Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for joining us today, and welcome to our earnings call on the Q1 results 2023. Daniel and myself will lead you through the business as well as financial facts, and afterwards, naturally, we will be happy to go into the usual question and answers session. I think overall, yeah, it is actually good to look back to a successful start of the year. We had a very good start here in Q1, and I think we are still appreciating the same dynamics here at mid of Q2, which I think is the second element that is, I think, worthwhile and positive to mention.
Looking at the Q1, I think, we were able to increase the growth pace compared to last year, again, significantly raising it up from a good 30%-32% now to about 53% in the first quarter. At the same time, I think it's the profitability increase that is key element of our approach. Quadrupling, let's say, operational EBITDA, and naturally with this also the EBIT and the net profit is a good pairing here, growth and profitability. If we look into, let's say, the order book, still the dynamic in the market has been very good in the first three months and continues to do so right now.
We ended the first quarter with a positive book-to-bill ratio, increasing the order book to EUR 81.6 million compared to EUR 74 million at the beginning of the year. Let me look into the nature of growth and the nature, let's say, of the business development here. The growth, on the one hand side, reflects the continuous demand for sustainable clean energy solutions or what we do here on the clean energy part of the business. Also on the clean power management side, where we are providing high-end, highly efficient power electronic solutions to our customers. The overall demand is fully intact, but at the same time, we were able to increase market penetration in the existing markets and start to open up new markets in terms of regions, but also in terms of customers.
The combination of ambitious growth and constant and stable improvement of profitability, I think is also a differentiator. It is what we think the right path here going forward, and it might be still, let's say, a differentiating point to the peers in the industry. Long term, we think it's the most sustainable way, and we will continue to follow this path. Besides consistent and intact demand and improved penetration of the market, we also see the effect here of our pricing policy, of the pricing adjustments implemented in the first half year of 2022, helping us to absorb cost surings. At the same time, a conscious cost management helped us to keep the profitability or to increase the profitability to the levels we have.
We also see an easing on the supply chain, loosening up of some of the bottlenecks and stabilization on the pricing. Then we'll go into this in more details. If we now look into, let's say, the development of the business, the implementation of our growth strategy, I think we have taken further milestones that are worthwhile to mention here, both on the technological side as well as on the regional expansion of the business. We are happy to see the growth in North America here being beyond 86% overall, especially in the U.S., exceeding 100% of growth year-on-year. Following, let's say, this strategy we are looking into setting up our own presence. We need to get nearer to the customer throughout this year.
First step we are looking at is a Greenfield activity here on sales and service to be, let's say, implemented later in the year. If we look into the European business still, let's say, beyond 30% growth and differentiating between Germany and the other regions in Europe. Yes, we see some different growth pattern, but we also have to draw your attention to the fact that those are sometimes also project related and therefore then are quantity differentials that maybe don't show the full traction of the growth. We are not happy with the development in Japan right now in terms of revenue development.
We still see some post-COVID, some post-pandemic effects. Slower pickup of the business, some delays in projects, especially projects where we didn't have the opportunity to see our customers, neither ourselves nor our partners from Toyota Tsusho were able to travel the region or travel into the region for almost two years. We see a pickup here. We see a catching up of momentum and naturally, the order intake and the bookings we have seen in India will be anyhow ensuring also a significant growth also in our Asian business throughout the year. Talking about India, we are establishing our not only own presence here in terms of being nearer to the customer. We are setting up our assembly and production site.
We feel we are on track here. We will reach the next milestones here by end of June. As mentioned before, we saw already significant order intake there together with our Indian partner, FC TecNrgy, to secure the largest fuel cell order that was ever awarded by the Indian Army here for our portable fuel cell solutions, including the power management. Talking about expansion production capabilities, production capacity here in Brunnthal, Germany. We are completing the expansion project here. We see ourselves on track, we are still experiencing some delays in setting up the production line in our Romanian site in Cluj. Mostly some outstanding permits and construction activity is lagging behind.
