Good morning, everyone. Thank you for standing by. This is Hendrik Finger from Investor Relations.
I would also like to welcome you. My name is Katharina Immoor, and I'm the head of communications at thyssenkrupp nucera. We wish you a warm welcome to thyssenkrupp nucera's Joint Press and Analyst and Investor Conference on the results of the second quarter and first half year of our fiscal year 2025-2026. We are very pleased that you have taken the time to join us today.
Our management board is here with us this morning to walk you through the presentation and to discuss our latest business technology and financial developments. Now, before we start the presentation, some housekeeping. First, this call will be recorded, and a replay will be made available on our website later. Second, today's presentation, and potentially some answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements. For additional information in this regard, please refer to the disclaimer. As usual, the presentations will be followed by question and answer sessions for journalists and analysts. With that, I'll hand over to our CEO, Werner Ponikwar, who will be starting the presentation.
Thank you, Katharina. Thank you, Hendrik. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for your interest and for dialing in today. Let me start by pointing out the main developments over the last months before deep diving into some of them. Given our separate announcements in March and more recently last week, much of that won't come as a surprise for you. Nevertheless, I think it is important to reiterate that we see new commercial momentum in green hydrogen. Of course, it needs to be backed up by further customer orders and political commitments, but you can clearly see a shift in perception in hydrogen. For us, this has resulted in a new order we received from Moeve for a 300 MW project in Spain.
Besides Europe, we do see a lot of momentum in India as well, where we were awarded a FEED study by Juno Joule, and we where we are also seeing further projects progressing. Both milestones clearly demonstrate the trust our clients place in thyssenkrupp nucera to deliver best-in-class technology tailored to their needs. The 300 MW project in Spain and the previously announced order for a large chlor-alkali plant in the Middle East were both recognized in our second quarter, resulting in an order intake of more than EUR 300 million. This is the highest quarterly order intake since the IPO, or more precise, since the NEOM project was accounted for in December 2021. Backed by this high order intake, we saw our order backlog increase to more than EUR 730 million at the end of March 2026.
Our chlor-alkali business continues to do well. As reference, we can name two larger new-build projects in the U.S. and in Brazil, which are well advanced in the commissioning phase. I will come to that in more details in a couple of minutes. Lastly, we confirm our adjusted outlook for the financial year 2025-2026. It's important to note the higher project costs are of a one-time nature and will, from today's perspective, not spill over to the second half of the financial year. Now, a brief recap of two commercial highlights from our green hydrogen business in the second quarter. Moeve has commissioned us to supply 300 MW of electrolyzers.
This is currently the largest green hydrogen project in Southern Europe, and it's a great success for our teams. We are excited to support Moeve in the first step for creating the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley with a total capacity of up to 2 GW. In addition, thyssenkrupp nucera has been awarded a contract for a FEED study for a 260 MW green hydrogen project in India. This is an important step toward substantiating bankability of this project, which is actually the first Indian green hydrogen project in our portfolio. With this, we are expanding our geographical reach into one of the most dynamic growth markets for green hydrogen.
Based on the new-build business, green hydrogen service will unlock further value, and that's what we're already proving in chlor-alkali, where service account for around 50% of sales and thereby provide a stable and recurring revenue base compared to the more cyclical new-build business. Over time, we will see that in green hydrogen as well. We establish long-term relationships with our customers based on long-term service agreements alongside our large-scale project partnerships. We are currently in the process of finalizing several long-term service agreements, and we will be able to share more details soon. With our 360-degree lifecycle service portfolio, we create tangible value for our customers through three key strengths. First, we provide best-in-class levelized cost of hydrogen-optimized lifecycle management. Second, we ensure high-efficiency electrolyzer performance while minimizing operational risks. Third, we maximize availability while reducing overall operating costs.
The market opportunity for services in green hydrogen is substantial. The roughly 3.5 GW of electrolyzer capacity currently under execution already represents a service revenue potential of more than EUR 2 billion with attractive margins over the 25 years average lifetime of the electrolyzers. With every additional new build project, the service potential will certainly further increase. In essence, our service offering enables us to generate long-term resilient and recurring revenue streams beyond the initial sale of electrolyzer equipment. Now let's move on to our chlor-alkali segment. Once again, the business has demonstrated strong resilience and outstanding reliability in project executions. Our service division delivered a very strong performance with order intake exceeding the prior year level. We are seeing growing demand for our services across key regions, particularly in China, the U.S., and also in Europe.
