Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Knorr-Bremse's conference call for the Q1 2026 results. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. The floor will be open for questions following the presentation. Let me now turn the floor over to the Head of Investor Relations, Andreas Spitzauer.
Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, as well as good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I hope all of you are very fine. My name is Andreas Spitzauer, Head of Investor Relations, and I want to welcome you to Knorr-Bremse's presentation for the first quarter results of 2026. Today, Marc Llistosella, our CEO, and Frank Weber, our CFO, will present the results of Knorr-Bremse, followed by a Q&A session. The conference call will be recorded and is available on our homepage in the investor relations port. It's now my pleasure to hand over to Marc Llistosella. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Andreas. Ladies and gentlemen, warm welcome to our capital market call for the first quarter 2026 results. We will keep it short today as it's busy reporting day and our very good financial figures largely speak for themselves.
Let's start with the key takeaways for today on page 2. At a time when global headlines are increasingly shaped by volatility, fragmentation, and lack of long-term thinking, we see it as our responsibility to steer Knorr-Bremse with discipline and resilience. While the broader geopolitical environment remains fragile and unpredictable, we are focused on what we can control and on making prudent decisions in an environment where prudence has become the exception rather than the rule. Overall, we made a very strong start into 2026. In fact, this marks our best first quarter in the past five years. We are there where we should have been for a long time, and this should be a starting point for an even brighter future. In RVS, we recorded good order intake, which led to a record order backlog.
The top and bottom line figures were broadly in line with our expectations, reflecting good customer demand and solid execution. In CVS, margin recovery took off, as always promised, driven by pricing discipline as well as stringent cost and efficiency measures. In addition, operational improvements and a more balanced market environment contributed to this achievement. The results once again demonstrate the strength and resilience of our business model, which provides robustness even among ongoing geopolitical uncertainties. Given the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, let me briefly comment on this topic. Direct exposure of our business so far is rather limited. Revenues from the Middle East account for less than 1% of the group revenues, and we have almost no direct supply from this region. That said, we continue to closely monitor potential effects, in particular with regards to our global supply chains.
While no major disruptions are currently visible, this remains an area of active attention. Both divisions have set up task forces to react fast if necessary. Overall, our business model has proven to be resilient in crisis. This is supported by a high revenue share from the aftermarket, well above 50% in RVS and close to 35% in CVS, as well as high level of local production, local sourcing across major regions. Both divisions also have a strong record when it comes to managing crises. Last not least, we confirm the guidance for the full year 2026. On slide 3, let me come to the market environment, starting with rail on page number 3. Overall demand in rail remains robust. Order books at our OEM customers continue to be very high, and passengers business remains stronger than freight.
In APAC, we saw a slight decline year-on-year, mainly driven by tough competition. At the same time, demand increased in India and across the rest of Asia Pacific. In North America, passengers demand remain stable while freight continues to be at low levels. Looking ahead to full year 2026, the global rail market should stay robust, which then could lead to a book-to-bill ratio of 1 or slightly above. In Europe, order intake should remain strong. In APAC, China expected to decline year-on-year, which is only market-driven after some pent-up demand was met. On the other side, India should develop positively on a full year basis. In North America, passenger development is positive to partially compensate the still weak freight environment, resulting in a more balanced outlook. Turning to the truck market. Market development in the first quarter were fully in line with expectations.
Total truck production rates continued to show first signs of recovery. Europe was significantly higher year-on-year, while North America remained significantly lower, but with visible turnaround in demand. In APAC, China was again significantly higher year-on-year. For 2026, we expect continued positive demand from the aftermarket and estimating regarding the truck production rates are fully in line with our OEM customers. This means truck production rate in Europe should be flattish. Its price is slightly increasing. North America is expected to slightly higher. China should be flat year-over-year with a strong development in 1st half of the year.