Not particularly happy with the situation, but we feel we are, I'd say, with the expansion here in Germany, fully able to cope with the capacity needed and at the same time, within the next couple of months, we expect completion also in Romania. If you look at the technology side, I think if you want to call it, let's say the next pearl to the string is the deal here with our long-term partner, Johnson Matthey. We are particularly happy about this. We have two elements there. Johnson Matthey opted to focus on their hydrogen product offering only within, let's say or with this decision, we were able to take over the membrane production technology for our direct methanol fuel cell business, the most valuable and expensive components to those products.
By taking over this and broadening our technology and knowhow in the field for our methanol product offering, this helps us to secure further market leadership, but also technology leadership and naturally stabilizes the supply chain. Overall, naturally, over time, we expect a significant cost advantage here coming out of the integration of the fabrication of this component. On the hydrogen product offering, we feel that Johnson Matthey is continuing to be an ideal partner here into the future to develop further cost-effective and highly performing components of our hydrogen product offering. It's a 20 year history, and we are continuing here in a new format. We are setting up our own presence in the U.K. as we speak.
We are intending to take over part of the key personnel here on the methanol side. Some people have already joined us, and it will be a production and R&D location in the U.K., being operational within this year. If we now look into the overall development here, segment by segment and, on the sales side, yeah, we have seen a continuous activity and a dynamic demand here on the Clean Energy segment with a growth of 44%. Also on the Clean Power Management side, we see the demand continuing to be high, and especially also the easing of the supply chain bottlenecks helped us to have, let's say, an outstanding growth here beyond 70% in the clean power management segment.
I mentioned it already at the beginning. Yeah, the order intake in the first quarter of EUR 34.8 million helped us to increase the order book by the end of the quarter to above EUR 81 million. Looking into the regions, I think the development here with North America growing by 80% also resulted in the North American business amounting for the first time, about 50% of the business. Over time, we expect Asia and also Europe to catch up on a relative basis again, but still naturally overall market reception in the U.S. as well as in Canada continues to be positive and is driving this development.
With this, I conclude the market and product part of the presentation and would hand over to Daniel to lead you through the development of the earnings and the profitability part of the business as well as the outlook.
Thank you very much, Peter. Welcome, everybody. Thank you for dialing in our quarterly call. As Peter already mentioned, we're looking back to an exciting quarter that is really a mixture of growth and revenues, but at the same time, we were able to expand our margin. Our gross profit amounted to EUR 10.2 million in the fourth quarter, which is EUR 4.6 million or 82% higher than in the previous year's first quarter. Remembering that gross profit was margin in the first quarter, was low last year. These results translate into a gross margin of 37.2%.
This is significantly above the level of last year's gross margin, which amounted to 31.3%, and it's also slightly above last year's full gross margin, which was at 36.8%. It's been a good quarter also in terms of margin expansion and the increase of the gross margin, and at the level it is a combination. First of all, like Peter mentioned it, the full effect of the price adjustments that we implemented last year in both segments. Secondly, also, you know, the higher level of revenues and consequently, the lower production overhead per unit, which has an impact on the gross profit.
Thirdly, last but not least, not all of the more expensive components that we stocked last year's have yet been used in the production. They will however, come over the next two quarters. If you look at the segments, the gross margin in the Clean Energy segment was 43.1%, almost doubled compared to last year, we had EUR 4.2 million in the first quarter. Gross margin, as I mentioned, 43.1%, compared it to last year's full gross margin in that segment. This was 42.6%, which is a nice increase. It is a mixture, as I mentioned before, of the price increases, but also the product mix in that segment is very attractive.
Industrial applications or fuel cells for industrial application account for 70% of the segment sales. Last year we had on the full year 66%, that portion has really gone up. These tend to be higher power products and higher product power products also come with higher margins. If you look at gross margin of the Clean Power Management segment, we were looking at a gross profit of EUR 2.6 million, that translates into a gross margin of 26.5%, also significantly up than in the last year quarter, we were looking at 24.9%. Also, absolutely up giving the revenue growth in that quarter. Pretty much the same reasons.
It was a very strong quarter in that segment in terms of revenue, which then, you know, leads to relatively lower unit costs, given the production overhead, but also, you know, very strong pricing, especially also North America and the price increases kicking in in the first quarter. If you look then at our midterm and long-term targets for the gross margin, we always say we want to be above 44% in Clean Energy and above 32% in Clean Power Management. We are really when it comes to the Clean Energy segment, well on the way. But also when we look at the Clean Power Management segment, we are well on the way and maybe a little bit longer way to go.
