Good morning, everybody. Welcome to this annual 2022 numbers presentation here at Maasvlakte in the special center that we organized for this. Welcome, everybody. For those of you at the table, if you look backwards, you will see Sif. That gives a comfortable feeling we're still there. My name is Fred van Beers, CEO of Sif. Next to me, Ben Meijer, CFO of Sif, and on the right, Fons van Lith, who will make sure that everything goes smoothly over here. As said, this morning we will present the numbers 2022 and give you some background behind what we achieved and what our plans are. This afternoon, we will have a special capital markets day presentation on our expansion plan.
Please, you're welcome to ask questions and make comments after this meeting when they are the expansion plan related to the expansion plan. I will probably say, "Good question, but we'll park that one for later this afternoon." All right, let me start first before going into the details by saying that for those here in the meeting room, there are no safety drills planned, so if the alarm goes, we are supposed to go either via the door and the staircase that we came, or at the back of this meeting room, there is an emergency exit that we can use to leave downstairs for the meeting point where we all get further instructions on what to do.
Having said that, I would like to move on to the next sheet, and that is on the same topic, actually, give you some input on health and safety. As you can see from the first block on this presentation, our safety performance year-on-year is actually going exactly the opposite direction as we try to achieve. That is, of course, a worrying development. The more we pay attention to safety and the more training we give, apparently the more incidents we actually have. If we dive into that, of course, we have dived into that, we clearly see, I think two things that are important to mention here.
One, the fact that we are producing very big monopiles in a relative small, or actually too small factory at the moment in Roermond, makes that the room to maneuver and the risk of actually running into a coincident of or an accident is high. That is what we clearly see in the cases that have developed over the last years. Second, big argument and problem is that or fact is that the people that we get into the factory today, nowadays, have a very, very low sort of basic knowledge level, both technically but also from a safety perspective.
We are increasing or have increased our safety training a lot, going through real, we're investing a lot in tests in order to make sure that at least the base knowledge before entering the factory is at a level that sort of safeguards literally, that they will or hopefully can work safe on this. Let's say, and I think, we will come back to that later today in the afternoon when we discuss also the new factory, because this is a big, big element and a big basic element that we took into account in the new, the new investment. Our sickness leave. Last year, like many other industries, we saw that the sickness leave increased especially in the first half of 2022.
We saw a very high increase related to COVID still, and normal flu, or flu and COVID being the same nowadays. That had quite an impact on our sickness rate. It went down and also today we can say that it is going better in a better direction. Safety sick leave was high, and that had an impact, of course, on hiring more temporary workers with a low level of safety and technological knowledge, and that sort of boosted also a bit on the safety statistics.
We see on the other hand that if you look at the output, we I think can be proud of the fact that the gigawatts that we provided to the market or the monopiles that will be the foundation for turbines that will produce 1.9 GW is quite nice. Last year, again, quite substantial contribution to the green energy production was realized as Sif. With what did we do that? Basically four projects worth mentioning here. First of all, we finalized the production for the Hollandse Kust project. All monopiles were out and coated in the beginning of last year.
We did produce Hollandse Kust Noord for Van Oord, and had them out, the last one going out early this year. Basically, we produced everything last year, which was a nice project to do again and is actually also underpinning that our market share in the Netherlands, for offshore winds, that is more or less 90%. If you look at all the wind farms installed in for the Netherlands, our share is about 90%. It's quite high. Also, I think, underpinning the fact that the closer you are to the field and when the better it is for a developer to build its farm with this product. Third part, monopiles for Dogger Bank.
We produced the transition pieces and the monopiles for Dogger Bank A, and it produced the majority of the transition pieces for Dogger Bank B. They're all sitting here, the monopiles of A at our premises here at Maasvlakte. Well, you can't look. You see them now, but I can assure you they're there. Installation campaign has been somewhat delayed, but given the fact that we have sufficient room here in our storage area, we could serve the customer and help the customer by keeping monopiles longer at our premises than actually planned for, including transition pieces. We have over 100 transition pieces at the moment, ready-built, sitting here at our premises, which is also, of course from a storage perspective, nice.
From a on-time building of the project, I think showing that there is throughout the supply chain, a few challenges to actually deliver on time, according the initial or the original planning for these wind farms. Fourth part, which we feel worth mentioning is the marshaling and logistic service for Hollandse Kust Zuid through our order with Siemens Gamesa. You can see the Osprey. It's actually not only on the picture, but it's also at the quayside. It was at least this week, whereby Siemens have rented 15 hectares of premises from Sif, and are doing the final assembly of the towers at our premises.
