Operator
Welcome to the NIBE Q2 presentation for 2026. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to the CEO, Eric Lindquist, and CFO, Hans Backman.
Please go ahead.
Gerteric Lindquist
Thank you very much. Good morning, good afternoon, whatever it means you are sitting out there.
We are back, and we're going to give you like a 20, 25-minute presentation of the report. And then we're going to, of course, invite you for questions.
Just a couple of things. We have to finish around 12 because we have other tasks to fulfill today.
And also, we would ask you to only put 2 questions at a time to allow as many as possible to get their questions across.
Hans Backman
Hello also from my side. Hans here, and I'll be happy to fill in where Eric hands over.
Gerteric Lindquist
Okay. Fine.
Well, the overall headline is, we believe it's a strong report that demonstrates both, of course, the growth in revenue and profit and also margin-wise, and it's the sixth consecutive quarter, so we might say it's a trend anymore rather than just a quarter coming alone. So we're bold enough to suggest that.
And we've given a few hints here on the slide that you have in front of you. And of course, that is less pronounced with the Swedish krona this time.
It's more like par with the previous similar quarter -- corresponding quarter. We also talk about tariffs.
Of course, we have to do that. But they've been fended off fairly well but for Stoves.
We're going to come back to that during the presentation. And we see also a trend towards more renewable attitudes both in Europe and also in North America, also something that we're going to comment more on when we come back to the quarter per business area.
And then, of course, we are very pleased to see that our assortment now is so well-received, and our presence is appreciated, of course, both national and also international. We keep the good cost control.
Although we see that things are improving, it's very tempting to perhaps increase cost. We have to have that discipline.
And also, we see that our investments in new facilities have given us a good productivity development. They are sitting there, we are just dialing now to fulfill the demand that we believe going to come for the years to come now.
Just a quick glance at the figures, you have them before, of course. The growth there of 7.6% organically, that is really 8.7%, which is a healthy growth.
And it is also the gross margin that is improving, which is pleasing to us, demonstrating that we are polishing our cost and keeping the cost discipline. And the operating profit speaks for itself, but also that the operating margin has taken a considerable jump compared to the corresponding quarter last year.
The graphs that we typically have, that is also indicating that we are now on a stronger path towards the revenue. We also see, I am sorry, the profit of the financial items, and that is, of course, a function of several factors, the sales improvement, also that we have a pretty good cash flow.
We borrow a little bit less, or quite a bit less than we did a year ago. So all the things are working in the right direction.
If you talk about Climate Solutions, we've already mentioned that the market is solid when it comes to improvements, and it is very pleasing to see that in Europe, both the single individual home market for heat pumps has increased, and that is particular for renovation, of course. The new construction is not so prosperous until now anyway.
Also the commercial segment is expanding. In the U.S., as expected, the single-family home market for heat pumps went down when the subsidies were taken away.
But nevertheless, the commercial segment is really outnumbering that. So overall, we still have a growth there.
Also, these political uncertainties that we mentioned initially, but when it comes to looking at it in the U.S. with the manufacturing there, they will really have an upper hand, so that is a good thing.
Of course, people are affected by the political situation. But I also think or believe, which is sad in a way perhaps, that people are getting used to these things, and eventually, will have to continue to live.
So we feel that there is an uptick in demand and in positivism in all three segments, really. That, I think, has to do that eventually you get fatigued listening to all these problems.
You just have to continue living. Again, the product launches have been very efficient and successful, and that fills us with the satisfaction naturally that people are looking for better refrigerants and intelligent controls for energy optimization and so forth.
So we feel we are really on the right track. In investments, we have them, the larger ones behind us now.
That is not something that we are going to start now. They are installed, ready to take on the challenge.
Very quickly Hans is going to come back to more detailed figures when it comes to gross margin and such, but it is important to note though that the real underlying growth here, if we take away the effects of the currency, is around 9%, and the operating margin is now up well into the spectrum, whatever we call it, or interval that we really aim for between 13% and 15%. Of course, now we have, on a running basis, 12.2%, so still a little to go, but that is quite a bit better than the corresponding period the previous year.
Swinging over to Element, and there we really have had a positive development, and that is particularly for the semiconductor segment. Everyone talks about the segment, AI and all that, and here we are positioned so well in North America with our subsidiaries delivering components to those manufacturers that really stand behind the manufacturing of the chips themselves.
They, of course, predict a steady growth in the future, and now we have gotten a sniff of that, and that is, of course, one of the major factors behind the growth. But it is also that the HVAC market is certainly coming back, and that also has a positive effect on Element.
However, of course, new construction, that is still slower in Europe and elsewhere. Of course, when construction is slower, that is dampening the whole mechanism in society.
