Good day, and welcome to AMG's Q1 2022 earnings conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Michele Fischer, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Welcome to AMG's Q1 2022 earnings call. Joining me on this call are Dr. Heinz Schimmelbusch, the chairman of the management board and chief executive officer, Mr. Jackson Dunckel, the chief financial officer, and Mr. Eric Jackson, the chief operating officer. AMG's Q1 2022 earnings press release issued earlier today is on AMG's website. Today's call will begin with a review of the Q1 2022 business highlights by Dr. Schimmelbusch. Mr. Dunckel will comment on AMG's financial results, and Mr. Jackson will discuss operations. At the completion of Mr. Jackson's remarks, Dr. Schimmelbusch will comment on strategy and outlook. We will then open the call to take your questions. Before I pass the call to Dr. Schimmelbusch, I would like to comment on forward-looking statements. This conference call could contain forward-looking statements about AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group.
Forward-looking statements are not historical facts, but may include statements concerning AMG's plans, expectations, future revenues or performance, financing needs, plans, and intentions relating to acquisitions, AMG's competitive strengths and weaknesses, reserves, financial position and future operations and development, and AMG's business strategy and the trends AMG anticipates in the industries and the political and legal environment in which it operates, and other similar or different information that is not historical information. When used in this conference call, the words expect, believe, anticipate, plan, may, will, should, and similar expressions, and the negatives thereof, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks that exist that any predictions, forecasts, or similar projections contained by such forward-looking statements will not be achieved. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this conference call.
AMG expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in AMG's expectations with regard thereto, or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any forward-looking statement is based. I will now pass the floor to Dr. Schimmelbusch, AMG's Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer.
Thank you, Michele. With regards to COVID, we continue to apply all safety measures at our disposal with the highest degree of attention to ensure our employees are working in the lowest risk environment possible. Fortunately, AMG has not experienced a facility closure or operational interruption. Nothing is more important to AMG than the safety, health, and well-being of our workers and their families. All injuries and occupational illnesses are preventable, and we firmly believe there is no job worth doing in an unsafe manner. Safety is understood across business units as our number one priority. AMG continued to sequentially improve EBITDA in the first quarter for the seventh time as prices increased and demand remains robust throughout our portfolio. We expect this to continue throughout the year.
Our Clean Energy Materials segment continues to deliver strong EBITDA, which more than tripled since the Q1 of 2021, the eighth straight quarter of sequentially increasing EBITDA. The global lithium market has experienced very strong price increases. Ferrovanadium prices have recovered to a level above long-term averages. We have increased EBITDA guidance to EUR 24 for 2022 twice since our initial guidance, and in the outlook section of our press release issued today, we did so again. AMG's key strategic prospects are all proceeding as planned. The commissioning of the ferrovanadium plant in Zanesville, Ohio, which will essentially double our recycling capacity for refinery residues, is proceeding well and is expected to be producing at run rate capacity in the Q4 of 2022.
Shell & AMG Recycling B.V. continues to pursue refinery residue opportunities globally to convert refinery waste streams into valuable products, including battery materials that will enable acceleration of sustainable energy transition goals. AMG Brazil is expanding its lithium concentrate production by 40,000 tons, bringing its production capacity to 130,000 tons per annum. The groundbreaking for our new lithium hydroxide production facility in Germany will take place on May 11, 2022. AMG's first LIVA battery for industrial power management applications has begun commissioning. I would like now to pass the floor to Jackson Dunckel, AMG's Chief Financial Officer. Jackson.
Thank you, Heinz. I'll be referring to the first quarter 2022 investor presentation posted today on our website. Starting on page three, this shows an overview of the financial highlights of the quarter. Revenue for the quarter increased by 53% to $404 million. This increase was mainly driven by the improving price environment, which led to higher sales prices across all three of our segments, particularly in AMG Clean Energy Materials. Q1 2022 EBITDA was $55 million, a 93% increase versus prior year. As you can see in the lower left corner, AMG continues to sequentially increase EBITDA each quarter, which we have done since Q2 2020. Net income to shareholders for the Q1 of 2022 was $29 million compared to $5 million in Q1 2021.
