Alleima AB
STO:ALLEI
Alleima AB
Amidst the industrial heartland of Sweden, Alleima AB has emerged as a formidable force in the world of advanced materials. Born from a rich legacy once under the Sandvik trademark, the company embarked on its independent journey, specializing in stainless steels and special alloys. These materials, often unseen yet vital, form the backbone of various industries such as aerospace, automotive, and energy. Alleima thrives at the intersection of innovation and necessity, leveraging its expertise in metallurgy to engineer materials that endure the harshest of environments and meet the most stringent of standards. The company's profound understanding of metallurgy is complemented by its ability to tailor materials for specific applications, thus offering solutions rather than just products.
Alleima’s operational strategy revolves around not only creating high-quality materials but also embedding itself as an integral partner in the supply chain of its clients. It engages closely with clients to understand their unique challenges and requirements, which in turn fuels the development of customized solutions. This approach fosters long-term relationships and recurring revenues, setting a foundation of stability and growth. As industries continue to accelerate their pursuit of efficiency and performance amidst evolving global challenges, Alleima's commitment to research and development positions it as a key enabler of progress. Through its comprehensive portfolio that spans from raw materials to finished components, Alleima captures value across the supply chain, pushing the boundaries of what materials can achieve in an ever-demanding world.
Earnings Calls
In Q1, the company reported a robust organic revenue growth of 8%, totaling nearly SEK 5.2 billion, marking three consecutive quarters of growth. Adjusted EBIT reached SEK 540 million with a margin of 10.5%, reflecting sound operational leverage. The order backlog remains healthy, with 99% book-to-bill, driven by strength in Nuclear and Medical segments. However, challenges persist in Industrial Heating. Guidance for full-year CapEx is set at SEK 1.2 billion, with a tax rate projected between 23% to 25%. Investors should note potential currency headwinds and the anticipated SEK 150 million negative impact from metal prices in Q2.
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Hi, everyone and welcome to the presentation of the First Quarter 2025 Interim Report for Alleima. My name is Emelie Alm, and I am Head of Investor Relations.
And I'm joined today by Goran Bjorkman, President and CEO and Olof Bengtsson, CFO. So, Goran and Olof will take you through our results, and then we will have a Q&A session. You can ask questions through the conference call, and you can also write them in the webcast.
You can also download the presentation from alleima.com.
And as always, safety is a top priority for us, and I trust that you are safe where you are located. So, with that, I would like to hand over to you, Goran.
Thank you, Emelie. Hi, everyone and thank you for listening. So let me start with the highlights of the quarter. Quarter 1, I think, is another solid quarter, continued strength in financial performance. We had order intake growth for the rolling 12-month period of plus 1%, continued organic revenue growth. We are executing on our solid backlog, and we achieved broad-based revenue growth of plus 8% organically and where actually most of our segments showed growth.
Backlog remains solid with good product mix and visibility for near-term future. Our adjusted EBIT margin also grew year-on-year to 10.5% with a solid operational leverage and margin development despite a slight FX headwind, and that is the bridge effect. We did not note any major effects from the ongoing turbulence stemming from trade barriers in the U.S. We view the main risk going forward is a potential negative impact on global demand and economic environment, not the tariffs themselves. We will comment more on this in detail in just a moment.
Our strong financial position enables us to stay with our strategy with several ongoing projects for profitable growth that we now are executing on and we are targeting more profitable and less cyclical markets. And we will continue to implement these growth initiatives to continue to strengthen the company in the long term and also strengthen local presence in important and attractive markets. This is an important part of the long-term strategy. I think in general; we are performing in line with our targets.
Move to sustainability, and we are generating positive impact both through our operations and our product offering, and I'll start with our own operations.
And I'll start with safety. Safety is always a top priority. We are continuously and actively implementing measures to maintain safety as a top priority. Development is going sideways at the moment, long term heading in the right direction. I would say safety is an area where I'm not satisfied. We have to improve and have to do that on a higher pace.
Our share of recycled steel remains high, over 80%, both on a rolling 12-month basis and year-over-year. I think that's a good figure given our product mix.
Our CO2 emissions are steadily decreasing both on rolling 12-month basis and year-over-year with a reduction of 3% and 8%, respectively. During the quarter, we submitted our plan to SBTi, and we are now awaiting their approval. And the proportion of female manager increased to 24.8%, important and again, recognizing this is only one aspect on our broader diversity and inclusion initiatives.
