Elkem ASA

OSE:ELK

Earnings Call Transcript 2021-Q3

[Odd-Geir Lyngstad]

Good morning, everyone, and a warm welcome to Elkem's Third Quarter Results Presentation, both of you participating on the webcast and for those of you present here at Felix Conference Centre in Oslo. My name is Odd-Geir Lyngstad, I'm responsible for Investor Relations in Elkem. With me today, I have CEO, Helge Aasen, who will take us through the business update and the outlook; and Morten Viga, CFO, who will take us through the financials. We will take a Q&A session after the presentation. It's a pleasure welcoming Helge Aasen back as permanent CEO.And with that, Helge, the floor is yours.

[Helge Aasen, Chief Executive Officer]

Hello, can you hear me? Yes, good morning, everyone, and welcome to Elkem's third quarter presentation. I have to start by saying that I was both excited and honored when the Board of Directors asked me if I could continue on a permanent basis as CEO of Elkem. And I really look forward to joining a very capable team on this journey of green transition and digitalization that Elkem is embarking upon.We are experiencing extraordinary markets and are delivering record results this quarter. Elkem has been well-positioned during this period, and we have been able to run normal operations despite disruptions in supply chains, energy shortage in certain parts of the world. Strong market demand is, of course, the most important driver. We have also launched a very ambitious climate strategy supporting the Paris agreement. And we have ambitions to be a leader in our industry in the green transition.We are also happy to announce a major investment in our upstream platform in Roussillon, France, to support growth in specialties in EMEA and the Americas. It's a NOK 350 million investment. And looking at our main markets, we expect supply-demand to remain tight during the next period. And I think it's important to follow the global energy pricing with regard to, let's say, trying to anticipate when this would ease up again.Yes, thank you, Morten, let me -- ESG is a key priority in Elkem. We are accelerating in this area. We received an A rating by CDP and also Gold sustainability rating from EcoVadis in 2020. And we have, as I mentioned, launched a very ambitious climate strategy with the aim of being a leader in the green transition in our industry.Looking at some of the key factors on the safety, we have unfortunately had a negative development during the pandemic. We are turning that trend now. It's been an increase in low-severity injuries, but we are on good track to reverse that trend. And our social focus is very much about human rights and nurturing diversity. In the environmental area, Elkem is a producer of materials that are essential in the green shift. And we are today, we have a base or an energy base, which is 83% renewable.In governance, we have implemented the TCFD framework. And we are also internally running a campaign on anti-bribery training. And we have 98% of our employees have personally signed our code of conduct.There are 3 key levers in our climate targets: It's about reducing emissions, supplying materials that are part of the solution in the green shift and enabling circular economics. By 2031, we are aiming to reduce our absolute emissions by 28%, while growing the business, and we are also aiming to deliver a 39% improvement when you look at product footprint, so scope 1 to 3.We will grow supplies of advanced materials to the green markets, focusing on better buildings, electric vehicles and renewable energy. And we are building new business in green markets. We'll come back to this in more detail. Battery materials is a very important area. Biomass will be a key lever in our strategy and also energy recovery, recovering heat from our processes. So increased recycling at our own operations, together with our customers and develop eco-design on innovative products.So how is this going to happen? There are, by 2031, 3 key deliverables, it's biocarbon or replacing fossil carbon with biomass in -- as a reduction material in smelters. It's about improved energy mix and energy recovery. It's about sourcing lower CO2 footprint, silicon in particular, and also work on innovative logistics solutions. So that will take us to 2031 with a 28% emission reduction target, and then from 2031 towards zero target in 2050. Carbon capture will -- and both use and storage will be a key driver to achieve 0 emissions or carbon neutrality.So coming to some of our important projects, Vianode, our battery initiative is very much around being a supplier of anode material to a fast-growing battery market in Europe and North America, primarily. If you look at the expected growth up to 1,000 gigawatt hours of battery capacity by 2030, it will require 800,000 tonnes approximately of anode materials. The production in EMEA and Americas today is less than 10,000 tonnes. So there will be a strong focus, we believe, on developing local or regional supply chains.The project is now in -- still in the development phase. We have our industrial pilot at Fiskaa in Kristiansand up and running. We have advanced dialogues with battery manufacturers. We have signed 3 MOUs with the future customers. And we have decided to develop this project in 2 stages, in the industrial phase project that we call Fast Track, where we will install full-scale equipment and produce 4,000 tonnes to 5,000 tonnes. And that will speed up market entry and also give us a platform for future technology development, the one we have a full-scale operation, which is then around 60,000 tonnes of total capacity. We are inviting investors to join us in this development project. And the target is to have a decision about Fast Track, the next phase by the end of the year.A key competitive advantage for Elkem is renewable energy. And the current challenges we have seen in global energy markets is a result of very high ambitions on climate strategies and a higher portion of, let's say, unstable renewable energy. Of course, with the ambition of reducing CO2 emissions. We think that the combination of hydropower with wind and solar is an unbeatable combination. And that will increasingly be a competitive advantage for a company like Elkem.We also anticipate that CO2 costs will become a global issue. And we see that already happening outside of Europe with new regulations, expecting to tighten the markets in U.S. and Canada, for example. In China, very strict climate policies are being implemented and the country is currently experiencing electricity shortages. And in the middle of all this, Elkem is very well positioned. We are mostly based on renewable energy, I mentioned initially 83%. And we are in countries with the stability of supply. Power prices for Elkem are hedged. So we have a good mix of hedging programs and longer-term contracts, which provide a predictable cost