Looking at our major chlor-alkali projects, including new plants currently under construction in the U.S., India, and Brazil, deliveries and commissioning activities continue to progress in line with customer schedules. At Unipar Brazil, all six BM electrolyzers are now fully operational. For OxyChem in the U.S., we have successfully delivered the complete equipment package, including also spare parts. At AGC Vinythai in Thailand, commercial operations of the expanded BiTAC electrolyzer capacity have commenced successfully. At the TGV project in India, all key components have been delivered to site. In addition, we see further potential for both service and also new build projects in the current financial year 2025-2026. Turning to our green hydrogen business. We have around 3.5 GW of green hydrogen projects under execution, with visible progress and milestones being achieved. Let's start with our projects with Stegra in Sweden.
The picture shows the team on site after finishing the erection of the last out of 37 scalum electrolyzers in April. Installation of the module-based systems forms the basis for subsequent cell installation and also commissioning activities. The teams will be starting initial pre-commissioning activities in preparation for full module commissioning, and the cell stacks are scheduled for delivery at the beginning of next year. Looking at the NEOM project, it was announced last week that the project continues to make progress and is ready to produce renewable power that will be used in the commissioning of the hydrogen and also the ammonia plants. We are happy, and maybe somewhat even lucky, that activities at NEOM have not been impacted by recent conflicts in the Middle East so far.
For Shell, the 200 MW green hydrogen plants under construction in Rotterdam is also making good progress and nearing completion, with commissioning set to take place this year and ramp up of operations in 2027. Overall, we remain fully engaged with our customers as they move towards the finalization and commissioning of the first electrolysis plants. Now I'd like to share some more details on our green hydrogen project pipeline. If you remember the figures from our last update, you will find that our pipeline has been quite stable over the last quarter in all categories and also from a regional perspective. Total pipeline amounts to 55 GW underscoring the significant market potential. Approximately 14 GW of this relates to projects already at an advanced stage. We observe momentum building in selected regions, Europe and India are good examples for that.
You see on the lower right that we are currently working on FEED studies for projects with a combined capacity of 1.6 GW, which comes on top of the 3.5 GW already under execution. One technical comment here, compared to February, the Moeve project was signed and is therefore not counted into our pipeline anymore. At the same time, we were awarded a new FEED study with Juno Joule, and that is certainly now part of the 1.6 GW pipeline. All in all, it is, of course, not too far-fetched to believe that our next green hydrogen contract will come from this list in the not-too-distant future. I will discuss why this would be valuable for the economy in general and what is needed to support market building on the next slide.
Green hydrogen is fundamentally an enabling lever for Europe's industrial transition. It lets us turn renewables into molecules that can be stored and transported, which is critical for hard-to-abate sectors and parts of mobility. It also strengthens energy security by reducing dependence on important fossil fuels while building local value chains. Importantly, electrolysis can support the power grids by helping integrate more renewables and easing grid congestion over time. What will accelerate this market is, of course, bankability. That means demand-side mechanisms that give projects predictable revenue and allow financing to come in at scale alongside infrastructure that removes execution bottlenecks. In parallel, we need simpler and more harmonized regulatory requirements. Finally, industrial scale-up needs continuous, dependable funding framework, so the pipeline can convert into real FIDs.
We're not just waiting for the ecosystem to mature, we are actively shaping it. Through our industry engagements, we help push incoming standards, pragmatic regulations, and fit-for-purpose infrastructure planning. The upside is, of course, straightforward. Clearer rules and faster permitting make projects bankable, and that moves the market from pilot to scale. Now, let's talk technology, and who would be better suited for that than our CTO, Klaus Ohlig. Klaus, over to you.