Now I'll turn to a review of our three segments. Let's start with AMG Clean Energy Materials, which is shown on page four of our presentation. On the top left, you can see that Q1 2022 revenues more than doubled versus Q1 2021. This increase was driven mainly by higher prices in vanadium, tantalum, and lithium concentrates, and higher volumes of lithium concentrates. Gross profit before non-recurring items more than tripled compared to Q1 2021, mostly due to the improved price environment. Q1 2022 EBITDA increased 3.6 times versus the same period in 2021 due to the improved gross profit, resulting in Clean Energy Materials' eight straight sequential quarterly increase since Q2 2020.
Clean Energy Materials is the segment which is and will continue receiving the most capital investment within AMG, and the capital expenditures shown on the bottom left of $48 million mainly reflect our investment into the Zanesville vanadium facility, as well as our lithium hydroxide plant in Germany. Turning now to page five of our presentation, which shows our AMG Critical Minerals segment. AMG Critical Minerals revenue increased 47% to $107 million, driven by strong sales volumes of antimony and graphite, as well as higher sales prices across all three businesses. Gross profit before non-recurring items of $13 million was in line with Q1 2021. The higher revenue due to the improved pricing and higher sales volumes were offset by increased raw material prices, as well as the ongoing rise in energy and shipping costs during the quarter.
EBITDA during the quarter was $1.1 million lower than Q1 2021 due to higher SG&A costs. Moving on to AMG Critical Materials Technologies on page six. Starting on the top left, you can see that Q1 2022 revenue increased by 27% versus Q1 2021. This increase was due to higher sales volumes of titanium alloys and higher sales prices of titanium alloys and chrome metal, partially offset by timing delays in engineering projects. As a result, Q1 2022 gross profit before non-recurring items increased by 13% to $23 million. AMG Critical Materials Technologies' Q1 EBITDA was $9.7 million, compared to $9 million in Q1 last year. The increase was primarily due to higher profitability in chrome metal and titanium alloys, offset by lower profitability at AMG Engineering.
The company signed $61 million in new orders during the Q1 of 2022, driven by strong orders of remelting and heat treatment furnaces, representing a 1.09x book to bill ratio. Order backlog was $183 million as of March 31, in line with $188 million as of December 31, 2021. Turning now to page seven of the presentation. On the top left, you can see that AMG's Q1 2022 SG&A expenses were $37.5 million versus $33.1 million in Q1 2021. This variance was driven by largely by an increase in professional fees due to higher strategic project costs and higher share-based and variable compensation expense. The Q1 of 2021 personnel costs was reduced by cost reduction efforts in response to the onset of the pandemic.
AMG's Q1 2022 net finance costs were EUR 8.9 million, compared to EUR 8.7 million in Q1 2021. This slight increase was largely driven by higher borrowing rates during the quarter, which were partially offset by lower foreign exchange losses compared to Q1 2021. AMG recorded an income tax benefit of EUR 1.5 million in Q1 2022, compared to a $0.9 million benefit in Q1 2021. This variance was mainly driven by improved financial performance, which was more than offset by movements in the Brazilian real versus the US dollar. The effects of the Brazilian real caused a $14.7 million non-cash deferred tax benefit in Q1 2022. Movements in the Brazilian real exchange rate impact the valuation of the company's net deferred tax positions related to our operations in Brazil.
AMG paid taxes of EUR 3.9 million in Q1 2022, compared to EUR 2 million in Q1 2021. Turning to page 8 of the presentation, you can see in the top left that cash used in operating activities was EUR 3.7 million in Q1 2022 compared to EUR 20 million inflow of cash from operating activities in Q1 2021. This decrease in operating cash flow was due to higher working capital, mainly driven by our increased revenues. AMG's return on capital improved for Q1, and it was 19.8%, more than double the 9.4% achieved in the same period in 2021 due to significantly higher profitability in the current period. AMG ended the quarter with EUR 347 million of net debt, with the increase versus year-end due to the higher working capital and significant investment in growth initiatives during the quarter.
As of March 31, 2022, AMG had $308 million of unrestricted cash and total liquidity of $478 million. In January of 2022, AMG Engineering entered into EUR 140 million of long-term bilateral unsecured performance-based guarantee facility agreements. These guarantee arrangements supported expected customer advanced payments and replaced the existing guarantee arrangements. Given the rising interest rate environment, we thought it would be useful to mention that in conjunction with our refinancing in December 2021, AMG entered into a five-year swap agreement through 2026, which fixed interest rates for the entire term loan at the then prevailing low interest rates in November 2021. Because of the swap, all of AMG's interest payments are fixed. That concludes my remarks. Eric?
