial year.

The payment of nonrecurring transaction and restructuring costs along with the increased interest costs from the recent major acquisitions has led to a reduction compared to the prior period. But importantly, cash generation from our core business and its relationship to EBIT remains an area of strong discipline across the group.

Turning to the EBIT bridge on Slide 15, where you can see that we've delivered another year of earnings growth across all segments, showcasing Orica's strategic effectiveness.

Starting with the Blasting Solutions segment, mix and margin increased by a remarkable $101 million. And this result truly reflects, firstly, the value generated by our advanced blasting technology, products and services; and secondly, the benefits of our ongoing focus on commercial discipline. And let me go into a bit more detail on each of these points.

Blasting technology earnings have grown significantly over the past 2 years and from the prior corresponding period. This growth has been driven by increasing customer demand for the safety and efficiency benefits of Orica's wireless blasting technology as well as the ESG and productivity returns from the Fortis specialty emulsion range.

Additionally, the cost benefits enabled by the 4D advanced bulk explosive system, which delivered tailored variable energy throughout the blast hole via adopt emulsion or in simple terms and enhanced emulsion mixture have been substantial. Customer conversion from nonelectric to electronic blasting systems continues to deliver better blasting outcomes with continued strong conversion rates over recent years and from the prior corresponding period.

Commercial discipline has been a key element and underpinned our performance in recent years. We focus strongly on efficient channels to market and the appropriate deployment of capital, services and assets, and this includes constantly reviewing the Orica global footprint, exiting sales regions or changing the way that we supply our end customers where the relative risk and return were not in the best interest of shareholders, and working closely with our value-focused customers through recent recontracting cycles.

By deploying technology that delivers safety and sustainability benefits on bench, we've also helped our customers, in fact, lower their overall consumption of explosives. Impressively, segment EBIT growth was achieved despite a heavy turnaround schedule, including the 6 yearly major ammonia plant turnaround at Kooragang Island, which required increased sourcing of higher-cost third-party ammonia during the first half of the year to ensure continued AN production. And additionally, we brought forward the Yarwun outage to install tertiary catalyst abatement, and these costs were partially offset by increased manufacturing volumes in the second half.

In the Specialty Mining Chemicals segment, volume mix and margin increased by $23 million primarily due to the 5-month contribution from the Cyanco acquisition. And importantly, the EBIT contribution from the Cyanco business is in line with our investment case.

As detailed in the first half results, sodium cyanide production from the Yarwun manufacturing facility was lower than the prior year due to a partial gas curtailment following a supplier pipeline issue that impacted supply in the Gladstone region. This had a negative $6 million impact on the overall result of this segment.

In the Digital Solutions segment, demand remained strong for our suite of digital offerings and value-added services despite continued softness in mining exploration activity. Earnings in our Digital Solutions business grew by $17 million compared to the prior year.

The integration of the Terra Insights business is progressing well, and its financial performance is in line with the investment case. And finally, global support costs increased compared to the prior year due to the impact of inflation and costs associated with ongoing litigation claims that have been previously disclosed.

Turning now to Slide 16 on trade working capital. Importantly, we have successfully reduced trade working capital compared to the prior year even after accounting for the balances taken on from the 2 major acquisitions made this financial year. Excluding the impact of the major acquisitions, our base business performance saw an improvement in trade working capital of $98 million or 15%. This achievement is a result of continued strong focus from management, and favorable foreign exchange movements due to the appreciation of the Australian dollar against key foreign currencies.

We've also made significant progress in receivables management and ongoing network optimization projects, which supported a year-on-year improvement in total trade working capital cycle days on a 12-month rolling basis, reducing by 4 days compared to the prior corresponding period. Continuous improvement in our management of trade working capital, ensuring that at all times we carry an efficient level to support our customers is a key element of our overall capital management strategy.

Turning to the capital expenditure, Slide #17. Total capital expenditure for the year was $456 million, which includes initial capital spend in both Terra Insights and Cyanco. Of this, $266 million was allocated to sustenance capital expenditure, reflecting a slight increase from the prior year. And this has been managed quite well by the team, especially considering the significant turnaround schedule in 2024, which included planned outages at Kooragang Island, Yarwun and Carseland. Additionally, we've made further investments in our downstream business, including ongoing enhancements to our mobile delivery system fleet.

$23 million was allocated to sustainability capital investments, a reduction from the prior year as key projects reached completion. And this includes the final planned deployment of tertiary catalyst abatement at the Yarwun facility, which was brought forward from 2025, and the installation of the prill tower scrubber system at Kooragang Island.

Furthermore, we invested $161 million in growth capital expenditure during the year. This funding supported targeted customer growth opportunities, the ongoing expansion of our Digital Solutions business and the continued optimization of our continuous and discrete manufacturing networks.

Turning now to Slide 18 on the balance sheet and liquidity. During the year, we successfully refinanced $275 million of existing committed bank debt facilities and established a new $150 million committed bank debt facility to support our continued growth. The average tenor of drawn debt at 30 September was 4.7 years.

