Alleima AB

Alleima AB

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Oct 26Next Earn

Q2 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptJuly 17, 2026

Frida Adrian

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Alleima's presentation of the second quarter results 2026.

My name is Frida Adrian, and I am Head of Investor Relations. I'm joined by our President and CEO Göran Björkman and our CFO Johan Eriksson.

Göran and Johan will take you through the highlights of the quarter, and following the presentation, we will open up for a Q&A session. You're welcome to ask questions via the conference call or submit your questions through the webcast interface.

The presentation materials are available for download at alleima.com. As always, safety is a top priority for us, I trust that you are familiar with the safety procedures at your current location.

With that, I hand over to you, Göran.

Göran Björkman

Thank you, Frida. I would like to begin this webcast by addressing a very sad event that happened on May the 5th.

I want to express my deep sorrow with a tragic traffic accident at our industrial site in Sandviken, in which one of our colleagues sadly lost her life. Our thoughts are with our colleague's family, friends, and colleagues, and our deepest sympathies go to all of those affected.

This tragedy is a painful reminder of why safety must always remain Alleima's highest priority. We are cooperating with authorities while continuing our long-term work to strengthen our safety culture, mitigate risks, and ensure a safe working environment for everyone.

This is an ongoing effort that is never complete and that requires our full commitment every single day. While this loss has been deeply felt across the organization, I will now turn to the key developments and highlights for the quarter.

Let's look at them. Overall, I think it's a strong quarter on several fronts.

We are, for the first time since Q1 2025, again showcasing top-line growth where both order intake and revenues grew organically. The 12-month rolling order intake went from -12% organic order intake in Q1 to now +3% in Q2, supported by strong performance in key segments like parts of oil and gas, medical, industrial heating, and transportation.

As you have seen, we received the largest order yet in the history of Alleima on almost SEK 1 billion for umbilical tubing. At the same time, there are still uncertain markets where the situation in the Middle East still affects us, mainly in the OCTG business, but creating overall uncertainty in other areas as well, while we are pleased with the quarter, but remain cautious going forward.

Earnings-wise, we saw a strong contribution for Kanthal, which I will get back to, but also strong performance from the umbilical business as well as titanium tubing to aerospace. This is somewhat offset by weaker short-cycle business within Tube, where the weak Europe continues to dampen the results.

Also noted is slight FX tailwind. We continue our journey on long-term value creation.

During the quarter, Alleima inaugurated Tube 2026, expanding capacity for steam generator tubes to the nuclear industry by 60%. Also paid a dividend to our shareholders on total SEK 625 million, an increase of 9% compared to 2025.

In addition, the targeted measures announced in the third quarter last year are progressing according to plan and are delivering cost savings in line with expectations. I think taken together, these actions position Alleima well to continue creating value going forward.

Moving to sustainability, which remains an important part of our strategy, and during the quarter, the share of revenues from a sustainable product portfolio increased, mainly driven by the growth in medical and industrial heating segments. Then safety, always our highest priority.

Rolling 12-month accident frequency improved versus Q2 last year, but sequentially increased due to more accidents this quarter than Q2 last year. We need to continue and to maintain a strong safety focus across the organization.

CO2 emissions increased, mainly due to a lower share of biogas and a higher use of natural gas. At the same time, the share of recycled steel remained high, at above 80%, both on a rolling 12-months basis and year-on-year.

If we take a look at our review on the market development, we still view it as mixed, uncertain or challenging, whichever word you like, stemming from the uncertainty around the Middle East and an already weak Europe. Volatility is expected to linger, but we also expect momentum to continue in key segments.

Maybe you notice that we changed a few arrows, but I will walk you through each segment, starting with oil and gas. I can say that I feel confident to say that it was a good decision to increase output pace for umbilicals in the beginning of the year.

Major order received is a confirmation that the market is strong, and we stick to a positive view as the project list still is very attractive. For OCTG business, on the other hand, we talked last quarter about the effects from the situation in the Middle East, and we flagged for a weaker outlook already in the Q4 report, and we stick to that view as well, why we land in a flat arrow.

