Morning everyone, thank you for connecting to our results call of Arteche for the first half of 2025. I'm Claudia Oche, responsible for investor relations, and we have Alex Arteche, Chairman and CEO of the group, Ixone Vicente, CFO, and Luis María Pérez, General Manager. You can follow the webcast via our website, www.arteche.com. During the presentation, all the participants will remain muted. At the end, we will open a Q&A. If you wish to take part, press asterisk five on your keyboard. I hand over to Alex Arteche. Thank you, Claudia. Good morning. Thank you for joining us in this results call for the first half of 2025.
As Claudia said, we're here to present our results today with Luis María Pérez, the Managing Director for the group, Ixone Vicente, CFO, and myself. It's a pleasure to share some excellent results for this half year. I'd like to highlight that they are the result of the effort, the commitment, and the good work done by the whole Arteche group. As you'll see later on, these results not only meet but exceed some of the goals in our plan 2024, 2026. We show the solidity and the strength of a company in a macroeconomic environment that we currently have. Arteche continues to stand out as a solid and consolidated group with sustained growth in an electric sector that's growing. The need to invest in networks is more and more evident, and we are well-positioned to make the most of these opportunities.
What you're going to see for this semester show our capacity to generate value and our strong commitment to growth. Having said this, we'll move on to the main milestones for the half year. As we've done in the past, I'm going to quickly run through the semester, and then Luis and Isonia will provide figures and the most significant strategic aspects for these first six months. Well, we begin on page 3, highlighting the main milestones, and we highlight growth, strong growth. We're still growing at double-digit figures and in order intake, as you can see, we've exceeded EUR 300 million for the first time in a semester, and we reached EUR 300 million with an increase of 6%.
We'll see later on. This is not very relevant because the seasonality and the projects have a month-to-month effect. We've grown almost 14% in turnover, double digit, and if we take away the effect of Forex, it's 17.7%. We continue to improve profitability, which is one of the pillars in our strategic plan. The margin continues to improve, reaching 37%, which means 200 points better than the comparison with the half year last year. This is the result of the actions taken, efficiency, the launching of products, processes, the sales mix, which changes together with a suitable price strategy.
We have EBITDA, a growth of 55.6% over EUR 50 million in the semester, which is 50% more than the guidelines in our strategic plan. I would also like to highlight the balance sheet. We have a net financial debt to EBITDA ratio of 0.6x, which is well below our financial guideline. This leaves us in an optimum position to be able to continue to grow both in capacity and product development.
Finally, net profit reached EUR 19.9 million, an increase of 168% compared to the same half year last year with an effect of 0.33 EUR per share, which is reflection of the good performance of the strategy and the good results. As you can see, a very good half year. Now I'll hand over to Luis to go into details on the figures.
Thank you very much, Alex, and good morning, everyone. Well, I like to start the presentation with a summary. These metrics that Alex just played earlier are the six main metrics that we analyze every six months, and all the indicators are green. I'll start with order intake. As Alex said, for the first time, we've exceeded EUR 300 million in the first half, in line with our goals for the end of the year. Continuing with revenue, a growth of 14%, a little bit more than order intake with over EUR 250 million, again for the first time in this half year.
The aim is to reach EUR 500 million, which is the goal for the year. Here we're seeing the results of the increases last year in production capacity. The third metric I'd like to mention is direct margin. You have the definition at the bottom, and basically, it's revenue or sales price, cost of material minus direct labor and operations cost.
It's a metric that we're very proud of because there's been a significant improvement, and we're including all the improvement measures, price increases, efficiency in design, efficiencies in material cost, labor productivity, managing the mix, et cetera. Even at a constant currency, you can see it's even a little better. The EBITDA, if we have incremental volume and an increase in direct margin, well, the EBITDA is close to EUR 39 million. You can see here that the percentage at constant currency changes and accompanied with the current currency basket. Let's say that the loss in value of the US dollar, the Turkish lira, and the Mexican peso hurts us, but our revenue helps us in cost containment.
Profit, as Alex Arteche maintained, close to EUR 20 million, and the leverage ratio is at 0.6, a little bit worse at the end of December 2024. We also have to consider the impact of the inorganic operations we've carried out during the first half of the year and the acquisition of RTR. Now I'm going to focus on order intake on the next page. We've already said that we've exceeded EUR 300 million. Our budget is for EUR 575 million for the year, so we're in line with the commitment. We're going to give two points of view, first of all, a geographic point of view, and on the other hand, the business point of view. Starting with the geography, we see that Arteche, although the slide is stuck, it's...