Looking at the group-Adjusted EBITDA. As you know, EBITDA being one or Adjusted EBITDA being one of our key KPIs. The adjustments are consistently with the adjustment that we made in the previous quarters. Basically, adjusting it for transaction-related expenses as well as the expenses and income from the long-term incentive programs and stock option programs. We made this adjustment just to remind you, to provide you with a, you know, a comparable objective indicator across the quarters of our operating performance.
The group-Adjusted EBITDA amounted to EUR 3.3 million, which then translates into an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 12.2%, which we believe is a very decent performance comparing to EUR 809,000 in the first quarter last year, and a margin of 2.9%. One of the key the key drivers or the key adjustment I mentioned was really LTI program, the expenses for LTI program, which were, you know, relatively low in the first quarter with EUR 159,000. We also had a relief of LTI expenses or provisions amounting to EUR 285,000, which are posted in other operating income. Transaction related expenses relatively low EUR 31,000.
That, to repeat myself, leads to an EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin of 12.2%. Looking at comparing it to last year's margins, full year margin for Adjusted EBITDA, which was 9.6%, we are decently up. The reason for the margin expansion is not a big surprise. Of course, on the first hand, the gross margin expansion that we have. Adjusted G&A expense, and I'll touch on this later, increased. However, it's still in plan with our overall development. We had slightly lower adjusted sales and marketing expenses for the first quarter.
The first quarter is always relatively low in sales and marketing as especially activity and traveling at the very beginning of the years are a little bit lower than in the rest of the quarters. Relatively lower R&D expenses. So this is really the mix for the gross margin expansion. Depreciation, amortization, pretty much on the level of the last year with EUR 1.1 billion. If you have a quick look at our operating expenses, if you look at the sales and marketing expenses, they are EUR 3.6 million unadjusted versus EUR 2.7 million in the first quarter of last year. Expenses for LTI program are slightly higher than last year, but absolutely on a rather low level with EUR 55,000.
Overall, the sales and marketing expenses when adjusted increased by 28% compared to the previous years. We're looking at EUR 3.5 million versus EUR 2.7 million in the previous year. However, when we look at the sales and marketing costs as a percentage of sales, and that's why I went back to it, they're relatively lower. It's 2.8% of our revenues compared to 50.3% of revenues in the first quarter of 2022. This is pretty much in line with our long-term planning, where we're saying our sales and marketing expenses will be anything between 12% and 13% of our revenues as operating leverage starts to kick in.
We see nicely that as a matter of fact of operating leverage, is becoming a reality and kicking in. The increase of the sales and marketing expense absolutely is little surprise. Mostly personal expenses, wages that have gone up. Also even though travel and fair activity was lower compared to the other quarters, still the absolute level of travel and fair expense, also marketing expenses, increased in the first quarter. Looking at our R&D expenses. R&D, the basis really for our future and the strategic positioning of our products. The total adjusted R&D spend, so this is really the amount that we invested in R&D, were EUR 2.1 million compared to EUR 1.8 million in the first quarter 2022.
A decent 21% up. How does it split up? It really split up in the R&D expenses. Expense, the one you will find on the P&L, that amounted to EUR 1.2 million, compared to EUR 1.1 million in the first quarter of the previous year. Capitalized R&D, slightly higher, looking at EUR 800,000. Subsidies and joint development expenses, subsidies that we received, expenses for the joint development that we really did were EUR 200,000 comparing to EUR 100,000 in the previous years.
If you add up the expense R&D plus the capitalized R&D, plus the subsidies received, we will end up at EUR 2.1 million in total R&D spend, which again corresponds to 7.8% of our revenues. Also, more or less in line with the long-term targets, we are looking at 6%-7% of our revenues. The drivers for the R&D expenses have not changed from the previous quarters. It is really the development on the new product generations, where we focus on the one hand side on higher power and on the other hand side on optimized functionality. G&A expenses, unadjusted, EUR 3.2 million versus EUR 3.3 million. Pretty much on the level of the previous years.