Net debt increased by $705 million to $1.6 billion at the end of the financial year. This increase reflects the strategic disbursement of $1.5 billion in cash for the acquisitions of Terra Insights and Cyanco. These acquisitions were funded with available cash and committed bank debt facilities together with $458 million of cash proceeds raised from an institutional placement and share purchase plan completed in the first half of the financial year.

As a result, gearing increased from 18.6% in the prior year to 26.2%, which remains slightly below our stated target range of 30% to 40%. Our liquidity position remains robust with cash of $581 million, supported by undrawn committed bank debt facilities of $1.4 billion at 30 September.

In summary, our balance sheet is strong, and it's well positioned to support Orica's strategic priorities and growth trajectory and ultimately increasing returns to shareholders.

Turning now to the dividend slide on Page 19. As previously noted, our improved earnings performance and net operating cash flow has once again enabled us to increase dividends to our shareholders. The Orica Board of Directors has declared a final dividend for the 2024 financial year of $0.28 per share, unfranked, representing a dividend payout ratio of 59% on second half earnings.

This brings the total dividends declared for the financial year to $0.47 per share, marking a 9% increase from the prior financial year. This increase in dividends reflects our commitment to delivering sustainable and disciplined returns to our shareholders.

Our consistent and improving financial performance and strong balance sheet provide a solid foundation to support the company as it continues to grow profitably, deliver on our strategy and improve returns to shareholders.

With that, I'll now hand back to Sanjeev.

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

Thank you, Jamie. You have seen our strategy on a page before. Following our resegmentation, we have now aligned our strategy with our new reported segments: Blasting Solutions, Specialty Mining Chemicals and Digital Solutions.

Turning now to Slide 22. For our core blasting business, we are committed to driving profitable growth by enhancing our blasting operations, expanding into future-facing commodities and increasing the adoption of premium products and new blasting technologies, all while maintaining supply and commercial discipline.

Since 2021, we have been on a transformative journey to strengthen our core blasting business as well as expand beyond blasting. I'm pleased to report that with our 2024 results, we have now achieved approximately 16% of our earnings from beyond blasting.

Our aspiration is to diversify the business further and to continue to drive profitable growth with an aim to achieve nearly half of our earnings from Blasting Solutions and half from beyond blasting, which includes Specialty Mining Chemicals and Digital Solutions in the future.

We've also successfully diversified the business away from thermal coal with only 14% of total revenue now originating from this commodity compared to 17% in 2021. At the same time, we've increased our exposure significantly to attractive commodities such as copper and gold. This strategic shift positions us well for the future and aligns with global trends towards sustainable and technologically-advanced solutions.

Turning now to Slide 23 on Specialty Mining Chemicals. The strategic acquisition of Cyanco has significantly enhanced our sodium cyanide production capacity positioning Orica as the leading player in the specialty mining chemical sector globally. Cyanco's established presence as a leading supplier of sodium cyanide in the U.S., coupled with its robust distribution network, allows us to effectively service gold mines across the U.S., Canada and internationally through diverse supply chain methods.

We are excited about the future growth potential in the gold sector, a commodity with exciting growth prospects. Our strategy to further expand our Specialty Mining Chemicals segment includes 4 key initiatives: seamlessly integrating Cyanco into Orica to capture additional benefits such as improved customer security of supply, expansion of our technology and services portfolio and optimizing network margins through our 3 supply points and multiple distribution centers globally.

Driving the adoption of Orica's comprehensive Specialty Mining Chemical solutions, which have been significantly enhanced by the Cyanco acquisition. Scaling and expanding our emulsifier business to meet growing market demand, and continuously seeking new opportunities to broaden our specialist mineral processing and technology offerings.

Turning to Slide 24. I'll briefly discuss our Digital Solutions segment. As highlighted earlier, our Digital Solutions business experienced a remarkable year, achieving a 29% earnings growth compared to prior year. The strong performance is driven by the increasing demand for our software, sensors and data science solutions as mining operations face the challenges of harder to find ore bodies, rising commodity demands along with stringent ESG obligations and commitments.

Our customers are continuously seeking ways to enhance operational efficiencies across the mining value chain and the value of digitization and automated workflows is becoming increasingly evident in achieving these goals.

We have successfully expanded our Digital Solutions segment into an industry-leading global business now operating across more than 400 sites worldwide, as illustrated on this slide. This year, we've also capitalized on several cross-selling opportunities within our portfolio, further strengthening our market position. We are confident that this growth trajectory will continue, and we anticipate double-digit earnings growth rate in the coming years.

Moving now to Slide 25. I will take you through a use case showcasing the integration between the Rhino sensor and 4D. Orica is leading the way in helping our customers achieve significant benefits by combining 2 important areas: understanding the resource and then the blasting process.

For example, at one of our customer sites in Lat Am, we used a special tool called the Rhino geophysical sensor to get very detailed information about the rock properties in the ground. This tool provides high-resolution data in near real time, which is much more accurate and sophisticated than traditional methods used in the past.

With this advanced technology, the site was able to customize each blast to match the specific rock conditions. This led to a 9% reduction in the amount of explosives used while still achieving the necessary rock fragmentation for the processing plant. This detailed information is also helping the site to find more ways to optimize their processing operations, which is often the most expensive part of the mining process.