When we talk about our offerings towards the Hydrogen market, we often talk about our unique production technique towards hydrogen fuel cells. But we are supporting the whole lot more in the build-out of the supporting infrastructure. In the quarter, we launched an on-site tubing solution to the Canadian Hydrogen market. This container-based solution, which could be seen as a small mobile Tube factory can be installed directly on the construction sites and decreases the need for off-site processing, ensuring the exact specification wherever it's needed. And there are broad-based savings such as materials, instead of having Tubes at certain fixed length that you cut, you can get the exact length you need from the container. This improves yield and also reduces number of couplings or wells, and also savings related to energy space and time.
I think this supports, this solution is already supporting more than 70 hydrogen refueling station projects in Europe. And I think this is another good example on how Alleima with our expertise in our customer processes acts as an enabler for solutions of tomorrow.
So, let's look at the market development. Overall, we continue to see a mixed market sentiment and the macro environment is continued uncertain. As said, no impact from the global trade barriers was visible in our order intake to date, but there is, of course, a risk that potential negative impact on global demand and the economic environment. However, this is comment is, of course, very general.
Walk you through the development in each segment, starting with Oil and Gas. The underlying demand is still on high levels and the project list of upcoming tenders and potential future orders is strong. In order intake, we still meet high comps from the backlog built up last year. Last quarter, we said that the backlog for umbilicals was getting shorter, but we have now booked more orders, and we have not consumed backlog. The book-to-bill was above 1 in the quarter for umbilicals and the OCTG backlog remains strong.
Chemical and Petrochemical year-over-year underlying flat. Europe is down as a solid demand in Asia on good levels and the sentiment in North America was somewhat improving, but from low levels.
Industrial segment, we noted an improving year-over-year demand, improving in North America from low levels, stable in Asia, slightly weaker in Europe. I think it's important then to know that due to capacity priorities, we are being selective in booking orders in the Industrial segment.
Industrial Heating, flat demand year-over-year and still some hesitance from customers in placing orders, which refers mainly to CapEx-related business. For the Solar segment, especially, we also have high comparables from last year for this quarter and to some extent, also in the next quarter.
However, demand was positive in some applications for ceramic elements for electronics, including semiconductors and also glass industry, but weaker in solar and metals. Consumer demand is now on a good level, mainly driven by the white goods industry in the Strip division.
Medical continued to be a strong market, several drivers and momentum is strong across the product portfolio. Mining and Construction, flat underlying demand year-over-year, stronger related to Mining than to Construction. And Nuclear, the high activity and growing demand continues, and we're building a good backlog to execute for a long time.
Transportation demand was flat year-over-year, but with high activity for aerospace and marine titanium tubing. And Hydrogen and Renewable Energy is still a bit mixed. This is a wider segment where some businesses are doing better than others; but in total, no clear signs that this is taking off quite yet.
Order intake rolling 12 months amounted to just below SEK 20 billion, noting a broad-based organic growth and is now turning positive to plus 1%.
The Oil and Gas segment is still contributing negatively, where we are, to some extent, still affected by high comps. Our view on the market is still positive. Nuclear Medical segment noted the highest rolling 12-month year-over-year growth, but as I said, a broad-based positive contribution. Revenue grew organically by 8% year-over-year with growth in Tube and Strip and decline in Kanthal. Main contributors were Oil and Gas and Nuclear, but all segments, except Industrial Heating, noted organic growth.
We continue to deliver on our backlog and managed to grow revenue for the third consecutive quarter. Rolling 12 months book-to-bill of 99% and order backlog remains solid with an overall positive mix. So, let's move over to earnings. Adjusted EBIT amounted to SEK 540 million with a margin of 10.5%, thus indicating solid operational leverage in the quarter, which makes this quarter, I think, a quarter I'm pleased with. Margin in Q1 last year was, however, damped by dilution from the European implementation and some under-absorption effects.
We are seeing margin contribution from more segments now than in the past; Medical being the primary example of this, but also Oil and Gas and Nuclear and also our -- the way our Asian footprint is evolving. In Kanthal, we noted quite a margin decline year-over-year, which I will come back to. The Kanthal decline had a negative impact on the group. Free operating cash flow, SEK 46 million, lower than last year, impacted by higher production volumes and higher CapEx.
Overall, we are benefiting from our diverse exposure and how we, in the longer term, have been driving a positive product mix shift while maintaining our order booking discipline in weaker market condition, which brings me to the next slide, a slide that we have shown a couple of times before. Looking at the longer perspective, we have improved our resilience. 2024 wasn't by any means a perfect year.
I would say it was rather challenging in many aspects. But looking long term, we are at historically high levels. This does not mean that we are satisfied. We still acknowledge things we can do better, but it's still important that we have taken some great steps in improving our stability and profitability, a journey that we intend to continue on. Production volumes have slowly and steadily increased over the last few quarters, but we're still on low volumes compared to 2019.
