Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Q4 2022 earnings conference call of Evonik Industries AG. Throughout today's recorded call, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. After a short introduction by the management, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, you may press Star followed by one on your touchtone phone. Please press the Star key followed by zero for operator assistance. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tim Lange, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon here from Essen, on a busy day for us, with our annual press conference already in the morning, and also a busy day, especially for you with lots of companies reporting. We'll kick off right away and also make sure that we finish early enough for the next call. I hand over directly to Christian.
Great. Thanks a lot, Tim, welcome and thanks for joining us here from my side. Today's call, I dare saying it's a special one because it is the 37th for Ute, and at the same time, it is her last one. For the last six years as CEO, I had the pleasure, and it is still one. I had the pleasure to have her by my side, not only here during these calls, but also during our management and internal meetings. She has not only made a major contribution to these calls and meetings, but also to the commercial success and strategic development of the whole company, of the entire crew of Evonik. We all owe her a great debt of gratitude. I personally wish her all the best for her private and professional future. Ute, your expertise will be missed.
The expertise you have also proven in the last year with a multitude of challenges we have faced, mainly because of the geopolitical situation. Having said so, ladies and gentlemen, let's skip to chart number four. We faced supply chain hurdles. We had to cope with more than 80 force majeure at our suppliers in the month of February alone. We faced energy supply shortages unheard of before, with full gas cut in Germany. We faced inflation, which led to an increase of more than EUR 2 billion of variable costs within a single year. We prepared ourselves early, reacted fast, and faced the challenges quick. Consequently, we closed the year 2021 with an EBITDA increasing 4% year-on-year to a level of EUR 2.5 billion.
We delivered a strong finish on free cash flow, generating more than EUR 600 million in the last quarter alone. Even more importantly, ladies and gentlemen, the year 2022 stood for the significant progress to prepare Evonik for the future in Germany, in Europe, and the world. Let me walk through with the different dimensions. We are progressing well in streamlining our portfolio. We are at an advanced stage of negotiations for the divestment of our Lülsdorf site as the first of three deals in Performance Materials. For superabsorbents, the second deal, we'll start the divestment process within the next days and send out the teaser for interested parties. Moving on with another critical, if not the most critical element for the future of our company on chart number seven.
Year after year, we get closer to our sales target of more than EUR 1 billion to be generated by our six innovation growth fields. In the last year, we already achieved more than EUR 600 million. Sustainable nutrition like Veramaris or cosmetic solutions like our liposome delivery systems have shown the strongest growth over the last year. To keep this innovation growth engine running, we invested accordingly last year. In times of disruption of global supply chain, strong regional footprints and serving customers from all local bases is becoming a critical success factor for us. Our balanced regional approach is reflected in three investment projects in the three key regions. You already know the new lipid production site in the United States and the biosurfactant factory in Slovakia. On top, we recently announced an important investment in Yokkaichi, Japan.
The facility will be the first ammonia plant in Asia, focusing on the production of specialty solutions for battery technologies used in e-cars. We'll spend a mid-double-digit EUR million amount. Due to the sustainability benefits and the job creation in the region, the project is partly funded by the Japanese government. Construction starts this year to become operational in 2025. We at Evonik aim to differentiating growth, this must come from structural growth areas which show a certain independence from macro trends, just like our Next Generation Solutions. While this product stood for 37% of group sales in 2020, they now already represent 43% of our portfolio. With the average above average, ladies and gentlemen, excuse me, just I want to underpin that the message will meet you right.
With a above average growth rate, they will generate more than half of Evonik sales by 2030. in other words, the direction is also clear regarding our footprint reduction. We announced our new CO2 targets on Scope one and two at the Capital Markets Day in May last year and made further progress in 2022, achieving a reduction of 6%. As promised, we also worked out new quantitative targets for water and waste since then, which I'm happy to present on this slide today. One important pillar of the CO2 reduction path is to switch to renewables for e-electricity we source externally. In the last month, we signed two sizable PPA agreements with ENBW for a total of 150 MW.
This will enable us to cover one third of our European electricity needs from 2026 onwards. With other partners in Asia and in the United States, we are working towards electricity portfolio to 100% purchased from green sources by 2030. This is a major step for us. It makes us fully independent from fossil fuels, and it gives us more visibility, and therefore security related to energy prices going forward. Ladies and gentlemen, strict budget discipline is also key to counter the high inflation environment. Our ongoing benchmarking initiatives enable us to strive for an important cost position since years, and therefore it is of importance. For improved cost position since years. On top, mid of 2022, we started to take precautions with some short-term contingency measures.
