Good afternoon, everybody, welcome to follow DT's, Detection Technology, Q2 result webcasting. My name is Hannu Martola, I'm the President and CEO of Detection Technology, I'm pleased to present to you our results for Q2 . We reached EUR 23.5 million sales after a growth of 11.5%. It was healthy on the double-digit side, we are quite pleased to the sales growth performance, especially when part of our business started to turn into growth at the end of the quarter. We reached also a EUR 3 million operating profitability of EBIT, which is 12.6% of the sales. We're getting closer to our target, which is minimum 15% EBIT. We also were improving a little bit from last year. Last year, EBIT was EUR 2.6, now EUR 3. Last year, EBIT percentage was 12.3%, now it was 12.6%.
I want to note here that last year we received some subsidies due to Corona, which were about EUR 1 million, a bit over 1% through the year. Now this result is clean and such subsidies did not exist any longer. We took an upward trend thanks to medical computed tomography demand, which was very strong. Security market was still subdued, although our own sales started to turn into growth at the very end of the quarter in June. The industrial demand actually experienced seasonal or actually normal fluctuation, and the result is that it's typically the customers are a little bit smaller, and then how are these orders and deliveries then happening through the quarter then that affect. The industrial, we see a nice trendy growth but then some volatility between the quarters. Profitability was healthy.
Cash flow was quite good, even though the most of the sales were generated at the very end of the Q2 , actually yielding quite the big accounts receivables. What we are especially pleased of and so on is the outlook is now improved, especially the outlook is improved for the Q4 , we are expecting a double-digit growth for all of our businesses in the H2 . Here you see the quarterly dance on our sales. It's nice to see that the downwards trend starting from Q2 in 2020 now has turned into growth. Also, the operating profit, we are getting closer to our target, which is at or above 15% of our sales. If we look then on the Q2 sales split by the business units, if we take the most important here, MBU grew even 37%.
MBU represented roughly 58% of our total sales. SBU was -11.7%, less negative after the Q1 . The IBU was also a -10%. Like I stated, it is sort of normal fluctuation, also we must note that actually, the comparable sales Q2 2020 was very strong at the IBU. On sales split by region, all regions were growing, especially Americas, close to 50%, we must note that actually the number is fairly small due to the Corona times. APAC grew almost 10%, EMEA, Europe and Middle East, Africa also started to grow. The APAC is strongest part of our sales. It was even more than 70% for the Q1 and now was 68% of the DT sales.
H1. I think H1 doesn't give that good of a picture due to the fact that actually Q1 was quite exceptional. If we look the full H1, we reached EUR 42 million sales. A slight increase in sales thanks to the Q2 . EBIT was improving to EUR 4.3 million, the EBIT percentage was 10%, a bit above 10%. When it was in the comparable last year, H1, it was 9%, a bit above 9%. By business units, the H1 sales, Medical even H1 it's a 30% growth. Very nice. Like I noted, Q2 was 37%, Medical was improving. IBU was practically flat, SBU -26%, it is now improving. As I noted, Q2 was roughly -12% negative turning into growth in our sort of expectations.
Sales by region, APAC strongest, 72%, then still thanks to the Q1 , the Americas and Europe and Middle East were H1 negative but turned into growth on the Q2 . From the results, I mean numbers and a key figures point of view, if I note here, I think the R&D was sort of in a way normal level at about 11%. In money terms, we see that the R&D costs are increasing, also the sales should be increasing. Cash flow was quite good, EUR 2.2 million when it in the comparable quarters was EUR -1.20, earnings per share also improved. It was EUR 0.16 per share during the Q2 . From our strategy point of view, we had two important product launches. We had the X-Shark on Aurora X-Shark, extra small X-Shark, as we call it, Aurora XS.
That is actually an outstanding product. It's a combination of DT innovation combined from our algorithm competence and application-specific ASIC that we have designed and the mechanics and electronics there and actually it's providing better performance cost relationship. It's targeted especially for urban security, all kinds of line scan applications in any critical infrastructure, train, metro important buildings, headquarters, stadiums, sport events, hotels, you name it. It is a very good addition to our product portfolio actually tackling the less performing and a lower cost segment that is slightly below the aviation standards. We have a nice outlook for the sales and are actually receiving good orders for that product. We believe that it is long-term providing good basis for also SBU growth further on. Also, we launched the new X-Scan Time Delay Integration, that's the acronym TDI stands for Time Delay Integration.
