Good operating cash flows. The increased capital expenditure in this period has mainly been on growth, with over 50% in the concrete plant network expansion, increased manufacturing capacity for the CFT business, and capacity improvements in cement and quarries. The company carried out a successful placement in September, securing AUD 30 million from both existing and new institutional investors. These funds will be deployed on the expansion of the concrete plant network and the growth in the CFT business. The full-year dividend, declared with the release of the full-year results, was paid in this half. I'll pass back to Cameron now to give you an update on the outlook.
Thanks, Fergus. Looking forward, it's all fairly positive, and therefore, not much has changed on our outlook for the business. Whilst we're currently experiencing a reasonably high level of activity in South East Queensland, we expect the infrastructure requirements for the Olympic Games to provide even further demand for our products and services. As our concrete volumes grow with the expansion of our concrete plant network, so will our cement volumes. Cement margins will be slightly down on the first half as the business is subject to some increases in raw material and shipping costs, which came into effect on the first of January of this year. These costs will be incorporated into selling prices as soon as our customer contracts allow us to do so.
With the growth in our concrete volumes, we expect some margin expansion as we achieve better operating leverage, particularly from the newer sites as volumes ramp up. Quarry volumes should improve from our quarries in Emerald and Castlereagh in Cloncurry as flood recovery works commence. We look forward to the opportunities the infrastructure spend in South East Queensland should provide our precast business. We continue to pursue new concrete and quarry project opportunities, both domestically and internationally. The business remains well positioned to respond to these opportunities as they arise. In our composites business, Australia and New Zealand utility networks will continue to provide opportunities for power poles and crossarms. There are a number of utility networks with our poles currently on trial.
We are hopeful these trials will result in longer-term supply arrangements with those networks, many of which already buy our crossarms. We did see a number of our customers increase their crossarm and pole inventory holdings over the first half, so we do expect the pole and crossarm orders for these customers to be slightly down in the second half. During the first half, we commenced building three new pultrusion machines. These machines will significantly increase our pole manufacturing capacity, both here in Australia and in the U.S., enabling us to meet the increasing demand we are experiencing beyond FY 2026. As we've highlighted previously, there is going to be a step up in CapEx in the second half and through to FY 2027, which will enhance our capacity and support the future growth of the business. We're investing in a number of new concrete plants.
We are upgrading some of our storage facilities at Pinkenba, which will provide operational efficiencies in the cement production process. We're investing in additional plant capacity in our CFT business, as I've just mentioned. With extensions secured on two of our bulk haulage contracts, we will be also investing in some new haulage assets for these projects, which will improve margins, given the reduction in repair and maintenance costs and the efficiencies the new equipment provides. In summary, we're really pleased with the performance of the business for the first half of FY 2026. The growth in the underlying construction materials segment and our CFT business has been extremely positive and is demonstrated in the results we've taken you through today.
Volumes have continued to increase throughout the period, and the improvement in margins, driven by excellent operating discipline right across the group and positive market conditions, has enabled the delivery of this great earnings result. Based on the strong performance in the first half and the continued demand that is forecast for the group's products and services, we've revised our FY 2026 guidance and are now forecasting a full-year operating EBIT result in the range of AUD 62 million-AUD 66 million. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the great team of people we have working at Wagners across a number of countries. It's been a great start to FY 2026, and I'm confident together, we can continue to deliver positive results. That concludes the formal presentation today. Thanks for joining us, and as always, Fergus and I are here to answer any questions you may have.
Thanks.
Great. Thanks, Cam. Thanks, Fergus. As a reminder, research analysts can ask questions via raising your hand via Zoom. I'll unmute your line, while the rest of the audience can submit written questions via the Q&A function. First verbal question comes from Max Andrews, Max Andrews at Unified. Max, please unmute your line and go ahead. You there, Max?
Are you able to hear me now?