The final commissioning of the nacelles and check of the blades before they are loaded on the Osprey to be brought to and installed at the Hollandse Kust Zuid Wind Farm. We are at something, or they are at something like 115, 120 turbines installed, so there's about 20-25 turbines still to go this year. With that, I think I've highlighted the biggest part, if not all, of what we did from an operational level last year. I'd like to hand over now to Ben. Ben, here you go. Do you push yourself or?
Yeah, that's okay.
You can do that? Well, really good.
Thank you, Fred, good morning, everybody. Starting with some of the numbers, and I think the overall conclusion is that the financial results for 2022 were in line with guidance what we have communicated before. If you look at these graphs, I would like to start with production. Overall, you see that production is coming in slightly below last year and also slightly below expectation. The key reasons for that are, first of all, what Fred was mentioning, the highest sickness rate, especially in the first half of the year, and also the challenging labor markets, also especially in the first half of 2022. As a consequence, what you see is that less trained and less experienced staff is coming in. More training hours are required, and it's also having an impact on efficiency and output. Production, slightly lower.
If you look at the contribution margin per tonne, and contribution, I think everybody around the table knows the definition. It's basically sales minus your raw material cost, subcontracted cost, and minus your logistic cost. In the contribution margin number, direct labor is not included. We see that the contribution margin per tonne, and this is an important metric for Sif, is showing an increasing trend from 609 in 2020, 637 in 2021, and in 2022, we achieved a number of EUR 674. This number is excluding marshaling and also excluding engineering services from CASI. Again, I would like to stipulate, if you look at the contribution margin, if you look at the costs which are involved, most of these cost items, including steel, are purely a pass-through for Sif.
What we've seen recently, steel prices are going up. This is not impacting our bottom line because we pass this on to our customer base on a one-to-one basis. Adjusted EBITDA, key metric, and also the starting point for the guidance we are giving, went up from EUR 39.4 million in 2021 to EUR 41.8 million in 2022, reflecting an increase of six percentage points. This is in line with expectation. The growth in EBITDA performance is basically coming from higher contribution margins and also higher income from the marshaling segment. If you look at the 2022 performance and you compare it with 2021, there was a partly negative offset by, first of all, increased energy prices, and secondly, also the lower efficiency I was just mentioning. Reported EBITDA is impacted by one-offs.
What you see for 2022, there is a difference of roughly EUR 5 million between the reported EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA. This is mainly related to one-off costs, non-recurring expenses in relation to the P11 project. Last graph is showing working capital, negative, which is in our point of view, a positive message. You see end of 2021, it was already negative for EUR 66 million, end of 2022, negative for EUR 82 million. This point is also heavily impacted by quite a lot of money that was coming in in December that normally should have come in in January. The customers were paying a little bit sooner than what they should have done based on the invoice date. Let's put it that way. Next slide is looking at the order book additions in 2022.
The overall conclusion is it has been an excellent year for Sif if you look at the order book additions. First of all, the regular business is showing an increase in the order book of 80 kilotons with, amongst others, TPs we're going to produce for Heidrun and Warka, and some smaller, but still very interesting assignments for jacket legs for Borwin5 and Yggdrasil and Valhall, which is reflecting roughly 20 kilotons. Overall, this number is more like the current recurring business, 80 kilotons, and this will largely be produced in 2023, but also some small pieces will be produced in 2024 and to a lesser extent, 2025. On the right-hand what you see is the order intake from the launching orders directly related to the new production plant.
This is showing a number of 348 kilotons of projects of monopiles we're going to produce for the projects Empire and Hollandse Kust West. Overall order intake for this year, if you combine the two, you're talking about 428 kilotons. I do not know if it is an all-time record, but for sure it will become pretty close. This graph is showing quite a lot of information, and I would like to take some time to take you through it. It's showing, first of all, the actual production volumes for 2020 up to and including 2022, and it's also showing the order book and the tight tender pipeline for the years thereafter. If you look at the order book, we have broken this down.
Total order book is 662 kilotons between launching customers, that's the 348 kilotons I was just mentioning, and the more traditional/remaining business of 314 kilotons. The order book includes, first of all, contracted volumes, but also the parts where we are in exclusive negotiations. This graph is showing order book, and it's also showing the active tender pipeline. That's basically all the tenders we are currently actively working on. We are also more like in, well, let's say, intensive discussions with the various customers, who are involved in this. We come to a couple of conclusions, and I would like to look at it just on a year-to-year basis. 2023, fully booked with 221 kilotons. 2024, also fully booked.