New X-Scan T product that is adding value to our X-Scan family and also is intended especially to the food scan and the pharmaceutical scanning applications. Out of the other events, I think we are more and more working on the sustainability topics. We follow the Responsible Business Alliance guidance and policies and are thinking how can we improve through product development. Actually, this Aurora XS is a good example on how we can make the better performance with lower use of materials and energy and so on. Also we completed medical certification for our W factory and as an example of a long-term sort of working with high level quality and environmental standards and so on. We received 20 years Successful Cooperation Award from Lloyds for our quality systems and environmental systems.
Most important, the business outlook. It's a bit challenging due to that there's very little trustworthy market information due to the exceptional times that has lasted almost two years already. We still state that in normal conditions, the markets are seen to grow 5% medical, 6% security, 5% industrial. I note that according to DT management, we see that medical is probably growing faster. Security for sure is not growing at this rate. Industrial is roughly doing the 5% growth, what it should be. However, we expect DT's total net sales to grow double-digit Q3 and also the H2. We even foresee that the medical business unit would grow double-digit Q3 and stronger in H2 than in the H1. The IBU sales also growing double-digit, both Q3 and H2 .
Finally, also the security business unit, we expect the sales to turn to a growth in Q3 and also then increase the growth so that we should reach the double-digit growth for the H2. I note that regarding the security business unit, there's still some uncertainty in the demand. Also I would like to note that as we see the risks, the pandemic with this Corona Delta variant, of course, is increasing the sort of risks relating to the global development. Also in materials, especially electronic semiconductors, we see some challenges. So far, we have been quite nicely able to navigate that. We have not been getting hits to our sales on that, but we see that these risks are increasing and also the political especially U.S., China debates and so on, and might affect into the coming sort of future business of DT.
There are some uncertainties, but as a small-size company, we also are able to navigate fast and make quick decisions. We should be able to cope in mitigating these risks. Financial targets. These are sort of unchanged, at least 10% growth, at least 15% or better EBIT margin. Out of the net proceedings we are paying as dividends or returning capital to our owners between 30%-60%. Thank you for watching and listening, I would be very pleased to answer to any questions that might arise. Please.
Yes. Sure. I'll kick it off. Julius from SEB. Maybe first question regarding gross margins. In Q2, the gross margins were slightly lower compared to previous quarters. Is this a factor of higher input prices for you, or are you seeing some pressure in pricing environment maybe in regards in the security business unit when you're winning new orders? If you could give some color on that one.
Thank you, Julius from SEB. If I repeat, Julius was asking about the Q2 and the gross margin. I think the gross margin for Q2 was very much affected. The product mix was affecting the gross margin.
Thank you. Maybe a follow-up on the security side of things, if you could just elaborate a bit. You mentioned that you saw some growth towards the end of the quarter within the security unit, maybe if you could talk a bit about the geographical development. Where are you seeing demand picking up fastest and in which applications? Thanks.
Thank you, Julius. The question was regarding where do we see growth in security. I think security, the market itself is still subdued. The aviation is not picking up yet, and overall, the mass gatherings of people and these kind of events are, of course, fairly scarce. In a way, we must separate the market from DT sales. We have quite nice order stock right now, partly, of course, the global components and materials challenges are causing that customers are ordering well ahead.
That might affect. From our sales, we see that we should be having a double-digit growth for the full H2, coming from various pieces. A little bit aviation, a little bit from critical infrastructure. There's customs, like in China, customs and so on. It's a bit bits and pieces, and also I think it's important to note that the sales for security segment last year was very little. The growth percentages are easier to be made from that perspective.
All right, thanks. That's all from me.
Thank you.
Juha Kinnunen, Inderes. Maybe I will just follow up on the latter question. I'm just wondering if the lead times or your delivery times in general are longer now that you get the orders sooner, but the deliveries are happening in more the delay than usually because you are also giving guidance all the way through the year now, basically?
Yes, that is correct. It was Juha Kinnunen from Inderes. If I repeat, Juha was asking our lead times, so delivery times, and yes, our lead times have increased. If we don't have materials in stock, the lead times from our suppliers are longer, causing also our lead time to our customers to increase.
Also, already discussed topic, this component shortage, is it also visible in your costs that you are seeing cost inflation that is higher than normal, and are you able to move this to the end prices?
Thanks, Juha. It was Juha from Inderes asking our cost and possible inflationary pressures and also relating to our pricing. I think it's a little bit early to, let's say, see what's going on next year. I think this year we still are very much running based on, first of all, the prices that were agreed last fall with our customers and also based on the material costs or prices that were agreed with suppliers last fall. And then everybody is seeing challenges and also inflationary pressures there. We don't yet have outlook on our, for example, from our material point of view, what kind of pressures there are. For sure for semiconductors, the prices will increase. Some special materials like scintillators, their pressure for increasing, and we'll see how we are able to navigate and how, let's say, the business is able to navigate.