So, let's look at the divisions, starting with Tube. Tube noted organic order growth of minus 3% for the rolling 12-month period, again, coming from lower intake in Oil and Gas segment due to the backlog built up last year. Nuclear, Mining Construction and Transportation developed positively. Europe continued to be on the weaker side, while Asia and North America grew year-over-year.
Our order backlog in Oil and Gas is still solid. Book-to-bill of 98% rolling 12 months with solid backlog in key segments. Organic revenue growth of 12%, mainly driven by Nuclear and Oil and Gas, but several segments are contributing. This means that we have a positive product mix. Margin increased to 11.1% and we are utilizing our capacity in a good way by prioritizing more profitable orders.
Note that we had some dilution effects in the comparative margin in quarter 1 2024, meaning that the underlying performance was better last year than it looks. Anyhow, this was an overall good quarter for Tube. Kanthal's order intake growth for the rolling 12-month period of plus 4% on low comparables, still with a somewhat soft Industrial Heating market, however, demand was sequentially flat but on low level and positive in some applications for ceramic elements for electronics, including semiconductor and glass industry.
Previously announced investments in both Sakura Japan and Perth Scotland are both related to those customer segments. Medical segment is maintaining its strong momentum, growing in order intake and maintaining good revenue levels. Backlog remains solid and book-to-bill recovers a bit to 99%. The adjusted EBIT margin for Kanthal was 16.6% in the quarter. I think it is a good performance given the lower volumes in Industrial Heating, especially in the solar end market, which is highly profitable. Margin includes an FX headwind of minus SEK 17 million year-on-year on adjusted EBIT. And if we exclude FX, margin would have been on par with last year, which is a strong performance in a challenged market environment and low volumes in Industrial Heating.
And Kanthal's ability to adjust capacity and reduce cost, improving mix from the growing Medical business, makes me stand firm with my previously made comments, and that is that Kanthal has established a new margin level compared to the historical numbers.
Strip after a tough 2024, where Strip was heavily affected by the weak consumer-related demand, volumes have returned to better levels. Organic order intake grew 34% on a rolling 12-month basis with growth in all segments. Market conditions have improved, and we are building up a solid backlog in segments like Consumer, where the main product is compressor valve steel for white goods. Revenue grew organically by 19% in the quarter, however, coming from a weak quarter 1 last year.
The book-to-bill now amounts to 115%. Adjusted EBIT margin improved to 6.9% from last year's 3.1%. And adjusting for dilution from the offering to hydrogen fuel cells, which has been slow now for some time, the underlying Strip business is steadily improving. On the other hand, year-on-year FX also a positive contribution of SEK 12 million in Strip. Let's have a look at our global footprint, and that is to describe our view on tariffs.
As I stated already, the main risk we see is the potential negative impact on global demand and economic environment, not the tariffs themselves. We have been through this before with Section 232 back in 2018 and which we handled in a good way. We have a clear local-for-local strategy and recent investment decision also supports this. I will give you some color on our production flows looking at our U.S. production footprint.
Starting with Tube. We have several production units. I will not comment on all of them, but to give you an overview, starting with Scranton in Pennsylvania, that's the largest site. That is mainly for Industrial, but also for the chemical and petrochemical segments with products like high-temp Tubes, heat exchanger Tubes and also hydraulic and instrumentation Tubes. Also in Pennsylvania, we have Scottdale and we have Kennewick in Washington State, both for stainless and titanium Tubes for the Transportation segment, mainly aerospace and marine.
And in general, the melt shop in Sandviken can supply input material for these units, which are mainly bar and sometimes follows, those being low refined products and where the main part of the value add is taking place locally in the U.S. factories. And competitors does not have this capacity of extrusion in U.S. that we have. We also have sales in U.S. where the customer is the importer as we have very specialized production units. To give you a couple of examples, umbilicals which are produced in Chomutov in Czech Republic, steam generator Tubes for Nuclear that are produced in Sandviken. And here, the competitors are mainly based in Europe and some in Asia and none in the U.S.
Kanthal. Kanthal, we have Palm Coast in Florida and Tulsa and in Arizona for our Medical wire business. And for the Kanthal Heating business, we have Bethel in Connecticut. That is a wire production unit that is serving external customers, mainly with Industrial Heating and the Consumer segment. And Bethel is also an internal wire supplier to the more added value heating elements production, which we have in Concord in North Carolina. So, it's a similar setup like Tube with the exception for the Medical business. Input is a wire rod from Sweden, where the more value-add production like wire production and manufacturing heating elements is taking place locally in the U.S.