We take into account in this year a gradual ramp up of the new factory, because we're starting with the new factory second half of 2024. If you look at the 203 kilotons, you could say, "Well, that's not too high," because we take into account this gradual ramp up. 2025, it's booked, and I compared with our business plan volumes for 70%. Fully booked for 70%, and the remaining part we are working on tenders in a very advanced stage. Overall, if you look at these two, what has been booked already and the tenders, you're looking at higher numbers than what we currently have in the business plan, much higher numbers.
In addition, we are also talking with a first project under discussion in relation to the capacity reservation agreement we are having with Equinor. 2026, okay, it's booked for a relatively small part at this stage, but also over here, working on a lot of tenders. If you look at these tenders where we are currently working on, you see already it's much higher than what we have also in the business plan in terms of volumes. What is interesting to see over here is that customers are coming to us at a much earlier stage. At the moment, we are already in active discussions for 2026, and that already started some time ago. This is a relatively new trend, what you see. The customers, they need to have the capacity.
The capacity is relatively limited also to produce these larger monopiles. They are coming to us at a much more advanced stage, which is also giving us a lot more visibility also for the years to come. What is not shown in this graph is the backup projects. The overall tender volume in the market is much higher than what we see over here. What you just show over here is the tenders you're actively involved in and which also fit best to Sif. The backup pipeline is even much higher because there is a lot going on in the market. Our overall conclusion, if we look at the next couple of years, we say solid order book, solid tender pipeline. It's hard working for the commercial teams at the moment.
A lot is going on, we are not too concerned about the volumes coming in also at good prices for us. I'd like to hand over.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Ben. May be good to add to this sheet that in order to avoid a misinterpretation, we are not aiming here at 680 kilotons for 2026, huh? That will be a bit difficult. We have to make choices, and the customer has to make choices in this. I think it's the business plan number that we.
Absolutely
... that we want to go for because we don't want to run into a situation that we totally overload the new factory that we haven't up and running yet. Some prudency is in this approach.
Good addition. Thank you.
All right. If we then look a little bit, okay, what's happening in the market, I think it's not a secret to say that the ambitions are extremely strong. Extremely strong. The next slide. Especially I like to highlight Esbjerg and Europe to start with. We'll come back to that later this afternoon as well. If you look at what has been announced and what governments at the North Sea have signed up, it is massive. 65 GW, 2030, 150 GW, 2050, if not 260 in the end.
Also, if you look at the Net-Zero Industry Act, whereby a draft has leaked last week and that is coming out, is very clearly showing that offshore wind and also specifically foundations are mentioned as critical parts to be produced for a certain level in the Eurozone, which is also helping us a lot in I think as an industry to invest like we have now decided to do and in order to make sure that we are creating and maintain a level playing field in relation to outside Europe production initiatives like Dajin, for example, from China.
The ambitions are strong, and I think even more important, also te actions taken in Brussels to make sure that a level playing field and a transparent pipeline is guaranteed are very encouraging at the moment. Secondly, it's the United States. We've booked, as you've seen now, and heard from Ben, Empire. Empire is a US project. It's coming through the combination BP and Equinor. In the contract we signed, we have been able also to agree very clear delay and cancellation fees because we've learned a lot from some of you know, the Vineyard Wind project from the past.
We do know that the U.S. market is a very serious market. We also do know very well that it's still a very young market whereby a lot of things are on the table to be done, but we also need to make sure that they actually happen as they are being promised. That has been a very in-depth and long discussion with the Empire team, and we have been able to make sure that both parties are well protected in that sense for eventual delays, if at all happening. I think it's also good to know that Empire, I mean Equinor, the Empire project is fully in their, on their own hands.
They finance on their own balance sheet and that gives also some solid confidence for us that this project will materialize as planned for. The ambitions are huge. We are following that very closely, and we'll come back to that a little bit later as well. This trend, a picture we all know and have seen before, the trend on bigger diameters because of bigger turbines. This week, I think, or it was, yeah, it was this week that we saw the announcement of GE to come with an up to 80 MW turbine. We've seen the announcements from China on that, we've also seen the announcements, for example, from Vestas saying, "We stick to the 50 MW platform.
We are not going to develop a bigger turbine for the coming years. We first want to make sure that this 50 MW platform with its potential ramp-ups," because we're pretty sure that that turbine also will be able to produce more, "is economically viable in the market, reliable in the market, and is giving us the earnbacks that we need on this investment." On one side, we see that all players are announcing these 15-1 8 MW. There are still the discussions on the 20 MW but we see also clearly notice that there is a sort of dampening of expectations of how quickly these turbines come to the market. That I think is a very healthy development, to be honest.