It's quite challenging to get to see the next year's price, let's say, pressure from customers and also the possibilities. How much can this kind of cost pressure be turned into the customers? It is very much a function of volume outlook, and I think the volume outlook is still everybody has fairly small visibility into the next year volume. These kind of discussions have not yet started. I would bet that we go well into November when we start to see results both from the customer point of view as well as the supplier point of view.
All right. Thank you very much. One more from me. I just read this article from Reuters that says that the Chinese government has quietly issued new procurement guidelines in May that require up to 100% local content on hundreds of items, including X-ray machines and so on. I'm just wondering if this has been visible somehow to DT, and is it even true? I have no idea about that. Is this an issue for Detection Technology, and is it happening in China that in medtech there's more pressure to buy local, especially for Chinese state companies?
Thank you for the question, Juha. Juha Kinnunen was asking on a recent Reuters news that there is some rumor that the Chinese government would be requiring more local content for the healthcare equipment, and if this kind of policy start to get in, how would it affect DT? We heard of this news and rumor, and I think in some way, the interest of the government-owned healthcare infrastructure to favor local businesses in their purchases has existed already. We don't know if such policies have been in writing and so on, but in some way, they have existed, and it is possible that there will be some new policies or we don't know about that. Will they be strict and in writing?
In a generic case, it's another question, but in any conditions, as we see is that we have a lot of Western companies as our customers in China who are in a way treated as local companies and selling well. They are growing, and we see this growth. We sort of feel that as a local player, majority of our employees are Chinese. These products are mostly designed in China for China markets, also for export, so we should be able to work well also in these conditions. Personally, I think that China, their healthcare infrastructure needs also Western technology and are very interested in buying it also in the future. Possibly it's from the local players that are owned by, let's say, Western governments, but still, those products are largely are designed and made in China for Chinese healthcare markets.
Hi, it's Matti Rikkonen from Carnegie. Couple of questions. First of all, you expect that the security business will grow in the H2 2021. Do you think that it will grow also for the full- year?
Thank you, Matti. Matti from Carnegie was asking, security is expected to grow for H2. Do we expect it to grow for full- year? I can't answer it right now. What we are guiding is we are guiding growth for the H2 as double-digit and should be then minimum 10%. Also, we are also guiding a growth for the Q3 so that we turn into growth during the Q3 .
Okay. You have now included Aurora XS so that it will contribute to the H2 sales. What kind of role do you think that it will have on 2021 sales, and how do you think that will then change for 2022?
Yes, Aurora XS is starting to sell at the end of the year. Most probably it will sell much more next year. How much? We don't know yet. We have interesting discussions with our customers, and some of our key customers are currently evaluating that product, and we don't yet have all the results. We have high hopes based on the interest, but we'll see how they will realize. For sure, we have more information than after the Q3 .
Okay. About your fixed costs in the H2 compared to Q2 . Do you think that there will be significant cost increases in the H2, considering that you probably saved some in the H2 last year, so the comparables are getting fairly easy? What kind of cost increases should we be expecting?
Thank you, Matti. Matti is asking the possible fixed cost outlook and increases for the H2. I think if we look the comparable numbers, yes. Last year, like I said, we had roughly EUR 1 million subsidies, so savings due to these current subsidies, and those are out, so that makes it a little bit tougher. We also see this heavy demand for semiconductors and electronics in the world also has affected the top talent for the designers for ASICs and any semiconductor components as well as algorithm people, competence, and talent is well hunted, which has also caused that, especially in China, that some salary inflation and salaries have been increasing. We see some pressure that already kicks in for H2 for this part. That is affecting how the outlook for next year is still something that is too early to see.
Okay. Thank you. A follow-up to the gross margin question that you already discussed. You said that it was mainly affected by product mix. Should we understand that since the majority of the demand was related to high-end medical CT equipment, which probably has fairly high cost as well? Is that the reason why the gross margin can be a bit lower when you have high demand in the medical side? Can it reverse if the balance is something different? Is it more related to specific products and mixes coming from there?
Okay. Thank you, Matti. Matti is asking the gross margin and the product mix and the medical, how does it affect it in the medical? Overall, I think what we have said that the growth has peaked in medical, in the higher-end CT machines because it went down during the Corona. When all the hospitals were fighting for capacity for ill patients and using a lot of the CTs for all kinds of lung changes. That affected that actually the installation rate and the sales for these higher-end machines went really down, almost nothing last year. That has picked up. If we look then during this year, there are some lower-end CT machines still are selling well, and there's some growth, but also there's especially the growth compared to last year because this extraordinary conditions is on high end.