Industrial, European demand is still weak. Asia also declined, while North America improved, but on low levels.

Chem/petrochem, volumes in Europe and North America are low, while Asia has been holding up better, but where we now have a slight slowdown. Industrial heating, we continue to see growth driven by Asia, North America, while Europe is still on the weaker side, and subsegments like electronics and semiconductors are still the main drivers.

Consumer, flat demand on a good level. Medical, strong momentum, no signs of slowing down, and let me remind you again of our greenfield investment in Malaysia that will be up and running towards the end of the year.

Transportation, titanium tubing for aerospace, also including space, is continued to be strong. Mining and construction, demand was stable overall, again driven mainly by the mining industry.

Nuclear, nothing has changed, where the outlook remains positive. Last, hydrogen and renewable energy, there are some bright spots, for instance biofuel, but all in all, still weak.

Let's turn to the Middle East. Market uncertainty continues.

The situation remains unstable, and as there is new information emerging almost every other day. The uncertainty is negative for the market, as it affects visibility, customer sentiment, and decision-making.

Just as previous quarter, it's important for us to focus on what we know and to avoid speculation, whether it's negative or positive. Our largest exposure in the region is within OCTG, which is part of our Oil and Gas segment.

This business has both direct and indirect exposure to the Middle East and is being negatively affected by the developments in the region. We continue to see slowdown in new well completion, which is expected to negatively impact our order intake in coming quarters.

As I said in Q1, we have reduced our output to support our customers in avoiding excess inventory, which have had a negative impact on revenues. We also have a chemical and petrochemical business in Middle East, and that is also affected, although this is a much smaller part than OCTG in that region, and therefore less significant from an overall exposure perspective.

At the same time, the impact on Alleima's other businesses remains limited. Moving to order intake and revenue.

Order intake rolling 12 amounted to SEK 18.6 billion, again up 3% organically compared to the -12% we had in Q1. This is supported by strong development from umbilicals, including the large order, but also excluding the large order, umbilicals was good, and also strong development in industrial heating, medical, and aerospace.

We are growing despite the lower OCTG volumes we flagged for previously, and we are still low in chem/petrochem, why we strategically have booked some more contribution business in the quarter to cover costs, which will have a somewhat diluting effects in the margin near term. Revenues grew organically by 2%, supported by the same key segments that drove order intake.

Tube and Strip declined, while Kanthal grew. Book-to-bill rolling 12 recovers to 102% from the 90% we had in Q1.

Earnings, adjusted EBIT improved to SEK 519 million and a margin of 10.6%. Strong performance despite lower volumes in the OCTG and the short-cycle businesses.

This is explained by solid performance in umbilicals, aerospace, and I would say all of Kanthal. In addition, we see positive effects from the targeted measures announced in Q3 last year, and somewhat helped by FX.

Cash flow, SEK 330 million, which Johan will get back to and show some details later. Let's look at the division performance during the quarter, starting with Tube.

I would say it is a mixed picture. Some parts of the business, like umbilicals within oil and gas, titanium tubing within transportation, are performing really well, while short-cycle business, mainly industrial and chem/petrochem, still are weak.

Our APAC unit has previously held up strong both in terms of top line and earnings, but where we now expect a somewhat weaker Chinese market. Rolling 12 order intake grew 1% organically on the back of the major umbilical order, held back some by high comps in both SGT and OCTG.

Revenues declined by 3%, again affected by the short-cycle business, OCTG, and also some timing effects in nuclear. Book-to-bill grew to 101%, recovering from the 85% sequentially.

Adjusted EBIT margin of 11.2%, on par with last year despite lower revenues, coming from strong contribution in umbilical and aerospace, as well as savings from the targeted measures, mitigating the negative effect from the short backlog in short-cycle business and the lower volumes in OCTG. Currencies had a positive effect on SEK 18 million year-over-year.

Kanthal, and let me take a moment and really highlight the great performance of Kanthal. In the recent downturn, where volumes in industrial heating were low while facing a heavy FX headwind throughout most of 2025, they've done an excellent job in taking actions to protect profitability.