Overall, global truck production rates are expected to be flat to slightly up year-over-year. Please keep in mind that it is too early to fully assess the full impact of the Middle East crisis. Over the past year, we have taken decisive actions to structurally adjust our cost base and further strengthen our resilience for both divisions, but even more for CVS. These measures, together with our robust pricing discipline and resilient aftermarket business, put us in a strong position. We look forward to demonstrating the full earning potential of CVS as markets recover. Slide 4. Let's now turn to the first quarter of financials of 2026. Order intake declined only slightly year-over-year, reaching a solid level of more than EUR 2.2 billion.
Group revenues amounted to mostly EUR 2 billion, representing an organic growth of 2% year-on-year, with a stronger contribution from CVS. From a regional point of view, APAC region, but also North America, contributed to the revenue increase, while Europe reported a slight decline. The operating EBIT margin was particularly pleasing in the first quarter. It improved across both divisions, supported by a strong aftermarket business, but also by positive operating leverage and the good execution of efficiency measures within our BOOST program. As a result, operating EBIT margin increased by 140 basis points year-on-year, and thus recorded its highest first quarter figure in five years. As I said, this is only back to normal. From now on, we have to start through. Free cash flow amounted to EUR 32 million.
This is very positive, well supported by good cash management and the increase of our profitability. With these words, I would like now to hand over to Frank. He will provide us with even more details.
Thanks, Marc. Let's move to page 5. Of course, we continue to invest in a disciplined manner. Capital expenditure increased moderately year-over-year to EUR 62 million, reflecting focused investments in maintenance and some growth opportunities. Net working capital decreased to EUR 1.46 billion at the end of quarter one. However, this number is influenced by the first-time inclusion of our recent Duagon acquisition and the removal of our HVAC business, classified as asset held for sale. Scope of days respectively could be reduced by four days. Free cash flow amounted to a very solid EUR 32 million compared to EUR 15 million in the prior year quarter. Despite this very good start into 2026, it is worth mentioning that quarter one is structurally always the weakest quarter in terms of Free cash flow generation.
Against this backdrop, free cash flow is expected to develop solidly over the course of the year, with its peak in quarter four. At the same time, our Return on Capital Employed could be nicely increased to 21% as well, driven foremost by a higher EBIT contribution. It clearly demonstrates the benefits of our portfolio rotation program and our BOOST efficiency measures. Overall, we remain firmly committed to disciplined capital allocation while continuing to invest selectively into margin accretive growth. Let's take a closer look at the RVS performance on page 6. Order intake in RVS remains resilient and reached EUR 1.26 billion in the first quarter, resulting in a book-to-bill clearly above 1 at almost 1.2 again. Rail demand overall remains strong on a high level and should continue throughout the whole year.
Based on the expected tenders in the market, we assume that order intake in the half year 1 will be stronger than in half year 2. For the current quarter, we also expect that RVS should be able to post a strong order intake being on a similar level compared with the quarter 1 figure. As usual, my reminder on rail's order intake dynamics for you. Please keep in mind that this is a lumpy project business, and it does not fit well into quarterly reporting structures. Order backlog increased by 7%, reaching a new record level with more than EUR 5.9 billion. The high order backlog and its good quality provide a solid foundation for 2026 and beyond. Let's move to page 7. Quarter 1 revenues amounted to EUR 1.06 billion, a stable development year-over-year.
In organic terms, revenues increased by 1% year-over-year. This level of growth was as planned, and it should accelerate in the quarters ahead. Our aftermarket business decreased foremost due to FX headwinds and normalization of pent-up demand in China. In organic terms, it was almost flat year-over-year. The revenue share from aftermarket was solidly at 53%. On the other hand, the OE business increased by 6%, well supported by the European business, which led to a revenue share of 47% in the past quarter. From a regional point of view, organic revenue growth in Europe and APAC fully compensated for the slowdown in North and South America. In Europe, good OE business more than made up for the slightly declining aftermarket revenues.