Thank you, Werner, and a very good morning to all of you also from my end. When speaking about technology, the current slide covers learnings from deploying our 20 MW modules. The following one will then be looking on ongoing technology developments and future trends. We have seen higher cost in project execution, which led to one-time effects in the second quarter. These are linked to the first-of-its-kind nature of our AWE modules we brought to market in 2021. They were built on more than 50 years of experience in the chlor-alkali field. Obviously, we also gained significant insights since then as well. For that reason, we are carrying out upgrades that reflect feedback from engineering, construction sites, as well as test facilities over the last five years, which will be embedded across 160 delivered modules ahead of commission. We continue to build on our technological lead.
Added sensors and adjusted plant design supported by new intellectual property are not incremental tweaks. They are designed to lift reliability and safety in a way that benefits the full life cycle. Reliability drives returns. For customers, long-duration assets only work if they operate consistently. Our focus is reliable performance over 20 to 30 years while actively reducing operational risk. Services are a margin and differentiation lever. We are building on an LCOH-optimized service life cycle model to maximize availability and reduce OpEx. This is where our competitive advantages lie. I would like to talk about our green hydrogen product offering, which we are consistently advancing in line with evolving customer requirements and with a clear focus on scalability, standardization, and cost competitiveness. For example, we're currently working on a new full-scope plant solution based on our successful scalum alkaline water electrolyzer systems.
We will soon launch a fully integrated and standardized under 20 MW plug-and-play electrolyzer system that significantly reduces complexity and enables faster deployment for our customers. This solution also includes compression of up to 35 bar, is designed for outdoor use, and is expected to further reduce cost per megawatt. At the same time, we're taking the next step with our pressurized AWE systems, building on our proven modular design approach. This product will initially target the market and applications of up to 100 MW, a playtype where smaller, more flexible, and compact systems are able to provide best levelized cost of hydrogen. The successful startup of a prototype in Denmark based on the technology we acquired from GHS last year marks an important milestone and demonstrate both the technical maturity of the concept and our strong execution capabilities.
In parallel, we're continuing to assess the strategic role of SOEC technology. While SOEC offers significant efficiency potential, it still requires longer time to market. Therefore, we're conducting a thorough review of our roadmap to explore and evaluate different strategic options to ensure an optimal use of resources while meeting market demand. Across all of these initiatives, our clear priority remains the further reduction of levelized cost of hydrogen. We are addressing this through lower CapEx, driven by standardization and scale, as well as maintaining industry-leading OpEx through reliability and design to service. With that, I would like to hand over to Stefan for the financial section.
Thank you very much, Klaus, and a warm welcome from my side as well. Ladies and gentlemen, let me start by summarizing the key financial developments in the second quarter. The second quarter performance was mixed. We saw strong commercial momentum reflected in a sharp increase in order intake in both segments. At the same time, our reported sales and earnings were temporarily distorted by one-off and largely technical effects in the green hydrogen business. After taking a more cautious approach during half-year closing, these effects amounted to around EUR 50 million. This was higher than initially expected. It also reduces the risks for subsequent quarters. Importantly, our financial stability remained solid and unchanged.
Overall, the key message is our commercial momentum is strong, our fundamentals are intact, and the current shortfall is related to one-time effects, and in terms of sales, mostly a technical accounting effect in nature. Let's now take a closer look at the KPIs displayed here and start on page 16 with order intake. In the second quarter, we recorded an order intake of EUR 360 million, which is the highest quarterly figure since our IPO in 2023. It reflects major project wins in both segments, green hydrogen and chlor-alkali. In the GH2 segment, order intake stood at EUR 176 million and was marked by the 300 MW new build project with Moeve, which we secured in March. In line with the fulfillment of typical financing requirements, we were able to already recognize this project as order intake in the second quarter.
In the chlor-alkali segment, order intake rose by 76% to EUR 140 million, mainly reflecting the large new build order in Middle East, which we signed in December. Looking at the first six months, order intake increased by 119% compared to the prior year period, reaching EUR 391 million. This increase was driven by the developments in the second quarter, supported by both segments. Order backlog for the group increased to EUR 732 million at the end of March, of which EUR 380 million relate to the GH2 business. With that, order intake and backlog are now already clearly above the full year level and the prior fiscal year. Above all, this development underlines the relevance of our technology portfolio and provides significantly improved visibility for the upcoming quarters.