Okay, perfect. On the left, Arteche is organized under four geographic areas, North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and of the four regions, three of them show a very powerful growth. The fourth, which shows a small decline in the case of North America, has to do with seasonality. North America, for us, is made up of Canada, United States, and Mexico. Both Canada and the United States have grown at double-digit figures during the first half of the year. In Mexico, there's a seasonal problem when the electric company executes its annual contracts. Last year it was June, and this year it's been July, so it has an effect on growth. Here, our goal is to try to increase the percentage of the smaller regions, such as Latin America and Asia Pacific. Here we've been successful.
On the right, we change the goal, and we zoom in on the business. Here we're organized under three main business paths: transformers, network automation, which are mainly electric control and relays, energy quality and service connectors. We'll see what the main effects have been on the pipeline. We've increased order intake in smaller lines. We can see a very powerful growth in energy quality. To complete the picture for order intake, I'm going to refer to our most important markets. The 10 most important markets for Arteche in the first half year are United States, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, U.K., Turkey, France, Germany, Australia, and Canada. Therefore, we are very well diversified geographically. We can be comfortable from that point of view.
We move on to execution or turnover or sales, whatever we want to call it. We've said it a couple of times. We've exceeded our order intake goals. We mentioned EUR 300 million and EUR 250 million in revenue. This means that we're creating a portfolio. Book-to-bill is at 1.2 almost. The backlog is EUR 140 million. We're talking about practically seven months of turnover. Here we also have two points of view, a geographic point of view and a business point of view. In turnover, we have to consider the result of revenue has to do with the contracts in the second half of last year.
Last year, we had a very powerful growth in more traditional areas for Arteche such as Europe and North America, as shown here. This covers the four regions. Regarding revenue by businesses, again, this has to do with the order intake last year. There are two product lines that grow, and one is practically flat. We'll have to make an effort in the second half of the year for that second line of product, or automation line to grow. I'm going to move on to the next slide with such a few brushstrokes on our business pillars. The first business pillar, measurement and monitoring. Here, we're working hard to increase the capacity to be able to cover demand. We're in a demand market.
Our customers require more and more equipment with shorter deliveries. What we've done during the first half of the year is, first of all, to ensure capacity at our high voltage Asia plant, increase capacity at our Mexico plant, and we started to make investments in our plant in Mungia for the European market, although we won't see results until the second half of the year. From the point of view of products, we have developed a new line for the DC market. We have a new 600 kV DC transformer with a sustainable air insulation. We've also carried out electrification projects in Africa and Senegal with our auxiliary service transformers that we manufacture with a joint venture with Hitachi in our Vitoria plant.
We have the first sensor for 62 kV at Arteche, which is basically a more compact equipment with the associated electronics. In the second pillar, network automation. This has to do with R&D investments. We've already explained that we've made very powerful investments in the last 2 years. At the end of the year, we'll have 4 products in this family available. Right now, we're also making investments for ancillary equipment. We still have a year or 2 in front of us before it's available. We've worked on probably the largest digital substation called Guayubín in South America, and we continue with our investments in automation and manufacturing at our Madrid plant at Las Rozas.
Again, we've beaten a record with the number of units manufactured in the first six months with 300,000. The third pillar that Alex is going to explain more in detail has to do with grid viability. Here we've carried out most of the strategic activity. We've acquired 100% of a capacitor manufacturer in Madrid. We've created a joint venture with Mondragón Corporación for power systems and Teraloop, an acquisition we made last year. They've manufactured flywheels and we have FEDER funding for the Spanish electricity grid. Now I'll hand the floor back to Alex.
Thank you, Luis. As Luis said, we're going to take a small break in the grid business. One of the goals is this in the strategic plan. In the strategic plan, one of the goal was to grow, and in particular in RTR Energía, which means adapting the grid to renewable energy. We talked about network codes and storage, and in markets with a strong presence of renewables like Spain, Australia, United States, Brazil or Mexico, among others, where Arteche is strongly present and has been for a long time.
To achieve this growth, the aim was to strengthen our offer and capacities, and this is what's reflected in this sort of puzzle here. As many of you know, in the last few months, we've closed two operations and acquisition, as we said, which together with Teraloop last year supplements our offer, combining advanced technology, industrial capacity, and a differential value proposition.