Now, when volumes have recovered and with growth investments ready to scale, I would say the future of Kanthal looks really bright. Rolling 12 order intake grew organically with 19%, where medical and industrial heating were the main drivers.

The same can be said for revenues, which grew 21% organically. Rolling 12 book-to-bill of 109%, and adjusted EBIT margin 19.6% is a record high in a quarter.

We see contribution from several product groups, both within medical and industrial heating. FX had a minor positive effect on SEK 4 million year-over-year.

To Strip, it's been a challenging quarter for the Strip division. We have experienced some production disruptions in Sandviken.

I would say these issues have now been resolved. Mitigating actions are ongoing, and Strip is working to strengthen its cost position with, of course, the aim to once again contribute positively to the group margin.

Rolling 12 order intake declined organically with 16%, heavily impacted by negative development in the hydrogen business, but also a weaker industrial segment. Revenues declined 1% organically, with the consumer segment contributing positively.

Adjusted EBIT margin was 2.5%, but impacted negatively with SEK 3 million year-on-year, and underlying margin was 3.3%. Book-to-bill amounted to 89%.

By that, leave over to you, Johan.

Johan Eriksson

Thank you, Göran. Looking at the financial summary and starting with the table to the right, order intake for the rolling 12-month period amounted to SEK 18.6 billion, corresponding to an organic growth of 3%.

We had negative impact from FX and alloys of 4% and 1% respectively, indicating a total growth of -2%. If we look then at the quarterly revenues, we reached SEK 4.9 billion with organic growth of 2% and still some impact from FX, which in total had a negative impact of 1%, while alloys had turned to a slight positive effect of 2% on on quarterly revenues.

If we look ahead into the quarter three quarter three, we see on revenues a neutral currency effect, and we expect roughly +2% from alloys. For on the order intake side for the rolling 12 months, we expect -3% on currency and a neutral effect from alloys.

We had no contribution from structure, we can conclude. We haven't done any acquisitions in the last 12 months, and then there is no structure effects on on top line then.

Then back to the big table on the left, where I'll get back to adjusted EBIT in a coming slide, the reported EBIT increased to SEK 715 million, coming from higher revenues and a positive and positive metal price effects. Net financial items for the quarter amounted to -SEK 10 million compared to +SEK 18 million last year, mainly driven by revaluations of derivatives, which mostly were in in the comparison period last year.

Normalized tax rate at 21.1% for the quarter, but preferably we look at the year-to-date figure, which is 22.5%, on the lower side of our guidance. Free operating cash flow came out at SEK 330 million in the quarter, and I'll get back to that in a coming slide.

Finally, adjusted EPS for the quarter at SEK 1.57, impacted possibly positively by a higher adjusted EBIT. Let's have a look at the the bridge for for adjusted EBIT.

We start at last year's SEK 454 million and margin of 9.5% compared to this year's SEK 519 million with a margin of 10.6%. This is a solid organic development, I must say, with a healthy leverage of 46% and a strong contribution from, as as Göran also mentioned, from Kanthal and parts of the Tube business and of course, the targeted measures that we that we announced after the Q3 closing last year.

These all of these mitigated then the underabsorption effects that we that we saw from the lower OCTG volumes and the weaker short-cycle business. We're pleased that the targeted measures are proceeding according to plan, both the the permanent ones and the volume-related ones.

In total, they yield some SEK 45 million in the quarter, putting us roughly at 85% of our targeted run rate. We saw no contribution from structure in in the EBIT bridge this quarter.

Moving over to the balance sheet and looking at the capital efficiency, net working capital increased in absolute terms year-over-year, mainly due to the higher metal prices, but it decreased as a percentage of revenues, in relative terms, down to 35.5% due to higher quarterly sales. Sequentially, we increased net working capital, you could see that in the graph, and that can be derived from increase of accounts receivable and higher inventories then, driven by the increasing metal prices and some volumes as well.

Capital employed, that you have on your right-hand side, excluding cash, increased year-over-year to SEK 16.6 billion, mainly driven by higher net working capital. The return on capital employed, excluding cash, based on the reported operating profit, so that includes metal price effects and items affecting comparability, that was 7.7% for the rolling 12-month period, down from 9.2% last year, coming from a lower rolling 12-month period reported operating profit.

