Apologies for the English translation, which apparently got disconnected. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have questions, please press 0one on your keypad. First question from Stéphane Benhamou of BNP Paribas. I have two questions, please. First of all, those are good results, but it seems that your guidance seems rather prudent. That's my first question. Now, with electrical distribution trending upwards strongly, can you tell us what you expect to see in terms of margins? I don't know if we're being so, so prudent. In fact, if you look at sales, in fact, a year ago, the first quarter had been relatively low, it's true. It's true that it's difficult to predict across the year. As Luke has said, the situation in Ukraine could perhaps have an impact on process industries, so perhaps that explains our prudence.
Now, electrical distribution in the U.S., the margins are good. We were actually quite surprised at the growth levels. In the previous years, growth picked up very well there. Overall, there has been inflation in salaries and raw materials. There was an effort made to pass on those price hikes. We are still in the startup of the Columbia site, which is not yet at full capacity. Those are some of the factors that mean that we are announcing that bracket for growth. Thank you. I have another question. Sorry, there's some background noise. What about Russian gas? If the cost of gas rises deeply, what might be the impact? We spoke about this in March. We do not have many plants that would be affected by that.
I think it's really European citizens who will be impacted, and in China. For me, it's more about, probably, I mean, of course, you know, the German market could suffer, so that's why it would be an indirect impact. We do have to keep an eye on what happens in Germany due to their dependence on Russian gas. As concerns a direct effect, no. You talked about your order intake, and you said the trends were good. Could you say a few words about the demand side? How do you see things evolving? We are getting orders now for 2023 in SiC, for example. In 2022, you know, we're quite confident for the year, as concerns the electric vehicles market, solar as well.
It is true that we have decided to keep a rather narrow range of supply there to concentrate our efforts. At the same time, for the United States, we have seen very strong growth. We do not expect that to last forever, but it is very satisfying to see that growth. Europe is holding up well. There is some tension, a bit of, you know, pressure to supply. The clients fully understand the situation. In Mersen, we have rarely seen both business segments and all of our geographies working so well across the board. It is a very favorable environment for us right now. Thank you very much. Thomas Renault, question? Hello, everyone. I have several questions. First of all, the price effect for the quarter.
You mentioned a 2%, 3%, 2% positive price increase, whereas you had said that you expected it to be about 1.5% for the entire year. What about order intake? Is that pretty much in line with your expectations? Another question, concerning your guidance on sales. You talked about process industries trending well. There had been some uncertainty due to the rail market, I believe. Are things in line with your forecasts? A final question. On the closing of the plant in China, could you say more about any—was it a solar, a plant for the solar market, or you talked about 24 million in sales? As concerns the prices, yes, we announced that we would be raising the prices. N-n but we did raise prices more than we had originally announced. How—and so our guidance isn't really going to change there.
The transport market is recovering. As for order intake, we are at five months backlog, whereas at the same period last year, we were at two months backlog. Luke, China in the first quarter—the interpreter apologizes. The sound is very bad coming from the room. Shanghai, of course, has been impacted. That mostly concerns the chemicals market, but also the wind energy market, and then power electronics and semiconductors. They have never been stopped, in fact. There are good deliveries for the solar market. Now, some of the sites that had a slowdown will be able to make up for the delays in the coming months. We do not expect an overall negative impact, but we do have to keep an eye on it. The situation is improving, and all four sites are operating.
You asked another question about the guidance about the rail market. That is picking up, but we are seeing positive signs. It's not that big a market for us. This often concerns our process industries. Here again, we have to be careful. It's the European and US markets where we're seeing some pickup in rail. I have another question about electric vehicles. What about any new qualifications? Is everything still going according to plan? Yes. We have a marker where we are delivering pre-series. That was important for us to get off to a good start with them, and it should pick up in 2023. The others are well underway. We're also working on batteries, as we've said before. Some of this is for the long term, 2024, 2025. Nothing particular to report here, certainly nothing negative.