base.This map illustrates where we are located with our energy-intensive operations. And as you see, the green dots here are all based on hydropower in Paraguay, Canada, Iceland and Norway. Our operation in France is primarily nuclear energy. And then in China, we are still primarily on fossil sources without silicon and silicones big operations. That is gradually changing as China is having a bigger and bigger portion of renewable energy in the mix.So coming to the Chinese power market. We have seen a steadily increase in consumption of electricity. Of course, a direct consequence of high GDP growth and also a more complex economy. And the combination of a higher, let's say, influx of renewable power has and also record high coal prices have led to a significant increase in cost and also in many regions, power curtailments. This really started taking place from August onwards. Chinese authorities are taking measures to mitigate the situation. But from our sources, this is expected to remain a challenging situation, at least through the winter months, and then potentially with a higher or a shift in power price level going forward.We also expect that there could be a structural shift on global silicon markets. China has, in a way, acted as the global swing producer on silicon. And we think this situation could change that longer term as the amount of exports will be reduced and electricity will be consumed by other sources and energy-intensive exports of commodities. During the period, we have not had any major impact on Elkem's operations in the Gansu province and Jiangxi province. And we don't expect to see any changes in that situation.However, in the beginning of the quarter, given the high level of uncertainty, we also, together with most of the producers in our silicones industry did issue for force majeure letters to customers because of what was quite an unpredictable situation. We have maintained over-production throughout the quarter. We continue to see strong demand and significant price increases actually in all our markets. And we think we are very well positioned also towards global supply chains in handling this. I think it's important to note that a very strong part of Elkem's business model is having fully integrated value chains, both for the European/American market and for Asia Pacific, so which gives us a lot of flexibility. But as I mentioned, due to the significant uncertainty, we did issue force majeure letters, and we are working very closely with our customers. We think the risk for the disruptions are lower now than it was in the beginning of the quarter. And we have a positive outlook on the situation for Elkem.This is a picture of our upstream platform in Roussillon in France. The Board of Elkem approved an expansion of this facility. Investing -- we're investing NOK 350 million, and the capacity expansion will be finalized in the third quarter in 2023. This is actually all about supporting our growth in specialty business in Europe and the Americas. This part of our business is expected to grow between 5.9% and 6.5%. And there is a structural deficit of siloxane, which is the upstream raw material. So, actually, a very, very important project for Elkem to meet this demand increase or the increased demand. The project is also well synchronized with our expansion in Xinghuo in China in terms of execution and say, positioning in the market.In numbers, the capacity expansion is actually going from 80,000 tonnes to 100,000 tonnes of siloxane capacity. And this will have a good impact on cost position. It's a combined debottlenecking and also some improved technology in process and also, we expect to improve reliability as part of this investment. Environmental performance is also an important part of it, where we will improve our energy efficiency and upgrade wastewater treatment.There's been a lot of focus on the shortage of semiconductors following the cutbacks that happened during the early phase of the pandemic. And there is a risk that activity may slow down in China from next year. Automotive markets are impacted by this with constraints, obviously, in -- or let's say, part of the reason for this is constraints in transportation capacity and also shutdowns related to COVID in Asia. There is a significant drop in sales of cars in Europe, China and the U.S., if you look at July and August this year compared to last year. However, a very important impact or positive impact for Elkem is that sales of electrical vehicles is increasing, which for us is more than compensating for a shortfall in the segment of combustion engine vehicles. So this supports also our very positive outlook moving into fourth quarter, given the fact that the silicones consumption in electrical vehicles is about 4x higher than for regular combustion engine car.We have seen significant price spikes due to these conditions in our commodity markets. This is a graph illustrating the DMC reference price in China. Very much a consequence of the energy situation with low availability of silicon metal, which has pushed prices higher also downstream. We have seen a new record level of DMC pricing in China of RMB 63,000 per tonne. This has now come back slightly, but we expect markets to remain tight, and we also have seen now -- or we are implementing MC worldwide price increases also in specialties as a consequence of what's happening upstream. It's unclear when this will normalize. But as I alluded to, I think we will see a tight markets for quite a while. And demand, there are no signs of slowdown in demand.If you look at silicon and ferrosilicon, we see a similar development, a very strong demand for silicon and ferrosilicon across many sectors, driven by solar, chemicals or silicones, if you like, also aluminum and steel. Market prices have gone up to a record high levels in the third quarter. There are supply problems in China, again, coming back to this energy situation and also on the raw material availability, which has accelerated this development. It's also disruptions or bottlenecks in other parts of the world and Brazil, we have had a 3-year period of drought, which is -- has limited production of silicon metal. Brazil, as you know, is based on hydropower, primarily. And these significant cost increases around the world is [ expensive ], I have mentioned our attractive power situation.Carbon markets are also strong. This is very much driven by steel and ferroalloy production. And as China has restricted production, we've seen increasing production in other parts of the world, which are main markets for our carbon business with very strong demand on ferroalloys. So this combination, high demand, strong energy markets are continuing to drive increases in raw material prices.So I think that sums up my business update, and I'll turn it over to Morten Viga, who will take you through the financial performance.