Looking at the cash flow, it might be worth mentioning, and and some food for thought, is that we have been talking for some quarters now about the challenging market and not being 100% satisfied with our own performance, but this graph shows that we, despite that, are generating continuing and continue to generate a healthy cash flow. Moving to the table on the left, EBIT and EBITDA, I think we've touched on already, and the non-cash items, which mostly most commonly refers to cash or non-cash effects from provisions or provision releases, and this year, it was affected by cash flow effects from the ongoing restructuring activities.

We note a negative impact from changes in working capital, mainly due to increased inventory, and that comes from the higher raw material prices then and some some volume effects as well. This and and also higher accounts receivable affect this net working capital number.

CapEx for the quarter is almost on par with last year. Amortization of lease liabilities is slightly higher this year, and all in all, this leaves us with a free operating cash flow of SEK 330 million.

Please remember that cash flow normally is lower in the first half of the year when we have seasonal buildup in preparation for the maintenance stops that we have in the third quarter. Looking at our financial position, and overall, our financial position remains strong, where we are well below our financial target of a net-debt-to-equity ratio below 0.3 times.

At the quarter end, we were at -0.02 times. Net pension liabilities has decreased to SEK 604 million from last year's SEK 813 million, mainly as a result of higher discount rates.

The leasing liabilities are slightly lower than last year, and our cash position continues to be strong. Despite paying dividend of SEK 625 million in May, we have a net cash position of SEK 283 million.

Let's look at the the guidance we gave ahead of the quarter and the outcome of that. On CapEx, we guide on full year, and so far CapEx spend for the first half of 2026 is almost SEK 400 million, and normally half year the second half of the year is more CapEx heavy.

Currency, transaction and translation effects came in at at -SEK 39 million, where we estimated -SEK 60 million. In in the total currency effect, the transaction and translation effects were more than more than offset by hedges and bridge effects from revaluations.

This year, we had positive hedges and positive revaluations, and last year, we had some negative revaluations, resulting in a total bridge effect from those items of +SEK 57 million, so that takes us to the to the positive SEK 19 million that we have in in the total currency effect. If we then look at the metal price effects driven by increased metal prices, the metal metals affected us positively in EBIT with almost SEK 200 million, where we guided for SEK 150 million.

The normalized tax rate year-to-date is 22.5%, where we we are guiding for 23% to 25% for the full year, at the low end, but quite close to the range. Looking into the third quarter and full year and the guidance for that, full-year CapEx, we keep the full-year CapEx guidance of SEK 1.1 billion, coming from growth projects for the year of of the one that you know that we have inaugurated the steam generator tubing capacity increase in Sandviken, but also investments like industrial heating in Japan and medical in Malaysia.

A little less than half of the total is also for maintenance. Currency effects for the third quarter, based on the rates per the 15th of July, the transaction and translation effects are estimated to be neutral.

On the metal price side, based on the metal prices and currency rates per the 15th of July, we anticipate a positive effect also in the third quarter of SEK 100 million. Here, it's probably worth reminding about the dynamics that the price increase for especially for nickel, but also for molybdenum and chromium, over time leads to positive metal effects in our EBIT, while a stronger SEK against the US dollar, as an example, has the opposite effect.

On the tax rate for the full year 2026, we expect a normalized tax rate in the range of 23% to 25%, just as before. By that, I hand back to you, Göran, for outlook and summary.

Göran Björkman

Thank you, Johan. The outlook for quarter three, I would say the start of the third quarter has been influenced by new tensions in the Middle East, further dampening for us an already weak regional business within Tube in Europe and North America, and also some indication of a slowdown in APAC and especially China.

In contrast, umbilicals, industrial heating, medical, aerospace as well as space, as well as nuclear remain strong with solid backlog and a momentum going forward. Product mix is expected to be similar to quarter two, but there might be some diluting effects from the product mix, given that we short term have taken more contribution orders to compensate for the lower OCTG volumes.