Orica's 4D bulk system technology is also crucial in helping customers customize a wider range of energy matched explosives for each blast hole. This technology works seamlessly with our geophysical sensors like Rhino and our blasting management software like BlastIQ and Shots. This example shows how using advanced technologies like 4D and Rhino not only improve our customers' financial outcomes, but also improve safety.

In this case, the site saw significantly less dust during the blasting process, which greatly reduced workers' exposure to harmful silica and silicosis. By focusing on integrated workflows and advanced technologies, Orica is driving value for our customers, ensuring they achieve both operational efficiency and safety improvements.

Moving to Slide 26. A mine in Brazil recently asked our Geo Solutions team to help them monitor the safety of their tailings dam. We deployed a 3vG satellite-based monitoring service to conduct early monitoring of ground movement on their tailing dams. This has identified several higher-risk areas, which we then closely monitored with GroundProbe's ground-based radar supported by Geosolutions Technical Services.

These integrated monitoring solutions were able to streamline data collection and analysis and provide the site owners with simplified data to inform safety-based decision making, which ultimately reduce the site's risk profile significantly. This was an important project to prove that the combination of 3vG satellite-based monitoring service is complementary with GroundProbe's ground-based radar and they can be applicable to tailings structures as well as to open cut slopes.

Another focus area for Orica is on product innovation. I'll now go to Slide 27 to talk about an exciting new product launch. In September this year, we announced the launch of Next Gen SHOTPlus, a new and advanced tool that is set to revolutionize the way we design and execute drilling and blasting in mining and construction.

For over 35 years, our SHOTPlus software has been a leader in helping drill and blast professionals create better and more efficient blast designs. It has become a trusted tool in the mining, quarrying and construction industries. Next Gen SHOTPlus takes this to the next level by using the latest digital technology to create a detailed real-time model or twin of a mining site.

This allows engineers to track and store important data, making it easier to design and plan blasts more effectively. With Next Gen SHOTPlus, engineers can go beyond basic design. They can create, test and optimize their plans to achieve the best possible results. This new tool also makes it easy for engineers to share their designs and predictions with other people, allowing for better collaboration and decision-making.

One of the key features of Next Gen SHOTPlus is its ability to model the potential damage caused by blast in 3 dimensions. This helps engineers to understand and minimize the impact on both the blasted and the surrounding rock. Additionally, it includes advanced tools to predict and manage the vibrations caused by blasts, ensuring they stay within the safe and acceptable limits.

By continuously innovating and improving our digital solutions, Orica is committed to helping our customers achieve better results and operate more efficiently. We believe these advancements will not only strengthen our market position, but also provide greater value to our shareholders.

Moving on to Slide 28. I will touch on our progress against our strategic targets and our new targets or updated targets for FY 2025. As mentioned at the start of today's presentation, safety remains our #1 priority. We are deeply saddened by the fatality of one of our colleagues, and we are titted to implementing key learnings from safety incidents to continually improve our safety culture.

We revised our capital expenditure forecast for FY 2024 following the acquisition of Terra Insights and Cyanco, and have maintained our disciplined capital management framework to ensure strong capital returns. Jamie is currently reviewing and testing the robustness of our capital framework to ensure that it supports Orica's strategic priorities going forward. We aim to announce the outcomes of this review in the first half of FY 2025.

We are pleased to report that our positive earnings results have allowed us to update our 3-year average RONA target from 12% to 14% to 13% to 15%. This is now the fourth year in a row where we have upgraded our RONA targets. This reflects the consistent progress we have made since the launch of our refresh strategy 4 years back.

Looking ahead, we remain focused on several strategic targets that will set the company up for future growth. This includes pursuing organic growth, which has been demonstrated through our results and accelerating the adoption of innovative blasting technologies, also evidenced by our recent performances.

Additionally, we will continue to optimize our global manufacturing and supply chain network, expand in high-growth mining chemical markets and diversify our portfolio. We believe that these strategic initiatives will drive continued progress and position Orica for sustained success.

Now turning to the outlook for the financial year 2025 on Slide 30. As mentioned at the start of today's presentation, I'm pleased with our financial results, and I expect the positive momentum to continue into FY 2025. We expect 2025 EBIT to increase driven by growth across all segments and all regions.

In Blasting Solutions, demand for our premium products and advanced blasting technology is expected to remain strong, bolstered by the benefits of completing our recontracting cycle. This positions us well to further improve profitability with the new cycle starting from 2025.

In Specialty Mining Chemicals, we anticipate a full year contribution from Cyanco with the segment expected to grow in line with the underlying market growth. This growth will be supported by our strategic initiatives and the robust demand for our specialized mining chemical solutions.

In Digital Solutions, we will get a full year contribution from Terra Insights, along with continued strong adoption of our technology suite. The cross-selling opportunities across our portfolio will further drive growth and solidify our leadership in digital innovation.

Capital expenditure, including acquisitions, is expected to be broadly in line with FY 2024. Excluding acquisitions, our capital expenditure is projected to be lower than in 2024, reflecting our disciplined approach to capital management.

