Good afternoon. This is the Cloud Group conference operator. Welcome, thank you for joining the Interpump S econd Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. As a reminder, all participants are in this room at the moment. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. If anyone needs assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator, press star and zero on the telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Elisabetta Cugnasca, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, madam.
Thank you. Good afternoon. I am Elisabetta Cugnasca, Head of Investor Relations of Interpump Group . Good afternoon or good morning, depending on your time zone, and welcome to this Interpump Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. As usual, I must draw your attention to the disclaimer slide inserted in the annex part of the presentation that I hope you were able to download from our website. Now, I would like to leave the floor to Mr. Marasi, Group Chief Executive Officer.
Thank you, Ms. Cugnasca, and thank you all of you for joining our call. Once again, reported and shifter number first. Reported number, +1% of rate growth on organic basis. Finally, after six consecutive quarters of decline, we are very pleased to commence a quarter with an organic revenue growth. One may be a small number compared to the double-digit figures of 2021 and 2022, but it's a number that reflects the technological excellence of our products, particularly those in the water-jetting division, and the importance of diversification, which, as you know, represents probably the most significant characteristic of our growth journey at the size of our group. On the other hand, it also reflects what we hope are the first signs of our return to normalcy for the hydraulic sector as a whole. This small but meaningful +1% is accompanied by another encouraging figure, a larger one.
Our organic EBITDA grew by almost 7% in the quarter. In previous quarters, as you know, the flexibility of our business model and our relentless focus on cost optimization in line with the revenue trends allow us to minimize the gap between the revenue decline and profitability decline. Now, that same approach has enabled us to fully benefit from the revenue growth. Shifter number. We confirmed 2025 guidance with organic sales evolution between - 5% and +1 %, and an EBITDA margin between 22% and 22.5%. It is clear that the second quarter performed better than our expectations at the beginning of the year, thanks to the revenue peak recorded by the water-jetting division. However, recovery signals from the Hydraulics division still need to consolidate, especially considering the ongoing challenges posed by tariffs and the continuous shifts in the geopolitical scenario since April.
For these reasons, we believe it is more responsible and prudent to confirm the current ranges of our guidance and to eventually provide more precise updates based on the business evolution after the summer break. After the first overview on the most important topics of this quarter, let's focus with more detail and color on the most important second quarter 2025 financial KPIs: sales, EBITDA, and cash generation. Starting with sales, I cannot help but return the organic growth figure of + 1%. It may seem odd to be so pleased with such a small number, but seeing a positive sign in front of every number after six consecutive quarters of negative figures clearly offers shift in confidence. I'm sure the results that stand out most from an external perspective are the 19% organic growth in the water-jetting division, and I will soon provide some color on this remarkable result.
However, before doing so, I would like to touch on the Hydraulics division, where signs of a down in the initial process that began in summer 2023 seem to be emerging. In fact, although we are now in the seventh consecutive quarter of decline with an average drop of - 12%, we are finally seeing a single-digit decline, - 7% following two quarters at - 14% and even one at - 16%. Focusing on the main application markets, we are seeing either stabilization, such as the decline in the industrial data adopters around 5%, or improvement, even if figures are still negative. Least, for example, has gone from a decline of over 30% to - 8% or construction from - 25% to - 14%. Remarkably, the agriculture segment is showing finally growth with sales that are up by single digits in the quarter.
As a result, it is possible to hypothesize that we are entering the final phase of the normalization process that has been underway for nearly two consecutive years. However, extreme caution is necessary, as manufacturers could interrupt this process. Tariff consequences above all. Switching now to water-jetting, it's important to underline that for several quarters now, this business has been delivering results well above its historical average. We have already explained that this is due to different features in comparison with the ones of the Hydraulics division. The activities of the left division quickly recovered from the abrupt halt caused by the pandemic and were supported for 2021 and 2022 by increasing the supply chain processes, both in terms of sourcing and logistics. On the other end, the post-pandemic recovery in the water-jetting division clearly took more time as we got many customers suspended important investments in that area.