Mm-hmm. We're doing a lot of price estimates. All right. Thank you very much for your answer. Next question, Jean-François Grosjean from ODDO BHF. Hello, everyone. I would like to ask more about the mix. Are you expecting to see a better product mix, particularly in electrical distribution? You've mentioned your price rise. Do you expect to see any dilutive effect on the margins? I mean, we know that the price changes will change the top line, but what will be the impact on margins for the group? I have another question. You said you don't expect too much indirect impact from the Ukrainian war. In the next years, what will make Mersen resilient? That could help you weather through a general economic slowdown. Could you also tell us about CapEx? You announced your levels of investment.
Tell us what, what you're planning for. CapEx, we've said that, 85 million in 2022. 2023, perhaps, not at the same level, but we're certainly in line according to our plans for investments. I'm not sure what more we can say about that. You know, of course, for that, we are faced with some challenges receiving some equipment when we place orders. That's the case for everyone. As concerns pricing, you know, there's some orders have already been placed, and are now being delivered. The impact of the price increases may, in fact, be felt a bit later, but we're already seeing a positive impact from that. I think we can expect, overall for the year, 3 percentage points gained thanks to price rises. Yes, as concerns raw materials, yes, there's a dilutive effect on the margins, so you're quite right.
We try to think in a more global manner. From the beginning, we've been saying, and in the guidance, you know, we have said what we would be doing. You know, for now, things are going as planned. We will have to see just how far we can go with those price increases. As concerns the mix, it is pretty much the same as last year. You asked about that, so there has been no strong mix effect compared with last year. I think there was another question about general economic downturn. Of course, we are not immune to such things, you know, but we are on dynamic markets, such as the semiconductor markets, and so we can absorb that.
Of course, if there's a sharp decline, that will be a different story for everyone. It will depend just how steep an economic decline we could all be faced with. We are present in industries that are quite resilient. We are not seeing any warning signs at this stage. I hope that answers your questions. You know, we have had shots and booster shots, and we would like to feel that we're immune. I mean, we've been working a long time to be more resilient. You know, being in solar and semiconductors and electric vehicles, all of those are promising sectors. Rail is being promoted greatly across Europe and the United States even. All right. Thank you for your answers. Are there any other questions? If so, please press zero one.
Hello. I have a question. Coming back to process industries, what's your order log look like? What are the amounts? Can you give us a little background? In general, what are the cycles, for example? Is it really from month to month that you see changes? I don't have the figures, but I think we've currently about a three-month backlog in process industries. There is always a certain lag effect between the orders and the billing, sorry, in process industries. It depends where. Some things move more quickly in the United States and in China than they do in Europe. We are working with the end customers, so we do get the information quite quickly. You know, certainly from quarter to quarter, you know, we can see the trends.
You know, we can see when clients are ramping up certain projects, and we keep an eye on their, you know, their communication, their press releases, etc. It's true that, in process industries, you know, the turnaround time can be fairly quickly, but for semiconductors, that can be longer. There can be longer lead times a bit in solar as well. Coming back to your guidance, do you expect to see yourselves more at the top of the bracket, or the bottom end of the bracket? In particular, we're, you know, we do have to keep an eye on the general economy, which may be impacted by the war. You know, we've seen strong recovery. Some areas are less stable than others. You know, we're quite happy with the recovery, but, you know, sometimes things might pick up quickly and then recontract, so.
You know, the automotive industry, for example, can be a bit volatile. You know, and we've had some very positive, some good surprises, for this first quarter. And, particularly in areas where we have strong margins. A final question about margins. Is there a difference from one half year to another, typically? Generally, with a bit more, sales are a bit higher in the first half of the year. That is rather typical. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. If you have any further questions, please press 01. Apparently, there are no further questions. Thank you all for joining us. We will next publish our half-year results on July 29th. Have a good evening. That is the end of our conference. Thank you very much.