Depreciation and amortization are expected to be between $490 million to $510 million, aligning with our investment in long-term assets and technology. Net finance costs are anticipated to be between $190 million and $200 million due to the full year impact of drawn debt to fund acquisitions.

Lastly, our effective tax rate is expected to be broadly in line with FY 2024. While we acknowledge that macroeconomic factors such as inflation and geopolitical risks remain a challenge, we are committed to driving performance with what is within our control.

In summary, we are confident in our strategic direction and the initiatives we have in place to drive further profitable growth in FY 2025.

Turning to Slide 32. So how do I see Orica today? In our historic 150th year, we transformed Orica and today operate 3 globally-leading business franchises. We are now not only the global leader in blasting solutions but also in geotechnical and structural monitoring for mining and civil infrastructure.

We have also become the global leader in specialty mining chemicals, supporting the gold mining industry and efficient mineral extraction, thanks to our recent acquisitions. Our customers' appetite for new technology and our strategic direction sets us on a very clear path. We aim to drive organic growth from our advanced blasting technologies.

We will also accelerate the adoption of our new technologies, Specialty Mining Chemicals and Digital Solutions from mine to mill. We are excited about the future with further opportunities to grow our core Blasting Solutions business and expand beyond blasting, supported by our recent acquisitions in digital and Specialty Mining Chemicals.

We are confident in our strategic direction and the initiatives we have in place to drive growth and shareholder value. We are very well positioned to navigate the challenges ahead and capitalize on the opportunities within our control. All of this will lead to delivering greater value to our shareholders.

Thank you. And with that, we'll open to questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Owen Birrell from RBC.

[Owen Birrell, analyst]

Yes. Just a quick question with regards to the -- I guess, the beyond blasting strategy. You talked about an aspirational target of getting to 50% from blasting and call it, 50% from non -- from beyond blasting. At current levels, that sort of requires, I call it, a 5x increase in your non-blasting earnings.

I wonder if you can give us a sense of -- acknowledging that it's an aspirational target, but what sort of time frame do you sort of envisage to be getting to this sort of outcome? And given the current portfolio and asset base that you have, how much of this can be delivered organically versus the need to be acquired?

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

Thanks, Owen. This is Sanjeev. Time frames, I can't tell you, the sooner the better. In terms of portfolio, we have everything we need to come close to that aspiration. And you will see already in the full year results for FY 2025 that we'll do a significant step-up. That's not a surprise to anybody because we'll have the full year earnings from the Specialty Mining Chemicals as well as the acquisitions in digital.

So we'll get there. And we'll get there not in 10 years, it will be quick, but I can't give you a time frame right now because it depends obviously on how we scale the business up, how is the uptick, how quickly and can we get new products and solutions we have in our pipeline into the market.

So we've got a very, very exciting innovation pipeline. And obviously, when we do our investor road show in March, we'll demonstrate some of that to all of you. I hope you can all join that. Delphine will provide more results. But if you look at the pipeline, you look at the uptick, you look at the growth, the macros I think this is a target that is a bit more than aspirational, I have to say.

[Owen Birrell, analyst]

And let me, I guess, ask a second question on that then. In terms of the the mix of the 50% from beyond blasting, do you think that's going to skew either to Digital or to Specialty Chems? Or is there -- is it fairly even between the two?

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

It will be both. So obviously, we'll get significant contributions from our high-margin specialty Mining Chemicals business as we scale that up. We'll also bring in new portfolio products and solutions, obviously there. And Digital is clearly a very, very high-margin business for us. So the faster we scale that up, -- so the slide that I showed you, more than 400 sites, that's with at least 1 digital solution.

If you can scale that up to 2, 3, 4, 10 digital solutions per customer per site, that business scales up very, very fast. So it will be both, in my view.

[Owen Birrell, analyst]

And just finally, are you able to give us a sense of -- is this going to be particularly capital intensive to deliver this outcome? Or again, is it just very much scalable on what you...

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

Yes, that's a great part. It's an extremely capital-light business model. So basically, in digital, what we need is the very smart coders, which we have already. And then the rollout of digital solutions happens to the cloud. So it's pretty fast. It's very quick to the market. The innovation cycle time is very short. And for Specialty Mining Chemicals, we've got all the assets we need. So it will be about the maintenance, it will be about the catalyst changes and the turnarounds. Beyond that, it's a very capital-light business.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Brook Camber Crawford from Barrenjoey.

[Unknown Analyst]

Yes. First one I had was just on Slide 15. There's a $101 million benefit in FY '24 from mix and margin. And Sanjeev, if you commented on the call that momentum is to continue. So I guess how should we think about that bar into FY '25? Do you think you can replicate that level of growth again? Or are there reasons why perhaps you might think that should be a lower delta into FY '25 effects?

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

Thanks, Brook. I would be disappointed if the delta is lower. Our focus has been very clearly on quality of earnings, mix and margin. As you know, Brook, we've talked about this several times. It's all about the premium products, the upselling, the cross-selling, the technology, that's what we are all about. And that's where the focus lies and that's where the strategy is. And we've got all the products and solutions in place now. So it's going to be continued focus on quality of earnings.