Today, it is much more stable and consolidated. In the quarter just ended, the very good results of the project business were compounded by a peak in the Water division and water-jetting activities, and together are explaining the nearly 19% organic growth recorded. In fact, in spring 2024, please see slide eight of the presentation. Hammelmann, thanks to its unique technology, secured an order in China for pumps to be used in the production process of low-density polyethylene, a material used in everyday life. This once again demonstrated the group's ability to successfully transfer its water-related know-how to other fluids, laying the groundwork for further future technological and business developments. This was a brief but meaningful example of the project within the flow processing vertical. Now, I would like to add an example related to the more traditional vertical of our division, high-pressure pumps.
In particular, an important contract secured last April and completed in record time in less than two months contributed to the revenue of June and July just ended. I'm referring to slide nine of the presentation. This is a very well-known example to many of you. It refers to ultra-high-pressure water jet system and ship cleaning equipment. In fact, at second quarter start, the group signed an agreement with one of China's leading private shipyards for nearly 100 water jetting ship cleaning equipment. We already discussed the advantages of water jetting technologies compared to the traditional sand blasting ones: efficiency enhancement, energy consumption reduction, and support for green transitions. After this detailed overview of revenue by division, let's take a closer look at the geographical perspective at group level, focusing on the most relevant areas to us, and of course, at constant exchange rate.
Thanks to the development previously described, it's easy to see that China is the country that delivered the strongest results, more than doubling its revenue and thus delivering and driving the entire region. The weakness observed in previous months in the North American region was hot for the United States, recording a decline of over 12% in the quarter. Europe could be described as stabilizing, and to anticipate a possible question, we are still not seeing any benefits from Germany in the first one. Switching now to G&A, the second quarter figures are even more meaningful than revenue figures. In the second quarter, a 1% organic growth in revenues was accompanied by a profitability increase of over 6%, with a margin improvement of 100 basis points.
This led on an adjusted basis to a decline in profitability that was smaller than the drop in sales, - 1% versus - 1.7% in sales. There are several aspects I will never tire to emphasize and to help fully appreciate this number. We are an industrial group, and we manufacture. We are organizationally decentralized, but many of our key companies are highly integrated at the production level. Finally, we have been experiencing revenue declines for over a year, specifically for the quarter. A combination of these conditions would typically lead to far greater drops in profitability than in revenue. This situation did not occur thanks to the flexibility of our business model and the continuous, consistent effort we put into adjusting our cost structure in line with the demand trends.
This allowed us in the second quarter not only to minimize for the Hydraulics division the negative flow-through effect, but also to benefit from sequential revenue improvement. A revenue decline of over 7% resulted in a limited profitability reduction of 9%. In the water-jetting division, on the opposite, to fully capitalize on the significant revenue increase with an EBITDA growth nearly doubled the revenue growth, + 54% versus + 19%. Third, finally, to manage the starting issue in such a way that its impact was ultimately negligible. The + 1% revenue growth in the second quarter is a very positive figure, but it is not as impressive or satisfying as the over 6% organic growth in EBITDA. The former is partly due to a context that appears to be becoming more favorable, while the latter is the result of our work and capabilities.
Let's move now on the last important KPI through which we evaluate our work, cash generation, and these components. In the first quarter of this year, due to the mechanisms of advanced payments, specifically those related to the Chinese customers, which we explained in May, a slight delay emerged compared to the same period of the previous year, amounting to approximately EUR 5 million. One quarter later, this delay remained unchanged despite an opposite trend in sales. In the first quarter, organic revenue declined by around 8%, and in the second quarter, we had sales growth by 1%. Thanks to the doubling of growth in water-jetting, 19% compared to 8%, and halving the decline in the Hydraulics division from - 14% to - 7%. As you can easily imagine, this phenomenon had an impact on trade working capital, and in particular, in terms of customer receivables.
Nevertheless, if we focus on the cash generation results for the second quarter, we can see that it amounted to EUR 46 million, the same as in the second quarter 2024. Therefore, despite the evolution in revenue during the quarter, the Group was able to manage the impact on cash generation and adopt June 30. This slight delay in cash generation compared to the first half of 2024 is entirely attributable to the first quarter of 2025, and this confirms our commitment to delivering on the goal we set at the beginning of the year, and in particular, to consolidate the record cash flow generation achieved in 2024. Moving to CapEx, in slide 12, there is the usual update on the last important project of the group's 2021-2024 CapEx plan, the new Interpump Hydraulics quarter in Sala Bolognese, close to Bologna.