All this puts us in an optimum position to make the most of the growth associated to the interconnection of converters to the grid. I'm going to dwell on some of the most important aspects in this slide, starting with 2024, which is the joining in Teraloop, which happened in the last quarter last year. Teraloop is a company that develops patented innovative technology based on flywheels. This solution is key to provide stability and inertia to electric systems, anticipating the challenges of future energy systems. During this first half of the year, we have announced the acquisition of 100% of the capital of RTR Energía, which is an acquisition that strengthens our value proposition.
We include industrial capacity with this company, and this reinforces in markets where we are also present, like the Middle East, Africa, and so on. Therefore, responding more closely and more flexibly, which, as we often say, is part of our value proposition and which what makes us different. RTR provides technology and specialized knowledge in capacitors, which is an essential component. Finally, there's AMETS, a joint venture together with Ikerlan and Mondragón. It's focused on developing innovative power solutions. This alliance is of fundamental strategic value because it's focused on meeting the future needs of the electric system, which, as we've said in the past, the world needs reliable, sustainable grids and especially the capacity to use the power of the system.
We bring together three key assets, the technological capacity of Ikerlan, which is a technological benchmark in the Basque area. Both Mondragón and Arteche, with its industrial proposition and our international brand, with over 1,500 utilities in the world. This combination of technology, production capacity, and access to the market puts us in an optimum position for growth in this business. With these inclusions, we are transforming, which was the goal, the profile of our grid business. We've integrated new industrial capacities, technological and commercial capacities, strengthening competitiveness and significantly increasing our potential growth potential. If we look at the slide when we established the strategic plan, and if we look at the top left, the potential market was estimated to be EUR 1 billion.
With the new inclusions of capacity and products with RTR, AMETS, and Teraloop, this potential market is multiplied by three or even four. The growth opportunity in this business in the short, medium, and long term is extraordinary. The most important thing, all these initiatives form part of the strategic plan we announced in the market a year and a half ago, and which have been meeting during this half. Having said this, I'll hand over to Ixone to explain the figures.
Well, thank you very much, Alex, and good morning, and thank you all for joining us on this conference call. Moving on to the next slide, after seeing the growth in volume, we have to talk about profitability. We start by showing the direct margin.
Those of you that follow us know that for us, it is the main indicator with which we measure the profitability of each of our businesses. Bearing in mind the sales price of our products, including all the costs from materials, personnel costs related to the personnel that works directly in manufacturing and other direct costs such as freight or fees, well, we're very satisfied with the positive situation where the direct margin has continued to improve each semester.
We closed the first semester in 2025 with a direct margin of 37.1%, which represents an improvement of 210 points compared with the first semester in 2024, an improvement of 510 points if we compare it with the closing of the year 2023, which was the starting point for this strategic plan, 2024-2026, that we're now working on. This improvement is a result of all the work done by the Arteche team and the various initiatives that we have been working on in the last few years and months that have given their fruit. In summary, I would say that it covers four lines of action, basically. Starting at the top with an effective price strategy, working on the product mix and controlling the commercial margin.
Operating efficiency is also very important. Process optimization, labor productivity, operation productivity. Thirdly, logistics management, material cost, the utilization of the supply chain, the supplier mix. Last but not least, everything that's related to the R&D&I activity and the launching of new products that are more competitive, more compact, more profitable. All this means that in absolute terms, the direct margin has gone up to EUR 94 million, which means an increase of 14.1% compared to the first half of last year. Moving on to the next slide, the EBITDA performance, where once again, we see how the EBITDA over sales ratio has continued to improve semester over semester, up to 15% over sales in this first semester of 2025.
This means an improvement of 400 points compared to the first half of 2024, and 350 points if we compare it with the complete last year. What's more important, this ratio reaches and improves on the guidance we gave in our strategic plan for 2026. The key, a sales volume marked by our good position in the sector and the ongoing improvement in operating productivity. We just mentioned the direct margin, but we've also improved our fixed cost ratio. We reach an EBITDA of EUR 38.4 million, which is an increase of 55.6%. We grow sales by 13.9%, and the direct margin by 14.1%, and EBITDA by 55.6%.