Again, many competitors lack our capacity and capabilities in the U.S. So how do we handle the tariffs? We are passing on tariffs to customers like our competitors in U.S., in EU and Asia doing. And remember, tariffs are paid on the low refined input material like bar for extrusion in the Tube case and wire rod in the control case. And we are active in very specialized niches where many times there are limited domestic alternatives. If we see that tariffs will impact demand, we are ready to adjust capacity and cost base if needed. So, what are our key takeaways from 2018 when Section 232 was introduced?
We lost some volumes on low refined products like VARs. This is in Industrial segment and part of the long-term strategy is to be less dependent on the Industrial segment. On the more high added value products, we had no major impact due to limited local competition.
Also at that time, to reduce risk of having Chinese steel imports to Europe due to the tariffs into U.S., EU implemented import quotas and those are still active. Again, we are not worried about the tariffs. The risk lies within the impact on the global economy.
And with that, over to you, Olof.
Thank you, Goran.
And let's go through some numbers then on the financial summary slide and looking at the bridge table to the right in the slide, starting with order intake amounts to close to SEK 20 billion on a rolling 12-month basis. And organically, we are now turned positive and are growing by 1% on this rolling basis, which is a change from previous quarters. We see growth, for example, in Nuclear and Medical segments on this basis. Quarterly revenues just below SEK 5.2 billion with a strong organic 8% growth, and we have now shown revenue growth for three consecutive quarters. And the growth is slightly broad-based with all segments except Industrial Heating growing.
Alloys, we still see some negative alloy effects on orders with minus 2% on a rolling 12-month basis, neutral on quarterly revenues, though. And if you look at the coming quarter, alloy effects are expected to be neutral on both the rolling 12-month order intake and on the revenues.
Structure, that's zero on both order intake and on revenues. We actually have a small acquisition there, Endox in Kanthal closed in January, but we only see minor effects from this in the quarter. Then turning to the table on the left, and I'll get back to the adjusted EBIT in a minute, starting with the reported EBIT coming to 10% then from 2.7%, same quarter last year.
And this is, the improvement here comes from the increased revenues, of course, and the better performance, but also from the fact that the metal price effects are much lower this quarter compared to the same quarter last year. We go from a negative SEK 328 million to a negative SEK 27 million this year. So that, of course, has a strong impact on that line. Net financial items, a positive SEK 13 million in the quarter compared to a negative SEK 42 million last year.
The change comes mainly then from revaluation of financial instruments that we use to hedge our various exposures. And some of these hedges do not fully qualify for hedge accounting, thereby impacting the finance net when they are revalued. However, we have a positive underlying interest net coming from our strong cash position, and that is currently yielding about 2.2%.
Tax rate, we have a reported tax rate of 25.1% in the quarter. And if we normalize that, it comes out at 23.1%. So that is well in line with what we're guiding for. Free operating cash flow of SEK 46 million, lower than last year. I'll get back to that in a minute as well. And finally, adjusted earnings for the quarter at SEK 1.65 per share, impacted positively from the higher adjusted EBIT number and also the improved finance net. That is the finances shortly and then looking into the bridge of the change in adjusted EBIT from quarter one last year to quarter one this year. We are growing EBIT by 19% in total, going from SEK 453 million to SEK 540 million with a sound operating leverage of 28% in the quarter. We note a solid organic development in Tube and Strip from improving volumes and good mix, somewhat mitigated by a negative development in Kanthal.
Slight currency headwind in Tube and Kanthal year-over-year, while Strip was positive and total currency effects in the quarter was negative SEK 21 million in this bridge. On Structure, we have a positive underlying contribution from the Endox acquisition in Kanthal, but some temporary M&A transaction costs, including a real estate transfer tax has impacted the numbers. So they come out at a negative SEK 4 million. However, the acquisition is performing as planned.
Then going to the balance sheet. Net working capital then to the left, more or less on par with last year in absolute terms, however, lower as a percentage of revenues. And the sequential increase you see from the preceding quarter is mainly driven by higher volumes, resulting in higher accounts receivable and inventory as well as lower accounts payable change. And as you can see on the bars to the left, looking back two years, we normally have a buildup of inventory during the two first quarters of the year, and for the annual summer stop when we also do maintenance of our mills. This also goes for this year. And in addition to this, this summer, we will have a prolonged stop for reinvestments related to one of our extrusion presses in Sandviken. But with this in mind, we expect the working capital change coming from this to be neutral on the cash flow for the full year.
Year-over-year, capital employed, look to the right. Capital employed, excluding cash, increased to SEK 16.3 billion from SEK 15.5 billion last year. This increase comes mainly from higher fixed assets as we are investing in our growth. Then with the increased CapEx levels we have seen for the last quarters. And if you look at sequential, the increase also, of course, comes from the increased net working capital position that I just mentioned. ROCE or Return On Capital Employed, excluding cash, which is then based on the operating profit, including the metal effect, was 11.9% in the quarter based on rolling 12 months. And the increase from last year's 7.1% is attributable to the improved performance in the reported EBIT and the lower metal price effects.
