Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the thyssenkrupp conference call interim report first quarter, 2022, 2023. For the first part of this call, all participants will be in listen only mode, and afterwards, there will be a question and answer session. I will now hand over to Claus Ehrenbeck. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, operator. Hello, everyone. Also on behalf of the entire team, I would like to wish you a very warm welcome to our conference call this morning and not in the afternoon, as you are used to. We decided to host the conference call in the morning in order to help to save time for everyone. If we have feedback on that, we would really be happy to receive it. This conference call, as always, will be recorded. A replay will be available shortly afterwards in the course of the day, and all the documents for this call are available on the industrial relations section on our website. I think that's it from my side.
As always, there will be a Q&A session after the presentation of Klaus Keysberg, to whom I would like to hand over now. Klaus, please.
Yeah. Thank you. Also, very warm welcome from my side to our conference call here on TK's Q1 figures. I'm pleased to state that thyssenkrupp has made a good start into the new fiscal year 2022, 2023. EBIT adjusted for all business is in line with our forecast, and free cash flow before M&A is even ahead of our forecast. Overall, the business performance confirms our full year expectations of the group. Nevertheless, the fiscal year is still subject to uncertainties with regard to further macroeconomic development, even though a major economic downturn is expected to be more unlikely. Let us have a look now on the key financial performance highlights for Q1. Overall, sales were at EUR 9 billion and basically at the same level year-on-year. Declines at Multi Tracks and Materials Services were compensated by increases in other segments.
EBITDA adjusted and EBIT adjusted were significantly lower year-on-year, mainly by, as expected and already anticipated, the normalization of material prices or margins at Materials Services. This effect has driven EBIT adjusted development year-on-year and outweighed higher earnings contributions from Steel Europe, Automotive Technology, and Marine Systems. We were able to increase our free cash flow before M&A by EUR 494 million year-on-year due to lower seasonal build-up of net working capital. The cash flow number was even better than our forecast given earlier. Customer payments at most segments, including also some prepayments at Marine Systems that were initially anticipated for Q2. Looking at our balance sheet, I can state that it remains rock solid. Year-on-year, we gained EUR 0.6 billion in net cash.
We further improved our equity ratio by 8.3 percent points to a very comfortable 40%. Pension liabilities came down by EUR 2 billion . I would like to highlight again our valuable assets such as, for example, our stake in TK Elevator and the growth company, thyssenkrupp nucera, as well as the ammonia and methanol plants businesses. For this chemical industry, experts predict a key role in the upcoming hydrogen economy. Let us continue with further key highlights on the next slide. First of all, I would like to give you an update on our restructuring program. As of now, we have already reduced more than 10,000 FTEs. It goes without saying that this is the largest restructuring program ever. Moreover, I would like to outline that the performance initiatives of our businesses with defined top and bottom-line levers are well on track.
In Q1, we have already generated a low three-digit million EUR amount, which for sure supports our financial targets. In the Multi Tracks segment, next portfolio actions are progressing with two businesses currently being in an M&A process. For the Automation Engineering business unit, we are in talks with potentially interested buyers, and we have started the M&A process for the Springs & Stabilizers business unit. Furthermore, our order funnel in our hydrogen and renewables related business keeps expanding. For example, nucera was able to turn a memorandum of understanding with Unigel in Brazil for a 60MW hydrogen electrolyser plant into a firm contract. Uhde is selected by ADNOC for the exploration of a large-scale ammonia cracking plant. Bearings recorded rising order intake by wind turbine OEMs in Europe and Germany.
Last but not least, building up upon our continuous improvement in ESG in the last fiscal years, our efforts become once again noticeable. thyssenkrupp is on the CDP Climate A List in the seventh time in a row. Moving on, let us now jointly take a brief look at the group performance in Q1, more specifically. We see a robust top-line development despite the sale of AST and price-related declines at Material Services. Due to higher sales of almost all other businesses, sales are basically on the same level as the prior year with a total of EUR 9 billion. Let's continue with EBITDA adjusted that came in with EUR 477 million, a decrease of 21%. Similar for EBIT adjusted, which is down by 33% to EUR 254 million, both driven by the price normalization of Material Services.