The transfer process is almost completed, and following the registered office relocation three days ago, Interpump Hydraulics will be fully operational in the new site as of September. The timeline was respected, and we managed to minimize any business disruptions that an event of this kind typically causes in the life of an industrial company. As you know, we are very proud of the significant improvements we made to many production facilities over the past few years, and we are pleased to welcome interested investors. Despite the ongoing work, we have already hosted several investors in Sala Bolognese in July, and we'll be truly delighted to welcome more. Acquisitions. In the last day, we briefly outlined the characteristics that make a company a potential acquisition target for us. The phrase of a perfect fit: technological excellence, consistency with group strategy, respect of our M&A criteria.
After the theoretical explanation, here is an empirical example. A company specialized in the production and sales of tanks for industrial vehicles and machinery that in 2024 generated approximately EUR 15 million in sales with more than 17% EBITDA margin. A company that allowed us to extend our product range to exploit synergies with other group and portfolio companies with the completion of the Wet Kit that is composed by pump, sink, tipping valve, front end cylinder, and hose and fittings. Finally, the construction of a presence in Europe as strong as the one that we have in the North America region. While discussing acquisitions and expanding the perspective, we would like to take the opportunity offered by the financial quarterly results and regular communication to revisit and delve deeper into theoretical aspects of our acquisition strategy.
In fact, we're definitely at the end of the last day with some speculation regarding the position of a major player in the transmission world without realizing that we have taken for granted that our acquisition strategy was clear and well understood by the market, and especially by those who have known us and followed us for a very long time. That being the case, no one with a special order would be interested in something that is clearly not a perfect fit for us. Therefore, we feel it is our duty to dedicate us two minutes during this communication to reiterate the purpose of our acquisition strategy and the characteristics of a perfect fit, how our acquisition and post-acquisition integration process is structured and implemented, and finally, to recall some examples. The construction of the flow processing and the retention gear verticals in the last several years.
However, since it is almost 6:00 P.M., we prefer to condense and summarize this extensive request into a few slides from the results presentation. In particular, you may find these slides from pages 16 to page 34 in the presentation in the group approach to M&A section, from which we realized just one point here, one single but fundamental point. The ultimate target of group growth and development strategy is diversification. It is diversification by division, by geographies, by market application, and not dimension that allows to properly manage the business risks. It is diversification that allows us to reduce volatility through different cycle exposures. This diversification allows us to effectively react to unexpected wins in market conditions. Until now, we have talked about the past. Now let's move on to the future.
The month of July was consistent with the trend observed in the previous month, confirming the strong performance of water-jetting and the steady recovery of Hydraulics division. This allows us to reaffirm the current range of our guidance, both in terms of organic phase evolution and total EBITDA margin. It is true that the Chinese contract in the high-pressure pump vertical has placed us in a slightly more favorable position than the region anticipated back in February, but the volatility of the global environment remains very high. Therefore, at this stage, we prefer to confirm the current ranges of our guidance. The recent tariff agreement between the U.S. and Europe, regardless of the specific figures reached, should theoretically help reduce uncertainty. Since last April, there have been many shifts on this key issue that we prefer to maintain a cautious approach.
This is also because, as you know, our guidance is not something developed for our financial stakeholders. It's internally generated estimates based on our backlog and forecast. This will align our cost structure. They're fully focused not only on achieving our revenue target, but above all, our profitability one, an EBITDA margin between 22% and 32.5%. At this stage, we believe it is essential to maintain the prudent and rational operational approach that has enabled us to achieve outstanding industrial results. With a 1% decrease in EBITDA corresponding to a 1.7% drop in revenue in the first half, nearly twice as well. Now, it is appropriate to brief the space with your request for further insight.
Before doing so, I would like to briefly highlight once again the two key figures from this second quarter's results that summarize the remarkable work we have been doing over the past two years to face one of the most challenging periods in the hydraulic sector. An organic revenue growth of 1% and an EBITDA margin increase of 7% in the second quarter. Thank you.
This is the Cloud Group conference operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question, you press star and one on the chat tool to answer. Still, move yourself on the question queue to the star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Only those who have a question may touch the star and one at this time. The third question is from Matteo Bonizzoni from Kepler Cheuvreux . Please go ahead.