Thank you, Jackson. Demand and prices for our products are fundamentally strong, driven by their criticality in the global transition to a lower carbon economy. Global logistics and energy costs, especially in Europe, are challenging. However, our hedging programs, contract terms, and end market price increases are, to a significant extent, covering these additional costs. We continue to focus on safety, operational improvement, risk management, and delivering our strategic investments on time and on budget, with the overriding operational and commercial objective to be the lowest cost producer and sell at indexed market prices. Our spodumene production in Brazil continues to operate at full capacity, and our cost of production is at or below our initial estimates at the time of our investment decision.
Lithium prices increased significantly in the Q1 , and as we have stated, our spodumene production is fully sold at market-indexed prices with a 3-4-month revenue recognition time lag due to contract and delivery terms. We're working to expedite the expansion of our capacity from 90,000 tons to 130,000 tons, with construction scheduled to start in Q3. Our spent catalyst processing business is performing very well and is the global environmental leader in this space. Global ferrovanadium prices increased in the first quarter to just above long-term averages, and the North American price premium widened to reflect the increased cost of importing vanadium pentoxide and ferrovanadium into the United States. Our Zanesville facility is progressing as planned. The roaster is nearing the end of commissioning, and the melt shop is scheduled to start commissioning in Q3.
The impact of the coronavirus was most significantly felt in the end markets for AMG Critical Materials Technologies. However, the aerospace market is improving. AMG Engineering's diversified portfolio enabled the business unit to sign $61 million in new orders in the quarter. As Jackson said, 1.09 times book to bill. The chrome metal and titanium aluminide businesses are starting to benefit from improvements in aerospace, and in the case of chrome, its diversified end market position. High purity chrome metal prices have increased in the past few months, and demand is strong, especially in the U.S. markets. Our titanium aluminide production is gearing up to a 100% capacity utilization for Q2, and we are in the process of increasing that capacity by 50% for 2023. The three business units in AMG Critical Minerals continued to operate at full capacity.
However, spiking energy prices had an adverse impact on our first quarter results. AMG experienced significant increases in gas and electricity costs in the quarter, with energy costs being about $12 million higher in Q1 2022 than in Q1 2021. The majority of the increase was at our silicon business in Germany. However, the increased costs were substantially offset by our power hedging program and increased silicon prices. Our other businesses benefited from long-term fixed price electricity contracts. All of our business units continue to operate with the highest priority on safety and without interruption from COVID, and consistently have delivered safety performance far superior to our peer group. I would now like to pass the floor to Dr. Heinz Schimmelbusch, AMG's Chief Executive Officer.
Thank you, Eric. Before our guidance statement, we would like to update you on strategic considerations regarding our lithium business. As indicated at our Lithium Capital Markets Day on January 11, 2022, we have been analyzing our three strategic alternatives. Maintain 100% ownership, finance growth with current funding and operating cash flow. Second, invite complementary strategic partners for a significant minority stake. Three, IPO. The valuation analysis regarding these three options was done by leading financial institutions in both Europe and the U.S., and it was a very in-depth analysis. We learned that the value of our lithium business on a freestanding basis significantly exceeds the enterprise value of AMG. In the meantime, however, the equity markets have effectively closed for IPOs, thus reducing the optionality by removing one of our alternatives.
Therefore, the management board has decided to postpone decisions on this fundamental structure of AMG, but we will continue to monitor market conditions, and we will continue to have an open mind. Now let me conclude with our earnings guidance. AMG was able to deliver strong results despite the fallout from the geopolitical turbulence in recent months. EBITDA was EUR 54.8 million in the first quarter of 2022, 93% higher than the first quarter of 2021, and 20% higher than the fourth quarter of 2021. As mentioned, it was the seventh straight quarter of sequential improvement. Expect that trend to continue. In December, we gave EBITDA guidance of EUR 305 million-EUR 200 million. In February, we raised guidance for the full year of 2022 to EUR 225 million or more.