Let's now turn to our sales performance. As you can see on slide 17, sales in the second quarter declined by 77% year-on-year to EUR 50 million. This development was largely driven by the green hydrogen business, which posted sales of EUR -33 million. The sales decline and the negative sales figure as such are primarily technical in nature. Higher project costs in connection with one-time effects in the GH2 segment led to a reduction in the percentage of completion under IFRS accounting, which in turn temporarily lowered revenue realization in the second quarter. In addition, sales were negatively impacted by the termination of the contract of a 20 MW pilot plant in the U.S. Together, both effects amounted to approximately EUR 50 million.
In chlor-alkali, sales decreased by 14% year-on-year to EUR 83 million, mainly due to lower new build sales, while service sales remained broadly stable at prior year level. Looking at the six-month period, group sales declined by 59% year-on-year to EUR 197 million. Green hydrogen sales were down mainly due to lower sales contribution from the NEOM project due to the high degree of project completion combined with the one-time effects we saw in Q2. Chlor-alkali sales declined by 25% in the first six months. However, the translation of the significant higher order intake in the first half of the year into sales will accelerate in the coming quarters. Overall, despite the sizable one-time effects that weighed on Q2 sales, our assumptions for the full year remain valid and our sales guidance intact.
Moving on to EBIT on page 18. Starting with the second quarter, group EBIT amounted to EUR -65 million compared to EUR -4 million in the prior year quarter. Importantly, this development does not reflect a material deterioration of the underlying operating performance across the group. The group EBIT decline was predominantly driven by the green hydrogen business, which posted an EBIT loss of EUR 78 million, which is EUR 60 million lower than in the prior year quarter. EBIT was negatively impacted by the aforementioned one-off items, which had a negative impact. In the chlor-alkali segment, the decline in sales was largely offset by an improved gross margin, driven by a higher margin project mix. In the six-month period, group EBIT declined to EUR -69 million compared to EUR 4 million in the prior year period.
To assess what this means going forward, there are a few key points to consider. First, our underlying operating performance is significantly more stable than the Q2 figures alone suggest. Second, we expect sales momentum to accelerate compared to the first half of the financial year, driven by previously secured chlor-alkali orders and a partial reversal of the accounting-related negative sales effect in green hydrogen. Third, we will realize further cost reductions, cost and optimization measures, which I will elaborate on in the next slides. Taking all of this into account, our full year EBIT guidance remains appropriate. Now let me walk you through our operating cost development in the first six months. Starting with cost of goods sold. Cost of goods sold declined year-on-year, reflecting mainly the lower sales level in Q2.
Margins in the GH2 segment were adversely impacted by the one-off effects we mentioned earlier. In contrast, the chlor-alkali segment achieved a strong improvement in gross margin driven by a more favorable higher margin project mix. Turning to SGA, costs remained stable at EUR 37 million despite inflationary pressures. This underscores our disciplined cost management and restrictive hiring approach. Importantly, we already see a sequential improvement compared to the second half of last fiscal year, and we expect further reductions as we move through the remainder of the year. Finally, on R&D. Expenditures increased as planned, reflecting our continued focus on technology and innovation. As in prior periods, a portion of these costs were capitalized. In summary, while one-off effects weighed on reported performance, we maintained cost discipline and continued to invest selectively in our future growth.
Building on the cost discipline I just touched upon, we launched a great comprehensive cost containment program to proactively address the current slowdown in sales. Starting with cost structure optimization, we have reduced the use of external consulting, we have reorganized our IT cost, we have implemented a hiring freeze, and we have reduced working time in our German entity for tariff employees, equivalent to a reduction of roughly 40 FTEs, and are optimizing our office footprint. These measures alone are expected to deliver annual savings of more than EUR 25 million, with full effect in the next fiscal year, 2026/2027, compared to fiscal year 2024/2025. Beyond that, we are taking a number of strategic measures to structurally improve our cost base.
This includes adjusting module yard capacity, streamlining our R&D and GH2 product activities with a clear focus on long-term competitiveness, and leveraging best cost countries across engineering, supply chain, and support functions. These initiatives are expected to contribute an additional EUR 50+ million in expected annual savings. Overall, this program is well underway and will not only mitigate the current market softness, but also enhance our structural efficiency and competitiveness going forward. Let me now briefly walk you through the EBIT bridge from EBIT to net income and earnings per share. Both in the second quarter and first six months, the substantial decline in EBIT translated directly into a negative net income. Positive financial income, driven by interest earned on our cash position, provided a slight offset.