Effects from destocking alongside falling spot prices at customers, especially Auto, also affected Steel Europe, where shipments were lower year-on-year. Performance and restructuring measures supported all businesses. Free cash flow before M&A has significantly improved by EUR 494 million year-on-year. Besides the early customer payments at most segments, this is mainly driven by seasonally planned but year-on-year lower net working capital build-up. Looking through Q2, we expect a strong cash conversion due to the planned network and capital release on the top of progressing earnings in the second half of the fiscal year. Let us now jointly take a look at the earnings in Q1, namely EBIT adjusted at a glance and by segment. By the way, please note that all corresponding EBITDA adjusted figures are available for you in our more detailed Investor Relations handout.
Materials Services, as mentioned earlier, with lower prices and volumes in the distribution business, mainly in Europe, on the back of destocking at our customers. This resulted in a significant decline of EUR 199 million year-on-year, as positive windfall effects were absent. More important for us, they improved considerably quarter-on-quarter, also on the back of starting price increases in the spot market and closed the quarter with an EBIT adjusted of EUR 20 million. Industrial Components reported an overall decline in earnings of EUR 80 million year-on-year. The Bearings business lower year-on-year, mainly driven by increased competition in China and rising factor costs. The forging business is also down year-on-year, mainly due to temporary forging line maintenance stoppages. Automotive Technology is up by EUR 5 million year-on-year. Surge cost base could be compensated by higher customer demand, operational improvements and price measures.
When looking at the Q1 numbers, you have to consider that the prior year includes a positive one-time effect. At Steel Europe, newly concluded contracts led to higher average revenues per ton, but shipments were at a record low of below 2 million tons, while cost of raw materials and energy went up year-on-year. EBIT adjusted increased by EUR 52 million year-on-year to EUR 177 million, which equals an EBITA adjusted per ton of EUR 127. You have to consider in the Steel Europe result also, this includes an effect from our CO2 emission-wide hedging activities. These effects are dependent on the market price on the reporting date and in Q1, this was approximately EUR 80 million.
Marine Systems maintained the positive trend with a significant increase of EUR 14 million year-on-year, mainly through improvements in margins by execution of higher quality orders from its order backlog that stood at EUR 13.1 billion at the end of the quarter. Multi Tracks reported a loss in EBIT adjusted, a decrease of EUR 16 million year-on-year, mainly due to the sale of AST and thus a lower earnings contribution, while almost all remaining businesses could improve their earnings. Our headquarters and others improved by EUR 38 million year-on-year. With that said, I would like to provide you with our view on the quarters to come. Q2 will be dominated by the development of Steel Europe, where we expect a challenging quarter, not unexpected.
This, in particular, will come from partly renewed contract prices and still a high, but of course, only temporarily high cost level, driven by effects from moving average at our accounting for inventory. On the positive side, we noticed in January ongoing restocking by our customers that will most likely gain momentum going forward. On group level, the therefore anticipated earnings decline at Steel Europe might not be compensated by offsetting effects, for instance arising from top-line growth at Industrial Components or strong order backlog execution at Marine Systems. For Q3 and Q4, we clearly see a substantial step up in earnings as well as a positive free cash flow before M&A for both quarters. This view on the quarters to come is essentially based on the trading conditions that we currently see or expect going forward. Please let me give some examples.
I don't want to go through each point here on this slide. First, economists, of course, and industry experts predict that the microenvironment will be stabilizing in spring, followed by a gradual upswing towards the rest of the fiscal year. Moreover, we see indications for the auto sector to work on its order backlog as supply chain pressures continue to ease. In light of this, we expect improving demand and hence increasing shipments for our steel products and car components. Now let's look how these trading conditions translate into drivers for our business for the second half. First of all, we see opportunities for top line and margin expansions for Materials Services and Steel Europe. Moreover, we see ongoing growth in our components businesses also driving bottom line performance.
Marine Systems will benefit from the execution of higher quality order backlog, while at the same time, the ongoing performance and restructuring initiatives across all segments will additionally support the earnings and cash flow performance. Last but not least, and you might have expected this, there will be a significant net working capital release in the second half of the fiscal year. All these indications make me confident that we will reach our outlook for fiscal year 2022-2023, that I will show you now on the next slide. For our sales, we expect a significant decrease, mainly due to normalization, normalized price developments at Materials Services and Steel Europe. We saw early effects at Materials Services in Q1 already. On the earnings side, we project EBIT adjusted in a range of mid to high three-digit million EUR figure.