They will amount to EUR 250 million for this year and already have an effect since the start of the year. Taking these initiatives all together, I am happy to report that Evonik is in a strong position to leverage growth opportunities on the one side, but also to limit risks on the other side. With this, we are well prepared for the future of specialty chemicals in Germany, in Europe, and in the world. This was my brief strategic introduction. Now Ute will share some more light, give you some more light on the full year and Q4 of the last year. With this, I do hand over to Ute.
Thank you, Christian, and good day from my side as well. Today is my last conference call with Evonik. I always appreciated the interaction with you. Your questions, your input, analysis, and reports are always helping us to question ourselves and to make Evonik even a better company. Therefore, I would like to thank you for your invaluable time you have dedicated to us and in particular for the trust you have placed in me over the last 10 years. Let me now start my part with chart 15 as a good summary of the year, which was characterized by two completely different halves. In the H1 of 2022, we recorded a record EBITDA, pushed by strong volumes and the accelerating pricing campaigns of our specialty businesses. Free cash flow, however, was heavily burdened by the outflows for net working capital.
In the H2, EBITDA weakened month by month. Although we were still successful in passing on prices, we were unable to stem the significant decline in volumes. On the free cash flow side, our strict net working capital management has proven to turn out very successful. We were able to generate cash again in Q3 and finished the year with an all-time high for quarterly free cash flow. Our focus on reducing inventories in Q4 was positive for the free cash flow, but in return, the destocking led to under absorption of fixed costs with an equivalent negative effect on EBITDA. Most likely, we will again be confronted with a year of two different halves in 2023. This time it will be just the other way around.
Let me skip slide 16 and 17 and go directly to the Q4 performance of our divisions on slide 18. All divisions faced volume declines in Q4, but the magnitude was especially pronounced at Specialty Additives, reflecting heavy customer destocking. Still, the division was again best in class in terms of resilience, posting an EBITDA increase of 4% quarter-over-quarter. Our strong pricing initiatives countered lower volumes and higher variable costs. In Nutrition & Care, we saw a mixed picture in Q4. Health Care delivered the expected catch-up in Q4 after the disappointing Q3 with several supply chain issues. Care Solutions continued its strong and resilient track record. They have grown EBITDA by 20% last year, which is even above the already impressive 15% CAGR over the last 5 years. Animal Nutrition had to deal with ongoing customer destocking.
Prices have seen the expected step down while raw material costs remained high for the time being. Additionally, lower utilization rates of our plants resulted in lower fixed costs absorption for the Q4. In Smart Materials, the positive top line was not reflected in the earnings. Broad-based weakness of demand led to a clear volume decline. This became especially visible with shutdowns at our two HPPO plants. The downturn in construction and white goods directly affected our customers in the PU foam industry. Additionally, EBITDA was impacted by inventory effects and higher logistic costs. High Performance Polymers stood out positively, posting double-digit volume growth with pent-up demand materializing. With our new capacities for PA-12 finally up and running since the beginning of this year, this is good news for the market. Performance Materials had another solid quarter with stable sequential earnings.
All three businesses have shown a more or less stable performance. In the C4 business, the last quarter was impacted by longer maintenance, so the seasonal volume decline in Q4 was not as strong as normally. Additionally, spreads, especially in MTBE and Butene-1, have held up quite well. Q1 is expected to show a clear sequential decline in C4 spreads and weak demand. On the accounting side, the most recent goodwill impairment test led to a write-off of the remaining goodwill of EUR 300 million for the division. The main driver was a change in our assumption on energy price levels in the next couple of years, as we expect elevated levels to persist going forward. With that, I hand back to Christian for the 2023 outlook.
Thanks a lot, Ute. It is no secret, ladies and gentlemen, that global economic growth will be a weaker one in this year in comparison to previous years. How and when global demand will pivot to the positive, that is the big question. Our assumption is that the weak economic momentum from year-end 2022 will continue into the Q1 of this year with a successive recovery thereafter. That means that the 1st quarter will most likely not be better than the last quarter of the last year, followed by a successive upturn in our business from the Q2 onwards. For the full year, we are targeting an adjusted EBITDA between EUR 2.1 billion and EUR 2.4 billion. Earnings from Animal Nutrition and Performance Intermediates will be clearly lower year-on-year.