Net income in Q2 amounted to EUR -64 million and EUR -66 million in the half-year period, with earnings per share declining accordingly to EUR 0.50 and EUR -0.50 and EUR -0.53 respectively. Cash flow from operating activities in the six-month period declined to EUR 50 million. Lower earnings and cash outflows related to reductions in trade payables were driving this. These effects were partially offset by higher project-related cash inflows as well as lower inventories. The cash out from the one-time effect in Q2 will spread over the coming quarters. Cash flow from investing activities was roughly stable at EUR -12 million. Overall, this resulted in a positive free cash flow of EUR 3 million in the six months period. Net financial assets increased slightly to EUR 655 million, which represents a very comfortable position.
Overall, these developments underline our balance sheet strength, providing sufficient headroom to balance cyclicality and the ramp-up profile of our green hydrogen business. Lastly, let me reiterate our outlook for fiscal year 2025/2026. We adjusted it in our ad hoc communication in mid-March, and we continue to believe it is appropriate based on the business developments in the first six months. For the group, we expect order intake in the range of EUR 550 million-EUR 850 million, compared to EUR 348 million in the prior fiscal year. Based on the development so far, we are confident to reach the lower end of the guidance range. To reach the upper end, further new build orders in both segments, but especially in the green hydrogen segment, are needed.
For group sales, we now expect EUR 450 million-EUR 550 million, largely supported by projects already under contract. At segment level, we anticipate GH2 sales of EUR 120 million-EUR 170 million and chlor-alkali sales of EUR 320 million-EUR 400 million. The new 300 MW green hydrogen project from Puertollano in Spain will have only a limited impact on sales development in the current fiscal year. For group EBIT, we continue to expect a range of EUR -80 million to EUR -30 million. EBIT in the GH2 segment is expected to come in between [EUR 900 EUR -125] million and EUR -90 million, while the chlor-alkali segment is expected to deliver between EUR 45 million and EUR 65 million.
Overall, this year's sales and earnings will be visibly impacted by the aforementioned one-time effects from the green hydrogen business, while the underlying operational performance remains sound. We revive commercial momentum together with our focus on cost savings and disciplined project execution, strengthen the foundation, and lay the groundwork towards future sales and earnings growth. With that, I'm handing back to Werner, who will wrap up today's presentation.
Thank you, Stefan, and also Klaus. Ladies and gentlemen, let me conclude today's presentations by reiterating our key messages. We observe a positive momentum in green hydrogen market and plan to also leverage that. While political support remains essential for the mid-term development of our industry, our robust order intake over the past months has enhanced our near-term visibility with respect to capacity utilization as well as sales and earnings forecast. The chlor-alkali business has demonstrated consistent profitability, strong cash flow, and reliable performance. We are pleased to have this asset in our company.
The company's quarterly financial performance was, of course, not satisfactory as it was significantly impacted by higher project costs in the green hydrogen business. It is noteworthy though that these higher project cost elements are connected to the first of its kind nature of our large green hydrogen projects and that they are one-time expenses. Additionally, our strong liquidity, our strict cash discipline and the ongoing cost-saving measures provided substantial downside protection. Lastly, we keep on implementing our strategic agenda. We improve our competitive position by expanding our range of products and services to meet and surpass customer expectations in a rapidly evolving market environment. That concludes our presentation. Thank you for your attention and we are now ready to take your questions. Hendrik, over to you.
Thanks, Werner. At this time, we will begin the question and answer sessions for journalists and analysts. As we are using Microsoft Teams for this call, please push the Raise Your Hand icon to indicate that you would like to ask questions. We will announce your name and open your line. When it is your turn, please ensure that you unmute yourself additionally. We are aware that it might take a few seconds to get everything going, also depending on the settings on your side, no worry. The first question today comes from Skye Landon. We have just opened your line and you should be able to unmute yourself. Please go ahead.
Hi, can you hear me?
Yes, Skye.