This is in particular driven by the absence of the dynamic price effects, which provided strong tailwind in the prior year and which are the main reason for the declines in Materials Services and Steel Europe, as well as still high sector costs such as energy. Improvement in earnings, among others, at Automotive Technology and Multi Tracks counteracts this development. Overall, if you just consider an expected depreciation of approximately EUR 1 billion, you can conclude a sizable EBIT adjusted figure for 2022/2023. For free cash flow before M&A, we are striving for an increase at the last breakeven. Looking at the next quarter, we expect lower earnings but a broadly stable free cash flow before M&A in Q2, while sales are expected to increase quarter-on-quarter.
With regards to the quarter-on-quarter development for free cash flow before M&A, please consider the Q1, Q2 shift in prepayments, which are, however, of course, reflected in our guidance. Let me shortly provide you with some granularity of our outlook for free cash flow before M&A. We expect an EBIT adjusted, as said before, in the mid to high EUR 3-digit million range, as we see progress in performance and transformation across all segments. Coming from EBIT adjusted guidance, we plan with higher investments year-on-year, mainly related to the Steel Strategy 2030 and first investments into green transformations, but also into other business areas.
In addition, extraordinary and mainly non-cash IFRS 16 effects, in particular in connection with the long-term service contract at Materials Services, which are referring to long-term leasing liabilities that will increase the value of capital spending and is also reflected in the free cash flow before M&A. Investments are also planned for targeted growth initiatives in our businesses. Of course, the release of investments or the approval of the level of investments will be restrictive overall and dependent on the development of the businesses and the group. It is active management steering with potentially flexibility. Furthermore, we expect continuous and significant release in net working capital. Payment for restructuring will have an impact on the EUR low three-digit million range. Other positions include taxes, interest, and pensions.
Overall, we are aiming for an increase to at least break even in free cash flow before M&A, including the extraordinary IFRS 16 effects. Going forward, we see clearly further upside potential, for example, through progress in our transformation of thyssenkrupp, leading to a much better operational performance across our segments, also supported by a more streamlined portfolio. This also implies the fixing of cash losses at Multi Tracks over time and the reduction of restructuring cash out due to continuous progress we have made here so far. In the longer term, also normalized but still above depreciation invest levels will support our cash flow generation. Having said that, please let me remind you of our midterm target, which includes, of course, a significantly positive free cash flow before M&A.
As you can see on the chart on the bottom right, we have continuously made progress in the last years, and I'm confident that we will continue to do so and deliver as promised. This has highest priority for me and the overall management team. Now let me conclude. As a result of our restructuring efforts and measures to improve performance, our businesses are now in a much better position to cope with challenges in their environment and take advantage of wide range of opportunities. We strive to further improve performance and productivity and are continuing to press ahead with the transformation of thyssenkrupp into a group of largely independent, high-performing companies. thyssenkrupp stands for strong materials, engineering expertise, as well as digital competence as base for more profitable growth going forward.
At the same time, with our long-standing engineering expertise and the technologies in our portfolio, we are an enabler of and profit here from the global energy transition, and we are in a position to really move the needle when it comes to decarbonization and green transformation. We made ESG a CEO priority and an integrated part in all our businesses. Last but not least, rewarding the trust of our shareholder is of high importance to us. This commitment is already reflected in our recently renewed dividend payment of EUR 0.15 per share. Thanks for your attention, and we are now ready to take your questions.
Ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you very much. Operator, yes, please take over.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question for the speakers, please press star one one on your telephone keypad. There will be a brief pause while questions are being registered. The first question is coming from Ingo Schachel at Exane BNP Paribas.
Three on the Multi Tracks side, I guess.
Please go ahead, sir. There was a slot, so a small delay. Please start again.
Okay. Sure. Thanks for taking my question. The first one would be on Multi Tracks. I think Q1 was better than expected, but then you're guiding for lower Q2 earnings. Can you give us a bit more color on which business unit also which factor would drive the sequential redeterioration of the Multi Tracks profitability? Is it that execution was unsustainably strong in Q1 in certain areas or rather emerging cost inflations and margin pressure in certain areas? What's really the swing factor here?
Yeah. I mean, what you can see here, of course, it's a mixture of many businesses here. If we guide Multi Tracks a bit lower, you can see that the cost advantage we see in our Automotive business, in the Multi Tracks business will be as not as good as in the Q1. We made a good performance at nucera. In the first quarter, we will still have good performance in the second, but not as good as in the first quarter. These are alongside with some other things in the chemical plant industry, these are the major explanations for this development.