[Unknown Analyst]

That's great. And I guess a similar question to Owen just around digital growth. It was really strong and FY '24 is sort of 29% EBIT growth. I think Terra was a pretty small contribution, so that's mostly organic. Do you think that pace of growth should continue over the next couple of years? Or should we think about something one-off in '24 that drove that head size growth? Or any reason why that might slow down?

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

No, no reason to slow down. I mean there will be 2 positives, the full year impact, obviously, of the Terra earnings coming through in FY 2025. And I did say in my commentary that we expect to continue to see double-digit growth in digital earnings. So yes, watch the space. It's going to be exciting.

[Unknown Analyst]

Great. Maybe just one final one on depreciation and amortization, a really large step up there next year if you compare it to the annualized second half, which had Terra 5 months of Cyanco, which I think is a good starting point. The guidance of '25 is a 9% increase on that second half annualized figure. What's driving that increase, please, would be helpful.

[James Crough, executive]

Thank you for the question. I think it's important to understand the step-up in '24 and then into '25. So in '24, obviously, a part of it was due to the acquisitions. Also, it's the new sites and new business that we've invested in that we've picked up in Oz pack this year and also investment in the tertiary catalyst abatement system, and also the relative size of the Bontang plant turnaround in 2023.

In terms of the step-up to guidance for 2025, it's obviously the first full year of ownership of the acquisitions. We're investing more in the blasting technology portfolio, and you can see the direct outcome of that in the uptick in mix and margin.

We're also investing more in digital solutions. As Sanjeev mentioned before, our Next Gen SHOTPlus as an example. Another example is the new GroundProbe manufacturing facility that we've opened in Tucson to pursue growth in the Americas. And we're also investing more in our mobile delivery fleet. And I think you'd see that most of the step-up in this depreciation is related to growth and growth in earnings.

And a proof point really on the effectiveness of that spend would be looked at our RONA. So our RONA has increased every year over the last 3 years, and we've just increased our RONA range. And just on CapEx for next year, if you normalize it for the acquisitions, it will be lower next year, both in terms of sustenance, capital expenditure and total capital expenditure.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Daniel Kang from CLSA Australia.

[Unknown Analyst]

I just want to -- just a clarification on Slide 41, where you've detailed your maintenance and turnaround schedule. I think you've included KI and Carseland for this half. Have these already been completed? And can you just estimate the FY '25 earnings impact from the maintenance and turnaround work?

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

Thanks, Dan. Yes, Carseland was completed in October. We've restarted the assets to full load early November. Remember that the Carseland turnaround was aligned with our upstream raw material supplier, and they had a longer turnaround. So we were -- we had to shut the unit down longer. So it straddled both September and October, but most of the spending and the impact will be in the first half of this financial year for North America.

I can't give you a number now. But obviously, when we come out in March, we'll be able to quantify that. So it's obviously a month of production missing plus the cost of the turnaround and the capitalization and everything else that flows through with that. So that's Carseland.

The other one was Kooragang Island, that's all done. So you see here the next one in Kooragang Island will happen in Feb, March of this new financial year. So we've got a pretty good run, a clean slate of turnarounds in our AN assets not happening in this year.

The -- something to point out now that since we are all on this slide is obviously the cyanide assets will have multiple turnarounds. We should not be a surprise because obviously, Vinamarka and Alvin, the 2 assets we acquired need a bit of work in terms of safety upgrades, reliability bringing them to Orica standards.

So we're going to spend some time, effort and capital in the cyanide assets this year as we did last year in the blasting AN assets. And as a result, we will obviously have some supply constraints this year when those plants are down.

[Unknown Analyst]

And just on the recontracting cycle where you've indicated the full year benefits of recent contract settlements. I guess, 2 questions here, 2 parts. Historically, Orica has recontracted around, I think, 20% to 25% of your book each year. Does this decline going forward given that your terms -- your contract terms have extended? And then if you can just talk about the new recontracting cycle, how it's shaping up at current IPP levels?

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

Yes. Thanks, Dan. So we finished with everything we started in 2021. So that's '21 to '24. So in 3 years, we've recontracted our entire book, and the last ones get recontracted in December this year. So that's roughly a 33% recontracting rate. And I have talked about this in the past and that we expedited the recontracting given that customers were concerned about supply and reliability. And I needed a clear outlook into what do I source, where do I source from raw materials and all of that.

Now the long-term average of recontracting for Orica is between 20% and 25%, and we've been recontracting at between 30% to 35% in the last cycle. In the next cycle, we'll go back to the normal long-term average of between 20% to 25%. So that's going to be the plan unless something else happens in the market, right? And then customers start getting concerned again about supply issues, we could do it faster.

So that's where the expectation is starting from January 2025 that we'll recontract on an average 20% to 25% of our book as we have done in the past. We've been very successful in the last 3 years. I can't really call out any major contract losses because we went through this very aggressive recontracting cycle, and we had to push through all those higher costs inflation, CPI, everything else to our customers.

Going forward, the discussion will be not about cost, it will be about value. So in the past, we have always talked to the customer about what's the cost of the contract, the cost of the product, the cost of the service. Now we are starting to talk to customers about the value we bring with our products and services, and how can we share in that value with them.