To finish with profitability or P&L, moving on to the next slide, we can see the trend in net results. We closed the first half of 2025 with an impressive increase in net profit 168.5% more compared to the same period last year. It stands at EUR 19.9 million. Last year for the full year, our profit was EUR 18.9 million, which means that in the first half of 2025, we have already improved on last year's complete figure. The key has been the development in the business, our operating capacity, our position in the market, which means that EBIT has grown by 63% and is 12% over sales.
Apart from the good trend in the business, we've also improved our financial results, our tax burden, and all this altogether has made it possible to improve these results by 168.5%. I'd also highlight or remind you that we paid out a dividend this year, 50% of the results for the previous year, meeting our commitment with regard to shareholder remuneration. To close the number side, we move on to the next slide to talk about debt and cash flow generation. On this slide, we have the usual chart showing how we go from the net financial debt to the closing of 2024 to the financial debt and the closing of this half with the main cash inflows and outflows. We start positively with cash generation.
First of all, we have the CapEx figure, EUR 7 million, 3% over sales. This CapEx is organic and includes maintenance investments, as well as investments related with R&D that Luis mentioned, and investments to increase our capacity. To give you a few broad strokes on the main projects we are carrying out this year, as well as everything that's related to R&D, which for us is a fundamental pillar, we're expanding our facilities in three geographies in Mexico, where we also have it in our strategic plan, but we're also improving our facilities in China and here in the Basque Country to cover the growing demand of the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions. After CapEx, we have financial expenses and tax, which represent 1.5%-3.4% over sales.
Finally, we have the cash flow needs for working capital. I'd like to remind you that in 2024, in spite of having increased our activity, we worked a great deal on our working capital flows, in spite of growing, we reduced the working capital needs with improvements in collections and inventory ratios. Well, during this first half of 2025, we continued to work along these lines, and we've continued to optimize our inventory days, which have been reduced a further 2 days after being reduced last year by 12 days. That's how we close the free cash flow, which is EUR 8.9 million positive, which means a conversion ratio of EBITDA to cash of 23%.
To close the cash flow, we have the cash outflows related to paying the dividend and the payments of the inorganic acquisitions I mentioned earlier. With all this, the debt is at EUR 37.3 million, which represents a debt ratio of 0.6 times EBITDA, which is a leverage ratio that allows us to continue to move forward with our inorganic plan. Finally, moving on to the right of the slide, a chart we usually show with the main sources of funding for our long-term debt. We continue to have a diversified debt. The bank debt is approximately 50% of our funding sources. Debt from institutional bodies around 40% and 10% from our bond program.
We continue with financial risk management, and that's why we have 76% of our loans at a fixed rate or are covered with an interest rate insurance, which means that the average cost of debt is around 3.5%, improving compared to the previous year. The average debt maturity is 3.6 years. Without bearing in mind that we have loans that still have been used amounting to EUR 29 million, that would increase this maturity to 4.6 years. In summary, we continue to strengthen our financial position with a focus on cash generation and diversification, cost, and the maturity of our financing. I hand back to Alex to talk to us about performance and sustainability.
Thank you, Ixone. On this slide, we include the view of the progress made with regard to the sustainability roadmap goals, which is an intrinsic part of our strategy, as you know, and our values. The main message on this slide is that we're moving forward and meeting the goals laid down in this plan. Ambitious goals that we're meeting as we can see by the improvement in the external certifiers that we use for transparency, but also to learn from others. EcoVadis this year has given us the silver rating in the top 15. CDP, which measures the carbon footprint, we have also improved our evaluation. I'm going to quickly run through the goals in this roadmap, starting with E, the environment, where our goal is to be a net zero carbon company.
The three main goals here are recycling and reutilization of materials. At the closing of the month, we have 76% with a goal of reaching 100% by 2030. Things are going very well. In renewables, we also want to be 100% renewable. We're also doing well in this area and reducing the carbon footprint, which is perhaps the most complex part. The goal is to reach 50%. We're at 35% this half. As you can see, there's been a drop compared to the half year last year, but this is because we're learning more, and we're including emissions that we didn't know about before, for example, field leaks, et cetera.
The message is that we're also making good progress, but it's more complicated here in the supply area. Under S, this is a priority. Arteche is a people company, and here we have two or three key objectives, I would say. Equal opportunities for the development of everyone. The indicator we measure is the number of women in management positions in the group. We have 31%. An industrial company, including all companies in the group in all countries. This, I think is a good indicator. It's higher than the value for the industry, but the goal is to reach 40%, so we still have a way to go. The other main goal is the safety of our personnel, getting home safe and sound.