Okay. Thank you. Maybe following up on nucera, I think at the annual general meeting, you Martina Merz was saying that you're very closely following the progress of the first IPO attempts in Germany. I think the first larger IPO has been completed successfully. When it comes to waiting for the right capital market environment on nucera, is there anything else you are waiting for? Any other milestones we should watch out for now that, yeah, the IPO pipeline has succeeded so far? Is it, yeah, probably with the asset being ready and capital markets being fairly ready now a good time to also think more specifically about a nucera listing in the first half of this year?
Yeah. As I said also before in some other occasions here. If we look back of the development of nucera, I mean, what we see so far that I think, the performance of nucera showed all proof points so far, and all the order intakes increased a lot. We think that the value of the business increased between this, between last year and this year. This is going very well. As we said before, it is of course still our strategy to do a minority IPO for this business. We want to keep 50%, and this is a strategy we will also pursue. The only thing which was, let's say, in question, was the capital market environment. This was last year, and this is what we are...
Of course, we carved out the business, so we are clearly ready to do so. We are closely looking at the market conditions. If you look at the last couple of months or weeks, we have not seen so much IPO so far. I think last or for two weeks ago, there was the first one. The question is, do we really consider this now as a good one? If we consider it as a good one, we will start with this process, but we cannot give you a timeline, whether it's in the first half or not.
Okay, understood. Thanks very much.
We will come when we are ready. The growth is not dependent on an IPO.
Yep, of course. Thank you.
The next question is coming from Jason Fairclough at the Bank of America.
Yep. Can you hear me, folks? Good morning.
Yes. Hi, Jason.
Yep. Hello. Look, just a couple questions on the working capital. If I look at some of the other steel companies, say, ArcelorMittal, they're actually in a situation where they're releasing working capital right now, right? Similarly, if you look at the outlook that we're hearing from some of the other steel companies, it seems to be much more positive than maybe the outlook that you're communicating today. I'm just wondering, you know, is their business so different to yours?
Yeah. I'm not too much commenting on the development of the others, but what we are saying is, what we achieved in the first quarter, I think you know already. What is the aim for the rest of the year? If you look at the volumes, in the first quarter, volumes were weak because everybody of you know this, we saw this destocking effect alongside with the decreasing prices. What we see so far now is, you know, spot pricing coming up a bit again and volumes are also coming up a bit again.
For the whole of the fiscal year, what we guided so far was that we of course see for the rest of the year, and let's say an increase in volumes compared of course to the beginning of the year. We all in all will come with numbers which are not lower than the previous year. Yeah. Let's say it this way. We do see, of course, a certain dynamic in the rest of the year. It is at the moment very difficult to say whether this dynamic is going to be that way, that we will come to a level which will be before crisis or even before war. This is something we have to see. We see dynamic for the rest of the year.
This is very clear. The rest is with the net working capital here. I can assure you that we have quite ambitious targets to release net working capital for the Steel business till the end of our fiscal year. We are really in the progress to do so. We will see at the end of the fiscal year very much lower working capital numbers with Steel business, as you can see now.
If I could just follow up on the working capital, if you don't mind, Klaus. How do we think about the working capital in the non-steel businesses, right? I think for a while you were carrying working capital on behalf of some of your customers in some of the capital goods businesses. Is that now largely reversed, or do you still have excess inventory there as well?
Not so much. I mean, if we will have a destocking over the year, of net working capital release over the year, mainly in the Steel business, in the Materials Services business also, and also a bit in the Automotive Technology business. The rest of the businesses, of course, we do have, let's say, targets to increase working capital position. The first three was with the major improvements we planned so far.
Okay. Thank you very much.
The next question is coming from Bastian Synagowitz. Your line.
Yes. Good morning all. Thanks for taking my questions. My first question is actually more on one of your current niche business, which is Uhde. I think you've been winning a large project, and now I think there also have been a couple of pretty bullish comments from your CEO of the business when it comes to the growth ambitions for Uhde. I'm wondering, do you now aim to sharpen the profile of that business a little? It's obviously still within Multi Tracks with one of that niche business you still own, which is somewhere hidden in there. What is the situation there?
The line was not too good, but the question was whether we plan to sharpen the Uhde business because there are some things we are, let's say, promoting. Is this something? Is this your question? I guess.