North America recorded flat OE business but had to face declining aftermarket business due to a tougher market environment as well as FX headwinds. The APAC region saw an OE decline while aftermarket was almost flat year-over-year. China posted, as expected, lower revenues in OE and aftermarket business, solely FX headwind and market driven after pent-up demand has been met. Operating EBIT margin recorded an increase of 90 basis points to 16.5%, driven by operating leverage and even more benefit from our BOOST efficiency measures. In a nutshell, our last quarter overall developed as expected. As a reminder, quarter one is always a weak quarter due to Chinese New Year and the typical aftermarket business, weaker in North America. In the current quarter, we expect that revenues and profitability should see a solid increase quarter-over-quarter.
For the full year 2026, the operating margin of RVS is expected to be around 17.5%. Let's continue with the truck division on page 8. In a still challenging market environment, order intake reached EUR 964 million in the first quarter, resulting in a book-to-bill ratio of 1.1. This underlines solid demand, particularly driven by Europe, following an exceptionally strong prior year quarter. Regionally, Europe delivered solid order intake, albeit lower year-on-year due to the high comps in 2025. In North America, order intake was impacted by significant FX headwinds. On an organic basis, orders were nearly stable, which was driven by declining inventories on the dealer side. In APAC, order intake increased significantly, mainly driven by China. Order intake in the current quarter should be on a comparable level quarter-over-quarter.
Our order book at almost EUR 1.9 billion at the end of March is only 2% below the previous year's level and slightly up organically. Let's move on to page 9, which really highlights how hard our teams have been working on how measures and discipline can ultimately pay off. In the first quarter, revenues reached EUR 878 million. Organically, this corresponds to a growth of 3.6%, which is a very strong result given the challenging market environment, especially in North America. On a reported basis, OE and aftermarket business declined 1% and 3% respectively for CVS in the past quarter year-over-year. Thereof, the OE business in CVS decreased, especially in North America, whereas Europe was almost able to post a strong increase.
The APAC region was on a reported figures lower, but organically nicely up. Our aftermarket business was performing well in a demanding market environment and almost stable year-over-year. In the European market, our organic revenues have experienced a 6% increase, benefiting from solid demand in this region. Revenues in North America declined organically by only -3%, which was much better than the double-digit drop in truck production rate year-over-year. Even more importantly, CVS delivered a very strong rebound in profitability. Operating EBIT increased significantly to EUR 101 million, and the EBIT margin improved to 11.5%, up 200 basis points compared with the prior year period. This represents a step up change in earnings performance. Our margin improvement is supported by several factors.
The continuous impact of our BOOST Efficiency program, our positive operating leverage, the favorable regional mix, and the higher aftermarket share. To sum it up, these elements clearly demonstrate that CVS is structurally stronger today and much better positioned, as we lowered its break-even point. In the current quarter, revenues should be flat, and profitability is expected to be flat to slightly up quarter-over-quarter. On a full-year basis, we expect organic revenues to grow low to mid-single-digit compared with the reported figure for 2025. As a result, CVS then should be able to reach an operating EBIT margin towards 12%. With that, I hand over to Marc again.
Thank you, Frank. Have a look on the guidance for the year 2026. We just confirm our outlook. Our guidance generally based on the expectation that geopolitically and economically conditions remain largely stable. Under the assumption that the crisis in the Middle East does not escalate or continue for a long period, particularly with regard on to supply chains disruptions, Knorr-Bremse continues to expect the revenues for the current year in the range of EUR 8 billion-EUR 8.3 billion, an operating margin of at least 14%, and a free cash flow between EUR 750 million and EUR 850 million. These figures are based on the assumption that exchange rates will remain largely stable, and that means on the levels of February 2026.
With that, I would like to thank you for your attention so far, and we are now available for your questions from now on. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press nine and star on your telephone. If you would like to cancel your question, please press three and star. We kindly ask you to limit your questions to a maximum of two. The first question comes from Gael de-Bray from Deutsche Bank. The stage is yours.