The expenses for the LTI program contained in the G&A expenses was EUR 70,000 in the first quarter, significantly lower from what we had last year. We were looking at EUR 800,000. Adjusting it and also for the relatively low transaction expenses, we're looking at G&A expenses of EUR 3.1 million comparing to EUR 2.5 million in the previous years. We also saw that G&A expenses have been increasing in the last years, quarter three and four, it is basically the same reasons. It is personal expenses which is increasing.
It is also, you know, higher expenses for IT that we are having, bringing up our system, having some services and advisory service in really improving our infrastructure, becoming more efficient and effective at the same time. Adjusted EBITDA correspond to 11.4% of revenues, lower than the 13.9% we had in the first quarter of the last year. On full, we're looking at 11.6% on last year's. It's pretty much in line with the relative spending compared to revenue in the last year. In the long term or medium-term range, our target remains at 12%-13% of our revenues.
Quick look at the balance sheet, maybe highlight a little bit on the CapEx that we had, the investment. The total CapEx in the first quarter was really driven by the acquisition of certain assets from Johnson Matthey for the MEA production, which Peter already mentioned not too long ago. Total CapEx were EUR 2.5 million, excluding right of use and IFRS 16 accounting impacts, so up EUR 1.5 million from the first quarter in 2022. Main drivers already mentioned, of course, the investment in the MEA production. That's mostly intangible assets that we acquired from Johnson Matthey. CapEx split, intangible assets and tangible assets, i.e., PP&E.
Pretty much the same relation, a little bit higher on the intangible side in the first quarter, but 70% intangible, 30% tangible assets. Not a big change to the spending patterns that we have. PP&E CapEx, I'm touching base on that, has to do with the expansion of our production and our capacity, of EUR 870,000. Cash and cash equivalents, debt, cash really available, EUR 59.8 million comparing to EUR 64.8 million at the end of the year. You saw that we consumed some of the cash. I'll touch base on this briefly, in a minute. Financial debt, went up to EUR 5.1 million, so that's an increase of EUR 1.1 million. Same reason as the previous quarters.
It's only short-term, and it's the working capital facilities that we have in the Netherlands and in Canada. Net debt, in this case, net cash amounts to EUR 54.6 million compared to EUR 60.7 million. Equity ratio stable at 75%. Basically, we had a nice net income driven by the good operating performance in combination with the lower spend for expenses for the LTI programs. Cash flow, looking at it, we had an operating cash flow before the change in net working capital of EUR 3.4 million, so significantly better than what we had in the first quarter in 2022. If you look where did the cash sort of go.
Net working capital increased by EUR 5.7 million compared to EUR 3.5 million in the first quarter of the previous year. It's not so much of a surprise, frankly speaking. What's been driving the net working capital is really the accounts receivable that increased by EUR 6.5 million in the first quarter. This is really looking at the way our business goes and looking at, you know, the last months. March is very strong months, revenues going out, so it's not a big of a surprise that, you know, accounts receivable, you know, at that moment, kinda increases significantly given the really development. Inventory increased only slightly. Cash impacted by EUR 850K, so not a big, huge thing.
Also in line with the business development, accounts payables increased by EUR 3.1 million as we keep on sourcing our product. Other short-term receivables, having also a big cash impact, increased by EUR 1.4 million. The cash flow from operating activities after the net working capital expansion and taxes was negative EUR 3 million. Main reason is really the net working capital development. Cash flow from investing activities, including CapEx, was EUR 2.5 million. I mentioned the driver before. The cash flow from financing activities amounted to EUR 500,000.
Total change in cash was EUR 5 million, resulting in a net cash position at the end of the quarter of EUR 55 million. This is the balance sheet that if we look at the outlook, at our guidance for the grades of the year. Peter mentioned it, we have a very well traction in our business. We have a decent order backlog. We know that the environment, the global growth, is still, you know, I'd say shaky. Nothing has, as far as we can see, changed significantly, neither to the worst, nor to the better, in the region, North America, Europe.
Asia seems to run a little bit lighter on the outlook, Asia seems to be a little bit better when it comes to growth, especially as the Chinese COVID restriction have fallen earlier this year. Basically, we confirm our sales outlook at the lower end of EUR 103 million, at the upper end of EUR 111 million. When it comes to Adjusted EBITDA, still looking at EUR 8.9 million-14.1 million on the upper end, and also with the Adjusted EBIT, EUR 3.4 million-EUR 8.6 million, this is the range. I'm feeling very confident with this outlook. Thank you very much for your time. With this, I would turn it back to Peter.