And we've been pretty successful. We've got a couple of really great wins in the value. I talked about one in my presentation, where we've reduced exclusive demand by 9% and added more value but made more money with it. So that's going to be the focus.

Now not every customer would want to deal with us in that way and some still want a product price, we are happy to do that. But the big focus in recontracting is we can now offer you blasting technologies, blasting services, specialty mining chemicals and digital services. We can also integrate all of them together, if you'd like, and we'll get you value and you share the value with us. So that's where we are headed then in the new recontracting cycle.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Reinhardt van der Walt from Bank of America.

[Reinhardt van der Walt, analyst]

First one, this could be a very simple answer, but the Cyanco turnaround that was brought forward for next year. Can I just check to see if that was a view that you took on demand or whether it was a more technical requirement to bring the turnaround forward?

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

Thanks, Reinhardt. No, it was in demand, unfortunately, because we are sold out on our assets. It was a safety requirement. So we have sent our Orica Yarwun people now into Vinamarka to supervise the integration. And obviously, they do things differently to us. Every chemical plant was operated differently, even though it's the same technology.

And we saw a few issues there in terms of safe handling and safe operations, sometimes operating beyond the boundary limits of the controls. So we decided and for us, safety is always first. And we know how difficult sodium cyanide manufacturing can be. We decided to take a shut earlier.

It was planned for the first quarter of the next calendar year. We pulled it forward. And the plant is down as we speak today. And we are in the process of retrofitting a few of the digital control systems, fixing a few of the safety issues that we have seen. And the unfortunate byproduct of all of that is that we are running short on material.

Now fortunately, we've got 3 factories, not no longer one. So we are moving at the moment, product from Alvin from Texas to Vinamarka so that our customers don't feel any kind of shortages. Obviously, this comes with higher costs, but I think it's surprised I'm willing to pay because safety comes first for me.

Now going forward, we'll continue to take these kind of shuts to ensure that we are operating in safe windows. We are regulatory compliant. And then we'll also, obviously, in the next step, start looking for debottlenecking options. So there's going to be some work here, and that's why we did call out that we've got capital allocated for the new acquisition, and we are well on the way to spend that capital in the right focus and the right manner.

[Reinhardt van der Walt, analyst]

Understood. No, that's perfectly fair. And can I just check after you identified this issue at the 1 specific plant. Have you done any kind of review across the rest of the portfolio that you acquired to see if there are any other issues that need to be resolved?

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

Yes. Yes, we have what we call a punch list. So we know what we have to resolve. We've also got it prioritized. So the first priority is safety. Then it is basically a license to operate so that we are within the operating conditions. Then it's obviously cost efficiency. And after that, it's productivity.

So we have that order. The capital is allocated. The team is in place. And the great news is because we have freed up our AN turnaround team because they've done all the heavy lifting. Obviously, they get a couple of days holiday and now they all move to the U.S. to fix the 2 assets there.

So we've got a lot of experience doing this, right? We've been running Yarwun and cyanide for 30 years. We know what to do. It's now just about doing the hard work, the heavy lifting and getting it done.

[Reinhardt van der Walt, analyst]

Perfect. Understood. And just on AN or maybe KI specifically, I understand there's a couple of tranches of gas contracts that are coming up for repricing. Can you just remind us again on just the timings of those when the contracts were signed and when the repricings will kick in?

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

Yes. Normally, we signed 4 to 5-year, 10 years and we've got 3 or 4 different tranches of gas contracts across Queensland and New South Wales. We have extended 1 tranche of those contracts for 5 years, so until 2030, and the rest is work in progress. So we are under negotiations. We are discussing. We've got offers. We are evaluating that. All of that will happen during 2025. Those gas contracts run until early 2026. So let's say we've got what, up to 18 months to finalize them.

[Reinhardt van der Walt, analyst]

And so I'm assuming you've made some kind of assumption around with the pricing lands on those gas contracts and cost to serve recovery when you were releasing your RONA target.

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

That's correct. It's all factored into horizon falls and the new contracting mechanism. So that's all factored in.

[Reinhardt van der Walt, analyst]

Perfect. One final one. Origin Energy is slinking away from their hydrogen ambitions in Hunter Valley Can I just see what does this mean for your end of the project? Does this mean that your green hydrogen aspiration basically on hold for now? Or is there any way that you can pursue this by yourself?

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

Look, Origin is a good partner, right? I mean they still supply as gas. So they're an important partner for us. I am disappointed that they decided to walk away, but I understand their decision. For us, nothing changed. My view still is that the Hunter Valley hydrogen hub and Kooragang Island is the most feasible and practical hydrogen solution in this country.

For 2 simple reasons. One is, we are the consumer of hydrogen. So we'll put all of that hydrogen into ammonia, and then we'll also make ammonium nitrate out of it. Secondly, it's on the port. So this ammonia can easily be put into a ship and export it.

So as I said, when we made the announcement following what Origin said, I said we are open for business. We're looking for partners. And if anybody is interested in working with us to build the hydrolizer, we'll consume the hydrogen provided the cost is the same as our current consumption based on the gas price.