Hi. Great. Thanks for the presentation this morning. Can I just ask about the 1.6 GW of FEED contracts? Positively, Moeve came out, Juno Joule went in topping it back up. Just wondering if you could give some more detail on the other 1.4 GW of projects. Beneath this, how many projects are included within the 1.4 GW? What are the size of these projects? What are the likely timelines for FID on these? Secondly, on your SOEC program, just wondering if you have any plans to also look at the fuel cell side of things and SOFC.
Thirdly, just wondering now that kind of major projects are getting close to completion, just wondering if you'd be able to provide some color or give us an update on the outlook for service revenues in the green hydrogen business. Thanks very much.
All right, Skye. Hi, this is Werner . I will start, and I would start actually with the 1.6 GW of FEED contracts. Of course, we cannot share our customer names or anything like that. In general, when it comes to sizes of these FEED contracts and project sizes, that's between 100 MW and 600 MW of projects. Predominantly in Europe, but also we have also apparently now a project in India with Juno Joule in that pipeline as well.a
In terms of timeline, of course, that remains almost a secret of our customers, as you can imagine. As mentioned, we are pretty confident that out of this list also in the near term, we will potentially see also new equipment contracts coming along. For SOEC, I might hand over to Klaus.
Thanks for the question, Skye. With respect to SOEC, our focus remains on electrolysis. We have certainly looked into the fuel cell side of the business, but focus remains on the electrolysis side to also fit into our overall project product portfolio.
Maybe to the service revenue very quickly. In general, I think I've mentioned that also in the presentation, we see that over the lifetime of such a plant, which is on average 25 years, we typically see a similar amount of revenues coming in as the initial investment in the plant. As I said, you know, for the 3.5 GW, we would estimate around about EUR 2 billion over 25 years coming in from these assets alone. Of course, every additional assets that we are able to deploy in the market will of course create additional revenue streams in terms of service.
It is of course important to note that these streams are not coming in actually on a, I would say, a very constant basis, if you want, because services are typically working in peaks for individual plants. That means there are revamp cycles where every four to eight years, depending on the technology and location, you would see, I would say a larger revamp, where cells and electrodes and coatings basically are looked at and potentially renewed as well. That certainly, those peaks, you would potentially see in service revenues from, you know, within these time frames.
Of course, there is continuous service activities with clients like spare parts supply, but also, you know, digital services that we provide in terms of preventive maintenance and maintenance efforts over time. If you basically lay over a number of individual plants and their service patterns, then of course you get a very constant revenue stream that as we, as we've seen that already in the electro alkaline field, where we have deployed so many plants that statistically actually that's flattening out. I hope that was providing a little bit of color to that.
Yeah. Thanks for the color. Cheers, Werner.
Thank you.
Thanks, Skye. The next question comes from Kevin Roger with Kepler. Please unmute yourself and go ahead.
Hi, can you hear me?
Yep. Yes, can hear you, Kevin.
Yeah. Hi. Good morning. Hope you are doing well. I have three question, if I may. The first one, I was wondering if today you can provide us maybe a bit more color on the extra cost and maybe the reason why you decided maybe to, in a way, front-load a lot on Q2 and reduce the risk for Q3, Q4. Maybe a bit of color on those extra costs. The second question, the working capital movement this quarter, is it 100% related to the prepayment on the 300 MW hydrogen contract? Just to understand the move this quarter. The last one, today you announced this new 120 MW modules on the hydrogen space.
As a kind of follow-up on the commercial pipeline, how many are your project or capacity are we talking about, in terms of project that are already, let's say, working on this potential, 120 MW, solution, please?
Hi, Kevin. Let me start with the last question, and then I'll hand it over for the extra cost and more details to Klaus. I think working capital is in the domain of Stefan. On the new product, I mean, this is a bit pre-launch still. The launch will happen towards the end of May, beginning of June. It's a new product that we are offering to the market. As such, of course, there has been no, I would say firm discussions right now in the market with customers on that particular product.
We believe it's providing a lot of additional value as an offering, in particular when it comes to reduction of cost, but also different other features. As we see that, you know, the sizes in the market of hydrogen plants are increasing towards, you know, + 100 MW. In the meantime, we believe that with such an offer, we would be sort of hitting the sweet spot also in terms of size over the next five years quite accurately. As such, we believe it's the right sizing as well, and it gives a lot of opportunity to optimizing costs, of course. Now, extra costs.