Everybody, I have three questions. The first one is related to this particularly good performance for water-jetting in China, which you have explained well. My question is, is this boost over or do you expect something also in the second half of the year? Also, more importantly, is this a spot opportunity or do you see more potential opportunities for Hammelmann of this kind going forward? The second question is on the margin. Clearly, the margin in the first half was very, very strong also due to a divisional mix effect given the very strong growth in water-jetting. 23.2% is the margin in the first half. Doing some preliminary calculation, but you know the analyst can always be mistaken. I would say that to do at least the top of your guidance range, so at least 22.5% would be doable.
My question is, is there any particular reason or prudence why you didn't want maybe to fine-tune up your, let's say, guidance on the margin? The last question is on tariffs. We know that broadly 30% of our U.S. revenues are not produced in the U.S., are coming mostly from, I would say, Italy and Germany. 7% more or less of your total revenues, I think, are subject to tariffs probably. If you want to maybe confirm or not, or maybe correct this percentage. What's the possibility for you to pass down the tariff impact, or maybe you are going to suffer some impact in your P&L? Thanks.
Thank you, Matteo. Very, very important questions. Regarding the remarkable performance achieved in China with Hammelmann in the water-jetting division, clearly, we are super happy of the business development and the order that we received and we executed in the first part of the year. This order for this business clearly is not an everyday business, but it's a development trend that we have been commenting several times regarding the more developed and higher attention paid also by emerging countries, if we can define China as an emerging country, toward sustainability and environmental impact. Several years ago, large food yards in China were not at all interested or were not paying any care on the impact on the environment, and they were doing their activities.
For this reason, they were utilizing alternative technologies, and in particular, plastic technologies that we explained many times being much more impacting and polluting of the environment. Today, dealing with international customers and working with top and high-end technologies is very important for them to show and to pay an eye attention to the environment. For this reason, they are switching to this technology proposed by Hammelmann, even if it is much, much more expensive. For this reason, I do not invite you to factor in your estimates that every month you will have these fantastic orders or fantastic projects to be delivered. I'm very confident that we will see other businesses, other projects, and a significant long-term development because of this switch in technology and switch in attention paid by the customer to this way of doing business.
We have been commenting many times about these trends and these orders and these results is the most significant proof of what we were commenting. Regarding your second question, that is the toughest one, is the 22.5% EBITDA margin easily reachable? Nothing is easy in this environment. As you know, we are in general very prudent. For this reason, we have been discussing internally, but after this discussion, we are confirming the guidance both in terms of sales and in terms of EBITDA margin for the year. We will see what will be the result of the second half, considering how many uncertainties and how many factors are giving us a headache in these days. Clearly, second half results make us very confident in the possibility to reach the targets that we have shared with the market. Third question, tariff impact. Your calculation, your numbers are correct.
Around 7% of consumer business sales are represented by goods that are manufactured outside the U.S. and exported or sold in the U.S. For this part of the business, we have promptly adapted our price list or applied price charges to the customers in order to transfer to the American customers these price increases. Of course, some negotiation happened, but it is clearly something that is outside our control. Luckily, many other competitors are in the same position. I would say that, like I've commented before, no negative impact so far has been recorded due to the tariff impact.
Thank you.
[Foreign language] Matteo.
The next question is from Alessandro Tortora of Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Yes, I would like to thank everybody. I'll move forward with three questions. The first one is, if you can come back, sorry, to the Chinese order you mentioned before, if you can help us to understand just having an idea of the size of this order. This would be important, in order to, as you mentioned before, this is not a one-off, but there is an opportunity to get perpetually this kind of order of this size into our model. This is the first question. I don't know if you want to go one by one, or I will tell you.
Let's go ahead, Alessandro.
Okay, okay. The second question is on the order backlog for the Hydraulics division. You mentioned the kind of potential improvement, also adds, but also the other sub-segments. Can you give me an idea of the order backlog level compared to the beginning of this year if you are having, let's say, some minor improvements into this item? The third one is linked to the agriculture business. You mentioned finally this case SAP into this end market. I remember that White Drive suffered a lot from this exposure, now our exposure to agriculture. Can you give me an idea of what is going on there in terms of profitability? Because I remember last year, now I've got a negative data on profitability for White Drive. Thanks.
Thank you. Thank you, Alessandro. Regarding the Chinese order, we have given all the details that we believe are appropriate in terms of customer, project, project size, and so on. As I said before, clearly, I do not invite you to factor a +19% organic growth in every quarter in the future. This is some sort of extraordinary magnitude, but I believe it is much more important from a business point of view, what I've commented before, in terms of technological trend and technological switch and shift toward our technology that are maybe more expensive, but are cleaner, more sustainable, and more efficient in terms of energy consumption, in terms of water consumption, and in terms of long-term payback.