Yes. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Yeah. Well done on the good results. Just my first one, just on the EBIT margin expansion in construction materials, that was pretty good, like, despite the 50% growth in concrete. I was just wondering if you could sort of unpack that and unpack the drivers in the margin expansion and talk to concrete and cement separately.
Yeah, Max, look, the concrete, for the first time in a long time, we've probably delivered a small EBIT contribution from the concrete business. You know, on the back of a good solid six months' worth of demand, and those couple of plants coming online at the end of the period, didn't really impact the EBIT too much because they were right at the end of the period. There wasn't the ramp-up costs associated with it. The concrete came in better than what we have been achieving. Cement, we had good utilization and good volumes, so we've managed to pull through some good margin there.
As Cam called out, we have got some margin pressure coming in the second half with the increase in the raw material costs in the clinker and the shipping. The quarry results were an improvement as well, especially at the Wellcamp quarry, where we saw the benefits of that investment that we've put in there over the last couple of years start to pay off with increased volumes. Just the, you know, the volumes and you're spreading your fixed costs a lot across a larger number of volumes, therefore you're getting a better margin. It was really across the board, Max.
It's a bit hard to sort of break down into one area over the others, but I guess that gives you a flavor for it.
I guess you only got to go back a couple of years, though, Max, and we were losing significant money in concrete and, you know, add AUD 100 to the average selling price, and all of a sudden we're making a pretty reasonable contribution at the concrete plant gate, if you like. You know, that really moves the dial.
Yeah. Are you able to touch on the potential timing of the pass-through, sort of on the increased cost base in the second half?
Yeah. About 25% of our customers went up on the 1st of January, and the rest go up on the 1st of July. That's pretty much it.
Perfect. Just the last one, could you just remind us on the timing of those 3 new pultrusion machines, when they might come online, and are they all gonna be based in Toowoomba?
No. Yes, I can. The two will be based in Toowoomba, and the timing on the first one of those is September this year. As soon as we have that one commissioned, we'll send the team over to the U.S., late September and commission the one in Texas, and then we'll come back and commission the third one in Toowoomba. The same team will do the three machines, one in Toowoomba in September, then they'll go to the U.S. and do that one. They'll come back and do the third one in Toowoomba.
All three of them are concurrently being built.
Yeah
... as we speak.
In our Toowoomba workshop. We build those machines ourselves.
Yeah. Sounds good. Thanks, guys.
Thanks very much, Max. Next question from Liam at Morgans. Liam, please unmute your line and go ahead.
Morning, guys. Can you hear me there?
Yeah, we got you, Liam.
Perfect. congratulations on a great set of results. I was just sort of reflecting on some of the EBIT that you were delivering back in 2021. You know, you're now doing more EBIT in a single half than you were doing in a full year then. Can you just sort of comment on what's changed? You know, whether it's price, market share, and how much of this is cyclical and how much of it's structural?
We're enjoying going to work a whole lot more now than we were back then, Liam. I can tell you that has changed. It, it really is volume and selling prices, and I guess coupled with really good operating discipline. Got a great team of people doing a really good job, driving that operational efficiency across the business. You know, really, really dedicated people doing a good job, keeping costs out of the business, coupled with, average selling prices that are now appropriate and giving us an appropriate return on the investment that we have in this business. You couple that with some pretty good volumes that we're experiencing in Southeast Queensland, both in composites and construction materials.
You know, the construction materials business, once we really get that concrete volume cranking, the vertically integrated model, having our own cement, our own fly ash, our own aggregates, all our own trucks to transport it all, really gives you that leverage to get decent profits out of the business.
That, your presentation, it touched on some really strong volume growth. What about the price lever? Is that continuing to go up as well?
Absolutely.
Yeah. Just a quick question on CFT. You did 8,000 poles thereabouts in the first half, which is, you know, a fantastic run rate. Is that repeatable in the second half, or was it, you know, was there some sort of timing going on there?