[Morten Viga, Chief Financial Officer]

Thank you very much, Helge, and good morning to everybody. It certainly is a pleasure to present these results. They are all-time high, almost all across the scoreboard. Of course, this is very much due to extraordinary market conditions, but we also take this as a proof that we are very well positioned towards attractive, fast-growing markets. And we certainly also take it as a proof that our business model works very efficiently.So let's start with the total operating income, NOK 8.8 billion for the quarter. That is significantly up versus last year, but it's also NOK 1.5 billion up versus second quarter this year. So if we compare it to last year, we have a significant uptick in silicones, NOK 1.6 billion, higher volumes, better prices, better mix. We have a significant uptick in silicon products, NOK 1.1 billion. That's also significantly higher prices, but also better mix. And also carbon, which traditionally is a much more stable business. Here, we also have an increase in revenue, primarily due to increased prices.Our EBITDA amounted to NOK 2.13 billion, representing an EBITDA margin of 24%. That's obviously a very good number. We have improved the EBITDA by almost NOK 800 million compared to Q2 this year. And we have improved it by NOK 1.6 billion versus Q3 last year. And also here, the big positive swings are on silicones prices but also very good operational excellence and silicon products, NOK 700 million, very much due to prices, but also improved mix.As always, we have included the main financial numbers for your reference. I'm not going through this in detail. But clearly, the headline is good or excellent EBITDA and very strong financial ratios. The EBITDA, NOK 2,131 million also included a positive hedging or FX impact of NOK 10 million. Even though we are in the middle of a high business cycle, we keep focusing on long-term cost improvements, that is important. There is going to be, let's say, a rainy day even after this super cycle, and we are very well prepared for that. That's why it's so important also to deliver on this productivity improvement program where our target is to take down fixed personnel costs by 10%. And we are ahead of schedule, and we're absolutely confident that we will deliver more than the target, both in terms of annual savings of NOK 350 million per year, and in terms of permanent headcount reduction. And that is important for our long-term competitiveness.Other items, not any big changes on that, NOK 16 million, some pluses and some minuses. Net financial items, minus NOK 10 million. Normal interest expenses, approximately NOK 60 million as guided and in line with previous quarters. And we also have a currency gain primarily due to intercompany loans of NOK 50 million. Our tax cost for the quarter were almost NOK 300 million, and that gives a tax rate of 18% and this is in line with the previous quarter, and we also believe that, that is a good estimate for the quarters to come.Silicones, as Helge mentioned, very good market conditions, clearly, and we are posting strong results. Total operating income of NOK 4.8 billion, that's up 50% from the third quarter last year. This is primarily explained by higher sales prices but also higher sales volumes and also an improved mix. Our EBITDA amounted to almost NOK 1.2 billion, representing an EBITDA margin of 24%. And the nominal number of NOK 1.2 billion represents an improvement of 235% from the third quarter last year. Once again, this is very much due to higher sales prices and higher sales volumes. But I should also once again add that we have had, particularly in China, a very good operational excellence and that facility, it continues to exceed our expectations. There are higher raw material costs, both for silicon and methanol. That is, of course, a concern for the industry in itself. I think it's fair to say that we are in a very good position in this respect. We are the only big global player with a fully integrated value chain, both in Asia-Pacific and in the Western world. So we are probably in a better position to handle this than at least most of our competitors. And sales volumes, all-time high numbers, 111,000 tonnes.Also extraordinary results in silicon products. And also here, we have, of course, seen a very good market development through Q3. The nature of our business in silicon products is that there is a time lag from the changes in market prices until it hits into our realized prices. So we have very good reason to believe that our realized prices will be even higher in Q4 than in Q3, given the strong development that we saw towards the end of Q3 and certainly due to also the extremely strong development that we have seen so far in October. But talking about Q3, operating income of NOK 3.6 billion, that's higher than Q2 this year, and it's up 44% from the third quarter last year. Both higher prices but also higher sales volumes and a good mix where we also see very good demand for our specialty products, for instance, towards automotive, even though there have been some problems in the automotive