We're making progress, and we attach a great deal of importance to this, and we're improving. Then also, training, where we're also moving forward and growing. Finally, governance, where we continue to grow towards transparency and ethics. We continue to work on the controls of the financial information and risk control, including all companies in the group, also the new inclusions, which means taking this to all plants in the world. With regard to governance, we've moved forward, and as we've done, we've applied the best practices to the board, the appointments and remuneration committee, and we've also adopted governance policies.
As I say very often, this is a long journey for us, for everyone, and we continue with the ambition of making sure that all ESG principles are integrated in everything we do. After reviewing this, we move on to what we believe the year will be like. We wanted to share an outlook on the closing for 2025. After starting the year with great uncertainty related to tariffs, and now to feel comfortable, we want to give an outlook of how the year could close. As you can see, our view is to close the year with sales of between EUR 500 million and EUR 515 million, and a EBITDA between EUR 72.5 million and EUR 77 million, and the EBITDA margin, which would be in a range between 14.5% and 15%.
This is ambitious, which means a growth in the range between 12% and 15% growth, an improvement in EBITDA between 40% and 50%, an improvement in profitability in EBITDA margin of over 300 points over last year. These would be very good results. Strategically, sales between EUR 520 million and EUR 514 million within an EBITDA margin of 12.5% for 2026. As you can see, and as I said at the beginning, several of these 2026 guidance metrics in our strategic plan would already have been exceeded. By the end of this year, we're going to update the new guidance for 2026. The strategic guidelines are still valid. Innovation, geographic business development, all that is still valid.
Therefore, the review is going to focus on updating the financial challenges and the measures that support them. Well, to summarize and to leave time for questions, we're going to quickly run through the conclusions for the semester, and I'm going to run through this very quickly. The first message is that we closed the first half of the second year of our 2024 plan with very good results and ahead of the objectives. The market continues to be strong, and we're making the most of the opportunities. We continue to grow in order intake and revenue, and we find that the market is still strong. The demand for power is growing globally, and the need to have a solid grid is more and more obvious.
All this together with a strategic plan at Arteche that enables us to make the most of those opportunities. The product margin, one of the pillars, as Ison said, in the plan and in our profitability, has improved by 200 basis points, and this is a result of the good efficiency cost R&D measures and the strategies that Luis mentioned earlier. EBITDA, as a consequence of all this, has improved versus the first half of the previous year. These indicators show the progress we're making in profitability. The return for the investor is another one of our pillars in the work we do, and it has increased 168% compared to the previous year.
This reinforces the commitment to great value and a value creation that the market is recognizing with an increase of more than 70%. Energy is a part of the strategic plan, and this year we've made key acquisitions and alliances. These acquisitions and alliances put us in an optimal position to grow in this business, providing value to the sector with solutions that make it possible to make a transition in a safe and reliable way towards renewable energy. In ESG, we've already mentioned the performance, but the summary is that we continue to move forward with our sustainability plan, with the goal of being a company that makes a difference.
To summarize, the first half of 2025 has been an excellent semester for a resilient Arteche, capable of adapting to changing situations with a position of reinforced leadership, thanks to product quality, the trust of its customers, the reinforcement of its pipeline, and with ambitious goals for the end of the year. With this, we conclude the presentation of the results and open the floor for any questions you might have. I will be delighted to try to clarify whatever's required.
Thank you very much, Alex. We start with the Q&A. As a reminder, if you want to ask a question, please push asterisk followed by five on your keyboard. For the time being, there are no questions over the phone, so we'll move on to the questions in the chat.
Miguel Medina asks us, is there any kind of earn-out or deferred payment in the purchase of RTR Energía? Second question, AMETS is 50/50. Do capital contributions have to be made?
Hello, Miguel. Thank you for the question. Well, it's two. First of all, RTR, no, there are no payments outstanding for the acquisition of RTR. The payout covers 100% of the acquisition. Regarding AMETS, yes, it's a shared control operation, 50/50, but we consolidated by a proportional contribution. Regarding the future contributions of capital with the initial contribution, that will kick off the activities in the coming months. In the future, it's possible that a greater investment may be required.
Thank you, Ixone. Well, we go back to the questions over the phone and move on to Robert Jackson.
I have several questions. The drop in order taking in North America and Mexico, is it mainly because of Mexico? There are several customers or competitors in North America that increasing their capacity and making investments in USA. Could these capacity increases be opportunities for you if they're some of your customers, or could it mean more competition in the local market? That's the first question.