Look, we'd love to sit here and say. We only did 4,000 poles last year, and we've done 8,000 in the first half this year. We'd love to sit here and say we're gonna do another 8,000, but we know that many of our customers have very, very high inventory levels, so we're anticipating a little bit of a drop-off in the second half because they've really stocked up, and they have high inventory levels. We're not sure, is the answer, but we're anticipating a drop-off due to the fact that they've over-ordered in the first half.
Yeah. you know, full-year run rate, you know, if you're doing 12,000, you know, clearly that's a big improvement on where you've come from.
Yeah. We needed to get that CFT business cranked up and deliver what we've always said we could do, finally, it's starting to demonstrate through the financial performance that it's a great business and has a huge future within the Wagners portfolio. It's taken us too long to get there.
Good one. Seems like you're there now. Thanks, guys.
Thanks, Liam.
Thanks, Liam.
Great. Thanks, Liam. Next question is on cement margins. You mentioned the cement margins will be down in the second half until you recover the additional costs through price. How much benefit do you get from the higher AUD/USD in relation to clinker exports, and when should you see that benefit?
Well, Fergus can handle that one.
Yeah.
He's the FX guru.
Not a guru, but we have a hedge in place, Sam, where we sort of hedge out about 80% of our 6 months' exposure. We're sort of covered for 50%-80% of our next six months' worth of exposure.
At what rate, roughly?
Uh-
68% or...?
Yeah. We had a budgeted rate of 65%. We did it at 67% -69%, and it's gone to 70%. We'll miss out on some of that pick-up in the FX over this next six months. You know, it's allowing us to lock in further out at these higher rates. We won't get the full impact of the increase in the FX over this period because of the hedging that we've got in place. You know, it's a good problem to have. It's better than it going down.
We would've looked really good if it went down, though.
Step up in guidance from the AGM in November. You've partly touched on it, but the question is, what's changed to give you the confidence to lift that guidance, and what needs to come in to achieve the top end of that range?
Volume. It's all cubic meters, and it's all cubic meters of concrete for us. Coupled with that, it's strong performance in our composites business, particularly in the custom build area, where we're really striving for much higher margin work in that business now. Rather than trying to be everything to everyone, we only do work that, w e're very particular on what contracts we take in that custom build, pedestrian infrastructure, and boardwalk area. We just need the bulk haulage business to perform as we've got it contracted to do. You know, we're reasonably, you know, we put that guidance out, we put a lot of thought and effort into arriving at the number, We're pretty comfortable we will arrive at the end of June in that range.
All right, thank you. Just on industry dynamics, how would you describe industry conditions in the South East Queensland concrete market today versus six months ago, and what's the current outlook for the coming year?
I would say very rational behavior among all business operators in Southeast Queensland. Finally, all of the concrete producers in Southeast Queensland are expecting their batch plants to deliver an appropriate commercial return or appropriate economic return, if you like, on the investment they have in those plants. Whereas previously, people would sell concrete just to pull aggregates and cement through. There's a lot of investment in concrete plants, trucks, people, that was not being appropriately recovered in the industry. Finally, there is a recovery on that now, albeit a small recovery. It's heading the right way. You know, some good operating discipline among all competitors. As far as pricing goes.
You know, we've got a price rise in the concrete business as at the 1st of March. We really need that to come into play. We're starting to see aggregate or quarry material pricing finally starting to move, which is long overdue, and that has to be passed through in the price of concrete.
Great, thank you. Next question on balance sheet: Where do you expect net debt to land at 30 June, acknowledging the step-up in CapEx through the second half and strong performance in underlying cash generation in the base business?
We will definitely use some debt over the next six months to fund some of that capital. You know, where we end up, we will end up in a net debt position, or we won't still be sitting in a net cash position. I don't believe it's gonna be as high as it was at June. A lot of it will depend, too, on timing of some of this capital as well, in terms of whether it drops in June or July. We've got some, you know, some fairly hefty orders in for bulk haulage equipment, which could come in either June or July, and we've got some land and things like that we're looking at for concrete plants, that once again, it's timing related.