Yeah, extra cost. Thanks, Kevin, for the question. Maybe just as a clarification, ahead of explaining or answering your question, the technology is working, we're continuously improving or we've been improving the performance in terms of specifically safety and reliability. It is important to keep in mind that any technological improvement is part of a maturing industry. There was certainly the question, when is the best timing to do this, these enhancements? It's much better to do such improvements right now before commissioning, as this is a lot easier than compared to doing it after startup. Basically that decided or defined the point in time when we started to do the adjustments, the enhancements, and that then incurred the respective cost.
Stefan, I don't know if you want to add something to set the point.
No, I think that did it quite well. There's not much to add. I would rather answer the third question you had, Kevin, which related to the net working capital development. You noted quite correctly, net working capital was down, and there were two effects mainly driving this. One you already mentioned. It is the prepayments, and you can observe that in our balance sheet, contract liabilities are significantly up, which leads to a reduction of net working capital in turn. The other, on and, this is the second driver, is inventory optimization. You will also note by looking into our balance sheet that inventories are down EUR 22 million, and that's the second effect that can be observed here.
The two drivers have led to a significant reduction of net working capital as a whole.
Okay. Okay, understood. Thanks for the time.
Sure. Thanks, Kevin.
Thanks, Kevin. Before handing over to Marco Cristofori with Intesa, let me quickly remind you, if you want to ask a question, please push the Raise Your Hand icon, and then we will open your line. Now, Marco, over to you.
Can you hear me?
We do. Hi, Marco.
Okay. Thank you for taking my question. I will start with your guidance, which has been confirmed despite, let's say, a weak second quarter. If I see at the mid of range of your guidance for green hydrogen, I see that for the second half of the year, you expect still a huge decline of sales, around 45%, but a strong improvement of the operating performance. If I accounted well, around EUR 18 million EBIT losses compare with EUR 30 million EBIT losses reported in the second half of last year. If you can give more color on this strong operational improvement expected in the second part of the year. My second question is on the order of Moeve.
You said that there will be a limited impact on sales in 2026. Just to understand if the average profitability or margin of this order is similar to the margin you recorded on other large orders. The last thing, very short, you mentioned during the call that part of the impact of lower revenues, negative revenues in the second quarter in green hydrogen would be reversed along the year. Is it correct? How much is could be this impact of this reversal? Thank you.
Okay, Marco, I think I will take all three questions. You started with the guidance, and you noted quite correctly, we indeed do expect an increase of performance in GH2, but not only GH2 compared to the first half quarter here. It is, of course, quite important to adjust for the one-time effects that, of course, have significantly hit into the segment EBIT here. Even adjusted for that, you are correct. Our current EBIT guidance here is EUR -125 to EUR -90, it goes without saying that a performance improvement is expected here. Also for chlor-alkali, we expect a higher performance for the second quarter than in the first half year.
This is, I mean, differences in or variations in performance here from quarter- to- quarter are quite usual in our business. It's plant engineering business, here we can see that the project mix is more, will be more favorable in the second half quarter. I think this explains how we come to our overall guidance, which shows at least stable and in the worst case a slightly negative following quarters, but potentially positive ones. I hope that answers that question then. The second questions was related to the Moeve project and the limited impact on sales.
In this current fiscal year, also this is typical for such a large project where we usually start with an engineering phase and revenue realization during that engineering phase is not very significant compared to later stages in the project. This is very typical. Due to the project timeline, we will realize a larger part of the sales in next fiscal year. Your questions related to margin is this project has the same margin as comparable, for example, chlor-alkali, larger chlor-alkali projects as well. There's no big margin difference to mention. Your third question was related to the reversal of the one-time effects.
Here, this is a very technical accounting effect related to the POC accounting and the additional costs that were accounted here in the projects will indeed reverse. This is an effect that will stretch across the two to three following quarters. Also, when the revenue that is now accounted for negatively will reverse in the next quarter and the quarter after that, mainly. That is true. Yes. I hope that answers that question as well.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thanks, Marco. Next in line is James Carmichael with Berenberg. Please unmute yourself and go ahead.