Construction drives the whole society. When it comes to the home appliances and stuff like that, that is, of course, still limping along.
Just jumping over to the next -- I am too quick. No, here we are.
There we are. Again, the net sales, quite an improvement, and of course, now we see a growth of organically 11.6%, even outnumbering Climate Solutions.
Then on top of that, we have a couple of percent of growth when it comes to acquisitions. Very pleasing to see that our operating margin is back within the interval again, 8.9% versus 6.6%.
That is quite hefty improvement. We are very pleased to see that.
Also, the gross margin has taken a good step, which Hans is going to come back to and explain. Stoves, I have said that earlier during interviews today that we would have liked to have this discussion or this press release or press conference 2 days later, because we do not really know what is happening on the tariff side in North America.
That is, of course, very, very important that, that is mitigated somehow. We have had those tariffs since 2025, and then they were worsened in April this year.
Of course, we hinted about that, going to be difficult to mitigate that. We feel that in a little bit longer time, we will be able, but now we know that negotiations are going on between Canada and the U.S.
And as long as people are negotiating, there is still hope. Hopefully, tonight their time, they will have reached some kind of agreement.
And we hope that the tariffs will be eased off a little bit. We don't know.
They certainly will not be hardened to any respect. So what we see now, what we described, is worst case, and we thought it was well thought out to present that to you.
But we hope that after negotiations tonight, we are going to come back with some better news. Despite headwinds, we dare to say that demand has started to improve a little bit.
We see signs in Europe of improvement in demand, not so strong, but still. We had an organic growth around 2% during the quarter.
It's been more stable in North America, I must say. Whether they are not so anxious as we are in Europe or what's behind that, we can't really tell, but it seems like their market has been more stable altogether, both in Canada and in the U.S.
But it is very promising to see now that we believe that we have been down at the very bottom also on Stoves. On the second quarter, that's very pronounced, as we all know, the seasonal pattern for Stoves.
We just hope that we are going to have a real comeback now during the coming six months or come, let's say, five months as of today, of course. That is a little bit about the Stoves situation.
Here we have the figures. The margin, of course, operating margin is still negative.
That's a considerable improvement from the previous quarter corresponding year. That's why we are fairly optimistic about changing this into a decent result.
If the 25% tariffs would remain, it would be a bit more difficult to, of course, mitigate that in the immediate future. But we are fairly optimistic about looking after that.
See what happens tonight. Just a few more pie charts.
Excuse my language. Excuse my voice.
Here we have the distribution of sales. Of course, now Stoves has not been able to grow, so that's a very obvious dominance by the Climate Solutions and NIBE Element.
And when it comes to the operating profit, of course, that is now all taken care of by Climate Solutions and NIBE Element with 78% and 22%. But we hope to change that pie chart fairly quickly.
I think with that, that is the last pie chart that I have. The Nordic countries, slightly under 20%, Rest of Europe 45% and North America just about 30%, and then Asia 7%, which is predominantly Element.
Hans, I hope your voice is better than mine. I hand over to you.
Hans Backman
Thank you very much, Eric. I hope you recover quickly now for the question-and-answer session.
All right. Hello again from my side to everyone out there.
And just like on previous calls, I will take you through the numbers a little bit more in detail and of course, also the balance sheet, cash flow and some key parameters. If we then again look at Climate Solutions here.
I mean, as Eric said, we've seen a robust growth in this business area in both sales and profits in most markets and both on the residential side and the commercial side. The only exception really being the residential in the U.S., but which has not declined as much as we expected following the Trump administration seizing of the tax credit.
So they've actually done fairly well under these circumstances. And with regards to the U.S., our local manufacturing footprint is of clear advantage over there because we virtually do not ship any product across any borders there, meaning that tariffs within this business area is not much of an issue.
So for that reason, we have neither had much of tariffs nor any refunds. It's the underlying business, which we show here.
And looking at the underlying business, I mean, as Eric mentioned, we saw a growth in the quarter of 9% cleaned from the currency effect, which, by the way, is becoming less and less pronounced for every month that passes. Coming in at sales of SEK 7.3 billion, up from the SEK 6.8 billion, leading to an increase in the result of some 20%.
And if we would do the cleaning of the currency impact here, it's actually up to slightly more than 23% improvement in margin. And the reason for this is the improved gross margin, which comes naturally when we get more volumes into the factories, but it's also, of course, a consequence of the investments that we have made, where we have more efficient, more modern and automated factories.