industry, as Helge alluded to.The EBITDA amounted to NOK 860 million. That is almost NOK 200 million higher than Q2, and it's 500% higher than Q3 last year. Sales prices, sales volumes and also good operational excellence. Also here, we -- there is clearly an inflationary pressure throughout the value chain. And that is clearly a major driver for the shift in cost curve and the shift in price curve that we have seen, particularly due to energy shortage and spiking energy prices in China, but also in Southern Europe and certainly also in Brazil, which are all 3 very important regions in these markets. Also here, we are in an excellent position. Our base -- energy base outside China are 100% are based on renewable hydropower with long-term prices. So our exposure to spiking energy prices in the short-term perspective and even in a mid-term perspective is limited. And we also have captive courts and to a large extent, also captive production of reduction materials and electrodes. So we're also in a good position to handle this inflationary pressure. EBITDA, NOK 860 million, 24% EBITDA margin. Sales volume, 122,000 tonnes, a bit lower than Q1 this year, and it has been affected by some maintenance stops.Carbon Solutions, as always, stable in terms of financial performance, but at a high level. Our revenues amounted to NOK 560 million, all-time high number also that there is an improvement of NOK 50 million from Q2 this year, and it's an improvement of more than NOK 100 million or 24% from the third quarter last year. Higher sales volumes and also higher sales prices, which are partly offset by currency, the appreciation of the NOK . EBITDA, NOK 140 million, that's higher than the previous quarter of this year, which represented record levels. It represents an EBITDA margin of 25%. And in nominal term, this -- the Q3 EBITDA represents a 26% improvement versus Q3 last year. Also here, there is a inflationary pressure on raw material costs, but we are in a good position to handle that and to pass that over to our finished goods prices. Volumes are quite stable, 73,000 tonnes for the quarter.We have a very good earnings per share, NOK 2.16 for the third quarter and NOK 4.34 year-to-date 2021. And this is, of course, very much up versus last year due to a very strong improvement in underlying results. Our balance sheet continues to be rock solid and certainly provides a very good financial capacity to pursue our growth and even accelerate our growth and specialization strategy going forward. Our equity amounts to NOK 17.5 billion as per September '21. That's an increase of almost NOK 5 billion from year-end '20. And this is due to both the capital increase that we had in April and also due to good underlying earnings. Our equity ratio remained stable at 46% versus -- or at the same level as last quarter.Our financing position is also very solid. Our net interest-bearing debt has been further reduced to NOK 5.4 billion as per the end of the quarter. And our leverage is now measured by net interest-bearing debt divided on the last 12 months EBITDA is now down to [ 1x ]. So while this was a -- at least to some of our stakeholders was a concern last year, we're now down to the bottom of our target corridor, 1x to 2x EBITDA. And of course, this represents a very, very moderate level, which provides flexibility.Our debt maturity profile is very well managed and further improved. We have performed 2 refinancing processes this year, totaling NOK 2.5 billion and both with very good response from the marketplace and we achieved a new financing at very attractable terms and conditions. The short-term maturities to a large extent, consists of Chinese maturities, and this is very much related to local working capital financing, which is regularly rolled over. That's the nature of this kind of business in or financing in China.We have a very good cash flow, almost NOK 1.9 billion cash flow from operations. Also all-time high, clearly due to a combination of strong underlying profitability, EBITDA, but also very disciplined way of CapEx management and also all-time low, all-time efficient working capital management, where our working capital is down to 11% of operating revenue. And these are extremely good numbers in this kind of industry.Our investments for the quarter amounted to NOK 825 million. That is clearly an increase from the third quarter last year. But it's also an increase from the previous quarter this year. This is -- this comes from NOK 385 million in reinvestments, quite stable level. It represents 83% of depreciation and amortization, spot on in line with our target numbers. In addition, we have NOK 440 million in strategic investments that's higher than previous quarters. I think we will see higher numbers going forward because we are now, of course, progressing on our strategic projects, above all our silicon expansion projects in China, which is developing very well. And other projects are related to downstream silicones specialization projects and also our battery materials or our Vianode project.So Helge, please take us through the outlook for Q4.