The relatively slow start to the year that you had. I'm just wondering what was behind that. I mean, beyond maybe the comps in China. I mean, did you have any supply chain issues in the quarter, or was it just a phasing effect? I'm also wondering if the recent issues at one of your key customers in Europe, if their slower ramp-up has been or could become an issue for you as well at some point. Thank you.
Thanks, Gael, for your question. I assume that you refer basically to RVS starting to the year, because in the beginning, we couldn't hear you properly.
Yes.
I'm referring a bit to RVS. I mean, you know that in each and every country we are positioned. We know the market to 100%. We know basically, give and take, 100% of all the tenders that are out there. Some push outs here and there, but nothing spectacular. That's just a market situation that we are facing and that is just the pattern of the project tenders in the market. Nothing specific there, especially also not with the customer that you just pointed out. If you, I think you do it much more intense than I do, listen to what they have been saying. It's more or less a cost issue that they have than just a revenue syndrome. We don't see anything spectacular in that regard.
We expect that our growth will accelerate going into the next quarters. This is how we see it currently. Nothing erratic, spectacular.
In terms of the acceleration you expect to see in Q2, I mean, what does that mean exactly? Sort of mid-single digit, you think you're gonna be back to in the second quarter on an organic basis?
That's our direction. You know that for the full year we have pointed towards roughly mid-single digit kind of number. If the first quarter is below, we should be in that ballpark, right?
Okay. Thank you. And.
Yeah
The second question from me is around the HVAC business. I mean, why is it taking so long to finalize the transaction?
Two things basically, Gael. I mean, first of all, we are, as a general, kind of disclaimer, we are not in a hurry. We of course have a plan how to have the final negotiations. It's an exclusivity that we are now in with a buyer. We have to first of all, make sure that we get a fair deal together, which includes a fair price. We're in the final steps of the negotiation. Secondly, and this is taking a bit of time on the buyer side, it's also about the proper financing.
We have to ensure as well that the business we sell doesn't end up ultimately in insufficient hands when it comes to the financing of that business going into the future. That is a bit the situation, I would say the last two things that we are currently discussing.
Okay, understood. Then the margin, guidance for RVS of 17.5%, I mean, does it include the deconsolidation of the HVAC business at some point during the year, maybe either Q3 or Q4?
Again, like we said in February, talking about the full year guidance, we said we could be slightly above that number, if for a quite significant time of the year a deconsolidation of HVAC would happen. We would be maybe slightly below EUR 17.5, if it wouldn't happen. I would say give and take, midpoint of both premises, is kind of EUR 17.5. Maybe it's EUR 17.65 in the best case and EUR 17.35 or something like that in a case where HVAC would stick with us. Give and take EUR 17.5, we feel pretty comfortable to get to that number.
Thank you very much.
You're welcome, Gael.
Thank you. The next question comes from Sven Weier from UBS. The floor is yours.
Yeah, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my two questions. The first one is around the strategy update in July, because you just talked about that you focus on the things that you have under control, especially in the BOOST program. I mean, I was just wondering, should we expect like a BOOST 2 program here that should accompany, you know, the midterm margin improvement? Or will you much more than in the last program, rely more on the top line growth? That's the first one.
Thank you for that question. It's a good question, you're right. In July, we will introduce a new program. You can guess that this has to do more with growth than with cost cuttings. One thing is very important, and that's also in for internal communication. BOOST is not over. It will not be over for the next five years to come because BOOST is becoming attitude. Even I'm very proud of what the team has reached. There is a lot of potential to be done in the next years to come when it comes to cost and efficiency. It's not done. It's good. It's good on the way, it's not done. Now the question is: Where are we growing? How we attract also investors? How do we attract also top talents to come?