Year-to-date, we're up some 9.6%, up from the SEK 12.8 billion in sales to more than SEK 13.5 billion, also with a good improvement in gross margin because, of course, that took off already in Q1, leading to a result improvement of more than 18%. So on a rolling 12-month basis, we're now at 13.6%, thanks to the 13.8% that we made in Q2 and carrying the 12.2% with us from the first half of the year.
So all in all, we feel very confident and happy about the development in this business area. In terms of geographical distribution of sales, there have not been any large movements at all, a small shift between Europe and the U.S., where Europe has taken a percentage point, you can say because that's where we've seen a larger growth, and then the U.S.
just coming down to 23% from 24% a year ago. Moving on into Element.
Also, as Eric mentioned, we've seen a phenomenal growth here in the second quarter of 11.6%. And the Element business area has seen an overall strong growth, mainly driven by semiconductors very much in the U.S., but in general, and also the HVAC business as well as an improvement coming from the electrification of the industry that is going on in general.
And this growth has been achieved despite of the geopolitical uncertainty that's out there, leading to not very many houses or buildings being built and people are also careful when it comes to private spending, be it the white goods industry and so forth. But the statistics and what you hear, so to speak, from central banks and elsewhere is that this slowdown in economy is coming to an end.
So we should hopefully here also see an improvement as we move forward. And also in this business area, the local footprint for us, manufacturing footprint that is clearly a strength, and neither here do we see any large impacts of any tariffs.
So again, the numbers speak for themselves. Sales, as I mentioned, up by 11.6%, up from SEK 2.8 billion to more than SEK 3.1 billion in the quarter, leading to an improved profit of 50%.
And also when you clean it for currency, here, we've seen the gross margin improve by 2 percentage units, also coming from more volume in the factories, but of course, the large investment program that we've been carrying out over the last 5 years has been within all 3 business areas. So Element has naturally benefited from that as well.
Then landing the operating margin in the second quarter at close to 9%, well within our announced interval there. And year-to-date, we're up some 9% and with an operating margin of just below 8%.
And rolling 12 months, we are at 7.7% and have good hopes to, of course, improve this during the remainder of the year. Geographical distribution of sales within Element Here.
Here, we have had some movements, in the sense that both North America and Europe have improved if you compare with a year ago. So things are clearly moving here in the right direction and in our very strong markets.
Nordics has kept its share in this respect. Stoves is, as Eric mentioned, of course, still facing an overall challenging market.
But in North America, it's actually fairly stable. It's, again, these tariffs that causes some questions, of course, but the negotiations between the 2 countries are ongoing as we speak.
And we interpret that as a positive sign. From a market point of view, we definitely think that we've been down at the bottom and are moving in the right direction.
And I think a very clear sign of that is the small, but very important organic growth that we achieved in the second quarter of 1.8%. So we did come up from the SEK 678 million to SEK 686 million and have also here been able to improve gross margin.
And numerous actions have, of course, here been taken to fend off the impact of the weak market and the tariffs. So I think we're very well positioned for further growth.
And the operating profit, which is a loss, but if you read the line itself profit, I mean it's been cut in half which also is a very good sign for us. Year-to-date, we're basically on a plus/minus zero situation, a small profit in there and expect to improve from there.
On a 12-month rolling basis, we're at 4.3% and have said that we should aim to be somewhere between 6% and 8% for the full year. Also here, the geographical distribution of sales.
The Nordic region has actually taken a slightly larger portion of this pie compared to a year ago. North America has kept its portion, whereas Mainland Europe has been losing out a little.
And that's where we've seen the strongest weaknesses over the last quarters, you could say, but where things are beginning to move again. Leaving the business areas and moving into the balance sheet.
I won't dwell too much upon this. I think we can comment upon the nonfinancial current assets having increased from SEK 16.2 billion at the end of the year, up to SEK 18.4 billion.
I would say that is a very natural trend for us. That is the working capital, the inventories that we built during the first half of the year in order to have our stocks filled with good products for the sale that takes place during the second half of the year.
So it's all within our planned levels. On the equity and liability side, the equity itself has increased by some SEK 2 billion compared to the beginning of this year.
Long-term liabilities there have increased slightly, the long-term ones. We've issued a bond, and it was a very successful bond emission that we made.
It was oversubscribed quite substantially. And we decided, given the good conditions that we got there to simply take on board a little bit more bonds than we needed to replace as a matter of fact.
Very pleasing to see coming from the performance of the business areas and the group in total during the first half year and not the least in the second quarter is, of course, the cash flow. We've increased that by some 50%, if you look at the quarter now, compared to a year ago from some SEK 950 million up to SEK 1.4 billion.
And of course, we have had a slightly negative effect from the change in working capital. But again, that's just what I mentioned, that's building the inventory.