If you look at the numbers of the turbine builders, they're not exactly encouraging. As a supply chain, we clearly ventilate the message that if we would be able to slow down a little bit this whole ramp-up on in bigger, bigger, we would actually be able to come closer to the ambitions that are being expressed by governments than by just simply going very quickly, bigger, bigger. That's the trend that seems to materialize in the market, and for us at least a very clear signal that something is changing slowly to the benefit, to the better for this industry. All right. We couldn't, of course, help to still make a, put a picture on the new factory.
As said, the market, although it's slowing down a little bit with going bigger, bigger, the volumes are absolutely high that are required for monopile foundations, and for three XL monopiles. That is clearly a different product. We, we do, we did take the FID on this on the 13th of February, this year's, and there's a lot to be said about this one. We can take the whole whole weekend if we want to discuss this through. That's. We'll make a good start and summary on that later on today after 1:00 P.M. at the Capital Markets Day. That's basically the last slide. No, it's not. Sorry. I'm wrong here. I'm looking at the wrong picture. Excuse me. That's happening.
Why, how did we take this FID? We did take it based on a very diligent process. It's over three years of preparation. We've shown this slide in the previous presentation as well and the one before as well. Basically can say that all the important boxes are now green. Meaning that, yes, the technical study has been completed and is totally being redefined and detailed out in a very clear final design. The market study consistently shows that the ramp up is there and that the volume will be there long-term for this factory. As said before, maybe even giving a bit better sort of outlook now since there is a somewhat dampening ambition on fast increase of turbines.
Our business plan is solid. I think Ben already showed something here on the order intake side, whereby we clearly see that the demand is substantially bigger than what we can actually produce also with this new factory, which is healthy for a supply base and the supply industry. Customers are really committing long-term and are committing also to price levels that are right and right-sized to actually justify a relative short payback period, given, and which is absolutely critical in those days where changes are still happening quite rapidly. The financing is solid. More to talk about later on, but it's solid.
We feel actually a little bit proud of the fact that we have been able to really take customers on board as well as banks, as well as shareholding money. It's a nice balance that w e feel and a robust financing at a relative good price that is giving us a lot of confidence on this plan. Supply chain has signed up to long-term agreements. Our steel supplier has signed up an agreement with us on this. Also on the flanges, we have been able to sign a deal with our core supplier that they guarantee a number of flanges for the coming years, since that is a critical part as much as the steel is. Then the resources.
Human resources is probably one of our biggest challenges to find the right people at the right moment with the right qualifications or training in order to make this new factory work. Again, this afternoon, more details on that, but the plan is a robust plan. It's not just a recruiting plan, it's also a plan that deals with market communication, that deals with training, whereby we're taking aspects like housing, transport, public transport, et cetera, into account to make sure that we get the right people here at the right moment of time. That all in the end resulted in this FID that we took on the 13th of February. 14th would have been better. 13 is not a good number, but anyhow. This is where I got confused.
This new factory has le d to a situation that we are now going to spend EUR 328 million, that's quite a lot of money. Of course, it has a decent amount of contingency in it, we expect to be able to achieve really a minimum of EUR 160 millon EBITDA. That's what our expectation is by 2026, which does justify this earn back of three , maximum, four years for this new plant. Based on those numbers, those key cornerstone numbers, we said, "Let's go for it." This is the last slide. I'd like to thank you for your attention so far. I'm pretty sure you have some questions or remarks. I'd like to open the floor for that. Fons, you will look at the line.
There are microphones here at the table for those, here in the room. Please use it so that everybody can hear what you want to know.
Okay.
Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you. Henk Veerman, Van Lanschot Kempen. A couple of questions. First one on your backlog for 2023, which stands at 220,000 tons. This is close to your max capacity for the offshore wind capacity. To what extent is there room to maneuver given you do a lot of construction on site in the meantime? Can you, if needed, push some production into 2024 without facing penalties?
Basically, yes. Last one, we could do something, but we have something to do in 2024 as well. There will be no, how to say, interference with the new build program. This 220 tons, they are all being produced in the existing facilities, and they will be untouched in 2023. The integration part will happen in 2024, when we will see the maybe a bit in December this year, but that's peanuts. No. It's more, I think the big challenge for this year's order book is that we manage to build this in a safe manner and are not being restricted there.
we're working in a too small factory in Roermond, where all the rolling has to be done now for both the Maasvlakte, as before, with this. That is, I think, the challenge with this high tonnage.