In Animal Nutrition, we expect the market from a signing to grow again. We also expect prices to normalize noticeably following the strong prior year. Declining raw material and logistic costs will be supportive in the H2 of this year, just as further efficiency improvements in the business. For Animal Nutrition and Performance Materials combined, we have assumed a decline in total of around EUR 400 million for the full year 2023 in EBITDA at the midpoint of our guidance range. This means, in other words, that our specialty businesses, Specialty Additives, Smart Materials, and Health & Care, should prove resilient in this year. This will be supported by the positive contribution from the new PA-12 plant.
Our EUR 250 million contingency measures, a clearly less negative EBITDA in the Technology & Infrastructure division, declining raw material prices in combination with our strong pricing power. On energy costs, based on our long-term hedging strategy, we are now assuming a slide increase of only EUR 100 million. This is EUR 200 million less than our last assumption back in November. Overall, we think these are prudent assumptions underpinning our outlook range for this year. On free cash flow, we expect a higher number versus last year, both in absolute terms and in cash conversion. With that, thank you so far for your interest. Now we are happy to take your questions, and we feel free to be plastered by those of you. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask the question may press star followed by one on their touch-tone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star followed by two. In the interest of time, please limit yourself to two questions per company. If you're using speaker equipment today, please lift the handset before making your selections. Anyone who has a question may press star followed by one at this time. Please hold while we collect your questions. Our first question comes from Matthew Yates with Bank of America. Please go ahead, sir.
Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. A couple of questions. The first one on the additives division, which achieved broadly flat profit on a 20% volume decline quarter-over-quarter. That's quite a remarkable achievement. I know it's a relatively asset light business, so perhaps it makes sense that there isn't too much margin volatility. In an environment where demand is seemingly so bad, how are you feeling about defending pricing going into 2023? The second question, I'd like to ask a little bit more about, I think it was slide 12 and the contingency measures, in particular, the half that seems to relate to personnel costs.
Are you not worried that cutting so much cost is gonna have a negative impact on the business development in terms of revenue opportunities, or your ability to attract and retain talented employees in due course? Thank you.
Hi. I take the second question. Have a look, I guess I dare say really that we, in respect of implementing and executing contingency measures, we are really used to it. Used to it since 2020. During the pandemic, we have shown that we are able to tackle our cost positions in a decent and disciplined way to bring them down, and on the other side, to grow, in particular in our three specific growth divisions. In other words, we are familiar with those instruments. We know how to treat them. We know how to deal with them. I dare say, to sum it up, I dare saying that in this respect, we are really professionals.
On the other side, don't forget that we will build up, that we will enhance our staff in respect of our innovation teams, that in respect of our supply chain management. Here the focus is on the administrational areas, and that is so dare saying a fair assumption that we are able because of our experiences we've made in the past with this amount of countermeasures. To give you a good feeling, we are really. Let me say it like this. I will confirm my confidence that we will be able to realize those EUR 250 million. With this, I hand over to Ute.
Yeah. Hello, Matthew. On your question on Specialty Additives. In Q4, we had numerous effects. We had force majeures and other things. I think that volume development has very specific reasons, not only driven by the economy. Overall, I think they really benefited very much from raising prices that went through the whole year. Of course, they kept on rising prices also in the H2. Of course, all the positive developments also were a little bit back-end loaded. Overall, the division of course is very much benefiting from the energy transition. A lot of the product from them go into sustainability-driven applications, energy resource efficient applications. From that point of view, I think they have a very good underlying driving forces for the business.
Q4 was a number of several effects, so I would not over interpret into those numbers.
Okay. Thank you both.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Chetan Udeshi with JPMorgan. Please go ahead. Mr. Udeshi, you can go ahead. Your line is now open.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you.
Okay. I was just asking about Q1 comment that Q1 EBITDA will probably most likely be below Q4 levels. I mean, usually the seasonality is that, you know, Q1 tends to see better trends versus Q4. I'm just curious what is holding back the, you know, development? I guess, you know, methionine is the obvious one, but are you not seeing any sort of pickup or seasonal recovery in any of your divisions in terms of demand yet? just coming back to this division, T&I, it just feels like every quarter we expect a lower number or lower loss, and somehow that division ends up with a higher loss. I'm just curious, I think in the guidance also, you are assuming a lower loss for 2023.
What's going on in that division, which is resulting in a consistently worse, loss in this division, at least in the last, few quarters, I think? Thanks.