And then the investments in our current operations has also been reduced quite substantially, down from SEK 480 million there to SEK 330 million roughly, meaning that this large investment program that we have been carrying out has come to an end, and we're more moving into normal maintenance investments. So all in all, an operating cash flow in the second quarter of close to SEK 800 million, up from minus SEK 100 million a year ago.
And then the remaining positions there are more of mathematical character, you can say, financing activities, for example, being the dividends that we paid out. Looking at the cash flow year-to-date, it's actually increased by some 65%, which is a sign of the increased sales and profit from our business areas.
And working capital, roughly on the same level as last year, but then investments being cut in half. So I think it's a very good cash flow.
And we will come back to the net debt on this page instead because that is now at 2.7x. It's the same number as we had last quarter.
If you do the decimals again, it's actually an improvement, it's 2.65x. But going forward, during this year, we are quite convinced we will bring this down around roughly to the 2.0x, 2.1x line hovering around there.
And this is a key parameter, of course, that the banks look at, investors look at and so forth. And we keep it very much under control.
We're not worried about this at all. It follows exactly our path.
The only challenge was back in '23 when we made this very large acquisition at the peak of the cycle and then the market turned sour. But ever since things have normalized, the development here has been exactly according to our plan.
So we're quite pleased with that. Interest-bearing liabilities as a portion of equity have also continued to decrease, at the same time as our equity assets ratio has increased.
So we feel that we are quite stable and also well positioned for both an organic and growth through acquisitions going forward. Working capital, a slight improvement there from a year ago.
It's natural, again, that it is a little bit higher during this part of the year because we need to fill our stocks for the sale, which I just mentioned. And now the last slide here before we open up for the Q&A.
Return on capital employed, return on equity, they are, of course, not at the targeted level yet, but they are improving step by step as they were also last quarter. So they are on the right way and, of course, the result again of this improved sales and profitability situation that we have.
And the equity per share has also increased. And the closing day share price, we will know at the end of the day.
I won't comment that any further. But with that, I'm ready for questions.
I don't know if you have anything to add, Eric?
Gerteric Lindquist
I've been trying to cure my voice, my vocal cords, we should be ready. So please, you shoot now.
Operator
[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Christian Hinderaker from Goldman Sachs.
Christian Hinderaker
I want to start on the working capital, Hans. You mentioned, obviously it is up year-on-year.
I think inventory is actually broadly flat in that sense, but you had more than SEK 700 million lift in both receivables and the liabilities line. If we look at the non-interest-bearing current liability, SEK 8.6 billion, including provisions, that's up quite considerably quarter-on-quarter and was well ahead of consensus.
I guess two parts to my question here is first, what drove that increase, and are those drivers structural? Then second, what is actually in this number?
Because when I look at the annual report, I think only 1/3 of the line is coming from trade payables. I think you have some contributions in here from acquisitions.
Just interested in the splits, if you can share those.
Hans Backman
Well, there are no major or, how shall I put it, one-off effects in these numbers, really. The effect from acquisitions is fairly limited because we have not made any larger acquisitions in this respect.
We have some delay when it comes to the invoicing or the effect from receivables. We saw that quite clearly during last year as well, where they kick in more during the second half of the year.
We have a tendency here of invoicing very much at the end of every quarter, very much in the third and especially in the fourth week, which has an effect. This is especially pronounced, I would say, when we come to a quarter as well.
So I mean, the inventory we have been building, actually, we should even possibly be building even more to meet the demand out there. But the payables and the receivables, which are the major things in there, have developed quite normally.
But we can dig into the numbers in a separate call if you have remaining questions.
Christian Hinderaker
Appreciate that color. My second one is on M&A.
You have the through-cycle growth target that includes the 10 percentage point contribution from acquisitions. The software end markets in recent years, growth from M&A has understandably been a bit more modest since 2023.
But you have acquired Beltrami in the quarter, and the release talks about aims to be more proactive on acquisitions. I guess just interested in, is NIBE still targeting M&A of that scale, mid-single digit, double-digit percent of sales?
And then what are the technologies or segments, really, that you are seeing as a particular focus in your pipeline?
Gerteric Lindquist
Well, of course, we are going to go back to acquisitions. But as they say, once bit then twice shy.
And Hans mentioned that, of course, when you acquire a company that is relatively large at the peak of a cycle, then the downturn comes. And we have, of course, been very, very cautious not to overburden the balance sheet since then.
I think that the overheated market 2022, 2023, particularly in Climate Solutions has also taught us a lesson that we have to be cautious when we aim for larger acquisitions. Hopefully, also the market has been taught that lesson.