[Helge Aasen, Chief Executive Officer]

Thank you, Morten. We expect strong underlying demand also going into fourth quarter. The industry supply is still hampered by energy and raw material constraints, and we have quite good visibility. We are sold out for the quarter. And despite inflationary pressure, we believe that our integrated business volume -- business model in Asia and Europe and the U.S. gives us a very well position to capture also good results in the fourth quarter.Silicones markets are expected to remain tight. There is a time lag in our contracts as we have already mentioned, which gives us good reason to expect higher prices in the fourth quarter than in the third quarter. We have a similar situation also in silicon and ferrosilicon based products, all-time high prices, and we are benefiting from our attractive position and expect to see higher prices moving into fourth quarter, also because of time lag in contracts. And carbon products continues to benefit from very strong steel and ferroalloy markets.So it's a pleasure to both report these good numbers and also a very positive outlook. Thank you very much.

[Odd-Geir Lyngstad]

Thank you for the presentation, Helge and Morten. We will now take Q&A. First, I would like to give the opportunity to those present here at Felix Conference Center to see if there are any questions here from the audience. If not, we will continue with the questions that we have received on the web. There are few questions related to outlook for the fourth quarter. So I'll try to combine these questions into one.Truls Engene, SEB, asks us the comment on sales volumes and production cost expectations for the different divisions in the fourth quarter. Mubasher Chaudhry in Citibank, would like us to comment on the balance between high prices for our sales and raw materials and how we should think about sequential EBITDA progression. And Charlie Webb of Morgan Stanley is also trying to understand the expectations around fourth quarter volumes, both in silicon and silicon -- both silicones and silicon products.

[Helge Aasen, Chief Executive Officer]

So, I can -- I guess, I already answered the first question. We are sold out, and we are expecting to run full capacity utilization throughout the quarter. So maybe Morten would like to comment on the inflationary pressure...

[Morten Viga, Chief Financial Officer]

I can certainly do that. Clearly, if we start with silicones, we have seen a very strong price development here, and this has continued and improved towards the end of Q3 and also into Q4. So we expect higher realized prices in Q4 compared to Q3. There is a inflationary pressure on raw materials, and we clearly see that. Our main exposure is towards methyl chloride or methanol, and we have pretty good visibility here. Of course, the other input factor is silicon metal, which makes up more than 50% of the cost of siloxane production. So that's extremely important, and that is clearly a major concern to the industry. I think here we are in a very good position as we are -- since we are long in silicon metal. So although it hurts our silicones business, high silicon metal prices is good for Elkem because we actually sell a lot more than we consume ourselves. So bottom line of this is that we are optimistic for Q4, both in terms of volume forecast and in terms of pricing forecast.