Also, in terms of marketing for our customers, because if we are paying on this example, large Chinese shipyards are presenting this kind of investment as a sort of marketing tool towards their customers because they are investing for the top quality European-level technology with better efficiency and a better attention and the impact toward the environment. This is very, very important, and everybody is moving toward this direction. This is the reason why I'm very positive regarding the mid- to long-term opportunity development for this division and these technologies without, please, factoring +19% growth every year. Regarding backlog in Hydraulics, we are seeing some recovery here and there. In comparison with the order backlog at the end of 2024, we have numbers that are at a similar level. We have a similar level also because we have significantly reduced the order delivery time.
This is usually very important in determining the order that our customers are placing. The lead time is what drives usually, together with the demand, the real demand, the order backlog. Seeing stability in the orders level after having reduced the lead time is comforting, let's say. It's comforting. The third question was related to agriculture. I was very, very pleased to notice finally that agriculture had a positive organic growth in the quarter. As you know, agriculture is important for White Drive, but for Walvoil or for many other companies in hydraulics. Agriculture was the first application field to be impacted already in the first and in the second quarter of 2023. Being optimistic, I would make the agriculture recoveries the first sign of the business recovery in some way, anticipating the positive effect also on other application fields.
After more than two years of negative numbers in these very particular and very important application fields, this is the reason why I was so comforted in seeing a +7.8%.
Okay, Fabio, the question was also related, I remember now, to the implication for White Drive. You got to remember that the company was already in a very high exposure to Ag. You might like to understand if you are already seeing an improvement in profitability in this company, thanks.
Yes, because last year, the company's results were really impacted by the very negative top-line evolution and also by the one-off related to the inventory adjustment and inventory evaluation. Considering the completion of the refreshment that we have put in place and considering the sequential improvement in some application fields in the level of business, we are seeing an improvement in the performance in comparison with last year in 2024 results.
Okay [Foreign language]
The next question is from Domenico Ghilotti of Equita . Go ahead.
Good afternoon, everybody. A couple of questions. The first is on the hydraulics market. It sounds like a quite different scenario if I look at North America and Europe. I'd like to get your comments. I don't know if the - 12% that you were giving before for North America, for the U.S., actually is organic, but trying to understand if we should expect maybe a little bit of lag in North America while in Europe you are seeing a much different trend. The second is on getting back to water-jetting. Maybe if you can help us understanding what's the underlying trend. If you can give us the sense of the backlog or maybe apart from the big order, what kind of order intake are you seeing in the division?
Regarding the hydraulics market, clearly, U.S. today is the weakest spot. It's the weakest spot because probably U.S. shows very good performance and strength for a longer period. I mean, when Europe or Asia started to slow down, U.S. was still very strong and consistent in demand. This is the first reason. Second, the impact of this geopolitical situation, the tariffs, the depreciation of the exchange rate, and the dollar against euro is impacting the willingness of the American market to invest. This is the reason why I'm not really positive for the remaining part of the second part of the year regarding the recovery of the demand in the American market. I'm a little bit more positive for Asia and also for Europe, not really for U.S. for what we are seeing today. Regarding water-jetting, I would leave Elisabetta Cugnasca to give you some more color on this.
Okay. Thank you. If we forget for one moment the second quarter, but we look to the previous quarter, you see that the recovery of the water-jetting after the COVID made us grow around 8%, 7%, then again 8%. I'm referring to slide 41 of the presentation. These are numbers that are even a bit higher compared to the historical normal trend of the water-jetting. The historical normal trend of the water-jetting is more or less between 4% and 6% in the medium long term. Now we are speaking more recently of 7% or 8%, especially because we are in the recovery after the pandemic due to the reason that Mr. Marasi explained before.
What we are suggesting you now is for the next two quarters to go on with the most recent performance, the one between 7% and 8%, not the 19% one and not the 4% or 5% of the historical one because we are still having some benefits of the growth coming from the recovery post-pandemic.
Okay. The key question clearly is on 2026 if you can keep on going on a very tough day.
Yeah, we will see next year.
Sure. Thank you.
You're welcome.