Yes. Well, to give a little bit more color on what I said earlier. The figures in the United States have grown in order intake, I mean. They've grown in the first six months by around 18%. In Mexico, it's dropped by close to 25%. Basically, it depends on when the framework contracts come into play. For medium voltage, this was in June 2024, and it's been in July 2025. If we looked at the same figures for Mexico today, we would find that Mexico is positive again with around 5% growth. The figures in the United States, we would see that they are no longer as high, 8%, they've gone down a little bit.
It's true that during the months of March, April, May, with all the tariff issues, there was some anticipated buying. There's been strong growth in the American market. Although the focus has changed from renewables to more traditional energy, and the need to increase generating capacity is still there, and the market is still growing, so we're optimistic. Luis, if I may, Robert, if the snapshot for the half year would have been taken in July, the June effect in Mexico wouldn't have happened, and we would be growing North America at the expected rate because of the impact of the project dates and the increase in capacity in the North American market. Well, let's see. The matter of capacity. The North American market is growing.
It's growing a great deal in grids to meet what we said at the beginning, demand for electrification growth, et cetera, so that the electric system will be capable of covering everything that's needed reliably and safely. It's a powerful market. We're increasing our capacity in North America too, with new plants that are coming into operation this year. We've already done it with energy quality, we're doing it with medium voltage, and we're also working in high voltage. Regarding those that are customers, well, just the fact that their growth gives us the opportunity of growing with them. The case of Hitachi, for example. It's a matter of reacting to the market.
I think Robert is referring to the news that close to $1 billion are going to be invested in a power transformer plant. We work more in the area of instrumentation, which is different to power. Power transformers need instrumentation. The American market, as we explain, we work from Mexico, the main competition is Canadian. There isn't a national manufacturer, a North American competitor that's capable of covering the market internally. We keep an eye on the scenarios and the tariffs, but we're pleased with the results we're obtaining.
Thank you, Luis. Robert, do you have any other questions? Yes, I have two more. Regarding the margin, it's quite incredible that you've increased the margin so much.
Has there been a contribution from the acquisitions to this improvement in margins? And then sustainability. I imagine that the idea is to continue to improve, not as significantly as you've improved so far, but what's the room for possible improvements over the next year? Thank you. Hello, Robert. Let's see. Regarding the contribution of the acquisitions to the margin. Well, there isn't any yet this first half because RTR was acquired on June 15, if I remember correctly. The joint venture with Ikerlan Mondragón was also at the end of June. All the synergies that have to come from these operations, we'll start to see them in the second half of the year. Regarding the current margins, well, the fact is that we're comfortable with these profitability levels.
The direct margin has improved in all our businesses compared with the starting point, which was the closing of 2023, which was the kickoff for the strategic plan, and they are all making a positive contribution. That doesn't mean that we still don't have levers and opportunities for improvement. From internal efficiencies to the development of new products, redesigning ranges, more competitive products, more profitable products, including products in our portfolio that perhaps we're buying from third parties now. Also through fixed costs, we've always said that we're backing a model where fixed costs grow less than sales, and they've improved during this half of the year. There's still a way to go.
As Alex said, we've given an outlook for the end of the year, where we're going to have an EBITDA similar to the figure we saw for the first half, 14.5%-15%, and in the coming months, we will update the guidance for next year. The increase in margins is mainly because of efficiency in fixed costs. Therefore, we'll see the impact on the mix in the coming months. Well, Robert, the initiative that we call Total Cost Out includes the various activities that have to do with an improvement in the direct margin. This is something we have in our DNA, and every year, we have to continue to move forward.
Cost reduction goals are going to be there every year to improve material costs through price negotiations with suppliers or in particular, through product redesigns to make them more efficient. That's going to continue, and automation, robotization, et cetera, is also going to continue. We like our direct margin improvement, how can I say it? To be based on price improvements, increasing in efficiency and market volume. I would love for the distribution to be a third, a third, a third. A question on the EU regulation to improve the power grid in the European Union. Do you see changes coming in the next few months? With the work done by the commission, the annexes are still to be signed. Could this have a relevant impact on your business?