Hi, Chetan. I take the first question. Udo will take the second one. I'm about current trading and the outlook for the Q1. To sum it up, key messages that the destocking of our customers is still continuing. However, this trend is what we do observe as of today, slowly reverting. Volumes are picking up again month by month and I guess some of our customers have maybe rather overstretched their destocking policy, so that the inventory levels of them seems to be a little bit already too low. Nevertheless, it is that our order books, having said so, have started to improve. We expect them starting to improve from March onwards.
On the one side, we see still higher raw material costs, but there is a stabilization or even a decline, recognizable for most of our raw material prices, which will still become visible. Here, sum it up, we are more optimistic, or let me say less skeptical for a pickup already in the Q2 of this year. That is also pretty well underpinned by the, let me say, structural growth drivers of our specialty divisions in our portfolio. They are not as much tackled by, let me say, the cyclical than the cyclical businesses in this particular period during the Q1. With this, I hand over to Ute.
Chetan, hello. Your question on T&I in Q4. First of all, you have to see T&I very much is an internal service provider. So of course then, the results are also then distributed internally if they have surpluses or even, you know. I think EBITDA also is very much linked to internal cost reconciliation. Q4, again, had higher costs for the power plants. You know that we run the coal-fired plants, which are relatively old, so there is a lot of maintenance to do and all these things, and that is not always plannable. Also energy purchasing, unrelated now to the energy spot market. As I said, there is some volatility in that redistribution internally. Additionally, we had in Q4 a one-time effect from our tariff result, the negotiations with the unions.
We have a one-time payment to our employees. That was all accounted for in Q4. As T&I is the division with the most of the employees, of course, they see it the most. I think that are the main drivers for the somewhat worse Q4 number. Going forward, of course, they will also deliver into the contingency measures that will have a positive effect. The negative one time effect restart of coal-fired plants and so forth should not reoccur in this year.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Gunther Zechmann with AB Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Hi. I've got a question for Ute, please, which comes with my thanks and my best wishes for the future as well. It's on the cash flow guidance for 2023. I'd like to test you a little bit on that, please. You've done 32% cash conversion from EBITDA in the year just passed, and previously you structurally guided for the business being capable of a cash conversion of at least 40%. You highlighted all the factors that drove that lower cash conversion this year. Shouldn't a lot of that unwind, assuming we're not seeing another black swan event or a number of black swan events this year, i.e., working capital release? You've been quite strict on the CapEx discipline as well.
Shouldn't we think about 40% of the structural capability of the Evonik business today, and then we see some working capital inflow on top of it that would get closer to 45% conversion rate? Any comments in that regard would be appreciated, please.
I think if you look at the overall net working capital development in 2022, it's still a significant build up. We had this very dedicated initiative to bring inventories and working capital down, there was still a significant build up in working capital in 2022. For 2023, of course, you could assume that working capital reverses. Of course, on the other side, we still see in some of the markets, logistic constraints. They get less and less, but they're still there. Raw material availability, these are all things that are not completely away. They do not completely disappear. From that point of view, 2023 still could have some elevated working capital compared to an ideal world. We also have higher CapEx.
You have seen that we have some EUR 75 million now for the Next Generation Technologies for our sustainability footprint improvement. That of course comes on top. You see also, we see some economic headwinds in the year, and that all of course weighs against a high cash conversion. I think our guidance is ambitious and of course, it's a very clear target of the board to get to the 40% cash conversion very, very soon.
Thank you. Just to be clear, to follow up on the working capital, where do you expect to be at year-end? I know it's a bit difficult to say at this point of the year, but compared to the 16% of sales last year.
That depends on so many variables. I think you understand that I cannot give you a serious number on that. Our target is clear, but I think to really say where it is, that depends on many, many, influencing factors.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Sebastian Satz with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. I'm afraid they're both on methionine, actually. The first one would be, could you please help us quantify the headwind that you've had from lower methionine pricing in the Q4? Assuming that prices stay where they currently are, how much of a headwind should we pencil in for 2023, please? The second question is on the portfolio. Just wondering how committed you really are to the methionine business. High volume, not necessarily specialty business. Appreciate you're probably quite busy with the Performance Materials disposal. Is there a scenario where methionine might not be part of your portfolio a few years down the line? Thank you very much.