As a reminder, if you wish to register for the questions, you press star and one your phone. The next question is a follow-up of Alessandro Tortora of Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Yes, thanks. Thanks again. Just a quick, let's say, follow-up on the comment, not just on the water-jetting growth. I think that's going to understand if the Chinese order, the impact of the Chinese order will be visible also in Q3, or we basically saw the impact totally into the second quarter. Thanks.
The most important piece of the impact will be in the second quarter. We will have some small impact also in July because, as we described in both the press release and in the presentation, the order has been delivered between June and July, but in June. You will have the support also in the third quarter, but for the fourth quarter, we will go back to the high normal level of the water-jetting.
Okay.
The next question is from Michele Baldelli from BNP Paribas . Go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon to everybody. First of all, thank you for taking my questions. I have one on White Drive. Given the difficulties that you experience, I don't know if you can share with us, let's say, given that I expect that the margins are probably below, let's say, the normalized level and also below probably the Hydraulics division one. When you expect them to recover, how long it will take them to recover? If you can share some of your probably planning about it. Second question relates to the backlog of Hammelmann and NLB as of today for the Chinese order. If you can share with us the year-end results for these ultra-high-pressure pump business. Lastly, if you can share some color on the expected net debt or free cash flow generation by the year-end that you expect. Thank you.
Okay. Regarding White Drive, clearly, the very negative top-line evolution of the last five or six quarters and the consequent restructuring activities that we have put through, together with the completion of the integration of the production lines that were transferred as a part of the sand mouth process, significantly impacted the results of the company. Today, White Drive results are still below the average of the Hydraulics division, but are improving and are not so bad, are very good. I mean, in Europe, Europe was a threshold first and addressed first in the decline of the top line. Today, the profitability, despite the very low level of business in Europe, is very positive and already aligned with the average of the Group and satisfactory.
More work in terms of restructuring and in terms of stabilization, completing the restructuring activities and facing the part of the slowdown of the business demand, is to be made in the United States. This is the focus of the Group. Clearly, the normalization or achieving the expected level of profitability also depends on the timing of the recovery of the top- line and then the market demand. Regarding water-jetting backlog, even after these spectacular results of the first half of the year, I'm not giving you any number regarding the backlog by company, but I can say that the level of the backlog of the water-jetting division today is aligned with the level of the backlog that we have recorded at the year-end 2024.
Finally, as already commented before, the free cash flow expected for the year is confirmed to be close or to repeat the very, very good results achieved in 2024.
Thank you very much.
The next question is from Bruno Permutti on Intesa Sanpaolo . Please go ahead. Mr. Permutti, unfortunately, we are not hearing you. The next question is a follow-up of Domenico Ghilotti from Equita . Please go ahead.
Given the many slides on the M&A strategy, the usual question on the M&A pipeline, what are you seeing in the pipeline?
Yes. We have spent so much space in our presentation and also in the comments because of what we have underlined before. We believe that after recent discussions, some misperception needs to be corrected. For this reason, we dedicated so much space, two slides, I believe, in the presentation in detailing and underlining how we approach M&A and what we believe is the correct structure and correct strategies in these fundamental aspects of our long-term growth record. You have seen that we have closed the acquisition of Padoan, like we have commented before. That is a perfect fit and a perfect target. The pipeline remains very good. We have many discussions and many opportunities on the table, and we are very confident to be able to close some other deal and some other acquisitions before the year-end.
The next question is from Chiara Tomesani of UBS . Please go ahead.
Hi. The question was already answered. Thank you.
The next question is from Bruno Permutti from Intesa Sanpaolo . Please go ahead.
Yes, can you hear me? I'll try again.
Yes, we can hear you. Please go ahead.
Okay. Sorry, thanks for taking my questions. The first one relates to profitability of the water-jetting division, which was quite strong in the second quarter. Could you elaborate a little bit on if it was operating leverage? Was it the kind of product that you delivered? What can we expect going forward? I mean, I remember that there was an issue with the systems that you delivered that had a lower profitability than the single product. I was wondering if you can elaborate a little bit on the dynamic you expect going forward for the profitability of the division. The second one was related to the hydraulic business. Do you have any visibility if your customers are restocking or are already utilizing in manufacturing your deliveries? Do you have an idea of that from what you can see? Thank you.