Bring about a change process, or don't you see that? Well, Robert, as we've said very often, we're at a time globally where the decarbonization trends mean the electrification of a large part of the economy, of the consumption, and that means having an electric grid or an electric system that is flexible, digital, where the integration of renewables is reliable. Everything we've said so many times is what's being regulated. For us, it's a necessity for the power system, and that's the world we're in. We see a stable source of growth for the coming years. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Robert.
Thank you, Robert. We go back to the questions on the chat. Nicolás Ría from Kutxabank congratulates us on the results. Thank you, Nicolás, for that. It's quite long. I'm gonna take it by sections. The first part has been answered. At what rate has the market grown in the first half? Good question. It depends on what AI you ask. In our strategic plan, we said that the market was going to grow between 4%-7%, more or less. The reports that we found on the Internet say that it's grown a little bit less in the first half, 3 point something. We might say that the market has grown in the first half by around 4%. But it's a home-cooked figure, let's say. Well, the next question about Order intake.
Do you think it has increased because the fear of Trump's tariffs or because of the seasonality in Mexico? Well, it's true that there were a couple of months where order intake went up a little bit. Then it's flattened. The situation now is more or less calm with double-digit growth in the U.S. Those order intake peaks are over as a result of the tariffs. The next is about HVDC. Can you talk to us about this product, HVDC? Are we seeing it in the figures, or is it still residual?
Well, the OptiX systems that we use for direct current, to give a better context, direct current processes are used in those facilities where the distance is very large. In enormous countries like Canada or Brazil or Russia or United States. On the other hand, we also use them in offshore projects for underwater cables. The strategy in DC has been to align with the major DC supplier projects, very large multinationals that do offshore projects or interconnections between countries or large transmission lines.
We've developed a product line, a standard product line in the last two years, and the figures we're having for DC in the first six months, I think around EUR 10 million-EUR 12 million, more or less. It's starting to be a product line that is becoming more and more significant, and there's also an advantage we like, and that is that the view is very long-term.
We have information on what's going to happen, the projects that are going to be carried out in the next 3, 4, 5 years. Thank you, Luis. We move on to the final one from Nicolás Ría on capital allocation. He asks, "After the acquisition of RTR, can we expect more inorganic operations short-term?" Well, I think this one's for me. As I said at the beginning, as you know, the strategic plan considers organic and inorganic growth to reinforce our position in businesses, as we've done over the last few months. We also have the geographic areas and footprints in important markets for us, like Asia or the United States. All this together with an organic growth, which is driving the activity.
We're working both organically and inorganically, and we're working with a pipeline to reinforce the capacities I mentioned in the beginning. As I've said very often, we need to think about what we do, make sure it fits, and make sure it creates value for Arteche and for the shareholders. Are we going to see other operations? Well, we're working on it, but we're not rushing things. The projects need to fit in, and that's what we're working on. Whether they'll be short-term or not, it depends. We have things in the pipeline, but when they're going to happen, well, we'll see.
Thank you, Alex. We don't have much time left, so I'm going to summarize. We have a question from Laura Ojer from El Español. Going back to the situation in the U.S., can you give us a forecast on the growth of the power system because of the inclusion of data centers, and could this bring new opportunities for the Arteche business?"
Thank you, Laura. Well, let's see. Electrification, as I said at the beginning, is generating an increase in demand. Data centers, since they are major energy consumers, and the connection of data centers to the grid makes a demand on the system for more capacity, and that capacity has to be provided by the grid. So therefore, data centers are an element that generates opportunities, of course. Data centers also require storage, and they require stability and inertia and are very obviously have an effect on the power market.
It's a growing opportunity for us. We move on to the final questions that are basically all on the continuous market. Alex Arteche, our investors ask if we have the intention of going to the continuous market or are we going to wait to reach EUR 2 billion in capitalization? Well, that's the question I'm often asked. The goal for 2024-2026 is to create value for the company and the shareholders. As we said from the beginning, since Arteche went out on the market when we did the IPO in 2021, the aim was to continue to grow. I've answered the question of when that will be.
It will depend on value creation, the moment in the market, the moment at the company, and of course, the interest of the shareholders. We're on the path, but it's still early to know when. Well, thank you very much. With that, we conclude the Q&A, and I hand over to Alex for closing. Well, thank you very much, as usual, for joining us and for sharing your time with us. Over the next few days, we'll be on the roadshow, explaining things live. Our investor relations department will be available as usual for any more questions you may have. I look forward to seeing you again soon. Once again, thank you very much for joining us and in particular for backing our project, which is exciting.