Correct. I mean, ultimately it's a business which has clearly pretty good growth outlook with the exposure to ammonia and hydrogen related end markets, and I think you picked that up also in some of the comments in the at the AGM and I think in other occasions, I think there has been the public comment from your CEO to basically double the top line. I'm wondering what you are aiming to do with this, whether you still aim to leave it within Multi Tracks, whether you aim to sharpen the profile. Basically what is your plan with that business?
If you look especially for the ammonia business, and I just also, I think it was mentioned in the speaker notes and things like this. We do see this ammonia business with a very high potential to grow, and this is also what we see in the order intakes. Why is it so? I mean, I think you know this, because ammonia gets more and more important also in the light of the green transformation, because ammonia will most likely be a major part of the carrier for hydrogen. You know, we have several order intakes here. I mean, we have not taken so much on the decisions which you would like to hear now, but it's very clear that this ammonia business we want to drive and we want to bring further.
Therefore, this ammonia business and also methanol business will play a more important role in the Uhde business. What we are doing with this at what point of time, we have to let open.
Okay. Thank you. Just a second question actually on the CO2 item, which I think has been at least surprising in the sense that you're one of the first companies which basically has been carving out a big effect, which is set, which is basically within the operation numbers. I think it's pretty clear that CO2 obviously has an impact on your operational results here. Unfortunately, it also obviously adds volatility when you're probably also really aiming to demonstrate stability and a little bit of earnings defensiveness in your Steel business with others.
I'm wondering, wouldn't it make sense to somehow even find a way to neutralize that, and shift it into the other EBIT, rather than having it adding volatility in your operational numbers?
Yeah, I mean, what you're saying is clear. I mean, this we have to show this because we had a change in the accounting procedures from our auditor here. I mean, what we do is I think it's clear. I mean, if we do have a hedging strategy, yeah. If we are short, we would buy CO2 certificates. Of course we get also free certificates. In the past we had excess in certificates which were not used. As a part of a hedging strategy, we do forward hedging here. This has an effect. So far it was not reflected in the P&L, only in the, let's say, in the equity of the balance sheet.
Now it has to be reflected in the P&L. I don't know, to be honest, I don't know how our competitors are doing this. If they have this on the balance sheet, they also would have to adjust for market prices at one point of time. This is what's happening now. Since this is a new item for us, we at least want to give you clearance, what kind of part of the earnings for Steel Europe is reflected through this effect. If we would, as you said, if we would have to bring this into, let's say, in, if we would not adjust it any longer.
If we would say it as an adjusted factor, if it would not be reflected in the EBIT adjusted, but in the EBIT reported. This is something which has a procedure which has to go through supervisory things and frankly like this, it has to be also discussed with the auditor. We understand clearly that this is for you a position which is new and which gives maybe this for you, it is something like a problem to get really clear with you on this. I can assure you that we want to make this effect for you very visible, and we want to, let's say, have total clarity on this. Yeah, this is the only thing I can tell you here.
We will always tell you how much the effect is, and you know, this effect can also be reversed, but, we mean the first quarter it was a positive one. Yeah.
No, thanks. I think you're at least being very transparent about it. I guess what would be good, and even if you're not giving it to us here today, I think would be if you could at least give us maybe a bit of color on the net exposure and the sensitivity to the CO2 price so that we can mentally already do the math at our end, and basically just weigh off what the effect would be. That's something that we can maybe take offline as well. Those were my questions. Thanks so much.
Yeah. Okay.
The next questions are coming from Alain Gabriel at Morgan Stanley.
My question is on the comments you made at the AGM a couple of weeks ago around restructuring the portfolio, which remains a priority for you. What is the real bottleneck for the Steel Europe spinoff? Is it funding, and what do you need to see, or what are you waiting for, to make progress on that front? That's my first question. My second question is on Steel Europe as well. One of your peers has received significant funding from the German government to help with their decarbonization plans. Where do you stand with securing funding, and what are the timelines that we should be expecting? Thanks.
Yeah. I mean, if you talk about this spinoff or the separation of the Steel business, I mean, we are talking about this since at least one year or a bit longer. At the beginning of last year, we told you that we will postpone this project. Why did we so? Because if you look at the, especially at the transformation of the Steel business to carbon neutral production, you have to have. I mean, this is a process where you have uncertainties, but you have to have at least, let's say, certainty about funding, about CapEx, about some other issues. Last year, we did not have this. Very clear. You have to have this to make a really bankable business plan or to make a spinoff or something like this.