Now after that announcement, we've been flooded with inquiries, both from onshore interested parties, but also offshore interested parties. So we are running through them. It's a long list. And if we come to a partner and we find that, that partnership makes a lot of sense to us, we will raise our hand again. And if that doesn't happen, I'd say, let's give it 12 months until end of 2025, if we don't announce a deal, then we will put this on the shelf because we've got other things to do.

[Operator]

Next question comes from the line of John Purtell from Macquarie.

[John Purtell, analyst]

Just a couple of questions, if I can. Just picking up on Dan sort of like...

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions]

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

We can hear John. John, go ahead.

[John Purtell, analyst]

Sorry, just further to Dan's question, just in terms of the pricing cycle in Australia. So you're still seeing sort of runway for pricing improvement in your Australian business relative to IBP, notwithstanding that you've obviously had a pretty good last few years.

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

That's correct, John. Look, there are -- there's 2 reasons. One, what is pricing decided by the supply-demand balances, and it's decided by input costs. I have not seen any area anywhere in the world where my input costs have gone down. So inflation continues to come through. Interest rates are still high. Labor costs are going up. Energy prices are going up. So that constant pressure on margin, if we do not reprice smartly, that will start to eat into our margins, which we don't want to do, clearly.

So we've learned how to do this. We've done this very successfully in the last 3 years. There's no reason why we continue -- why we don't continue doing that. Obviously, the upselling, the premiumization, the digital businesses and all of that, that comes on top. So that's all good.

Supply demand, nothing much changed, right? There is no new capacity in the market. All my plants are running at full load. I'm buying a lot of product in the market. I brought in product into Australia because my plants were down. I know how difficult it is. I know how expensive it is first-hand experience. So supply demand has not changed as long as our customers need our products and services. I think that the environment is pretty good for us.

[John Purtell, analyst]

And this is the second one in relation to sort of acquisitions. Obviously, you called out Terra that there was minimal net EBITDA impact there in the second half, just given the integration costs. But how should we sort of think about integration costs for the acquisitions into '25? And obviously, there's purchase price accounting as well. So just trying dimension and quantify possible those types of impacts.

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

Sure thing. So we finalized the purchase price accounting for Cyanco. So that's already visible in the results. For Terra, a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of the integration is done, the IT integration is not done. So the first focus on Terra was to get cybersecurity in place because we're handling data, right? So that was the first priority. Secondly, was safety. So we've addressed that.

Now it's all about optimizing their manufacturing footprint. We've got several factories. So we've got plants in Canada. We've got plants in Europe. So we've got different kinds of manufacturing sites where we make our own sensors. So we are starting to look into manufacturing efficiencies there, getting more capacity out, stock points.

They were very North America focused. The business is a global business. So we are now scaling it up, which means stock points in Australia, stock points in Asia, stock points in Africa. So making those kind of investments, growth capital. So all of that is something that will happen in 2025 and 2026.

In Cyanco, we will have to integrate Cyanco and the plan is to do that in -- during 2025. We have to integrate them into our SAP system. So that's something that we will need some capital for some work to do. It's not complex. It's 2 manufacturing sites, a handful of legal entities, but knowing some of you have known the challenges with SAP. So we have been putting some cost effort and resources into that so that it gets done smoothly. And then after that, it's all about the manufacturing efficiencies and the supply chain efficiencies.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Scott Ryall from Rimor Equity Research.

[Scott Ryall, analyst]

My question is hopefully pretty quick. I just wanted to confirm that the new RONA spread under 15% range is actually aligned with the LTI. And the second question is with your more rapid decarbonization, do you expect to generate safeguard credits in the next couple of years?

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

Yes. Thanks, Scott. Yes. So we've already generated the first safeguard credit this year. More than 100,000 of those because of the part year impact of the Kooragang Island decarbonization. So next year, both for Kooragang Island and Yarwun, we will generate full year safeguard credit. So the benefits already start to come through. So that's just fantastic news, and that will scale up as we get the production going and as we get the 12-month impact.

In terms of RONA, the way the LTIs for myself and the management team is calculated is 50% is based on RONA. 50% is based on relative TSR. So yes, very much reflected in the incentives of myself and the management team.

[Scott Ryall, analyst]

So Sanjeev, just to confirm the range that's shown in the annual report this year, which admittedly is for last year's LTI plan is still the 12% to 14% for the scheme starting this financial year, it's going to be third and if you...

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

That's correct. It's a 3-year rolling average. So the number that I announced today, 13% to 15% will be part of the LTI targets for 2025, 2026 and 2027. It's always 3 years forward rolling average.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Nathan Reilly from UBS.

[Nathan Reilly, analyst]

Just coming back to the depreciation and amortization increase that you're asking us to model, bit of a technical question, but I'm just wondering how much of that increase is related to acquired contract intangible amortization, please?

[James Crough, executive]

There was very little amortization as part of the Cyanco acquisition, whether it is it relates to the Terra acquisition.

[Nathan Reilly, analyst]

Sorry, so it's very little overall?

[James Crough, executive]

A little with Cyanco and around $14 million as it relates to Terra, $14 million.