Looking at the cash flow. Free operating cash flow amounted to SEK 46 million in the quarter. That's lower than last year despite a higher EBITDA as CapEx levels are higher and also, of course, coming from the aforementioned changes in working capital. CapEx increase relates to higher growth CapEx and our maintenance CapEx levels are still approximately SEK 400 million per year as we have previously communicated. We see a slight increase in our lease liabilities. And normally, we improved cash flows in the second half of the year as we release working capital from the seasonal inventory buildup during the first half.
Looking at the financial position then, the position remains strong. We are well below our financial targets of net debt-to-equity ratio below 0.3x. At the quarter end, we were at a negative 0.0x. And if you prefer the net debt to adjusted EBITDA measurement, this came in at a negative 0.14x. Looking at the different components then, net pension liabilities increased to SEK 839 million from last year's SEK 722 million, and that is mainly a result of lower discount rates year-over-year, obviously affecting the pension liability.
Leasing liabilities more or less on par with last year at SEK 481 million. Cash position continued strong with a financial cash position of SEK 1.7 billion and then a net debt position of a negative SEK 414 million that is a net cash position then. And subject to an AGM decision next week, we are getting ready for paying a dividend of total SEK 577 million that will be paid in May, and that corresponds to SEK 2.30 per share. And again, we also have contributing to our strong financial position is that we have an unutilized revolving credit facility of SEK 3 billion at the end of the quarter.
So if we look at the guidance that we gave you ahead of the quarter that just passed, we had CapEx of SEK 213 million, and we are guiding for a full year CapEx of SEK 1.2 billion. So I would say we are well in that range, considering that we normally have more CapEx in the third and fourth quarters. Currency translation -- transaction and translation effects at SEK 64 million in the quarter. We guided for SEK 85 million based on what we knew then. And the lower outcome has to do with the significant strengthening of the Swedish krona that we saw in March versus our main currencies.
Total currency effect, including hedges and revaluations, came out at a negative SEK 21 million in our year-over-year bridge. Metal price effects, we guided for neutral effects, and we came out at a negative 27 million. So I think we were fairly well in line there. Tax rate, 23.1% and we guide for 23% to 25%. So, at the lower end of that range, still in the range.
And if we look into the second quarter then, CapEx, we remain with our guidance of SEK 1.2 billion for the full year CapEx, mainly coming from already decided and announced investments. And as I just mentioned, SEK 400 million of that is maintenance or investment CapEx. And then we have some IT and safety investments, but the rest of the CapEx is actually for improvements and growth.
Currency effects, transaction and translation, approximately SEK 130 million negative for Q2. And this obviously comes down from the Swedish krona versus our main currencies. And this is based, I should say that on FX rates at the end of March. And currencies, quite difficult at the moment, I think. And with the recent quite considerable currency movements, it's difficult to give any longer guidance on currency effects. But to get a better understanding of currency effects for the full year, what I recommend is a deep dive into our recently published annual report for 2024. As a note there, to be specific Note 26, where we have a sensitivity analysis on our transaction and translation exposure and the possible impact on EBIT. There you can see the different currency exposures that we have.
Coming to metals then with the metal prices at the end of March, specifically then the nickel price, we expect negative metal price effects of SEK 150 million in the second quarter. And for tax, we keep our guidance of being in the range of 23% to 25% for the full year.
And that takes me back to you, Goran.
Thank you, Olof. The outlook for the second quarter. I mean the economic environment remained somewhat cautious during the quarter. And considering the changing global trade policy situation, the general uncertainty concerning future development has increased. We take a positive view on the development in several of our customer segments, where the underlying megatrends are expected to continue to support performance, while there are challenges in others.
Our backlog is solid in several of our key segments, and we have a good visibility in our near-term deliveries. Europe is on the weak side, North America picking up on low levels and Asia is doing fine. And please note that we are meeting high comps in second quarter. Product mix is expected to be similar to the one in the first quarter. And on the basis of the exchange rates of the end of March 2025, currency headwind expected in the second quarter, as Olof just described.
Cash flow is normally lower in the first half of the year compared with the second half. So that brings me to summarize.
Overall, we had a solid financial performance in quarter 1. Company is in good shape, and we deliver on our financial and strategic targets. Quarter 1, we noted continued mixed market sentiment. The future is difficult to foresee as the turbulence in the market related to trade barriers and geopolitics.