Overall, I think we have a healthy mix of lower end and mid end and higher end of CT machines. We have fairly high volume on certain products to a certain customer due to the standardization of this equipment and so on. That is also affecting to the margin, so that when you make a really high volume on certain product, then of course it's more cost effective from the point of view of R&D and return on investment, et cetera.
Okay, thank you. What happened last year was that you gained an exceptional large number of new customers, particularly on the industrial side. Now it seems that if you look at the share of revenues that is coming from five largest customers, that has declined somewhat a couple of percentages. Do you think that the share of five largest customers should be declining also going forward, thinking that you have more customers, or do you also think that there would be more business coming from the largest customers so that the ratio would not be changing?
Matti is asking the share of five largest customers and the outlook for that. I think long term, yes, the share of five largest customers I believe would be decreasing. Short term, it's a little bit challenging to say because we got some nice number of new customers, especially the IBU side last year. Many of them are fairly small, and it's a little bit difficult to predict that when they've actually when the growth starts with each customer, and that starts to affect the total picture. If we look the five largest customers, there's actually quite big volatility. Some customers are growing very fast, like some medical customers, but then also some customers have very much declined, like some security customers. It's a little bit more volatile game than before. The total number looks quite much the same, but inside it's quite big differences.
Okay, thank you. Finally, would you have any update on the Chinese aviation standard? How do you think that will play out?
The standard situation, that's quite interesting. Matti is asking the Chinese CT standard coming and my update and the best guess would be that what I've heard is for the Chinese CT standard, its now third draft is ongoing, and typically they call it the draft, I guess the word in English is, and they require four to five drafts to finalize it. The best guess, and this is not official, it's just what I've heard, could be somewhere in the Q1 in 2021. Sorry, 2022. It's 2021 already. 2022, so by end of next quarter, hopefully that sticks. Another interesting thing, by the way, regarding standards is this urban security standard that European Union is working on and so on, and especially our Aurora XS, which I just show. I'll go to get. We launched this during Q2 , so in May.
This Aurora XS is a fantastic product for any urban security needs. You would need 10 pieces of this to make a standard 40 by 60 cm tunnel size for a line scanner, plus the controlling electronics, as we call it, X-GCU, that is then controlling this. The algorithms are embedded into the firmware, but also into the X-GCU and the signal condition takes place with DT designed ASIC. This would be fantastic product that, we look very much forward also towards the European urban security standard.
All right, thanks, Hannu. That was all from me.
Thank you, Matti.
Thank you, Matti, and thank you, Hannu. Let's take some online questions. How have your market share developed in the security and medical segments?
Thank you. The question is that how have our market share developed? That's a tough question. I think it's very difficult because we don't really precisely know what the market really is. I think if we look from the point of view our own customers, I think our share of their wallet has increased. What's the market and so on, it's fairly difficult to estimate in these turbulent times. If I say it this way, I believe that the competitive position of DT has increased. Over time, that should lead also into a better market share.
Thank you. Moving forward, could you give an update on the factory transition in China? Have you got to the steady state run rate in terms of cost, or are costs still elevated?
The factory utilization rate, and the Beijing is doing fantastic right now. The Beijing factory is really running high volumes for medical, especially Wuxi is still growing. There's still some capacity in Wuxi that we are taking into use, and there's a little bit with fixed cost increase, not very much. I think the volume should help there. We should be, after this year, we should be better fit to our capacity.
Okay, thank you. Let's still take one online question. There has been heavy flooding in China, so has this affected your production or business?
Heavy flooding in China. We do not specifically know that it would not have had any sort of sizable effect. I have not heard that we would have had any customer in that area or employees or for sure our locations. We have checked it, by the way, we should be quite safe from flooding and so on, both in our Beijing site and Wuxi site. That was, for example, when we were selecting the site for Wuxi factory, that was one of the key criteria in our risk mitigation plan is flooding, fires, and these kind of overall infrastructural risks.
Thank you.
Any further questions? I would like to then conclude and thank you everybody for watching us, especially thanks for all of you analysts mainly that are physically here in our site in Espoo. There are some challenges ahead. I'm looking forward to making the company together with our employees stronger in these challenging times. I think the business base is sort of solid. We have good outlook, and especially now the outlook has improved for the Q4 . We'll look forward on bringing home a nice Q2 . Thank you, everybody.