Hi, Sebastian. I take the second question about the portfolio and let's keep it like this, two letters, one message in respect of if methionine should stay as one of our portfolio elements or not. The answer to your question is, as mentioned, two letters, one message, "No, it will stay." About the business and the business quality. As you know, we are still the market leader, and we are here the cost leader. To extend and expand this position, we have decided to invest in the backward integration of our methionine plant in Mobile with methyl mercaptan.
We have decided to invest in the debottlenecking in Singapore. For sure is that we will benefit from this investment in the near future, from the near future onwards already. That is what will help us to foster and to enhance the quality of this cash contributor for our business and for helping to invest in our specialty divisions. With this clear message, I hand over to Ute.
On the influencing factors in Q4, I think on the price side, that was relatively okay. You have to see, of course, with the rise in raw material prices, the contribution margin very much under pressure, and this is what we saw. From that point of view, I think we've done already efficiency and cost programs in our Nutrition & Care. I think for this year, when we look at our contingencies, of course, they also will have to contribute a decent portion into that. Going forward, what we see now with gas prices again, lower, there is a clear chance that on the raw material side, we get some now less headwind, name it that way.
We also have to see that new capacities will come into the market later in the year. Of course, that will then have an influence on the prices. Again, for us, it's really now the combination, price development and cost development and the variable costs. Here we have some relief, I think, in the next couple of months. This is how we look at Animal Nutrition. Overall, Nutrition & Care, we have positive development in Health & Care. We also outlined that in our outlook. Of course, then for Animal Nutrition, we see pressure on the earnings overall.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Martin Roediger with Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my question. I've actually a follow-up question on Nutrition & Care. If I factor in the EUR 200 million drag from Animal Nutrition and higher earnings in Health Care, it seems that ROCE of that segment this year will be rather low, and thus you will not be able to earn the cost of capital. Do you think you need some structural cost cuttings in Nutrition & Care, and particularly in Animal Nutrition on top of the contingency measures? That's the first question. The second question is on the depreciation and amortization charges. Putting aside the impairments, the D&A charges jumped sequentially by EUR 60 million from Q3 to Q4. The biggest step-up was in Smart Materials, but also in Performance Materials and Nutrition & Care. Can you provide some color about the background?
I mean, there was a EUR 9 million step-up from PPA, the remainder is unclear to me. Thank you.
Hi, Martin. I take the first question about if there is need to have an additional cost-cutting initiative in our Animal Nutrition business. Just, I guess you can read my thoughts about it, because that is what we have decided to do during our last meeting of the extended board of directors. We will have an cost-cutting program, and we will have additional cost-cutting initiatives in our Animal Nutrition business just to better our cost positions and to be prepared for a future growth in this business line. Yes, we will do so. Yes, we have started several initiatives. Yes, we are discussing these initiatives in the board of directors.
Yes, if you assume we will come across with some more content, with some more beef about it during the next weeks, I guess you are right. This is the answer to the first question, and Ute will take the second. Ute.
Absolutely. Martin, what you observed is very much a consequence of accounting phenomenon. You might be aware that we had to do an asset value test as our market cap is lower than the book value of equity. From that point of view, we had to really revalue all, or assess all our assets worldwide. There were some smaller adjustments needed that sometimes, also a function of country risk factors and all these. That is a number of different influencing factors. In PM, of course, it was our Lülsdorf assessment, where we had to take a look at the assets in preparation of the sale. That's why we took an asset impairment also there in Lülsdorf. That's what you see in PM.
The others are in the other divisions are spread around the world, smaller amounts and, a result of this asset value test that is obligatory, mandatory under IFRS.
Yeah. Thanks. All the best for you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Andreas Heine with Stifel. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my question. I start with some clarification on the cost savings. Are these EUR 250 million on top of the EUR 100 million you have mentioned in Q3, the contingency members? Are these 250 lasting cost savings? Nothing of that temporary. That's my first question. The second actually is on pricing. Pricing will be higher quarter-over-quarter in Q1, but how does it look sequentially? How sticky are the pricing? I'm only referring, obviously, to the specialty division, so not talking about C4 and methionine. But the rest, how is the pricing there? If I may can squeeze in a third one, you were rather short in discussing what you think about the exit of C4.
It was mentioned that Performance Materials should be exited in 2023. That would include C4. Maybe you can highlight, shed some more light how you see the disposal process of the C4 valuation. Thanks.
First question is a simple one because the answer is no. Second question seems to be more, let me say, interesting, and that goes therefore to Ute.
Thank you very much.
I will take the third one.