Revenue continued to grow organically in the quarter with a broad-based contribution. Our diversified exposure to customer segments at different stages of the business cycle as well as our strategy to grow within more profitable and less cyclical niches have proven to be successful. EBIT margin grew year-over-year and the long-term development is solid. This shows how we long term have driven positive product mix and maintained our order booking discipline in weaker market conditions and thus able to maintain profitability.
We have several ongoing growth initiatives, which will strengthen our company in the long term. Our strategy has always been to have a global footprint, the production close to customers and our announced investments are strengthening this further. Our financial position remains strong, which will enable us to continue to execute on our strategic agenda. And with that, I'd like to hand over back to you, Emelie.
Thank you, Goran. So now it's time to start the Q&A session. Again, please write your questions in the webcast or you can ask them on the conference call. So, operator, please go ahead.
[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Gilani Adrian, ABG. Please go ahead.
Yes. A couple of questions from my end. First of all, it sounds like you're not really seeing any notable negative impacts from lower demand yet. But given that the whole sort of trade or trade war situation started in April. Are you able to talk about how the order intake has looked so far in April? Can you give anything quantitative on that, whether there has been a dropoff or not?
It's only been a couple of weeks, and we have an Easter and when I look at the numbers, I see nothing. That doesn't mean that we will not see anything going forward, but we need to describe what we see. And so far, we do not see anything. But of course, uncertainty is not good for us either.
Okay. Understood. And I guess on a similar note, and I appreciate it's a bit hard to tell, but do you think there's a risk that Q1 was perhaps boosted by prebuying as well ahead of sort of building inventories ahead of the tariffs?
I don't think so, but that is a question we also have raised internally and try to see if that is the case, and that is not what we see.
Okay. And do you base that off of sort of conversations with your customers? Or what's the reasoning behind that?
The reasoning behind that is how the divisions and the business units are viewing their order intake, and we don't see anything like that.
Okay. And perhaps a final one from me on the margin in Kanthal. It was down almost 2 percentage points year-on-year. And I get that FX is part of that. But is there anything else unusual in the Q1 numbers? Or should we assume that unless Industrial Heating improves, then this is perhaps the level Kanthal will be at for the coming quarters as well?
I think Kanthal could improve from the levels they are at right now. You're right, Industrial Heating is low. And if that continued to be flat, we still have the positive mix effect of more Medical as share of Kanthal and that is bringing up the level. And then I should not speculate on the FX level. But my belief is that they can improve from this level even though Industrial Heating will not start to grow a lot.
The next question comes from Akerblom Anders from Nordea.
Getting back a bit maybe to the and sorry to repeat this, but the potentially tariff-induced component of purchases in the quarter. I mean, for me, just looking at Tube and North America, I mean, you reported 63% organic revenue growth year-over-year. For me, that kind of pops out. And sorry, not to grill on kind of how you make the assessment that there's not such a component to purchases in the quarter. But at least maybe if you could explain the North America figures, that would be very appreciated.
We start with the numbers. Yes, the growth is high, but from very low levels. So, the sales in Americas in the regional Tube business unit is still slow, even though it's improving. We were there or I was there 2 weeks ago and also met with the organization. Of course, they are worried about the uncertainties and from what they say, haven't seen anything like sort of speculating purchasing from customers. Then on the margin, you never know exactly what all customers are doing, but we have not seen that as a big thing, no.
Okay. Okay. Just thinking about the kind of metal prices currently, I mean, during the quarter at the current spot at least nickel prices came down by some low single digits year-over-year. But if the current spot is maintained, and I mean, obviously, you guide for this in terms of the impact on EBIT. But I mean, this will have a quite significant impact, something around 20% year-over-year in Q2 at the current spot. I mean and you say that the underlying profitability and the mix maybe is the same, which I interpret as the potentially underlying profitability. Should one view this as the profitability of projects getting worse in the quarter to come, given that you get such a significant margin support from metal prices coming down? Or how should one think about that?
Yes. I mean the metal prices, the adjusted EBIT is excluding the metal price effect. Or is that your question?
No, not really. I mean, looking just at reported EBIT, if one thinks about when you say that you expect a fairly similar mix in the coming quarter, I interpret that maybe as saying something about what the margin level should be assumed to be at. But we have metal prices coming down very significantly, which will, of course, support the margin level for reported EBIT. So how should one think about the profitability in the backlog for the coming quarter with that in mind?
I don't see any big impacts on that. I mean it takes some time for the metal price changes to work through. We normally say it's about 4 months. So, the figures we give is based on that assumption. And of course, also the fact that we're hedging part of our metal exposures. So, is that okay as an answer?