You have to have this security here. Now we are, of course, in a stage where we see clearer about this. You mentioned this subsidy for the, let's say, direct reduction equipment. Where are we now? We of course plan also to invest in a direct reduction equipment that it will come into work in 2026. This is also approved by us here. Now it is so that we have an application in the local government, in the German Government, and it is now at the moment lying in Brussels for approval. We don't have any objections or doubts that we don't get the approval. It's also, it's only a time or process issue.
We are, let's say, thinking that we will get approval to this in the next couple of months. Let's say in the first half year of this calendar year here. I mean, this is of course, coming back to your first question, this is of course to have a major pre-recognition to make things like a spinoff and things like this. You have to have, let's say, specific items which you can do into the bank of business plan. This is more an issue than the funding issue.
Thank you. Very clear.
The next question is coming from Tom Zhang at Barclays.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe just to start on the Steel Europe guidance. You know, you're guiding for lower earnings quarter-on-quarter. I mean, if we assume the emission rights, you know, costs stay fairly stable, I guess we should expect an EUR 80 million reversal out of that number. You have auto contracts resetting. I think you have some high cost inventory sitting on your books that you're now selling into the markets. I mean, if I add all of that together, I get, you know, pretty close to sort of break-even EBIT. I guess you have some tailwinds and volumes. Maybe you can just help a bit with the bridge in terms of earnings, anything else I'm missing. Thanks.
I mean, it's going to very much into detail here. If, if we guide, Q2 or if you give indications, we of course are not reflecting potential issues which are coming out of the CO2 thing. This we are not reflecting here. It's true what you said. If, you look at our inventories, we have this average, flattened average, moving average issue. Therefore, the cost base is, or the cost level of the, of the inventories is still high, but it's going to improve from quarter to quarter. I mean, this is very clear. If you look at the first quarter, our sales per ton was of course higher than the quarter-on-quarter, it was higher. A quarter, yeah. Quarter-on-quarter it was higher.
If you look now that we had renewed some contract at the 1st of January, and if you look at the development of the spot prices, you can imagine that our the sales per ton went down a bit in average. Yeah. Having this still, this high cost levels in the inventories, but the sales per ton came down, then of course you get a pressure on the margins. This is very clear. For us, this is nothing of this is unexpected, and we reflect this in our guidance. This is nothing which is really coming to a surprise for us. Of course, we saw this also before the fiscal year started. For us, it's not a surprise.
We, if we look at our Q1 and of the rest we are anticipating, we are totally clear that our guidance is clear what we are saying is valid. If you ask me what kind of issues we, if you make your bridge, it is indeed, it is the sales per ton, and it's the cost of materials. This is more or less. You can say that the volumes are increasing a bit, yes. These are the three issues. It's not helping too much in detail, but I cannot give you much more detail.
No, that's helpful. Thank you. The second one, just a sort of follow-up to Alain's question on the Steel standalone solution. I mean, how important are just the steel markets themselves? I mean, you sort of talked through the funding and the subsidies from governments. Previously, you know, you've ruled out the standalone solution because of the disruption caused by Ukraine and volatility. Obviously, it looks like spot markets have picked up a little bit in Europe. Do you just need fuel markets to continue improving, or do you think you need something more structural, like the end of conflict in Ukraine? Thanks. Towards this standalone solution.
I mean, if you look at the situation last year ago, we were not even sure whether, for instance, electric power or gas would even be available without shortages or something like this. I mean, this is of course something, you have to consider. How do we look at this now? I mean, gas shortages for us, are not an issue this year. Most likely also not here, although we are not quite sure, but most likely also not next year. Of course, the normalization, the normalization of markets, of course, is also a prerequisite. I think we are heading into this direction very much. Very much.
This, therefore, if this is going on, we will come to the situation where we can say, "Yes, this is the right time to make a time for this spin-off here." We do not need really something more structural as you or something. I don't know what you mean with structural, but.
No, that's clear. I just, by structural, I meant something like the end of conflict in Ukraine. No, that's a clear answer. Thank you very much. I'll turn it back.
As a reminder, if you have a question for our speakers, please press star one one to enter the queue. The next question is coming from Rochus Brauneiser at Kepler Cheuvreux.