When we look at the start of the year, despite weaker volumes, we were able to increase prices further. We have some slight price increases as well. We have no declines that we see on a broader basis. For the year overall, of course, when raw material prices, when energy prices fall, of course, there will be a discussion on the prices that had been written just on the back of these effects. It's also possible that there is a positive, and that's what we also are working towards, a temporary positive gap. You might remember it took some time when costs were rising until we had the prices in store. Now we might see the reversal of that as we will protect our pricing as long as possible.
Of course, we will see over the year that prices of course, will then be adjusted on the input cost on one end. In some of our segments, we have that automatically, you know that. Of course, in accordance now with volume and demand development.
As promised, I take your third question, I take your question as an invitation to give you something like a roundup of our planned divestment. First about Functional Solutions. Here we are in negotiations I would describe as already far advanced. In respect of Baby Care, we do see a really improved market dynamic, we will have better and therefore positive financial outlook, better results for 2023. The divestment process will be started at short notice. In other words, the teaser will be sent out to the interest parties during the next couple of days. In respect of Performance Intermediates, so-called the C4 chain. The carve-out process is progressing as planned, it is pretty well on track.
We have internally defined the carve-out parameters and the asset structure is already largely clarified. Here we are on good track too. Let's see what the year is going to bring. In the meanwhile, we will monitor, we will observe, we will analyze the M&A market closely, and then let's see. One thing you can take for granted, one thing is dead certain, we are not at all under pressure. On the other side, we are keen on getting those disposals for a good price done in this year.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Thomas Swoboda with Société Générale. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Can you hear me okay?
Yeah.
Yeah. Thank you. I have one question left, and I'm actually still trying to get my head around on what you said on Q1. There was usually little bit of a seasonal tailwind in Q1. If I understood you correctly, the under absorption of fixed costs should start to be a little bit better in Q1. Could you just discuss briefly what is still running against you quarter on quarter in Q1? That's my question. Thank you.
I think we have already seen some slowdown in Q4 in the whole economy and also with us. If we now look at the start of the year, it was a slow start. Of course, we had Chinese New Year in January this year, so maybe that's also a factor to watch. We also see that the stocking is still continuing, so there is no real restocking that we see from that point of view. Also no pick up really there. Volume trends still negative. We talked about that. Pricing holds up, continues to hold up well. From that point of view, we see a slow start into the year and assess that Q1 most probably not better than Q4.
Also, if you look at the outlook on the economy, hopefully this will mark the low point for the year.
Thank you and all the best for your next set, Ute. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Same to you. Bye.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Jonathan Chung with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hello. Hi. I've just got one questions on your ramp-up of PA-12 plant. given the challenging macro economy in 2023, how do you see this business going forward in terms of the mix effect? Thanks.
Hi. It is PA-12 for Evonik is in 2023, something like a strategic EBITDA reserve because we will have on the one side to face reality, and that means here that if I could, I would be able to sell the volume maybe two-four times. As you know, there are some restrictions, there are limitations in our capacity, and that is what gives me good reason and hope for this year because they are eased. The ramp-up of our PH twelve capacity has started for a total site in, maybe two-three weeks ago it was, Tim. two-three weeks ago.
Here we have a good new capacity which will increase our volumes by give or take 50%. The next part of my answer, if I look to the market, there is a long queue, maybe a long backloaded queue of customers waiting to get our PA-12. The demand is high, the market is tight, and we do here in this respect see a good development, a good increase of our market positions and of our EBITDA contribution from PA-12 in this year. That will definitely support our expectations, our prognosises for our Smart Materials division for this year for sure.
In the long run, I see it similar and maybe even better because if I do look to our markets, for example, the e-vehicle market and a lot of others here, PA-12 is desperately needed. Talking about PA-12, talking about the automotive, especially for e-cars, talking about additives manufacturing, talking about electronics, talking about the pharma business where we are in with our own PA-12. It is not, please forgive me to go into rhapsodize about this business, but it is quite a good business with really attractive market growth opportunities. We will take it in 2023 already and in future maybe even also more. That is how I think about PA-12 and PA-12 in this particular market situation.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this closes our Q&A session for today. I'll now turn the conference back over to Christian Kullmann for closing comments.
Ladies and gentlemen, it was our pleasure, Ute's and mine, and the pleasure of the entire crew of investor relations having had you today. Take care and stay healthy and hope to meet you soon in person. Bye-bye.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for joining and have a pleasant day.