Earnings in quarter three will also be somewhat impacted by some planned ramp-up costs for the new SGT mill. As always, cash flow is normally higher in the second half of the year.

Coming to summary, overall, I think we delivered a strong second quarter with organic order intake growth moving from -12% in quarter one to +3% in quarter two, supported by strong development in umbilicals, medical, industrial heating, and in aerospace. At the same time, profitability improved, supported by a strong performance across several segments and particularly by an excellent quarter from Kanthal.

As said, market uncertainty remains. Visibility is still limited in parts of the market, and external environment continues to be unpredictable, why we maintain our discipline and our focus.

We constantly execute on our long-term strategy, focus on profitable growth, attractive niches, and a strong product mix. We continue to implement the targeted measures introduced in October last year, driving cost savings and efficiency improvements, which we continue to see the effects from.

I would say, overall, I think the quarter shows that we are progressing well despite a still uncertain market. With that, back to you, Frida.

Frida Adrian

Thank you. We will now begin the Q&A session.

Please feel free to ask your question via the webcast or directly through the conference call. Operator, please go ahead.

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press * and 1 on their telephone.

If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press * and 2. Anyone who has a question may press * and 1 at this time.

The first question comes from the line of Kaleb Solomon from SEB. Please go ahead.

Kaleb Solomon

Hi, guys. Thank you for taking my questions.

You mentioned there will be some ramp-up costs related to the reopening of the facilities for steam generator tubing. Can you give us a rough figure of how much that is, and maybe a rough split of how that will be divided in Q3 and Q4?

Göran Björkman

You can look like this. We're leaving the project phase, and now entering into sort of real production.

During the ramp-up, there is no invoicing. With roughly 100 people, it's roughly SEK 20 million cost in a quarter that we will have until we have invoicing.

Quarter three worse than quarter four, I would say. In the size of SEK 20 million.

Kaleb Solomon

Just as a follow-up, how long do you expect the ramp-up will sort of take before you reach a normal utilization rate?

Göran Björkman

I don't have the date right now, but our plan is to be operational end of the year. Then we will have absorptions from the factory, exactly when the first invoicing will happen, I don't know right now.

Sometimes during the quarter four, that ramp-up cost will be reduced then.

Kaleb Solomon

That's clear. Another one for you maybe, Göran.

After the sort of previous ramp-up issues in Sandviken, you mentioned that catching up to the OCTG backlog would take until mid-2026, and that it should be sort of fully operational by summer. First, just sort of wondering what, if any, impact it had this quarter, and if the backlog reduction is now fully sort of done, and then second, is there any sort of impact to consider for Q3?

Göran Björkman

I didn't follow that question.

Johan Eriksson

The delay related to the last year's ramp-up.

Göran Björkman

That effect was not so big in quarter three, it was more in quarter four, wasn't it?

Johan Eriksson

The delay into this year. If I may, I believe you refer to that we had delays due to that that would sort of linger of OCTG then into quarter one and quarter two this year.

Kaleb Solomon

Yes.

Johan Eriksson

That has been caught up now. It's more market

Göran Björkman

that Absolutely. The market has changed heavily since we were in those times.

Johan Eriksson

Yeah.

Kaleb Solomon

Okay. Mining and Construction was a negative contributor this quarter, which seems to be sort of a common theme among companies reporting today.

Can you maybe give some color on what you're seeing from that segment, and if you're sort of expecting anything else for Q3?

Göran Björkman

We see a stable, good order intake from a couple of big Swedish customers. Okay.

Kaleb Solomon

Just a final one. You give the same sort of comments just related to general uncertainty that you've done the previous quarters, but it sounded a little bit in the CEO letter that you were somewhat more optimistic, Göran.

Is that correctly interpreted, and why is that?

Göran Björkman

Probably colored by sort of the strong order intake we have had in quarter two. To some extent, I think we kind of getting used to operate in a very uncertain times, because when you look around, weak Europe, war in Middle East, US with tariffs, China maybe a little bit slower growth, but it looks like we are sort of managing that pretty well.

Of course, some of our important key segments like umbilical, industrial heating, medical, aerospace, nuclear will be positive. I think that is what is probably coloring my approach then.