Okay. That's clear. Secondly, can you give us an update on your discussions in the U.S. with regards to finding a strategic partner?
They're ongoing. It's an update. But we haven't decided on anything yet. Why? Because we first need and wanted to make sure that this FID is taking in the right way. We have limited capacity, and we don't want to frustrate a very important project in Europe by jumping too fast on a American train. The other thing I like to mention here is that in the US, there is still quite some uncertainty on certain political decisions. What's the impact of what Mr. Biden has announced? How are the local contents rules working out between the states?
Like with this plan, we have decided that we take our time, the time we need, to make a solid plan, and we are not going to be pushed by anybody on this, so to say.
Discussions have been ongoing?
They have. They have been ongoing.
No further progression in terms of details of this plan?
I can't say if there's-
Okay.
Progression is, that's your conclusion. We have ongoing discussions, and normally when you have ongoing discussions, you're making some progression. What the outcome of the discussion is, I can't tell you.
Okay. Clear. On your high absence rate and employee turnover, it seems that, you know, in the last years this has been an ongoing topic at Sif. What's being done, especially now that you're ramping up the factory in the upcoming years, what's being done incrementally to, let's say, stabilize the workforce?
Well, first of all, I think the absenteeism, illness rate, I can't pronounce that word. It's a difficult word. Was better the year before 2022. We did see that happening. Again, I think if you look at other industries, you also see that it's relatively a bit higher. That I think is one thing. I mean, when somebody has the flu or COVID, the rules are that you don't come to work. Since last week, that has changed a bit. People can come again. I think the other element here is that we should not underestimate the pressure on the people in with respect to working in the environment that we have at the moment at Roermond.
For us, this is a big indicator that we have to do something in order to sort of smoothen the process a bit at Roermond, because the majority of the number comes from the Roermond facility, not here. Here it was substantially lower, the illness rate. Because it's a better environment to work in. That we, but if we have that new factory up and running, you can more or less bring Roermond back into the sweet spot of what is right for also the people in that environment.
Having said that, we try to offer all the support, or do offer all the support needed in order to recover quickly, to find alternative work, to make sure that people above 55 are not. They don't need to work in shifts. We don't push them for that, et cetera, et cetera. To sort of find the right balance there.
Okay.
Would be my answer.
Last question is on the marshaling services. That's, it's now not possible with the construction on site. Will that be possible if, let's say, in a further phase of the construction, or should we not take into account that for the next years? Is it possible to maybe introduce marshaling services at another location?
Yes, yes.
That's good.
You should not take it into account for the coming years. Simply, we haven't got space. We are in discussions with the port of Rotterdam and others to see how we can kickstart that again, because clearly, marshaling and logistic business is showing its success. For us, it's an important building block for our total solution approach. I said first things first, we haven't given up on that one.
Okay.
Maybe to add on that one, Fred, if you look at for the construction phase, basically it will be very limited. After the construction phase, you might have some room available over here, but it will be much smaller compared, because at the moment we have, I think, 20 hectares in total. It will be much smaller, the space that is available. Also these new monopiles will be much larger, so you need more storage location. After the construction phase, there will be some limited space available, but it's not comparable to the current situation.
We need more space.
Yeah. Okay. Thanks.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thijs.
Thijs Berkelder, ABN AMRO ODDO BHF . First question on the outlook, 2023. Production, you were guiding something like 20% higher than this year, but EBITDA, in line. I'm looking for the details there. Marshaling contribution margin was this year EUR 11 million.
Yeah.
Roughly next year?
It will be significantly lower. Basically, if you look at the marshaling income, also this year compared to last year, you saw an increase of EUR 9 million. A significant part of that increase will disappear next year.
Yeah. you still have some Siemens turbine towers.
Yeah
on site.
But-
The delayed Dogger Bank piles, are you getting paid for that in marshaling services?
No. That is more in the recurring business.
That's-
Monopile business.
...part of the monopile contribution margins then?
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you look at the marshaling income, Thijs, I think right now, this year, you need EUR 11 million. In 2023, you might have a couple of million EUR from the marshaling income, but it will reduce significantly. That's also answering your question, because if you look at the high-level EBITDA bridge for 2023 versus 2022, you have more volumes. Of course, you will have a higher contribution margin, higher gross profit as a consequence, but the majority of that is being offset by lower marshaling income, and of course, you will also have the impacts of higher wage inflation.
Yeah. Engineering, are you expecting roughly flat then?
Yeah. There will not be a material difference compared to 2022.
Yeah. From a, let's say, people perspective, you already now are hiring people for the expansion?