We are definitely back to, again, evaluating acquisitions of larger kinds than the Italian ones you referred to. Not to diminish that one to any point, but certainly now with Hans' projections here of the important ratio coming down to in the vicinity perhaps of 2 or so, we are certainly positioned to take on large acquisition, but without being, of course, too risky-minded.
So we are back on track when it comes to evaluating acquisitions of larger kinds again. I hope I answered your question partly, anyway.
Christian Hinderaker
And just is there any sort of regional technology kind of focus there?
Gerteric Lindquist
Well, I think that there are no specific regions. But of course, we are fairly well set in the Nordics.
I mean that's very important to note. I mean, we could possibly buy 1 or 2 companies.
But the growth is going to come from Mainland Europe and North America for all 3 business areas. That's as clear as I can be there, I think.
Operator
The next question comes from Karl Bokvist from ABG Sundal Collier.
Karl Bokvist
My first one is just on Climate Solutions here. We think about both, what we see happening in the market, and I am specifically talking about the heat pump volumes here.
Of course, that is not all of the Climate Solutions division. But now when we come into the second half here, and we've had organic growth of, well, for the first half, close to 10%.
You also should have, and to your guidance here about the stronger second half than first half, I am just a bit curious about how you would expect the seasonality to help you, given that all else equal, this should also support a bit of an acceleration in your year-over-year figures.
Gerteric Lindquist
Well, it's perhaps a very naive answer in a way that the seasonality, you can always argue and reason around it, but it seems like heating equipment has more of a season towards the second half of the year, and that comes for heat pumps, that comes for Stoves. To a lesser degree, of course, on the Element side, where we supply so many categories of industries.
So I think it is an old established truth that equipment that we supply has typically its more major season during the second half of the year, and it is very pronounced for Stoves, of course. Whether that is intelligent or not, you can always argue, but you like to have your stove in for Christmas, whether you live in Sweden or whether you live in France or in North America.
It seems like when you have renovations going on, now comes the season. Could be, of course, a little bit of a difference when it comes to air conditioning that you like to install in the spring.
That is more pronounced on the south or the Mediterranean market, in Italy, for instance. So it's more a tradition than anything else.
So we don't foresee that, that pattern will go away. How much that is going to influence the whole thing?
Well, I think we have to look at the figures prior to the war in Ukraine and the pandemic, where we had more of a seasonality of a certain kind.
Karl Bokvist
Understood. And I will limit myself to two questions.
The second one is just also on Climate Solutions here. But when we think about the last four quarters, really, the increase in operating margins have, well, almost to a full degree been driven by higher gross margins.
Of course, you get the benefit, as you talked about, from more volumes in your factories and so on. And as we now look into second half and think about your margin range guidance and so on, should it still be expected that if we fast-forward to end of the year, that it will have been driven by a continued increase in your gross margins rather than efficiency on the SG&A and R&D line, for example?
Gerteric Lindquist
Well, I think that overall, I think we are through the streamlining that we went through '24. That is more to monitor that.
That won't be any major additional savings of that. Just trying to keep what we've achieved now.
That is one thing, and of course, productivity-wise, as volume now will increase, as we predict, of course, the productivity is going to be more pronounced. So that is the major thing.
Of course, when it comes to gross margin, I don't think that we can cut down any further on sales and those activities. I think they have to tag along with the growth because we are utilizing our sales resources very, very, should I say, to the maximum right now.
I hope that answers your question in part.
Operator
The next question comes from Daniel Khajenouri from Morgan Stanley.
Daniel Khajenouri
I have 2, and I'll take them one at a time, if okay. I wanted to start with the Climate Solutions segments.
Organic growth was fair. But if I reverse FX benefit in Europe, growth in behind peers and market indicators and it has decelerated sequentially.
I do appreciate this is a decentralized business, but it would be useful to get some color about the underlying top line trends, where you're seeing growth by product category and just be useful to comment on growth by peers here.
Gerteric Lindquist
When we take Europe, we also mentioned in report, we are fairly large on water heaters. The fundamental idea years ago when we started to acquire was to acquire companies selling water heaters and then couple that with the heat pumps produced in those days here in Markaryd in Sweden.
Of course, water heaters today, they don't have any growth, they're very modest one. It is more for replacement, and for some reason, it's rather replaced in several instances by a heat pump for just tap water.
And also district heating that we have invested in, and that is typically a Nordic phenomena, that is also fairly flat. So it's the heat pumps in Europe that is driving the growth.
What is pleasing to see is also that the HVAC commercial segment is improving considerably in Europe, and that's something that we are looking at with -- very focused because. We believe that there is a lot of things to do there, saving energy, adding air quality to offices, hospitals, schools.