Because only restructuring is not enough, and this is where we decided now. Now the ship is leaner. We are more agile, and now we can go for next, I would say, targets to aim, and that's exactly what we do. We expect also an anorganic, but also an organic growth potential. This is why we already started from January this year on the next program, which will be then officially announced. It has something with growth, yes, and it has something with beyond. That's exactly what we do, and we have to tell you then latest in July, by end of July, what do we mean with that? Where do we want to go?
What kind of potentials we see? One thing is also for sure, we are going only for areas which are really contributing to us and not making us slower. Everything what is not an add-on will not be considered. It has to be an add-on in terms of technology, in terms of profitability, and in terms of speed.
That's very clear. The second question from me also relates to what you just said on the inorganic part, because I think from a capital market point of view, you know, your entry into Signaling, you know, kind of makes sense, but also especially if there's a chance that there are kind of follow-on transactions that make this part of the business a more significant, you know, value driver. I would say probably the same on the electronic side. I mean, would you agree with that it only makes sense to enter certain segments if there's also the potential for follow-ups and to make this a real business that moves the needle? I think that's what we all hear is about.
I mean, is there still, you know, things in the pipeline, for example, on Signaling that, you know, you can kind of assure us that, you know, kind of follow-up transactions are generally possible?
You understand better than everybody else, if I would now be more specific, I would ruin my own prices, and that's exactly what I won't do. Also in your favor, in all our favors, I will be not so specific, whatever you said, I can't disagree.
Okay. That's good enough for now. Thank you.
Thank you very much. The next question comes from Daniela Costa from Goldman Sachs. The stage is yours.
Hi. It's actually Meihan here. I just have two questions. Firstly, on China. Maybe just to confirm, like you said on the opening remarks that you're seeing a tough competition in APAC. Is that mainly in China that you're seeing more aggressive step up from local players? If you could give us an update on the progress of China high-speed rail tendering for next generation? Does the change in the regional outlook in China reflect a more cautious view about the future opportunity to regain some market share in China? Thank you. I'll ask my follow-up.
Hi, hi.
Please do.
Okay. Yes, yes. Meihan, first of all, hi. I think it was Gael or Sven Weier. I think it was Gael who mentioned about tough comps in China and not a tough competition. We didn't highlight, and we don't see any competitive edge somehow rising or increasing. I think it's just a misunderstanding. Please correct me if I'm wrong because we don't see anything in that regard. The situation there has not changed. Second part, Marc Llistosella wants to take, so I hand over to Marc Llistosella.
Yeah. I try to be as honest and clear with you as possible. In the past, and especially till 2024, we were a little bit in a defense mode. In 2024, we asked our Chinese colleagues and also the local management, "Is this now what we have to expect from China so that we can only defend our position and try to make," you called it the golden tail or something like that for the after-service business, we have a very good position, and for the next years we will be still there. We had a very good discussion, and by end of 2024, the local management said, "Can we stop speaking about defense?
Can we just go on offense? We said, "Okay, what do you need for offense?" They said very clearly, "We have to be more agile in China. We have to be more closer to the customer. We have to get a little bit more independent from Munich because whatever you develop, it's nice, but eventually it's not as quick enough, as we need it here in China. We have to take a little bit more risks." For the last one and a half years, this is exactly what we do. That means, I spoke about it, since years, I think eight years, we are now considered for the high-speed trains again, which we were not. We are seen as agile. We are more and more asked.
We are more and more involved in international tenders when Chinese companies are to be considered. That shows us that being in China, try to be more Chinese, try to be more aggressive, and that is what we mean with competition. We have to take the competition from China. We have to take it home. We have to see that our cycles in development are taking too long. It's not only rail, it's also truck. We have to be aware we should not shy away from it. We should not take a position of defense. We should take a position of offense. That's exactly what we do. We empower China more than ever. We hire people in China, especially when it comes to engineering. We give them more degrees of freedom. They can make more calls by themselves.