We, of course, look at the adjusted EBIT as well. Reported EBIT there you have the impact of the metal prices. But it takes time for them to come through. So, the spot price is maybe not the best indicator of exactly how the metal prices will work out in our income statement.
I think that's fair enough. Fair enough. Okay. And finally, just on CapEx. I mean, previously, you guided full year around SEK 1.2 billion. In the quarter, it was just above something like SEK 200 million, so of course, below the run rate level. How should one think about the timing of the investments going forward? I mean, will it be more back-end loaded for '25? Or what's the case there?
Yes. Q3 is normally when we have a summer stops, and we do quite a lot of CapEx.
Yes. And end of the year also have higher CapEx. It seems like suppliers try to be paid before end of the year. So, it's normally higher end of the year.
Go back to Q4 in 2024, we see that we have a high CapEx level.
The next question comes from Victor Trollsten from Danske Bank.
Perhaps first on getting back to the Kanthal margin. And you mentioned Olof some temporary effects from acquisitions and the Endox acquisition. Could you remind us what sort of profitability is it basically that we are looking at this in Endox? Is it, you know, I think you said slightly below Kanthal as an average or perhaps in line. I guess what I'm after here is that you reported minus SEK 4 million impact on EBIT, but obviously, you added to 2% of sales. So, the dilution on the margin seems to be fairly substantial. That's 1 percentage point, something like that. But if you can help us with the Endox margin. And then secondly, on that question also, will those temporary effects linger into Q2 as well? I'll start there, please.
No. I mean we closed the Endox acquisition. It's part of the Medical part of Kanthal. We closed that in January, and we also then accounted for the transaction-related costs. And in those costs, you will find, of course, all the legal costs and the due diligence costs and so on. But also, there is also a transfer of a real estate asset, transfer tax on a real estate asset in, I think it was in Germany. That has affected the numbers. So that is a one-off thing you're seeing there. And we close profitability on the acquisitions. But I think that it's performing according to plan, I would say, the acquisition.
And what we said is that the margin is in Endox is slightly accretive to Kanthal.
Slightly accretive.
Okay. Fair enough. But then I guess that the impact from acquisition or the delta is in SEK 8 million basically. So, I mean, the minus SEK 4 million will not linger into Q2. And then I guess Endox, as you point out, it's not loss-making. So, it's basically SEK 8 million coming in Q2 versus Q1.
I don't want to but, you will not see any one-off cost related to the acquisition in Q2, I would say. You will see the plain Endox.
Yes. Fair enough. Fair enough. And just from my side, it would be okay if you put this as one-offs from my perspective, so we get the underlying profitability in Kanthal because then it's actually, call it, much better than the 16.6%. Let's say that it's 17.3% underlying if we take away those effects. But fair enough. And then I guess the question to Goran and on the executive management turnover that we have seen, I guess a majority of management is now changed since listing. And that could, of course, be natural as Alleima is venturing into a new phase. But are you too tough, Goran? Or could you give any comment on this and also whether this impacts the pace that you can run the company at as a lot of new people are coming in?
I don't think I'm too tough. These are three individual cases that has nothing to do with each other. Start with the one on the other side of the table. Olof has decided to retire. Of course, we know how old Olof is so that we have prepared for that for some while without knowing when he will take the decision. So that is one thing that Johanna is leaving good for her, bad for us. She's a very competent legal counsel and sort of appreciated member of the team, but she's moving to another position. Then I made a change in Strip end of the year. Claes had been there for about 5 years. We were reviewing the strategy, and I just wanted to have sort of a new leadership. So, three individual cases that has nothing to do with each other. I think that this happens. And I'm not worried about the team. The team is strong.
Good to hear. And then finally, and I guess to you also, Goran, and I know we've been over this before, but on Slide 9, as you point out, the margin resilience, I do agree it's actually quite remarkable how the margin has kept up on low volumes. But I guess the question is to you, as the title suggest how much must the margin resilience improve before you feel comfortable to use the balance sheet and the net cash position in another way than letting it do 2%. Just to hear your thoughts, how much must Alleima change from history before you feel comfortable?
I understand your question. I am comfortable right now, and I think we are utilizing our strong balance sheet. I mean we have more CapEx than we used to have. And it has to be good cases before we do anything. Then as we all know, fast swings in the metal price could have an impact, and we need some margin on that. But I think overall, the strong balance sheet means that we are prepared to drive growth initiatives even in sort of a weaker market that we have been into. So, there's no target where we will start to act differently. This is the strategy, and we will continue to drive it as we are doing right now.
The next question comes from Igor Tubic from Carnegie.