Kaleb Solomon

That's clear. Thank you for taking my questions.

Frida Adrian

Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Adrian Gilani from ABG. Please go ahead.

Adrian Gilani

Yes, hello. A couple questions from my end.

A follow-up on the nuclear line ramp-up. When it does start ramping up significant volumes, should we see this as sort of extra volumes coming in that you didn't produce before, or is it volumes being redirected to the nuclear site, which would be sort of more of a mix effect rather than a growth effect?

Göran Björkman

No, it's extra volumes. We will be able to make 60% more, and we have a backlog for that.

Adrian Gilani

Now I'm talking at the group level. I understand it's more nuclear volumes, but is it volumes that you would have produced in other segments being rerouted to nuclear, creating a positive mix effect?

Göran Björkman

No.

Adrian Gilani

Okay. We wouldn't.

Göran Björkman

It's open for this product, and if we didn't open this, we wouldn't produce something else. In a back-end system, the nuclear part is a small part.

It's more the value on the added-value product.

Adrian Gilani

Yeah. Understood.

Then just on the orders in Tube, when you talk about orders at the group level, you talk about it being somewhat broad-based improvement. If we look at Tube specifically, would you say that the majority, even if you strip out the one larger oil and gas order, would you say the majority of the improvement is still oil and gas improvements, or even within Tube is it a broad-based improvement?

Göran Björkman

Talking about order intake, of course, they're heavily impacted by the umbilical. Of course, we had almost SEK 1 billion order.

Even if we haven't had that order, umbilical would have looked good, so as you can imagine how strong it was. If I look at other segments, I think they are strong in aerospace, that was good.

I would say those are the two segments that are the strongest within the Tube division in order-intake-wise. Then as we don't book nuclear orders every day, so that is quite unstable from that perspective, but we have very strong backlog, so that would still create revenues starting from end of the year.

Adrian Gilani

Understood. Then sort of for us, when we're going to set our near-term revenue and earnings assumptions, given that your orders can have lead times of anywhere between a quarter and several years, how much does the current very strong order intake in Q2 derisk estimates for perhaps the second half of the year?

Are these orders that will be delivered fairly soon, or further out?

Göran Björkman

That is a very good question. I will try to answer it.

I need to take them one by one then. If we start with umbilicals, this is not impacting near-term revenue in umbilicals.

We increased our output in the beginning of the year, even though that the order backlog was not so strong, so that was a clever decision of us. These orders, including the big one, is more adding on to the backlog.

That will continue strong. Medical, they had some good orders.

Some of their customers don't place order on a regular basis, and so there were some big ones. They are growing double-digit all the time, in some way, it's impacting quarter three and quarter four, but not the orders as such.

Industrial heating, I would say, is more positive from that, because we are growing industrial heating, and you could see that Kanthal organic revenue growth was around 20%, so that I think you could expect going forward as well. It's a mix.

Adrian Gilani

Some

Göran Björkman

of what will impact, and some is building backlog.

Adrian Gilani

Understood. That's very helpful.

In that case, those were all of my questions. Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Johannes Grunselius from SB1 Markets. Please go ahead.

Johannes Grunselius

Yes, hi everyone, it's Johannes here. I'd like to zoom in on Kanthal and the very strong organic growth and even more stronger orders.

We know that both medical and industrial heating are strong. Could you maybe give some light there, Göran, which one is the strongest of these two, or are they equally strong now?

Göran Björkman

If you take them over a few years, medical is the strongest.

Johannes Grunselius

Then

Göran Björkman

if you remember industrial heating was struggling a little bit '24 and '25, and started to grow I would say end of quarter three last year. We have seen strong growth in industrial heating, but in their case coming from I would say lower levels, which is not the case in medical.

I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I think both industrial heating and medical is growing well now in quarter two. You look at orders, medical had some I would say strong order intake that's why some of the customers place orders maybe just two, three, four times a year.

Johannes Grunselius

Okay. That's helpful.

I was thinking also about capacity utilization and the different pockets in Kanthal. Do you have available capacity, where you are at the moment?

Could you maybe comment on kind of the operating rates there?