[Nathan Reilly, analyst]

Okay. Then finally, just in relation to the manufacturing EBIT impact, which you've bridged out in your FY '23 to FY '24 EBIT bridge. I think you're calling out it looks like $15 million in terms of an EBIT impact in relation to the manufacturing downtime. That looks a little bit lower than what you were talking to at the first half and is also a little bit lower relative to the heavy type of language that you were using in relation to describing the load this year. Am I missing something there? Can you maybe sort of talk me through what might have been impacting that number of $15 million?

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

No, Nathan, you're not missing anything. It's -- so it was the heaviest turnaround schedule we've done in 150 years. So I was not exaggerating when we said what we have done here. We have never done ever before. And the capital spend reflects that. So we've done a lot of heavy lifting on very old assets.

Now fortunately, we have an outstanding turnaround team, and you always build contingencies in turnarounds. Things can go wrong because you only know when you open up the vessels, the pressure vessels, the columns, the pumps and you do your maintenance. And then the single biggest risk you have in turnarounds is you fix everything and you try to start the plant up and then you trip and you've got massive problems, right?

Now fortunately, for us, we've got this outstanding turnaround team who's been doing this now for the last 4, 5 years, and they were bang on target. So we basically came in below budget. We came in on time. We did not have to use any of the contingencies. And then the sourcing team did an outstanding job in sourcing the ammonia, ammonium nitrate that we were falling short of, right?

So there we got a bit lucky because we were able to source at the right time in the market and land the product at cost lower than what we had initially anticipated. So it's a combination of a lot of things going very well combined with putting the best turnaround team and industry in position to fix all of these very, very challenging problems.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from the line of Niraj Shah from Goldman Sachs.

[Niraj-Samip Shah, analyst]

Sanjeev, I think you mentioned in the prepared remarks a review of the capital framework, I know you asked us to be patient until the next half for the outcomes. But I just wanted to better understand what's under consideration? What are the key parameters you're looking at?

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

Yes. Thanks, Niraj. So we're looking at the entire capital framework. And I'll tell you why we are doing it now, and we haven't done it earlier. We've gone through this heavy cycle of M&A, which is now behind us. We've gone through this heavy cycle of sustenance capital in terms of fixing the assets, in terms of the debottlenecking, in terms of replenishing our mobile fleet. So we are mostly done through that.

So a lot of the sustenance heavy work is already behind us. Also a lot of the inorganic portfolio measures that we wanted to do is behind us. So the question is, the business is obviously, as you've seen now, the last couple of years, generating a lot of cash. So what is the thinking going forward?

So we look at everything. We look at what kind of -- and just to finalize that, our sustainability spend, we spent $100 million in 3 years. Now that's also behind us. So most of that is also done.

So the question is, what are we doing with the cash? So we look at everything. We look at the 5-year plan, we look at our targets, we look at what kind of sustenance and growth capital we need. We'll then look at the DPR. So we've been at 40% to 70% now for many, many years, even before my time. So is that the right measure?

We look at all our metrics. We look at the gearing, we look at the -- at a leverage -- we've given you the RONA numbers, so we know what we need to deliver that. And then we have to decide what is the best use of that capital in terms of shareholder returns. So nothing is off the table. We will look at all the options. Obviously, we'll also look at buybacks. But I have to -- Jamie has to finish the work. We have to get it to the board. We have to get the sign off. So that's why we need a bit of time.

Why didn't we do it earlier? Because we were very busy with this year with the acquisitions, we were busy with the turnarounds. So we just did not have the bandwidth. So that's why the request is. Please wait until March. And then by the half year results, we'll be able to give you, hopefully, a new and a much more attractive capital framework.

[Niraj-Samip Shah, analyst]

I appreciate that. And coming back, I'm just following up on Nathan's last question on the manufacturing impacts. If I look at the half year, it was a negative $19 million impact, I think, within the draw and blast business. On the full year, it was negative 9. So I just wanted to better understand what the positive 10, I guess, is in the manufacturing in the second half of fiscal '24.

[Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, executive]

Yes, I think I forgot to mention that to Nathan. Nathan, apologies, 2 things. One is when we don't produce, we still have to pay for the gas. So the team did an outstanding job of selling the gas in the spot market. So we were able to compensate some of those penalties and losses that helped us to mitigate it.

The great news was in the second half, we got our plants really humming. So they are pumping at the moment, I have to say that, but we are still sold out, unfortunately. And that helps us to dilute our manufacturing costs.

So we produced more than planned in the second half of the year across every manufacturing site we have in the network. And that's just been outstanding to see. So obviously, the investments in the turnaround, the great work that the team has done, the manufacturing and the turnaround team means that these plants are now in outstanding shape and we are able to push them hard, and that's exactly what we plan to do also in 2025 because you know I'm always sold out in my manufacturing assets.

So that's the reason why we have compensated for some of that hole that we forecasted are for ourselves in the first half, which -- with a much, much stronger second half manufacturing performance. Now that obviously will flow into 2025.

[Operator]

We have no more questions from the line. I would like to hand the call back to management for closing.

[Delphine Cassidy, executive]

Thank you, and thank you for joining us today. If there's any further questions, please feel free to contact me. Have a good afternoon.