We will start.
You're creating kind of over capacity in terms of FTEs? Should I see it that way?
During 2023.
Yeah.
To a certain level.
Yeah. That is growing in a very gradual manner.
Yeah.
For the, for the challenging positions, which are key, you already start to recruit, I think, starting already in the second quarter of 2023. You're talking about limited number of people. Later on, gradually you will phase that up, just to make sure that you have the right amount of people in place when you need to have full production in the new plant.
Do you have an outlook on how you give an outlook in terms of kilo tons? Can you give an outlook in terms of number of monopiles and transition pieces?
I think we can, but I haven't got it on the top of my mind now. You can calculate the monopiles for B, the He Dreiht. That's 55 monopiles B's, 95+ , we start with the TPs for C. Dogger Bank C, that's another 60 or 70, I think, I guess. Later on. The monopiles for C will start as well. How many exactly that will be, but that will be roughly, top of my mind, 130.
Yeah. Okay. Then Korea, did you already receive payments out of Korea and/or are payments included in 2023 in your outlook?
Payments will be included in, 2023.
Is that a profitable contribution?
It is a profitable contribution, yes.
Not very significant if I look at your outlook statements. What kind of dynamic should we be looking for?
We've never given these numbers indeed. Also if we're not going to do that, but you're talking about interesting business. It's more like, based on the current knowhow we are having, we are exploiting that business. It's consuming a little bit of man-hours, but not too much. Basically, the license fee you get out of the deal with GS Entec is more going one-to-one also into your bottom line.
Yeah.
Don't forget that this is also a ramp-up that will take a few years.
Yeah.
I mean, Before they start producing monopiles, we're not in probably not in 23. You know, it's a technology license agreement. They need to purchase their equipment. They need to ramp up the factory. We are building this in one and a half years. They probably need similar or if not more time to do this.
Yeah. Maybe for now, a final one. I have hundreds of questions, but most important, your outlook for 2026, EUR 160 million EBITDA, where you guide also for three-four years payback. If I divide EUR 328 million by four, and it gets to EUR 80 million or so, plus te EUR 40 million is only EUR 120 million EBITDA. Why EUR 160 million? Where is then? Okay, you hope to get bayback in three years, but you said three-four years payback. Why EUR 160 million and not at least EUR 120 million? That bridge I don't understand.
We will come back to that also this afternoon, because then we're going to show also a little bit more details also where the growth is coming from, what is driving this EBITDA growth.
Yeah.
If you do it purely mathematically, I understand what you're saying, but also regarding payback, you give a little bit of a range.
Yeah. Maybe a final one on the... Because I really think it's worrying, your sickness rates.
Mm-hmm.
You express it like primarily being Roermond. There probably it was clearly above 10%.
Mm-hmm.
Here in Rotterdam.
Lower
... normal for 5% or so?
A little bit at six.
Yeah.
Something like that. Yeah.
Yeah.
Still high, huh?
Yeah.
Yeah, still too high. I mean, we don't. We're not happy with that, of course. No.
From your recruitment campaign, you need to have people, especially here in Rotterdam.
Yes.
How can you Where do these people house-
This afternoon.
This afternoon. Yeah.
Good try.
Hi. Roald Hartvigsen from Clarksons here. I also want to touch a bit more upon the worker shortage problem. Could you please go a bit more into details about how you're addressing this issue? Like what measures are you taking to find qualified workers? Are you working with recruitment agency? Are you posting job ads?
We.
... increasing salaries.
Yeah.
Et cetera.
Again, for this year and last year, I mean-As Ben expressed, especially in the first half of last year, we had a shortage of people. It was very hard to find people. We saw that softening a bit after the summer break. At the moment, we are, for that reason, also on plan with our staffing. We clearly saw that after the summer break, there was more room to maneuver. How did we do that? We have indeed signed up with a few, a few less actually, agencies to have a more long-term agreement on, okay, how are we going to now prepare for the right amount of people? Last year, we took on board close to 200 people, but 80 of them left again for whatever reason.
That, but that for us was important. Why? Because we also although the market is very tight, did also say, "Okay, but we need to still be strict on who we allow in." 'Cause if they don't pass the training on the welding or the rolling, because they simply haven't got the capabilities to do this, then we should not continue with these people because it will lead to either safety or quality issues. But what the number also shows is that we are able, in the meantime, again, to find these people. What we are not happy with is that we, the number of people that actually come on our payroll is still too low. It's the predominantly temporary workers that are that we take on board.