Given the improved market conditions within our portfolio, especially the lithium and also the vanadium market, the new guidance is that 2022 EBITDA will be in the range of EUR 260-290 million. The last long-term EBITDA guidance was given in 2019, prior to the COVID period. In 2019, we said we will reach an EBITDA of EUR 350 million or more in five years or earlier. Being now much closer to the year 2023, and despite the global disruption from the coronavirus and the global turbulence, we strongly reaffirm that guidance. As to a new long-term guidance, we will reach an EBITDA of EUR 500 million or more in five years or earlier. Operator, we would now like to open the line for questions.
For participation, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Again, press star one to ask a question. We'll go ahead and take our first question from Ephrem Ravi with Citigroup.
Thanks, good evening. Good evening, everyone. I've got two questions around guidance, and I'll take them one at a time. The first one is around 2022 guidance, and if you could just help share a little bit more around the underlying pricing assumptions you're using in the new guidance and how those compare to some of the spot prices for your major metals at this point?
We never do that. Let me say that our price assumptions are traditionally conservative.
Okay. That's fair. Then the second one's on the long-term one. As you move from EUR 350 million to EUR 500 million from 2023 through to 2027, is it primarily the strategic investments that you've laid out that is the driver of that increase, or is there any different, maybe long-term pricing assumptions you've thought about or anything else in that?
Well, of course, there are significant quantity increases. Production levels are rising. There are also new businesses, innovations in there which become live. I think that's it. You have massive quantity increases when you think about lithium. That has a distinct effect. Vanadium doubles the ferrovanadium production line. There are expansion in other businesses, and that combined, multiplied by our relatively conservative price assumptions, leads very cleanly to the 500. By the way, we have also certain price reductions vis-à-vis the prices of this year in that five-year scenario. By the way, let me mention that it's very important that we mention this guidance, and I have explained this many times in previous long-term guidance sessions. These are the result of a very scrutinizing scenario work.
It starts with a bottom-up five-year plan from the units in a very detailed way for the company in a full sense for the company. Then it starts with a dialogue and ends with operational meetings of many days with all unit teams and financial officers. Then we run several scenarios which seem plausible, and then we select a leading scenario. That's a very scrutinizing process.
Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you very much.
As a reminder, that is star one to ask a question. If you find your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue. Our next question from Stijn Demeester with.
For taking my questions. Three, if I may, and I will also ask them one by one. The first one is on the 2022 guidance, and allow me to maybe rephrase Ephrem's question. What are the main factors that could tilt the results to the low end or the high end of the guidance range? If you could give some color there, that would be helpful.
Those factors are, of course, mainly pricing.
Okay. Understood.
Particularly price of spodumene and tangentially price of vanadium. That generates the range.
Since you're more or less booking probably into Q3 already, or you have some visibility already into Q3 prices, given the 3- to 4-month lag, that would basically mean that it's depending on your assessment of the Q4 price.
Well, you have our plan for the year, which is the first year of a five-year plan. In that first-year plan, you have price assumptions which are very accurate, more or less, for Q2, Q3, but there is a report and that's where we vary certain scenarios and select, as I said, then a scenario which seems to be appropriate. There is of course a discussion about that, and there are more aggressive assumptions and less aggressive assumptions, and then you have more or less that range.
That's-
Of course, when you
Yeah.
That difference. Let me explain something, please. When you do a model, like you obviously do, then you do the model, and then you have a range. When we do a planning exercise, then we also consider risks and very detailed risk analysis and the corresponding contingencies. So I would add to Jackson's comment that it's price, but it's also risk assumptions, risk management assumptions. What risks will occur and which risks can be mitigated?
That's completely clear. A second question is on maybe the old long-term guidance, if I can call it like that. You stated in the press release, "Being now much closer to the year 2020, we strongly reaffirm the guidance of EUR 350 million." Maybe it's a daft question, but do I read correctly that your implicit guidance for 2023 is EUR 350 million or more?
Well, that's correct.
Okay.
No, let me correct that. My English is not that perfect. You can legitimately imply that.
It's not to interpret it that your sort of rolling forward guidance is 300, that you will reach that 350 because your new target is 500. No, you state now-
No, I'd say.
With visibility on 2023, we will reach EUR 350 million or more that we stated in 2019 in that timeframe. That's the way to read it correctly, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Okay. Understood.
It contains comma or more.
Yeah.
That's also in there.