They are aligned, but they can do a lot of things by themselves. We are also interested. For the last months, it is going very, very well in this direction to cooperate with young Chinese companies when it comes to electronics and software programming and engineering. That makes me and us very, very optimistic when we speak about China because we have a complete shift of paradigms. We are no longer the old European German company defending their territory. We are becoming more agile, and we can hopefully utilize and leverage this kind of learning sort of the rest of the world.
Got it. Very helpful. My second question is just on aftermarket service for CVS. As you have trying to expand more into the aftermarket for trucks market, would this mean any competition for the truck OEMs of your customers? Or would it just be you still more focusing on the secondhand owners of the trucks?
It's less the substitution's more complementary because our customers are brand exclusive. We are not brand exclusive. And service, brand exclusivity is good for the first two, three years, as you rightly said. After three years, brand exclusivity is more a negative thing. What we're building is we build an ecosystem where we do not discriminate any brand. We do not differentiate any brand. We do not differentiate between captive-owned workshops and non-captive-owned workshops. I think, the independent workshops in China and in Europe, they are very liberal in terms of taking support from whoever is most capable to support you. Exactly this openness is here one of the key success factors. The more you're in one brand, the less you can cover the market.
Got it. Very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Vivek Midha from Citi. The stage is yours.
Thank you very much, everyone, and good afternoon. Hope you can hear me well.
Yeah
is around the margin in CVS. A really good print, 11.5%, so up slightly sequentially from the Q4 of 2025. I'm looking ahead to the full year. You talked about the moving the margin towards 12%, and among your assumptions is still slightly higher truck production in North America. Now, some market participants and observers have maybe been talking about even better than that, potentially. Could you maybe talk about the sensitivities of your assumptions on CVS margin in the coming quarters and year to assumptions around the truck production rate? Thank you.
Thanks, Vivek, for taking basically every word serious that we are saying. Yeah, indeed, I mean, even once you start into the year in a quarter with 11.5, in order to reach then 12 for the full year, requires you to reach more than 12% in some of the quarters. That's why we've been there a bit, so to say, expecting growth in profitability over the quarters to come and to end up definitely towards end of the year with a margin that is above 12%. That's one clear statement.
Second clear statement is, of course, I mean, the expectations and the work that's going around in regards to North America has been quite put more on the bullish side since several months now. If you look at the sheer truck production rates in the months of January, February, okay, there was some bad weather here and there, but they haven't been so great, even below 20,000 units a month. Basically, as Marc also said in the beginning, and which is basically the cornerstone of BOOST, we try to deal with what we can influence, and we can influence our cost structure and our market presence in a given market.
If that market becomes a bit better, like you said, like with some of the, what the other OEMs are saying, then we're happy to take the operating leverage. The operating leverage that you can expect from us is on top to everything that we indicate, some 20%-25% EBIT conversion out of what's the market holding up for us in future that we don't see yet. That's how I would see the situation, Vivek.
Clear. Thank you.
There's something to add, which I think for you is more important, not more important, but also is equally important. We have managed ourselves with truck in the year 2023 and 2024 in a break-even territory of 71%-72%. Now we have managed ourselves back in a territory with 65%-66%. We improved our cost situation by 600 basis points. The break-even is now giving us the comfort that we finally can leverage a slight increase of revenue. When you compare the numbers of 2025 to 2026, the revenue is nearly stable, yeah. Okay, you can say adjustment of the exchange rate, exchange rate, blah, blah. The end of the day, we are reaching finally what we always aimed. With a stable revenue, we can finally leverage our improved cost position.
That is also very important because, finally we reached it, and you remember it because I said it again and again, per employee, we have reached in the first quarter 2026, EUR 300,000 per employee. You remember in 2023, we started at EUR 250, EUR 260 with trucks. This improvement is now confirming what we are doing. This is what we do. We have to do the same with rail. I am very honest, in rail, we are not at this position currently. We have a lower break even, yes. That is always, this is the railish character of the business. This is more in the range of 60%, never in the range of 70%. When it comes to personal expenses, this ratio is much more, it's much higher.