The good news is we can deliver our order book. Also, as Ben said, 20 kilotons of small diameter offshore steel structures booked now. That meant ramping up those production lines again with staff coming from mainly from outside, based on a few key players from our payroll staff. We succeeded doing that. It's a combination of indeed putting resources on, having a limited number, but very reliable and long-term agreed agency agreements, being strict on our training, in all honesty, and that made it. A soft-somewhat more softening labor market in this field.
I guess you then briefly touch upon the fact that you would be starting hiring workers for certain positions, some more qualified workers, quite early. Can you give some more details on exactly what kind of positions those are?
I think this is also a good question for this afternoon, because then we will explain also in further detail the new production setup, and also what type of people we are looking for. We will come back to that also this afternoon. I think that's better to park it for now.
Then one last question. We've seen the Hornsea Three development where your competitors, SeAH and Haizea are delivering monopiles. That development has sort of stalled a bit with Ørsted making new review. I just want to ask, how do you assess the implications of a potential stop to Hornsea Three with respect to monopile manufacturing capacity coming online? Do you think it will be possible for SeAH and Haizea to sort of move forward with their monopile expansion plans without Hornsea Three providing offtake? Or could that make for a supply glut if they do move on with their expansion?
It actually shows, I think, what we've been expressing year on year and what we've seen happening year on year, that also in our, ourselves, is this is not an easy business to step into. I mean, we are delivering a number 2,600 or so this year. Monopile, we know, and with every startup of a project, we do have our also our challenges in ramping up. It's the experience we have and the fact that we've done 2,600 that make us quite reliable, I would say, if not pretty reliable on our deliveries and what we do.
For a newcomer to step into a business that has ramped up to diameters that we are now looking at and weights that we are looking at and qualifications that we are today looking at, completely different from when we started 20 years ago, that's quite a challenge. I mean, basically, the question is a question for them, not for us. Our judgment and observation based on our own know-how and experience is that it will be quite a challenge for all these newcomers to actually be on up and running according to their original plan. Having said that, these are all professional companies. They know what they do.
I mean, SeAH is a big player in the towers, and I can tell you that today's towers for today's for the 15, 14 or whatever megawatt turbines are coming very close, if not exceed, the challenges of what used to be a monopile 10, 20 years ago. They know what they're doing. There are some specifics on monopiles that make it a very difficult product. That's, I think, the challenge they're facing. That's also why you will probably see that the ambitions that are being expressed will not be met because the whole supply chain is ramping up, but will sort of have its issues in that, and you will see that line going a bit flatter than what it is.
It's for us, as Sif, I mean, we've said always, and we'll continue saying that we take all the competitors serious. We all add it up in our own analysis.
We conclude that whatever you do, the supply demand gap will remain for many years to come.
Okay. That was it for me. Thank you.
Morning, Maarten Vae, DRD. Couple of questions from my end. This year you have taken exceptional non-recurring costs of some EUR 5.4 million. What kind of costs do you expect for 2023 and maybe also for 2024?
If you look at for this year, more at the background of these costs, it's related to, first of all, the project organization, because we have a dedicated project organization in place to build the new plant, to keep it outside of the recurring business, because you still have to fulfill the order book. These costs are involved. Of course, also last year you were having quite some costs also from external consultants, external industry experts to get this whole plan up to speed. For next year, and the year thereafter, there will be significant also non-recurring costs. Also for this year, you will still have some specific. You will have the project organization, you will have some specific advisory costs that still needs to be done also to get the full, the full funding in place.
What you will also have, also if you look at the non-recurring part, if you basically have people who are not yet operational, who are not yet functioning in a day-to-day production, this is also more considered to be a non-recurring part. Also if you look for 2023 and also for 2024, there will still be a significant non-recurring part. The exact number I cannot give you at the moment, Maarten, but it will be, it will be a significant part.
Not to be then, too exact, do we have to think in the same kind of order, 5.5? Will it even be high single digit towards 10?
This could be a higher number also for 2023 and 2024.
Triple digits?
Sorry?
Triple digits then?
That is, at the moment, that is not the expectation.
Okay. High single digits. Thanks. Secondly, you mentioned, Fred, in the presentation that in 2024, you will be also producing monopiles with your new assets. Still for the moment, the production, is estimated to be somewhat lower in 2024 than to 2023. I presume 2024 will be a year producing from old assets, let me address it like that. Maybe missing some production because you have to integrate it and then, production on your new assets. Could you give some color to those elements?