[Odd-Geir Lyngstad]

Charlie Webb in Morgan Stanley also asked how we should think about the lag price effects into the first half of next year because we see [indiscernible] contract renewals that also impact...

[Helge Aasen, Chief Executive Officer]

Yes. I think in our specialty business, there will -- I think we will see a positive price effect moving into next year. The commodity positions are definitely short term in nature, very dynamic market in China and from monthly to quarterly pricing. Anything you'd like to add to them?

[Morten Viga, Chief Financial Officer]

Yes, I think that's a very good question. And of course, now and then next couple of months is the time of the year where we enter into new contracts for next year. And of course, needless to say, this is a very attractive timing for such contract renewals. So we believe that particularly for specialty products, we should see higher prices for next year that's necessary to compensate for higher raw materials, but also there is a potential, good potential for higher margins.

[Odd-Geir Lyngstad]

Charlie Webb in Morgan Stanley also asked that we [ enact ] and have been able to procure our silicon metal requirements for silicones in China for third quarter? So that we are able to maintain our tight production.

[Helge Aasen, Chief Executive Officer]

Yes. So we are covered in silicon metal sourcing. So that's not going to be a bottleneck in any way.

[Morten Viga, Chief Financial Officer]

And also to -- just as a reminder, we have captive production in China, which makes up almost 50% of our need, and that is also a very good, let's say, base load for the -- for our consumption even in a tight market like today.

[Odd-Geir Lyngstad]

Mubasher in Citibank asked if we could talk about the capacity that will be added in the new -- with the new investment in France?

[Helge Aasen, Chief Executive Officer]

Yes. It's -- I think I had a few comments on that in my presentation. I think the important thing to keep in mind is this structural deficit. We have closed down of Momentive's upstream operations in Waterford in the U.S. And both Europe and the U.S. are -- have an undersupply, let's say, the capacity or demand and supply is underbalanced in siloxane. So in this environment, it will be a very positive impact for Elkem to expand our French operation in order to support this growth in specialties. I mentioned 5.9% to 6.5% growth expectation. So that's about the supply. And then an additional impact is the dilution of fixed costs in the plant and also improved reliability and yield.

[Odd-Geir Lyngstad]

Thank you. We have a question from [ Lucas Rudnik ]. He is asking or references or asking about silicon metal prices in China, the price for silicon 553 has fallen over the past few weeks. And we would like to know if we expect prices to return to June, July prices, which were small around the $2,000 per ton compared to current price levels of more than $5,000. So where do you see prices in China?

[Helge Aasen, Chief Executive Officer]

No, I can start on that question. I think as long as we have a tight energy situation in China, I don't think we will see any significant collapse in silicon pricing because where there will be a tight market. And that is expected to last a few more months at least. So -- but of course, this is also a very dynamic situation. A bit difficult to predict very accurately.

[Morten Viga, Chief Financial Officer]

Yes. But I think there are a couple of things I may add. First of all, we are now seeing a very big difference between so-called 421 chemical grade silicon where prices are still extremely high due to high demand from our sector from silicones, and we expect that to remain so. Prices have gone down for a so-called 553 quality, which is the aluminum quality, where we have seen bigger problems from the downstream value chain to pay these high prices. I think the key question here is the availability and the price of electric power in China. And we know that this is still a very tight situation. There are 10 provinces now on a so-called red list, where there are curtailments in place. And among these 10 provinces, we have Zhejiang and we have Yunnan provinces. And those 2 provinces make up almost 60% of the silicon production in China. And of course, this creates production reduction, and it also provides concerns about further reductions or curtailments going forward. And we expect that this tight situation will last through the winter just because of high consumption of electric power during wintertime and also due to the fact that it takes time to provide more energy production.

[Odd-Geir Lyngstad]

We have actually questions also on the energy situation in China from Lucas Rudnik. You already alluded to it, but the question was what the current energy supply situation, more specifically in Zhejiang, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. It has improved since September and the industry expectations for the winter period. You alluded to that that we can do it. And also Mubasher in Citi is also asking how that is impacting it more specifically?