To further elaborate on that, prices for spodumene in 2022 are obviously very good. If you then look at next year guidance of EUR 350 million or more. What gives you the confidence that these prices will hold or are there other factors that sort of could support that in the case that prices for spodumene, because I think that's probably the main moving part here, if those prices would decrease?
Well, I have said that 2023 is the second year in our five-year plan, and I said that as we come to your five-year plan, it supports the five-year plan, that we have prices which are somewhat lower than the prices in 2022. We are not going into detail whether that's what prices are in question here. We have, of course, many prices which are in question here, including non-lithium and non-vanadium prices, such as, for example, the coal price. I think that's my comment.
Okay.
I mean.
Yeah, sorry.
Sorry, Ian. It's worth pointing out that Cambridge 2 will start up. You will have aerospace recovery and spodumene 1+ will start up all in 2023.
Yeah, the quantity effect is dominating for both guidances.
Yeah.
Okay. Understood. Last question before I put myself in the queue is on the vanadium spot price that is given in your presentation that is based on CRU. It's at 33. That is wholly different from the prices that I tracked through Bloomberg. I think that's based on Asian Metal, which is currently at 22. Is that sort of the premium that you're currently seeing in the U.S. and potentially driven by, yeah, sort of, the PNTR status that was taken away from Russia as a major importer? Is that sort of the premium that we could expect going forward?
Well, I mean, the CRU index is the most relevant index for our business. It's come off just a little bit from the 33, but it includes a premium, as I mentioned, for the North American business, which, you know, 60% of the North American business is supplied by imports. There's, just as you mentioned, Most Favored Nation import duty is a cost. We expect the North American price to continue to be at somewhat of a premium to the outside of North America prices.
Of course, when there is a discrepancy between Europe and the U.S., then the traders go to work and make money on the arbitrage. It might not have to do anything with this fundamental geopolitical deliverance of the
Okay. Okay, thank you. These were my questions for now.
All right. We'll go ahead and take our next question from Krishnan Agarwal with Citigroup.
Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I have three, and I'll go one by one. First question on the spodumene pricing, as you know, Eric mentioned, there's a time lag of 3-4 months. My assumption is that the price of EUR 1,920, it's averaged in Q4 2021, is not fully realized in the Q1. Then the Q2 EBITDA probably will have Q4 and the Q1 pricing, little bit incoming into Q2, and then accordingly, there will be a lag for the Q3 pricing as well. Can you confirm that that assumption is sort of reasonable one?
Yes. I mean, the price lag that we recognize in revenue is 3-4 months from the index prices. That's correct.
The second thing on the pricing is, are you getting the full pricing which you are disclosing in your presentation, or are there any kind of, you know, leaks and lags and the discounts on top of that spot pricing?
Yeah. I don't think we disclose our specific prices for spodumene, but, you know, basically we're selling at market prices.
There are no major differences between the market pricing and the prices you realize. Great.
Not significant.
Yeah. The second question is on your guidance as for 2023. EUR 350 million, I'm not saying that, okay, there's a guidance, but that's what the market's understanding is going to be. In hindsight, okay, the guidance will be underpinned by Ohio startup, aerospace recovery and the SB one plus commissioning. In that context, if I were to, you know, say that 6 million pounds of additional volume of vanadium next year and then incrementally EBITDA from that in the range of $60-$90 million, would you wildly disagree with that?
You have, what did you say? 6 million pounds. That might be a little on the high side.
Yeah.
What else did you say?
The capacity is doubling for vanadium, right? From 6 million pounds to 12 million pounds with the commissioning.
Essentially doubling.
Yeah.
It is not exactly six. What is the other question? Other one you needed.
The other question is on that basis of 6 million pound volume or slightly, you know, ±5%, EBITDA, full year EBITDA contribution between EUR 60 million-EUR 90 million on our assumptions.
Would you know, disagree with that?
We don't disclose within segmental earnings, sub-segmental earnings. Okay? That's it. You know, we don't.
Okay. These numbers are in the right ballpark?
Well, look, I mean, you can ask the question for three times. It's a three, you know. It's a nice try. We are not having a fourth segment in the making here.
Understand. The timing is in our hands. Okay, my final question is for the five-year guidance of EUR 500 million, have you included anything on the hydroxide new capacity setup in that guidance?