Göran Björkman

We are not transparent with capacity utilization numbers, since I don't want my competitors to know that. I think it's a mix.

I think if you look at medical, we communicated Malaysia, I think we also communicated that we're increasing capacity in Tucson, the second site we have in the US, not a very big investment, but still. They are constantly increasing capacity, small investments all the time.

I'm not worried about that. If I look at industrial heating, it's a little bit mixed.

There are some units that still could use some more volumes. Then we've done investments, for instance in Perth and in US for silicon carbide, there we've invested in capacity.

We are investing in capacity right now in Japan, and that would be utilized. Then there are a couple of examples where we are struggling a little bit with output, where the growth has been I would say significant, and that is part of the semicon business and everything.

There were some new businesses there, and really good levels, but if you are surprised by new orders, you could have some struggle. I'm not worried about the capacity utilization in Kanthal.

I think they are running at good levels, and I think mostly they are able to continue to grow.

Johannes Grunselius

Okay. Thank you very much for helpful answers.

Thank you.

Frida Adrian

Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Trollsten Viktor from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.

Viktor Trollsten

Many thanks, operator. Good afternoon, Göran and Johan.

Thanks for taking the questions. I perhaps just have one, and I'm just trying to sort of square what you see in terms of demand, obviously it's a very mixed and dynamic picture, but also versus what you have sort of reported in terms of figures.

For the last couple of four quarters, order intake has been almost every quarter around SEK 4 billion, right? We are now, if we even take away the large major order, we are SEK 1.5 billion up from that level, SEK 5.5 billion.

Obviously you're mentioning a very strong umbilicals market, aerospace, but what is sort of the delta from the SEK 4 billion to SEK 5.5 billion in Q2? Obviously there's seasonality, Q3 perhaps 10% lower, Q4 10% up from that level later on, but is this sort of the new normal base, if I put it like that?

If you could help me from that perspective, please.

Göran Björkman

Sure, I can give you the data. One reason, Viktor, why we are communicating and reporting order intake rolling 12 is that it differs between the quarters, and then you have done your math and you can see through that.

I think we communicated for some time that umbilicals is strong, and apart from the order, it was a very strong umbilical quarter. Industrial heating is growing and continued to grow.

Medical, as we've seen before, has sometimes large orders coming in, and then it's slower. I would say nothing surprising, it's just that a lot of it came at the same time.

What I am happy with is that it is in for us key important segments where we have the strong order intake.

Viktor Trollsten

Okay.

Göran Björkman

I think one comment to make is, of course, this is building backlog in umbilicals, and we also know that the backlog for our main competitors is pretty long as well. For us, it's important to keep some flexibility to continue, because when I look at the product list, even though we booked this big order and a lot of other orders, it still looks very attractive.

No,

Viktor Trollsten

that's good to hear. Perhaps also on the demand side, but industrial heating has obviously been quite strong for several quarters now.

What is the main driver of that? Is it increased focus on energy efficiency?

Is it on the CapEx side? Is it on the OpEx side?

Just to understand sort of what's driving the strength, because in the sector overall or within capital goods, obviously there's a very mixed picture on what is working and what is not working. Just to understand what is driving that very solid growth in Kanthal, and what makes you comfortable that could continue ahead to some extent?

Göran Björkman

I'll try to answer that question, but if I start answering on your reasoning, still industrial heating is meeting pretty poor comps. They started to grow end of quarter three last year, of course it's been easy to have sort of good percentage number growths, but now they also start to be at good levels.

I don't think you should expect a double-digit sort of end of the year, beginning of next year, but still on good level. It's clear I think it's a little bit of difference.

If I look at Kanthal industrial heating Europe and sort of furnace builder, metals, that is still pretty weak. The main driver what we see is semicon, glass, which is also in electronics, and electronics.

Those are the main drivers for the growth in industrial heating.

Viktor Trollsten

How big is semiconductors now in Kanthal? Sorry, the last one from me, but just to get a sense.

Göran Björkman

Semicon? Mhm.

Around 20% of the industrial heating part. Super.

Viktor Trollsten

Super. Many thanks.