I have two questions. First one is, Goran, if you can comment anything around the lead times of OCTG and the umbilicals. If I remember it correctly, it was like six months for umbilicals and 12 months post last report. And the second question is around the projects that you have and how they are developing? And what should we expect in terms of ramp-up in China and Japan this year? Are you, will you reach like 50% of capacity by the year-end? Or how should we think about that?
Start with the Oil and Gas business. I mean last quarter, we said that the backlog in umbilical was roughly two months. I think I said that, that is good from our perspective. It means that we are flexible in booking orders, but I don't want it to be much shorter. We have a positive, slightly positive book-to-bill in quarter 1, and that is on high revenue pace that we have built backlog a little bit, and there's still a lot of interesting projects coming up. So, situation is a little bit improved, but mostly rather stable in umbilicals. OCTG is still a long backlog we're booking into 2026 as we speak. And regarding the projects, I think the team around me needs to help. I mean, first of all, the China will start ramp up end of the year. Midyear, we will start ramp up the silicon carbide in Perth. The Nuclear steam that is next fall. Japan, when are we starting ramping up that? I don't know that by heart actually. End of the year. So, we will start ramp up Asia, Japan, end of the year. So, they're coming some during the year and some next year.
Okay. Sorry, I didn't get you on the China and the chemical and petrochemical. Was that ramp up?
End of the year, we're going to ramp it up. I'm going to be there, I think, in November for the inauguration. So, we'll start ramping up that end of the year.
[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Hanna Grimborg from Handelsbanken.
So I had two questions, and both of them are a bit regarding market. So, first of all, in Oil and Gas, I mean, the oil price has come down a bit this year. With the oil prices at this level, do you think that, that could have a negative effect on demand? Or do you think that oil prices would need to come down much more and would need to be at these levels for much longer for the outlook in Oil and Gas to change for you? So that was the first one. And then also in Industrial Heating, last quarter, you said that you thought that you might see a recovery at the end of the year. Has anything changed during the quarter for you? Do you think you still see a chance that Industrial Heating could recover at the end of 2025?
Thank you, Hanna. I'll start with the oil price. I think the drop we've seen is quite significant. And of course, that creates some kind of uncertainty. But I think I looked at Brent today was a 65% or 68%. From what we know, that is still levels where also the offshore investments are a bit above breakeven. I think last time we saw really downturn that was when oil price came down to around 30. So, I think the level is still good enough. But of course, it could create some uncertainty, but we have not seen any of our customers act differently due to the last weeks of lower oil price. When it comes to Industrial Heating, we said for some while that we expect to see a recovery. We haven't seen it. It's quite flattish. In some of the subsegments, we see some lights, as we said now in the call here, semicon and glass starts to improve, while, for instance, solar and metal industry is still pretty weak. I mean I would say Industrial Heating is a segment where we would have expected a recovery faster than we have seen.
We have a follow-up question from Gilani Adrian from ABG.
I just wanted to do a quick follow-up on the margin resilience profile that I think Victor talked about before. I agree that Slide 9 is a great illustration, but it also sort of, I would say, highlights the limited value of the current margin target of 9%. So, you've been clearly above that for quite some time, and it doesn't look likely that you're going back down to those levels. So, I guess, I mean, the question becomes how long do you have to outperform that before evaluating whether you should raise it?
Yes, that's a question I've had before. We have no plans right now to change it. And I can agree with you, we are -- we hope to perform better. I think that's all we can say at this moment. We have not changed our financial targets.
You see through a business cycle.
Yes. And what is the business? I think we have business cycles. And still I mean, we've been around for a little bit more than 2.5 years. So, it's still pretty fresh targets. At some point, I guess it will be adjusted, but it's not planned at the moment.
We have a follow-up question from Akerblom Anders.
So I just wanted to follow up on my second question, which a bit poorly phrased perhaps of me. So, apologies if that created some confusion. But what I was referring to specifically was if you could give any kind of indication of the magnitude of the support for metal prices coming down to adjusted EBIT given that it lowers the revenue base. That was kind of the question. So should one interpret it is given that, that creates a margin support and you guide for a fairly similar mix in Q2 that the underlying profitability of that mix is worse if one interprets the mix as being somewhat akin to the profitability level. Do you get my question, if I phrase it that way?
You mean if the top line, the metal price impact on the top line helps support the margin.
Given that I assume that you kind of, you pass on the potential metal price effects to top line. Just give like some type of indication of the magnitude of the margin, potential margin support in Q2 if metal prices remains close to the level that they are currently.
I understand the math you're doing right now, I would say it's more neutral.
Okay, okay. Fair enough. Thank you.
Super. With that, thank you, Olof and Goran, and thank you all for listening to the call. We will be road showing from tomorrow. Hope to see many of you there. So, thank you very much, and goodbye.