Thanks very much. I think with this, we can open the Q&A here, and Maria can open the floor.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their touch tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star followed by two. If you are using speaker equipment today, please lift your handset before making your selections. Anyone who has a question may press star followed by one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question is from the line of Malte Schaumann with Warburg Research. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, guys. The first question is on the growth in the first quarter. I mean, that was primarily driven by the US Market. Can you provide a split? You had EUR 6.4 million, EUR 6.5 million sales more than last first quarter last year. Maybe you could provide a split how that split into more fuel cell business, probably EFOY, and maybe also some what has been driven by the non-fuel cell part.
Good morning, Malte. This is Peter. If we look into, let's say, the North American part, and then also I'd say the U.S. part. If we single out the U.S. part, we can look at about, depending on, on, let's say, exchange rate, but it's about, I'd say, around EUR 5 million revenue, slightly below in the U.S. This is all fuel cell business. The primary driver naturally is the successful business development here together with LiveView . We have been expanding it also to a broader customer base and have also seen initial shipments now to other partners. Yeah, the adoption is significantly faster than we all planned for, including, let's say, the partner LiveView here.
We are, I'd say, using up our two year contract we have been agreeing on in November. I think we are using up at almost double the pace we anticipated. But it's all fuel cell business that you can see there in the U.S. That's the main driver. If we look at the growth pace in Canada also there, I'd say, the Clean Energy part is driven by a good demand here on the energy side. Means our traditional oil and gas companies, but also on the mining side, as well as, let's say, again, surveillance, digitization, data transmission projects here in the general industry.
If we go to the Clean Power part, the biggest driver there is definitely here the traditional business, which we do here for ABB in the energy and mining space.
Okay. For the US, the EUR 5 million in the first quarter. I mean, what's your expectation for the U.S. contribution in the full year?
Well, if you look at it, we are between 17%-18% here, which is above what we had anticipated. Also for the year-end, we looked at the 10% to be done in the US. We are currently ahead here. So far also, if we look at it now in Q2, we are operating on a similar pace. As said before, we started to, let's say, set up the team there. We go out to, let's say, specific shows here, telecom, security.
We are also intending to set up our own sales and service subsidiary there, I would say, later in the summer, early fall, so that we really get or we are in a position to maintain the pace here. Do we can we already assure That it's remaining at the same pace? Probably not, I would say it will be definitely above the 10% level. Whether we continue to be between 17 and 18 there, I think we are still lacking a visibility here to the year-end. Significantly faster and a solid basis also to decide on the or to take an investment decision for the presence there.
We are not excluding, I'd say, the next step there going forward. Actually, we always talked about, let's say, we are also evaluating potential acquisitive steps, M&A steps. With the pace on the operational side, we clearly see the Greenfield set up first, and then the evaluation of potential M&A targets here for the further market penetration.
Right. That U.S. unit might be then become operational very late Q3, early Q4, something in that way?
Q4. Operationally then really Q4 and we are already, let's say, setting up the team. The people are traveling in the country on a very, very active basis. Expanding our traction, I'd say, besides the naturally successful collaboration here with LiveView as a let's say, core customer and naturally a strong operational base here in terms of business development.
No. Do you already have significant leads with other customers? Do you expect this only to happen when you have established your own sales organization, support organization, and then that you can then be better, in a better position to explore market opportunities? Are you already seeing something more significant besides LiveView in the funnel?
Yeah. We already see some really affirmative developments here outside our partnership here with LiveView. In size, naturally not yet comparable, but it's not, let's say, the order size of one or two EFOYs we're talking here about, 20, 50, 100. This is, let's say, for the kind of business development we are using, or we are used to, a real fast pace. Adoption is definitely faster, also outside this successful partnership and collaboration with LiveView than we anticipated.
Good. Okay. Back to Europe. I mean, during the past quarters, I mean, there have been some projects in the pipeline, Telecom Italia, backup power. Maybe you can provide an update how these made unsold, during the remainder of the year or if these have been pushed back. What's your view on these?