Yes, we have, of course, because we start up with module one, and there is another module in there, so a total of two. We are very confident that this will happen.
Okay. In that context, would you also be able to give some kind of indication that how much of the additional CapEx you are expecting to spend for that EUR 500 million guidance?
It's in the order of magnitude, somewhat exceeding EUR 200 million.
Okay. Okay. That's it from my side. Thank you.
Two modules.
As a reminder, that is star one to ask a question. We'll take our next question from Martijn den Drijver with ABN AMRO.
Yes. Good evening or good afternoon, gentlemen. Continuing with the last question on what is included in that long-term guidance. Module one and module two, and the total CapEx now is EUR 200 million, or is the EUR 200 million you mentioned only for train two? Just wanted to get a better grip on that.
That's for two modules, and I said somewhat more than 200 for two modules. The first module is very, very accurately calculated. The second module, of course, is in feasibility under whatever assumptions have to go into that. That's an estimate.
Okay.
Order of magnitude, that's it.
Just to be absolutely sure, the EUR 200 million does not include the basic infrastructure in the laboratory. There's an additional element for that.
The laboratory and that is past investment.
Okay. Just making sure again, the Brazilian precursor plants project is not included in the long-term guidance.
No, it's not included.
Okay. Thank you. Moving on.
I want to correct something here. I wanna know what you said. You said laboratory and infrastructure. Infrastructure is included. Laboratory is past.
Okay. Great. Thank you. Now that you're moving ahead with all the groundbreaking ceremony, you obviously have a good grip, as you mentioned yourself now about the actual capital outlays and probably also then more about production cost per ton. Would you be able to share with us your most recent assessments, even if it is a ballpark on your production cost per ton for the lithium hydroxide plant?
No. Look, this is really the key here. We don't go into that. It's also very competitive information.
Okay. I understand. There was a remark Mr. Jackson made that on capacity expansions by 50% in 2023, and I apologize, I didn't quite catch that. That was in the chrome and titanium business?
That's the titanium aluminide business in Germany. We're expanding capacity by approximately 50% for 2023.
What kind of capacity will you have by then?
Yeah. No, I mean, I could be a smart you-know-what and say it could be 50% more than previous. I don't think we give that out.
Okay. The CapEx, is that something that that's going to be material, or-
No, it's not a material number and most of it is provided by our engineering business internally.
Okay. With regards to that engineering business, you mentioned timing delays, which is, I guess, pretty normal given it's a lumpy business. Is there anything, should we expect a catch-up in the next quarter, or will that be more in the remainder of 2022?
In the remainder of 2022.
Okay. My final question is on the Shell & AMG recycling super plant in the Middle East. If my memory serves me well, you said, I think, in the last call that an FID could be expected in the first half of 2022. Is that still your expectation, or are things still moving very slowly?
There's no change.
No change. Okay. Thank you very much.
We'll go ahead and take our next question again from Stijn Demeester with ING.
Yes. Thank you. A follow-up on lithium hydroxide. Since you sort of now firmly included in the long-term guidance, is there anything to mention on sort of the commercialization of these volumes? Is that something that is progressing? Is that anything that we could expect news flow in sort of the coming period?
Progressing in a very broad way, and the market is very alive in Europe in securing long-term commitment. You know, the one thing about the lithium market which is certain is that there is a fundamental scarcity. If you have lithium, it's not the bottleneck.
Okay. Thank you.
We'll take our next question again from Krishnan Agarwal with Citigroup.
Sorry, one follow-up question. You mentioned that the energy cost was higher by EUR 12 million in the quarter. How should we think about the energy cost in Q2? Is it going sequentially higher or the hedging policies which you mentioned is going to make sure that, okay, the costs are contained in the Q2?
It was a geopolitically loaded question, but assuming no further escalation, I think the best assumption you can have is maxed out.
Yeah. Okay. Are you also able to disclose what proportion of energy requirements are hedged, and then what proportion is on spot?
100%.
Yeah.
In 2023, a certain portion.
Okay. Okay. Thanks a lot.
All right. Well, it appears there are no further questions at this time. Michele Fischer, I would like to turn the conference back to you for any additional or closing remarks.
Thank you everyone for joining today's earnings call, and we hope you're able to join our virtual AGM tomorrow. For your questions.
This concludes today's call. For your participation, disconnect.