[Helge Aasen, Chief Executive Officer]

Our capital production in Gansu province is not impacted by any energy shortage. I think the problem is primarily in the southern part of China. And I think you already mentioned or gave quite a lot of details on this often.

[Morten Viga, Chief Financial Officer]

Yes. Our 2 main production units in China are in the Gansu province for our Yongdeng silicon smelter, which is not on the red list of power curtailment. And our big silicones plant, the Xinghuo plant is in the Jiangxi province. That is also not on the red list. So we have not had any interruptions so far, and we believe that the likelihood of that going forward is low compared to other provinces, we are in good locations.

[Odd-Geir Lyngstad]

We also had questions related more to production of OEMs, which see production cuts in fourth quarter. And what -- how you think that will impact volumes for silicon products mainly? That is from Lucas Rudnik. But also Charlie Webb is kind of indicating the same that we have the -- where we see demand from autos and aluminum industry and what we are hearing of concerns from customers.

[Helge Aasen, Chief Executive Officer]

Yes. We don't see that in effect in Elkem for the fourth quarter. Of course, if this continues, it will eventually also hit the demand from our customers, but it's not visible yet. And I also think the impact of electrical vehicles, where we have the opposite effect. The sales are increasing is actually a mitigating effect for our sales in silicon. Morten, you want to add...

[Morten Viga, Chief Financial Officer]

No, I can confirm that. Of course, we do observe reports from several Western automotive producers that they are taking cutbacks on production, mainly due to semiconductor shortage. We have not seen those cutbacks in demand for our products so far. As a matter of fact, we are sold out for silicon specialty products, very much going to EVs, but also for more traditional products, foundry alloys to combustion engine in cars. So we think also this is a good evidence that we have attractive products that are in good demand even in -- when there are some demand disruptions. I think, also, we have seen, of course, reduction in sales, particularly in important European markets like Germany, France, Italy, et cetera, et cetera. We clearly believe that when this semiconductor crisis is solved, there is probably an embedded demand that may or will then drive further demand once these restrictions are solved.

[Odd-Geir Lyngstad]

As we all know, there are constraints in several markets and both Charlie Webb and [ Ole Bertheussen, Wall ] is asking if we are concerned about potential shortages of magnesium?

[Helge Aasen, Chief Executive Officer]

No, I think we have -- we are in a good position in magnesium. That's not been an issue. I don't expect it to be one. The major part of magnesium in the world comes from China. And I'd think also here, we are in a very good position with our presence in China. We have our own sourcing organization and our own supply chain in China that was really established before our strategic cooperation with Bluestar. We've had that for several years, but that clearly gives us also here a good advantage towards more local western producers.

[Odd-Geir Lyngstad]

Ole Bertheussen, Wall, is also asking if you have any expected maintenance shutdowns in silicon or -- silicones or silicon products divisions in the fourth quarter?

[Helge Aasen, Chief Executive Officer]

Not of any significance. No.

[Odd-Geir Lyngstad]

Morten Normann in Carnegie is asking if we are sold out, as you said, in the fourth quarter, we should probably know the prices already?

[Morten Viga, Chief Financial Officer]

Yes. That's what we are trying to communicate. But I guess prices are following to a large extent, market prices. So there will still be an exposure to market prices.

[Odd-Geir Lyngstad]

I think we are approaching the end of this Q&A. And the last question comes from [indiscernible], and he asks if you are satisfied with the proposed regulations for CO2 compensation coming into place from 2021?

[Morten Viga, Chief Financial Officer]

I think the question is, yes, we are pleased with both, let's say, the actual proposal, which is on the table. We are definitely pleased with the signals from the new government saying that power-intensive industry in Norway, is an important part of the green transition and that there will be good frame conditions for this industry. That is very important because we believe that we have a very important role to play in this green transition, both in Norway and but also in other parts of the world. So that's excellent. Our concern is, as we have said previously, the long-term supply-demand balance for electric power in Norway. But in short, medium midterm perspective, this is not the major concerns, which since we are very well hedged. But the short answer is that, yes, we are primarily happy.

[Odd-Geir Lyngstad]

Thank you for that. There is a last chance for people in the audience to ask a question. It doesn't seem to be that. Then I would like to thank Helge and Morten for good presentations, and thank you all for participating on the call. Thank you very much.

[Helge Aasen, Chief Executive Officer]

Thank you.