Well, if we start here with Italy still, I think we can repeat that or we have the facts there. We had a very successful pilot system out there that was evaluated, what we can see right now is that this evaluation is still ongoing. At the same time, we have, let's say, first pilot systems out there also with German telecom operators, where we see, let's say, initial successful piloting. What we see overall, if we look at our project log here, especially for our hydrogen products, one serious topic is local permits to operate products, to operate hydrogen systems. This is a factor that takes more time than I think everybody anticipated.
During the Hanover Fair, I had the opportunity also to see our Federal Chancellor again in a round table, and I mentioned this as one of the key factors that needs to be eliminated here by politics, is to reduce the bureaucratic burden here for people who are willing to change to hydrogen. This is definitely an element that needs acceleration here. Reduce bureaucratic hurdles, speed up decision-making on local regulatory level to make sure that those products can be fielded appropriately. We see an improvement there, but still, I think this was underestimated, especially on when you talk about, let's say, regional and local levels with the level of, let's say, naturally experience but knowledge. Yeah. We sometimes call it the Hindenburg Omen.
You have to overcome this. People need to understand that you can operate this safely and in a proper way in a day-to-day environment.
Yeah. Okay. Do you expect that these hurdles will be overcome during this year, or will it take a bit longer?
Well, I think there's no way. If you see the overall dynamic in the market, we go for replacement of conventional technology. We see, we just answered in the last couple of weeks, we answered tenders from Scandinavia, from Switzerland, from other European countries here, where per se, it was already clear that this needs to be a zero-emission hydrogen product here as a backup solution for telecom. This momentum is building further up. The overall trend is non-reversible.
Okay, good. On Asia, maybe you can provide us an update with regards.
Yeah.
Japan. The cooperation with Japan will evolve during the coming quarters. Maybe a word on Singapore. I think Oneberry was one of your larger customers in past years. I think that name hasn't been mentioned recently.
Yeah.
Are they going to place follow-up orders?
We met with our Japanese partners here on May 1st, 2nd, and 3rd here in Munich with the management team of TTC. Apparently we are naturally not happy with, let's say, the overall delay in this program, which at the end is not attributable to our partners nor to us, because it's simply the fact that COVID did not allow us to travel and see customers. The mutual program is in execution. We are seeing each other next time here in July to again do the next management assessment on it. Investments are released. People are sent to the regions. They have their expatriates there. We are training them. We are traveling to the region.
Still, naturally, it will take some time to, let's say, develop projects as we have seen it in Europe, as we now see it in a very fast pace in North America. Overall, if we look at the region naturally now, this breakthrough order here in India will help us to naturally show significant growth in India too on a year-on-year basis for the full year. Coming to Singapore also there, we saw delays in the after pandemic situation here. Decision-making on some government programs here together with Oneberry not taken yet, but the pipeline is solid and further building up.
Also there, I think you can expect us to talk about Oneberry in the near future here again, because some of those projects will materialize.
Mm-hmm. Okay.
The delay well, is visible, but was also inevitable. Now we need to simply implement what we have agreed upon as a program.
Yeah, okay, good. With respect to Japan, have you scaled back your expectations for the potential future business you can do there? Do you think that your partner has the right approach towards their customers?
I think, yeah. Honestly, with the network the partner has with the approach they have also, in terms of, let's say, this kind of technology, I would say you could not find a better partner in terms of commitment to hydrogen and fuel cells.
No.
The pace is at the end. This is a very large organization, a very large corporation. This is on their roadmap, and they're executing on. Funds are allocated, people are recruited, the team is expanded. The adoption on the user side, you can only accelerate so much. Therefore, we have, let's say, this delay here out of COVID that we have to face as a fact.
Yeah, sure. Basically it's just a delay, so to speak, but no change in the overall expectation regarding the potential of the cooperation itself.
No. From both sides here. Full commitment. As said, they were here with the CEO here, being present beginning of May, helping us to set up the maypole here. We will be there again in July. It's really a very active partnership.
Yeah. Okay.
As you see, it's not that we're depending on one big customer or one big market, as you've seen right now, in the last quarters, much broader, and everything is moving, right.
Yeah. Good. Okay, thanks.
Well, thank you.