That has been -- I should not say, hasn't been forgotten, but compared to individual homes, it's on a lower level. So that is to come.
Very pleasing. In North America, the drive there is, of course, on the commercial side and that is naturally ventilation, cooling and also heating, particularly on the commercial side.
On the individuals, single home side, there's been a downturn, as we have explained a couple of times now, mainly due to the subsidies or the tax subsidies taken away. But we also see there that the downfall is not as big as we would have anticipated hopefully, giving us a signal that also there, the understanding is now coming.
You have to heat and ventilate and cool your home in a different fashion. Hope I answered your question there, the first one.
Daniel Khajenouri
Yes, that was very useful. And my second question is on the cost and margin because in my view, this is the key positive surprise for investors.
But if we exclude operational leverage, could you maybe give us a little bit more detail what drove the better cost performance. And it'd also be very useful to understand if you see any cost inflation coming down the supply chain looking into the rest of the year.
Gerteric Lindquist
I think that all manufacturers, they are looking at the inflation when a product is coming in. I think that is very important for us to do everything, our utmost to hinder that.
We have, of course, very ambitious savings programs going on where you, together with manufacturers or our suppliers do it in a different way, where you say, "Well, if we promise you a certain volume over a number of years, you also have to come down in price." But it we also allow you to modify the design, not only a brutal, I would say, price cutting, but also designing the products in a different way for us to benefit the ready-made product at a lower cost.
So that's going on parallel with guarding off with the price increases that everyone wants to have now. I think we have a fairly good defense mechanism short term, but we also have a longer term defense mechanism where we really work together with our suppliers to lower the cost in a more constructive, civilized way, if I may call it.
I hope I answered.
Operator
The next question comes from Anders Akerblom from Nordea.
Anders Akerblom
I wanted to follow up again on climate. You've been through sort of the automation sort of operating leverage uplift.
But I was wondering a bit on sort of the pricing side. How do you see sort of, I guess, pricing potential in the current environment?
You raised quite a bit a while back, but how do you see sort of that potential developing?
Gerteric Lindquist
I think that as inflation has come down, as interest rates have come down, it's not that much of a maneuvering room for price increases. There might be room for smaller ones.
But I mean, they can't be compared at all to the price increase we had just some 36 months ago or even 30 months ago. So that's come to a totally different scenario.
And of course, that is balanced out with a better volume. So I think they are communicating vessels.
You cannot continue to increase prices when inflation is fairly low, at least here in Europe, and of course, it's not so positive to hear from one point of view that the interest rate is going to go up, but also an indication that the market is coming back and which we feel. So I don't know whether I answered your question fully, but that's how we reason.
It's difficult to import any larger price increases, work together with suppliers.
Anders Akerblom
That makes sense. And I guess sort of second question then sort of piggybacks a bit on that.
I mean from a competitive point of view, would you see that sort of that's impacting your outlook on sort of pricing to any extent? And I guess a sort of quick question in that.
I mean, how do you see the competitive landscape mainly from a sort of volume perspective and capacity additions in the market now that market growth has been good, a lot of projects that have been sort of potentially not really ramped up. How do you see that developing going forward?
Gerteric Lindquist
Well, typically in the past, we were not so well geared up when it comes to taking on all the volumes. So we believe that for once, we have done our investments.
It's never ready, you know that. But the major chunk is done, we are ready to expand.
Of course, we have to get labor accordingly and when we see the order intake coming. So that's very important.
And as far as the landscape of competitors, they've always been there. And I think everyone is really clinging on to the market shares they have.
I don't think that anyone going to give up, neither will we give up. So it's a fight out there.
But I think that the pleasing part is, when market is developing in a positive direction, I think it's becoming lesser of a dog fight. So we look at it as a fairly decent situation, but always a tough competition, but there's nothing new.
Operator
The next question comes from Uma Samlin from Bank of America.
Uma Samlin
Two for me, please. The first one is on air-to-air.
I think in the last quarterly results, you announced that you're going into the air-to-air segment. Would you be able to give us a bit more update on what are the opportunities there?
What are the time line of the product launches? And what would be the expectation in terms of margins for that in Europe?
Gerteric Lindquist
Well, I tried to be as expedient as possible there, Uma. When it comes to air-to-air, a number of our companies that we have acquired have had agencies for air-to-air machines.
But they have been limited to their respective countries, Italy, Norway, just to mention a few of them. And we've not been able to capture or broaden that because there, there have been other countries that have had in that agency.
Now we decided to work with another company to broaden our NIBE umbrella. The products that are produced here in Markaryd and -- because there, we have exhaust air, we have water, air to water and we have ground source.