Questions from my side. The one is on the Bearings business. I guess on the one hand side, the expectations on the current year sound quite constructive, but if I square that against some of the commentary from major windmill producers in the world, it looks a bit more different. Also you're referencing in your outlook statements on increased competition in the, in the space, particularly in China. Maybe can you share a bit of light what the, what the bits and pieces are and how you see the business progressing from here in terms of top line, in terms of profitability? That would be my first question.
Yeah. I mean, if you look at the business in Bearings, you all know this business. We had a booming market in China two years ago, also with incentives into the market. We could participate quite a lot because we have a remarkable footprint there. In the past, we invested a lot in this year. We have local production here. This is important to say, we have local production. What we see in China now, of course, there are Chinese OEMs and also some other foreign OEMs. Therefore, this is what we said, if the market is getting closer here, to stay this way. If you look at what you are saying regarding the OEMs. The OEMs are still in a difficult situation.
I don't want to comment on this, but this is something you can always read in the newspaper. Where do we see dynamic? We clearly see upcoming order intakes, increasing order intakes, which we have not seen, by the way, in the last 1.5 years. We are now seeing order intakes increase, and not in China, but especially in Europe. If you then look at further potential, if you, for instance, look at Inflation Reduction Act in U.S., and you also know that we have a footprint in U.S., this is also important to notice. We clearly see midterm potential to grow very much on this business here. If you ask me, when are margins and volumes coming?
We do see this year, and this is also how we guide it, is not as a remarkable growth year this year. We clearly see in the years 2024 and ahead, volumes to come with clearly dynamic in this case. It's also not only coming from China, it's more coming than from Europe and U.S.
Okay. Okay, that's clear. The other question is on cash flow. I think Klaus you mentioned the effect from the marine prepayment. Maybe you can give us a sense how much that was? Sequentially, what is your expectations on the positive free cash flow in the H2? Will it be more equally spread or as in many occasions in the past, the free cash flow was very much bound to the final quarter? Any add-on remarks would be great.
I mean, I think we guided the Q2 pre-cash flow development. You clearly have in mind what kind of effects do we have. We had some prepayments of customers in the marine business. This was a two-digit one. I think we don't be too precise more, but it was not a two-digit one.
We also saw some prepayments in other businesses, some OEMs did prepayments. If you look at the marine business, I mean, you know all this, these discussions with prepayments. I mean, if we look at the Marine Systems, of course, we have a year target for the free cash flow and the prepayments, of course, you cannot steal this. There are some in first quarter, there are some in third quarter and fourth quarter, but you cannot make it really to say, "Hey, we want to have this in the second quarter." This is something which falls with the contracts, so we cannot steal this. This is the first one. The second one is, I mean, you all know that we have the seasonal pattern, we have this especially in the materials business.
You have to bring up inventories a bit. By the way, we did this in our first quarter, not so much as in the previous years. We have to bring on to be ready to deliver Q2, Q3, and so on. This is something which has actually happened. We had a small increase in working capital in the first quarter. Not as much as so, but we had to prepare for. The release of the working capital, it's starting with the Q2, Q3, and Q4. This is always the same. That's the reason why we unfortunately do have this effect that our cash flow in the last quarter is most likely the best as in the history always. We have an explanation for this.
There are from the marine side, there are these fee payment dates which we cannot influence. We have the structural issue that we have our net working capital, that we have a seasonal pattern on this.
Right. Right. Got it. Maybe a big question on steel. Based on what you said on your volume dynamics, I just noticed that the crude production in the Q1 was significantly exceeding your shipment levels. What shall we read from there? Are you in the end preparing for higher growth than it maybe sounds like? Or is production a little bit overshot your shipment performance?
No, no. We know this. Yeah, this is, this is clear. This is also something like a seasonal pattern. If you look at the last first quarter, you would have seen it also. This is something where we prepare to be prepared for the rest of the year. Nothing special more than this.
Okay, great. Thank you very much.
There are no further question at this time. For closing remarks, I give back to Claus Ehrenbeck.
Yeah, thank you very much, operator. Yeah, thanks again to everyone outside for being interested and for joining our conference call. We hope that this earlier scheduling of the conference call is helpful for you. As mentioned, happy to receive feedback on that. As always, for the remainder of the day and going forward, the IR team is happy to receive your questions or information requests if you want to discuss things any further. Yeah, thank you very much for that and we look forward to staying in touch with you. Bye-bye.
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