Okay. In terms of water-jetting, I believe you correct an important element that is the operating leverage because, obviously, a so huge increase of the space had, by definition, a positive impact in terms of profitability. You also correctly remind that last year, the organic evolution of the water-jetting profitability gave us some trouble correlated to, I would say, two main important elements. The first one was the transfer of the headquarter of Inoxpa in India because today, after the construction of the headquarter of Inoxpa in India, we have worldwide two excellent industrial centers for Inoxpa, one in Spain and one in India. Unfortunately, if we would make a comparison, the transfer of the headquarter of Inoxpa last year was not as good and as successful as the transfer of Sala Bolognese this year. This had an impact, especially in the second quarter of 2024.
You correctly remember the backlog of the order that we had was so big that we had some inefficiency due to the dimension of the order. This is also correlated to the fact that the water-jetting market is smaller, and therefore, we do not have the same chance to find a partner to which we can externalize some production stages, especially for the high-tech technology that we use in some companies of the Group. If you remember, quarter after quarter, last year, we get an improvement from this point of view. The last quarter of last year was the second quarter. We closed the gap, especially in the first quarter of 2025 because there was no dilution in terms of organic. Also the contracts done, which was a massive contract, was dealt perfectly because, by the way, we were being able to find local partners in China.
We hope that this problem should be managed probably. We cannot guarantee you 100% to be always as efficient as we could, but for any case, we will do our best.
Yes. Regarding the visibility of the restocking by our customers in hydraulic, clearly, we have a mixed situation. We have customers in the agriculture that have completed the restocking. We have customers in other sectors that are still underway. The visibility, generally speaking, is very low. It's very low, and the uncertainty is what is characterizing this period, in particular in the car market, like I said before. Everything that we have said so far, and in particular, the reiteration of the guidance for the year, is a consequence of all these elements that have to be taken into very good consideration.
Thank you.
The next question is from Fraser Donlon of Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Fabio and Elisabetta, Fraser here from Berenberg. I have three questions. The first, could you maybe quantify what your exposures are to steel and aluminum tariffs in the U.S. on the imported metal? The second is just on hydraulics in the U.S. in Q2. Did you see any significant gap between your orders and shipments in Q2 on the back of tariffs in the U.S.? The final question, do you see quite a stable pricing environment still in Europe in hydraulics? How are the competitive dynamics going? If you could maybe give a comment there, that would be great. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you, Fraser. Regarding steel and aluminum, I don't believe that we will have a significant impact, being our products are much more complex than just selling raw material or products with a very, very significant impact on prices of raw material. I don't have information regarding the tariffs to be applied based on rules that are mined for steel and aluminum with the very, very high tariffs related. So far, it doesn't seem that we are entering into this bucket. Regarding the hydraulics in the U.S. in the second quarter, I do not see particular changes in comparison with the first quarter. Already the first quarter was weak, and these weaknesses are being confirmed in the second quarter. We are not seeing so far any sign of further deterioration due to the tariffs.
More comforting, the level of pricing in the market in this moment is still stable and consistent, in particular in hydraulics. As you know, in water-jetting, we have a much stronger market positioning. We are the market leader. We are enjoying premium prices, and it is, let's say, easier to apply price increase and so on. Hydraulics is a much more competitive environment, is a much more competitive and consolidated industry. The beauty is that it is a well-disciplined and profit-oriented market. Also, the most important competitors are not really compromising on their margins and on their price. For this reason, despite a weak level of demand and despite all the uncertainties, we are not really seeing a higher than normal threshold on pricing.
Perfect. Thank you.
The next question is a follow-up of Michele Baldelli from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. Sorry, just a question if you feel confident to give the answer to such a question. Q3 or H2 2025, can we have certain confidence that the business will not decline year- on- year organically? Can we say anything about it?
Come on. Third quarter is ongoing. No, it is too early to comment. We are not using to comment more. We are giving some color also regarding July. Also, based on July results, we are confirming the guidance, but we are not commencing or anticipating any results or any further number on the third quarter. Like I have said many, many times, I really believe that in particular in such an uncertain environment, it is much more important to focus on yearly results instead of quarterly or monthly results. Because if you restrict too much the time horizon, the information that you get is much more volatile and much more in commencing or better market trends. My invitation to you, to everybody, once again, is to look at the full year results.
Thanks a lot.
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Thank you to everybody. Happy vacation, happy holiday to everybody.
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