A lot more this afternoon. Yes, all of these elements play a part of course, in a year when you will start with a new factory. You have some integration effects, and there is always the usual that will continue, the dynamics per project differ. That leads to more or less tonnage than you would expect this year or 23. It's higher because of the designs of the pretty heavy within a relative small diameter. That gives a lot of tonnage. If you build a relative lighter one, the tonnage goes down.
When you talk about 2023, what you mentioned, you are fully booked, so that's more or less really the number we should look at for 2024. It's not that there might be some additional orders, small orders.
There could be. Don't pick on us if it's ± 5 or 10 kilotons, but don't expect 100 kilotons more.
Concerning dividend, you are not going to pay a dividend this year because that is linked to what your new loan documentation. Firstly, first time you are allowed to pay dividend, that should be over your fiscal year 2024, so in 2025?
Ben, what's your thought?
Yeah, I'm just thinking.
I will come back to you on that one this afternoon, Maarten.
Okay.
When it exactly is going to be.
Thanks.
Yeah.
Since you will have all your investments made and you're going to generate quite some nice cash, will you be maintaining your dividend policy, or will you make some adjustments to that as well?
No. Overall, right now, we have a dividend policy. We have it in place for the next couple of years and during the construction phase. Not possible, and it's also from a company point of view. It's first of all the loan documentation, but also company-wise, you're going to make significant CapEx numbers. It's not logical to pay dividends. Not going to do that. After that, also, if you look at the EBITDA forecast that we have been given, and you look at the net profit, at least you should be able to maintain the same dividend policy.
Okay.
Yeah. Is that percentage after preferred dividends then? Or is it... It was 30%, I think, of net profit previously.
Yeah.
5%-40%. Yeah. Is it, is the definition then after cum pref dividend and then 30%?
The, yeah.
Is it 30%? Sorry. On the definition of the policy, it was 30% of net profit, roughly.
On.
How is cum pref dividend treated in that definition?
On this one, the exact dividend policy also has to be formulated, so it's not carved in stone yet. What I was just saying, if you look at the overall dividend, at least it should be the minimum level we are also currently having. This is then including indeed also the cum pref.
Lastly from my side for the moment, could you provide some more color what's happening in the oil and gas market?
Lately it has just been offshore wind. How is that market developing?
Thanks to the unfortunate fact of this war, of course, and the whole political drive for independency, you see some reactivation in oil, but mainly in gas. That leads to some additional rigs to be manufactured, besides the quite high volume of pin piles required for substations for offshore wind farms. It's the combination of these two that at least give us a unexpected, but still quite nice outlook for the coming years on the smaller diameter size. It's gas and wind substations. Not so much oil.
I wanna touch a bit upon the current bidding environment, and more specifically, is the 2026 guidance increase from 2025 based on higher prices in the market now, versus the launch orders from Equinor Rosebank?
Also on this one, same, we will come back to that also this afternoon, because it's a specific topic indeed to also talk about contribution margins per ton as of 2026.
Okay. Thank you.
Thijs Berkelder again, ABN AMRO ODDO BHF. You talked about new contract structures with clear delay and cancellation fees agreed. Does it mean you get your agreed contribution margin, whatever? Or...
The sweet spot is when we are just before start of production and they cancel, then we will get, the nice basically the pre-calculated contribution. That's how it ramps up.
Okay.
There's a curve in there. I'm not going to explain you how the curve looks like, but for us, it's.
Okay.
Pretty low risk.
Clear. Working capital? Is this already part of the prepayments for the agreed?
No, no. This is basically the number of - EUR 90 million by year-end you're referring to.
Yeah.
This is.
We're now in March, we're now back at around zero or so?
No, no. Right now we are still significantly negative. What I was just mentioning is that the big payment that normally comes in January, you're talking about a number of roughly almost EUR 40 million. It's very significant.
Lumpy.
Right now, it came in in December. Normally, it should have come in in January. Right now what you see is working capital's level is at, going from -90. It has gone up for quite some amount, but it is still well below 0 at the moment.
Yeah. Your cash probably is not staying at SVB or Credit Suisse. The cash account is stored at a decent, Dutch bank.
Yes.
I presume.
Correct.
Okay.
Very good.
For Andre, you have a few questions, I guess, no?
Anyone on the line, Fons?
There is somebody on the line or. Oh.
20 people.
Okay.
Oh, okay.
No questions so far. All right. Any more questions around this table? Yeah. Welcome, Andre. We'll talk a bit later. If not, I would like to thank you for your attention. Thank you for the questions. Sorry that we didn't answer all the questions yet. There's a next round coming this afternoon. We'll you have another try. Talk to you then. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you.
Yeah.