And we do not have the supplement of air-to-air. So that's why we introduced that one.
It's not a new subject in our group, but it's new under the NIBE brand name. Was that clarifying?
Uma Samlin
That's super helpful. And what kind of margin expectation do you have for the R2R product, if I may ask?
Gerteric Lindquist
Well, I think that we are entering that segment with two price categories, you can say, one, very premium one, and one a little bit lower the price. So that should not be derogatory to the overall margin.
Of course, there, we don't carry any investments or anything like that. We, of course, have to carry inventory.
So that should be a supplement to what we already have, not being a burden and of course, coming from a relatively low volume, they're going to take some time before we're up and running. But we see from the companies where we have it elsewhere, there has not been a burden on the profit and loss.
And that's the experience. And Hans would like to add something there.
Hans Backman
No, maybe I haven't forgotten it. I think Uma also asked the question on the timing in this respect.
Gerteric Lindquist
Yes, the timing. Yes, of course.
They are on the way to the market now. So of course, they're going to take before we really can say, well, there was a success or we need another year.
I think we need a year. Definitely, we need another summer season.
So perhaps at this time next year, we can give you a more adequate clear answer of the timing. If we have been successful, have you kept the time lines we have given ourselves, I apologize for not getting that.
Hans Backman
I mean, they were introduced on the Nordbygg Fair this spring, late spring, and as Eric said, they're on their way to the market as we speak. So they're being launched now during the fall here or will reach customers.
Uma Samlin
That's super exciting. Is that both cooling and heating for that product?
Gerteric Lindquist
Is it what?
Hans Backman
Is it both cooling and heating?
Gerteric Lindquist
Yes, that's the traditional one, absolutely.
Uma Samlin
That's super helpful. My second question is actually just on the longer term.
I guess it's a follow-up on the previous question regarding the margin on Climate Solutions. I guess if you look back in between 2017 to 2020, your Climate Solutions margins is around like 14%, give or take.
I guess, after the roller coaster between '21 and '24, I would say that as you have now higher efficiencies, you have a bit more -- you've done like several rounds of cost cutting. So what do you see in the medium term as the sort of the sustainable margin profile for Climate Solutions?
Do you see that to be higher than the previous levels you have before 2020?
Gerteric Lindquist
I think that it's premature to give you that guidance, Uma. We believe that we give guidance in our report that we are fairly certain we can fulfill.
Until now, I think we have to live with the 13% to 15%. But of course, there's nothing saying that we wouldn't like to come higher.
But I think that we have to give you that guidance continuously right now anyway, that 13% to 15%. But it looks promising to fulfill that this year.
I hope you see that in our report. But to come out and say now we're going to go for 16%, 17%, it's premature.
Operator
The next question comes from Carl Deijenberg from DNB Carnegie.
Carl Deijenberg
So my first question is regarding the semi-exposure in the Element business. I think in the past we've said that is been accounting for roughly 10% to 15% of the division.
So first question, does that assumption roughly hold? And then, second question related on the same topic as well, if you could share anything with regards to the growth in this specific segment here in Q2, given the quite significant step up we see here sequentially relative to Q1?
Gerteric Lindquist
Okay. Let's see.
The 10% to 15%, I think it is rather on the upper side there, of course, anymore. That is as clear guidance we can give you.
When it comes to the growth, particularly Q2, I think that's been in the system for a while, that they have been hinting us that you better gear up and that is very, very promising to us. Of course, they don't release anything, everything to us, but they are fairly good when it comes to giving us indications of what they foresee, what they see in their system.
They are giants, of course. When you talk about those companies, I guess it is no secret if you talk about AMAT and LAM, we are a little midget compared to those.
It's very interesting to work with them, and we feel that we have a very good relationship. But we also feel that we have a solid position among them, which means that when they grow, we are going to grow.
We also launched new products during the spring here now, which is also helping the improvement. New, very delicate components to their machinery that have been developed together with our customers.
I hope that gives you a little bit of an answer to your question.
Carl Deijenberg
Absolutely. I was maybe also looking for, if you wanted to share the growth number in your Element or semi-exposed business on the Element side, but maybe you want to keep that number for yourselves.
Gerteric Lindquist
Okay. Well, perhaps I'm a little more discrete there.
Carl Deijenberg
Okay. Sounds good.
Secondly, I just wanted to ask also very briefly on your U.S. heat pump business.
We talked about this in the beginning of the year. I think you were sort of anticipating quite a drop here, given the removal of the tax breaks, and now we see that your U.S., at least measured on the net sales, is still holding up fairly well.