We'll definitely be in a net debt position, but where it is, I can't give you any.
We're on track to spend at least AUD 30 million in the next five months.
A couple of questions on the CFT U.S.A. business. You've referenced below expectations in the materials. Is this primarily a volume issue that's impacting EBIT? If so, what's the outlook for project growth and uptake on these projects over the medium term?
Absolutely a volume issue. We're, you know, we're pretty happy with where we're at the revenue line out of the custom build pedestrian infrastructure and bridges market. We sold our first 60 power poles there last month. The issue we have is we can't sell any more power poles until we're manufacturing in country. With the tariffs, we're subject to exporting poles from Toowoomba to Texas. It's really just a marketing seeding exercise for us. We're just getting poles into the market at a negative margin to get customers on board. We were really encouraged for one network just to walk in and buy 60 poles in one order.
Until we're manufacturing in country, we're, you know, really subject to being a pedestrian infrastructure and bridge manufacturer, and we've got one machine. If we could get to sort of $5 million or $6 million in sales, we'd be pretty happy, and we're almost there. That should have us at break even at the EBIT line. From an EBITDA perspective, we're already, you know, generating cash. It's not a cash drain on the business. We're not having to send funds across there to support it. We're still not happy that we're not doing what we're doing in Australia. We need to get that pole line cranked up and get into it.
Thank you. Sticking with CFT, I think, this is the question: Are you able to expand on retailers you're in trials with?
Yeah. Well, I guess we've got trials going on around the world. We've got poles on trial, our team were over in the U.K. two weeks ago. We've got trials in the U.K., we've got trials in every state of Australia. If you look around Australia, all those customers currently buy our crossarms, and they're just starting to get introduced to our poles. One of the things we've got to be really, really careful of is, we don't go and market ourselves to these customers that currently buy our crossarms before we get the production capacity upgraded in Toowoomba. Otherwise, the orders will start flowing, and we'll have to reject them because we don't have enough capacity.
We're, you know, we're hopeful that we'll sell out our capacity as we did in the first half, in the second half. We're conscious that some of these customers that are on board have got large stock holdings, as I called out. Then we're also very conscious that some of these other customers that currently buy our crossarms will start placing orders, and we've got to be careful we don't overpromise and underdeliver because we can't manufacture, because we are at capacity. That's pretty much a snapshot of it.
Great, thank you. Just one follow-up on CFT, around the U.S. expectations over the medium term. Is it reasonable to assume that the U.S. CFT business will be larger than the Australian business in volume terms?
That's why we're there, Sam. Yes, it is absolutely reasonable, and, you know, we've taken too long to demonstrate what the CFT business could do in Australia, and we've really got to get cracking in the U.S. to, you know, take advantage of that huge market.
Thank you, and maybe just the last question we have for today. What's your visibility on precast concrete projects like? Do you have any live tender opportunities?
Yes. The visibility is a bit hazy, maybe. There's a huge amount of precast required in Southeast Queensland over the next sort of five years, particularly associated with the Olympic Games build. We've got, I think, about $6 million-$7 million worth of work contracted now, which has got nothing to do with the Olympic Games. We're about to start driving revenue into the precast business as of next month. We're, we're up and running, and it's all work that we're really pleased to have. The, you know, the amount of rail infrastructure and road upgrade and the stadiums that are about to be built in Brisbane provide a huge opportunity for our business, but I still think it's 12 months away. We are going really slow on that Olympic build.
I think it's, you know, we're 12 months off revenue there. The pleasing thing for our business is we're really busy without any Olympic spend.
That's all the time we have for questions today. If there are any follow-ups, please feel free to send them through to us via email, and we'll endeavor to get back to you. Maybe with that, Cam, I'll just pass it back to you if there's any closing comment.
No, as I said, we've got a great team of people doing a really good job. They're very happy with the business, and, thanks, everyone, for dialing in and hearing about our story today.