The next question is from the line of Daniel De Lodder with ABN AMRO. Please go ahead.
Good morning. This is Daniel De Lodder from ABN AMRO, ODDO BHF. Congrats to the SFC team. Really strong first quarter results. With regarding to supply chain constraints easing, how do you see that affecting the profitability over the rest of the year?
Well, if I, if I may start here, I think overall, we've seen two effects. It's just the mere availability, a very good thing. Also, if you look into the shipments here, Q1 and then also Q2, naturally, there's less risk in there. I'd say on the cost side, we naturally see some of the costs normalizing here. There might be one or the other materials still on stock that we had to buy at higher pricing. We also have to keep in mind that we did price adjustments also later in the year that will also kick in only later in the year this year. On the cost side, maybe Daniel, you can comment on this one.
Yeah. I think Peter mentioned already the key points, right? On the one hand side, we do see prices at the spot market returning to a normalized level. A normalized level means, you know, above and higher from what we have seen pre-COVID times, so to speak. That will have, you know, a positive impact going forward. On the other side, we do have, you know, certain components, certain electronic components that we stocked last year at a higher price, clearly to ensure capability to deliver. Some of those higher components will come into production. I mentioned that in the current quarter, but also in Q3 until they've been used.
There will be an impact on the gross margin in the second quarter and in the third quarter before, you know, we expect the fourth quarter to, you know, to be normalized again. Once again, you know, we don't see any dramatic things in there. Of course, we most likely will see that impact on our gross margin.
Okay, thanks. Secondly, we already discussed the North American outlook with the main focus on the, on the US. What Combined with the announcement on the hydrogen fuel cells competence centers in Canada, what growth are you expecting in Canada, and what will be its main catalyst? Will it be government incentive schemes?
Well, I.
In the near future.
I think there we look at it in a similar way to the U.S. as well as to Canada. We have to move closer to our customers anyhow. We will move to the U.S. here with our sales and service team. We will also further increase our presence in Canada as the demand is there. Even better if there is then an incentive scheme that helps us to, let's say, carry part of the financial burden. For us, it's not the question, well, does IRA or the Canadian Hydrogen Program now make us invest there? It is, I think, an accelerator for us to a decision that we have already taken because we need to go closer to our customers.
Talking about Canada, we just opened up our hydrogen labs here in Calgary in our headquarters, and we also opened up a new location in the Greater Toronto area for the further exploitation of I'd say the market potential there. Overall, naturally, the sheer size of the market, based on, let's say, the size of the economy is bigger in the U.S., but Canada still is a home market for us, and we have a first-mover advantage there.
Okay. Thank you. Last question. How come you're already counting on such a strong first quarter as you don't change your guidance upwards, which you provided at full year results?
Well, maybe I take this one on. Well, you're right, Daniel. Naturally, we had a really good start into the year. We are appreciating a positive market environment overall. Still, we feel it really early in the year on the 15th of... to change some of the fundamentals, but rest assured, we are looking at this naturally also with all our, let's say, optimism, but also with the experience of, let's say, unforeseen things that can happen. That's why I think we now focus on delivering an excellent second quarter, and the topic then will be on the agenda again. For the time being, we feel it is simply too early to change some of the fundamentals.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Thomas Junghanns with Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Also from my side, a short question with regards to the delays you are currently experiencing with the capacity expansion in Romania. Will this have a significant impact on operational development, and will this affect also the planning? When do you expect the capacity expansions in Romania to be completed?
Good morning, Thomas. Will it have a impact on capacity and delivery? No. As Peter already mentioned also earlier, easy to catch us up here in Brunnthal. When we talk about delay, we're not talking about delay of four or five quarters, it's more a delay in the view of one or two quarters, which is once again, not, not very dramatic, and easy to really compensate here in Brunnthal. It, it is, you know, it will happen this year. It will come up and running latest in the fourth quarter, but do not expect any impact on our operational business or operational performance.
Okay. Perfect. Thanks.
Thank you.
There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand back over to Peter Podesser for any closing comments. Thank you.
Well, once again, thanks everybody for taking the time and the interest in what we do here. As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to us in the usual format. Happy to discuss details and give backgrounds here. With this, we wish you all a successful and nice day. Thank you very much.