So maybe now in hindsight, would you say that the market is still doing a little better than what you anticipated? Also here would, of course, be very interested to hear anything, given the numbers of what the decline has actually been on the U.S.
heat pump side as well for you.
Gerteric Lindquist
Well, it is actually better than we anticipated. There were predictions of some dramatic drops in market going down 50% or things like that.
It's not that dramatic, but it's still a hefty cut. I shouldn't perhaps be so precise, but it's much less than the predicted 40% or 50% that the people indicated.
So that's an indication we hope that the knowledge among customers of private individual homeowners, it's a higher level of understanding what they can achieve by installing a heat pump, given that the tax subsidies are gone. And of course, it's also noted that the oil and gas prices are higher in North America.
I personally visited Canada last summer here now, and that's one of the things that everyone talks about, the petrol prices, as we say in Europe, or the gas, when it comes to diesel or petrol. And also on the oil side, everyone talks about that.
I think that has also, sadly enough, driven people to realize, how should I really climatize my home? I think those are the main explanations.
We've been in the market. The heat pumps is not a novelty anymore.
It's something that's there. Of course, on the commercial side, the construction industry is so well acquainted with the heat pumps, so I think that rubs off.
Operator
The next question comes from Michele Baldelli from BNP Paribas.
Michele Baldelli
I've got a question about your dealers, distributors inventory level. Do you see them as having reduced the inventory level in the last 2, 3 months with the Iran war that may, let's say, come back from one day to the other, and therefore probably they didn't, let's say, continue to demand at the same pace of the current demand trend?
This is the first question. You prefer that I do the second, or you answer to this?
Gerteric Lindquist
Well, we can take the first one right off. Where our inventories or the wholesalers' inventories are monitored due to the oil prices.
Is that the question, really?
Michele Baldelli
No. The question is more if you feel that you have just used their inventory level to satisfy the spike of the demand in the last 2, 3 months or not?
Gerteric Lindquist
Well, I mean, that's always the question. That was one of the main reasons why everything went so chaotic 3 or 4 years ago.
We just hope that -- and I think I mentioned that initially here, we really hope that the industry now is more sensible, not overstocking of any kind, but rather realizing that heat pumps, they're going to be there, and we have to fulfill naturally the demand, but you can't swing up and down depending on oil price. I think that the overall fear among customers is there that oil and gas will not be reliable in the foreseeable future, and therefore, they're swinging over to other alternatives.
That's our view of this. And of course, there could be wholesalers that have been ordering a little bit too much.
That is not to our knowledge, but we don't have the total insight into what they do, and I don't like to criticize anyone. But what that part of our industry did in 2022 and 2023 was not very good for the overall industry.
That whiplash, whatever you call it, that was terrible for all of us. So we just hope, and when we talk to our immediate wholesalers, we try to convey the message, be sensible, be realistic, don't overstock.
We know what's going to happen. We are one out of many preachers out there.
We are aware of the question and the danger in your question, and we try to do our chunk to prevent that. I don't think I can answer the question more than that.
Michele Baldelli
And the second one was just a clarification. When you said that H2 trends should be at least at the same level or even better than the first part, you refer to the organic growth year-on-year for your business?
Or it was just about seasonality, so basically a normal seasonal trend?
Gerteric Lindquist
Yes, ordinary seasonality. Well, I think it's Anders, you are there with another question.
Should we allow you one more question before we close because you are so polite.
Operator
The next question comes from Anders Roslund from Pareto Securities.
Anders Roslund
I had just one question, and that is regarding the sales development in Climate Solutions. You had 11% up in the Nordics, 5% in Europe and 6% in the U.S.
My question is that this tendency of having a stronger second half, and particularly fourth quarter, is that true also for Europe? Because they have now, for a couple of years, had the strongest quarter in the second quarter.
So there's seasonality with Europe as well.
Gerteric Lindquist
I think that we should perhaps divide it a little bit better. What you see in the second quarter, and I think I touched upon that during a previous question, that during the second quarter particular, the air conditioning segment is really strong.
And I think that's what you're seeing there. I was referring more to the heating, which is our home turf since many years back.
Anders Roslund
Okay. So for the heating heat pumps, we will see the seasonal tick up at least.
Gerteric Lindquist
Yes. And with that, without being impolite, we have to close the session for today.
I apologize for my voice, but interesting questions. And very pleasing to present the report to you, like the caliber of what we have today, and we hope to continue with that.
So thank you very much for calling in.
Hans Backman
And if there are remaining questions, I mean, we realize there are a few more on the line here, feel free to reach out to myself or to our new Investor Relations Officer, Frida Lannerheim, and we'll try to answer the remaining ones. Thank you from my side as well.