Thank you very much.

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Anders Åkerblom from Nordea. Please go ahead.

Anders Åkerblom

Thank you. Hi, and good afternoon.

I wanted to follow up a bit more on Kanthal, obviously very, very impressive margin print. Just in a general sense, Göran, how much of this would you say is sustainable, and as we sort of ramp up the growth investments in Japan and Malaysia, how should we think about that margin sort of scaling and phasing?

I'm

Göran Björkman

not sure what you want me to

Anders Åkerblom

answer, Anders, but

Göran Björkman

let me put it this way. This is the best quarterly result Kanthal has delivered, but I would not say it's sort of all stars aligned and this was extraordinary.

I'm not saying that they will meet these levels all the time, but I don't think it's any extra. I think the market is with them.

We have done the right investments, and of course also I would say credit to the industrial heating part that from the downturn they were in, they mitigated and defended their margins well. Now when market is coming back, of course, they have a very good leverage on a lower cost than before.

I see no reason why this is the level where Kanthal should be.

Anders Åkerblom

Sounds promising. You said the semiconductor market approximately one 1/5 of industrial heating, if I didn't mistake you there.

If you just look at growth this quarter in Kanthal and industrial heating specifically, how much of that specifically was driven by semiconductor customers?

Göran Björkman

I'm sorry, if I had the number, I could give you. I don't have that number, but I would say the majority.

I don't have the number, Anders, but there's a reason why we point at these ones.

Anders Åkerblom

I think

Göran Björkman

to give you some more sort of information then without going into too much details, semicon has been a business within Kanthal for quite some time. It's to furnace builders to make the furnaces look pretty much the same if it's solar or semiconductor, semiconductor is a little bit more advanced.

There's always new businesses. There is a very thin glass thing into the semiconductors, and in the production of those, they need furnace elements from Kanthal.

They're also new businesses that we didn't have before driving this. The majority of that in Asia.

Anders Åkerblom

Yes. Right.

Göran Björkman

I'm very positive for this semicon part of Kanthal.

Anders Åkerblom

Yeah. Feels like it's driving a lot of growth for many companies in different ways.

Interesting that you have that growth as well. I wanted to ask a bit as well in sort of the contribution business.

You mentioned that you're booking some more contribution business as well. Could you quantify a bit how much you booked, and sort of what the margin differential is between your normal mix and how many quarters you think you need this sort of buffer, to speak?

Göran Björkman

I thought you were going to ask us if we leaving the strategy we have, which we're not, of course. The strategy is not to be panicking and book unnecessary orders.

This time, we have decided to book more. The main reason is that the OCTG volumes were reduced very fast since we are supporting customers that were overstocked.

If you have looked at these tubes for OCTG, they are huge, heavy tubes, it's a lot of volume upstreams, both in extrusion and of course, in the primary system. I don't have the numbers, Johan, how much this is, but if you only look at gross profit margin, it is of course, quite much lower, but the alternative to have absorption issues would have been even worse.

I don't have the numbers.

Johan Eriksson

It's a quite short turnaround, it's not that we're building a long backlog of it. No.

Anders Åkerblom

Right. Makes sense.

Finally, you have a essentially a net cash position even after the dividend. How are you thinking about deploying this sort of balance sheet strength?

Are you looking to further M&A activity, or could you accelerate buybacks? Should we see some additional growth CapEx going forward?

I know that you guide for 2026 in terms of growth or CapEx in general, but how should we think about the respective components here?

Göran Björkman

I don't see a strong balance sheet as a problem, but I understand your question. We always look for M&A opportunities, especially in medical, but it has to be the right company, and it has to be the right price, and we have a pipeline of companies we're looking at.

Yes, I think you should expect more growth CapEx. Those are in our plans, and when we are ready, we will communicate that.

Anders Åkerblom

Okay. Very good.

Thank you. Thank you both for your answers.

Have a good day.

Johan Eriksson

Thank you.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Frida Adrian for any closing remarks.

Frida Adrian

Thank you all for calling in and for really good questions. I think this concludes the call, and we're wishing you all a great summer.

Thank you.