In truck, we have reached a personal expense ratio of below 20. We were at 22, 23 two years ago. That is that the productivity not only of the capital, you know, we have always this capital, Return on Capital Employed, Return on Equity, so capital numbers, Days Sales Outstanding. The question more and more is not only the capital, it's all what do you get from your employees. There is the first time, I am very proud of that, we reached the 300,000. We finally reached it, and we reached it one year earlier than we thought. Immediately, you see it on the margin. If you can keep this 300,000 for the rest of the year, then it is clear whatever happens in America, North America or even other markets will immediately have an impact on our EBIT margin.
That is what we always aim for, yeah. So far, we were really in a defense mode. Now we can finally leverage what we do.
That's clear. Thank you very much for all the color. Very helpful. My second question is around Duagon. It's now closed. It's in the numbers. I was curious, you know, what are your impressions of the business now it's closed? Are you as confident on the growth and margin trajectory? As a bit of housekeeping, I noticed that the M&A contribution to the RVS EBIT was about EUR 3 million. It'd be just helpful if you could break out how much integration cost you had in the quarter, just so we can look at the underlying margin at Duagon. Thank you.
Yeah. Thanks, Vivek. Yeah, you're right. We are showing the numbers of Duagon basically in the M&A bridge. We are in the midst of the PMI process. What we see is what we thought we would get, and that's perfectly fine. We know that not every part of the business of Duagon is perfect. Some are excellent, some are okay-ish, and we are working on those parts where they are not excellent yet. The integration, as I said, is ongoing. Integration cost in the fourth quarter, I would say are minor. Yes, included, but minor. Also, they have a similar seasonality like we also have in the business also. Their first quarter is usually the weakest.
We expect also their acceleration of results when it comes to the further quarters ahead. You know that we have outlined our financial guardrails for M&A acquisitions, and we had those already when we did the Duagon deal. Expect we still expect that we can come with that business to EBIT margin of 16%, but not in the first quarter or second quarter, but they would they should be growing over the time following a certain seasonality.
You can come already with the Signaling business in America, which we bought.
Signaling, as you know, we have also completely fulfilled the expectations on the not only the growth but also the profitability side on the Signaling business in North America. We have done more than 18% of return in the last year for the Signaling business. We don't expect there to have really any issue on the Duagon side.
Very clear. Thank you very much.
Yeah, you're welcome.
Thank you. Next questioner is Akash Gupta from JPMorgan. The floor is yours.
Yes. Hi, good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for your time. My first one is on RVS. Here, if you look at your aftermarket revenues, the share was 52.5% in Q1, down from 55.4%. Despite this weak mix, by having higher equipment or project revenues, you still managed to improve your margin by 90 basis points. Can you talk about the drivers behind higher profitability despite lower services, which were down year-on-year? That's first one. Second one is on CVS. You mentioned that your North American revenues were down 3%, against truck production rate down double digit in Q1.
I appreciate there may be some price increases in aftermarket, growth dynamics. Can you say how does your overall volumes on new production compare to TPR? Are you gaining any market share in North American market? Thank you.
I think they are still on mute.
Didn't do anything. Sorry, I was already answering, then I was told I'm on mute, yeah. Akash, let me, let me start with RVS, maybe first. Obviously, we have gained also revenue in Europe, our stronghold. It's the biggest market for us, and we have a positive product mix effect out of the European products compared to some other products that we see, for example, in the classical North American business. Definitely it's a product mix effect that we have. Out of the sheer volume, to say, excluding FX, we have also operating leverage, of course.
As Marc also said, let's not forget, even though we talk more often about truck, we have also improved the cost position on the rail side. Even, maybe if it's not that obvious because we usually talk about other drivers of the RVS business, but also the guys in RVS have improved their cost position, yeah. That's pretty clear. Those three ingredients basically led to that situation that we have improved the margin. Again, just another highlight because Marc also asked me to point out on Signaling as an example here.