Hi. Morning, guys. Hopefully, you can hear me. A few technical issues at my end, so apologies if you've covered any of this. Just a couple from me. Thanks for the presentation. Firstly, on order intake and the bridge to the low end of the guidance, I guess just based on your commentary, it sounds like we should essentially expect almost all of remaining orders for the year to be in the chlor-alkali business. Just wondering if that is fair and, you know, a bit less confident on the green hydrogen timelines. Looking at the sort of cost reduction measures, you've announced EUR 40 million or over EUR 40 million in total.
Just wondering if there are any one-off costs associated with those, and sort of how I guess ultimately how quickly you can implement that. Lastly, just on, you know, the confidence in around, I guess there's no sort of direct operational impact to you guys, but just if there's anything that you're seeing in your supply chain or in your customer supply chains that are sort of affecting their ability to execute projects. Thanks.
Yeah, maybe a quick comment on the first one actually on the order intake. Is it fair to assume that it's gonna be only chlor-alkali for the rest of this financial year? I would say no. As mentioned, we have that 1.6 GW of FEED contracts that we're currently working on. Of course, there are still potentials for this year that one or the other of these projects materialize in green hydrogen even for this, for the remaining financial year. Again, it's a potential, and we've seen now things slipping over the last years quite significantly. There's of course also probability that it will slip into next year.
As of today, what I would say we are rather confident that something is still able to materialize also in green hydrogen. I will touch upon the question on the cost reduction measures you've asked. Your question was whether there are many one-off items or one-time items included in that. The answer to that is the cost savings that we've reported here are mainly sustainable in nature. However, most of them are reversible. That is important to say. For example, especially looking at the personal measures, we have always said that we have some flexibility in our working contracts, and this is what exactly what we used here.
We have reduced working times here, which individual FTE, and that can be easily be reversed going forward if order intake should significantly pull up. Of course, there are some cost reduction measures that are not as easily reversed. The reduction of office space might take some time, but as a general comment to these measures, most of them have a sustainable effect. Yeah.
Okay. Maybe to the last one, I'm not sure whether I fully understood the question correctly, but if it's about our supply chain and the potential challenges with that supply chain on customer side and, you know, I would guess you are referring more to the Middle East supply chain and what we're doing there. As stated also in the presentation, as of now, we don't see any impact on our project, in particular the NEOM project, in Saudi Arabia. It remained rather quiet on that end of the country.
We would also cross fingers that going forward, there will be no further impact on that. As stated also by our customer, I think last week in their own earnings call, there's been currently no impact on the overall project, and we all expect that this will remain as that. Hope that was answering that question as well.
Perfect. Yeah. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thanks, James. Next question is coming from Klaus Ringel. Klaus, over to you.
Hope the mic is open now and you can hear me.
Yes, we can hear you.
Thanks. Thanks for taking my questions. Actually, would be two. I would like to take them one by one. First one would be clarification again on this cost containment program, and if there will be any implementation costs we should be aware of, not just in terms of savings, but any, let's say, kind of one-off costs for the implementation that we should see in the coming quarters.
No significant ones. You are probably referring to the personal measures here. Yeah
in my answer before, how we use flexibility that is included in the work contracts and that goes without without any limited implementation costs. The best cost country approach might here and there incur slight cost, but this is not significant here related to the savings. Yeah.
Okay. Thanks for the clarification. The second one would be a technical question, thanks for sharing your efforts here for the development of these next-gen green hydrogen products and these 120 MW electrolyzer system. You mentioned that this is bringing or hopefully bringing significant cost savings. Can you give us an idea of what we're talking about here in terms of savings in percentage or costs or whatever?
I hope you can bear with us for a few more weeks for the launch of the offering. Along with that, we will also be a bit more precise on the cost savings.
They are rather substantial, I'd say.
Okay. I will stay on board. Sure. Thank you.
Thanks, Klaus. There seems to be no more questions at this point in time. For that reason, I hand over to Werner one last time, and he will conclude today's call.
Thank you very much, everyone for joining us today in the call. If you have any further questions during the day, please feel free to reach out to our communications and also our investor relations teams. For now, all the best and goodbye. Thank you.