Another mix effect in a certain market is, for example, that we improved here the profitability even significantly when it comes to the Signaling business in North America, despite the fact that some freight business is minus year-over-year or quarter-over-quarter. CVS indeed a bit of a tricky situation, I would say when it comes to the market. A bit of I would say rather good demand or at hindsight some great expectations in regards to how the market would be going. Ultimately, it was the market was not that favorable. The market itself in North America, and you are referring a bit, so to say, to the content per vehicle kind of logic. The market has been really weak, extremely weak.
We have been producing, or the truck market had only a production of 54,000 trucks, heavy duty trucks, Class 8. The production number in the first quarter of 2025 was 73,000 trucks. The market was down from 73,000 units to 54,000 units. Keep those numbers in mind. At the same time, our organic revenue in truck in North America only declined by -3%, yeah. Do I say now with that the whole delta between -20 % something on the market side and revenue of -3 only is all content per vehicle? No, of course, there is also some other aspects in, like you mentioned, we did some price increases. Yes, of course. That's the situation, yeah. We have shown good content per vehicle there.
We have shown, yes, some price increases, but not only on the aftermarket side, also on the OE side. Keep in mind, for example, tariff charge-throughs to some of the customers which didn't occur in the first quarter of 2025. All those ingredients together led to that great situation or that great resilience, I would call it, in North America.
Thank you. Maybe on market share, can we say it's more stable and not changing a lot?
Yes. Yes, absolutely.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
The last question comes from Alex Jones from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Great. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. If I can start on CVS as well. You indicated sales sort of flat into this quarter, but, you know, with orders solid in Q1, the order trajectory in Q2 sounds good and OEMs have talked about increasing production rates, especially in North America, but also to some extent in Europe. Is there anything holding back a pickup in sales in Q2 in that business? Thanks.
We are. Also just to confirm orders. We would have also taken in the first quarter orders above EUR 1 billion. We have not limited ourselves. Just a joke at the side. Sorry for that. I mean, I hear all this enthusiasm that's outspoken, and we of course also hear it from the customers. They've just placed orders. There's nothing that's hindering us, nor the systems, nor our production capacity. We're ready as far as the market is. As we all know, also some of the arguments would be around some EPA pre-buy happening in the second half of the year, which we believe as well.
In order to do so, given a certain lead time that you would have on the OEM side, should be kind of now or never, that orders would be coming in. That's why we're also pretty conservatively optimistic. Let's put it this way, what's coming in the second quarter and the third quarter ahead of us. Nothing holding us back.
Thank you. The second one, just cognizant of your comments around the Middle East at the start and, you know, potentially a little bit more inflation in the system. Could you just remind us on, you know, the rail side of the business and clearly you have longer term orders there, how you manage cost inflation on orders that are currently in the backlog? Thank you.
Generally, we have all together in this world, learned a lot about the timing when high inflation came back in 2022. We have, let's say, gone through thoroughly all the contracts on the CVS as well as on the RVS side, all contracts with the customers for respective projects, and we have tightened them. We have more price-sliding clauses than we had before. We had more, so to say, material scope in the respective price-sliding clauses than we had before those days. Basically, in the old days, it was the usual suspects of raw materials like cast iron, steel, aluminum and all that stuff. We have broadened that range of what we could charge through after a certain time.
We have also reduced the lead time of when we would be able to charge things back a bit. We're in a better position than we have been some three years ago. That's why there would always be a certain time lag, you know. We have bettered our situation quite significantly since those days, and that what makes us pretty comfortable going into the future with those effects.
Thank you.
You're welcome, Alex.
Thank you very much.
Hey.
That concludes the Q&A. I hand back to Knorr-Bremse for closing words.
Thanks a lot for all the questions. If you have further questions, please reach out to the Investor Relations team, and we wish you a great afternoon. Thanks and bye.