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Earnings Call: Q2 2024

Aug 8, 2024

Aki Vesikallio
Investor Relations, Cargotec

Welcome to Cargotec's second quarter results call. The quarter was sixth consecutive quarter with good results. We also completed the demerger. My name is Aki Vesikallio. I'm from Cargotec's Investor Relations. Today's results will be presented by Cargotec's CEO, Casimir Lindholm, Cargotec's and Hiab's CFO, Mikko Puolakka, and Hiab's President, Scott Phillips. Please also pay attention to the disclaimer in the presentation, as we will be making forward-looking statements. With that, over to you, Casimir.

Casimir Lindholm
CEO, Cargotec

Thank you, Aki. So welcome on my behalf as well. My name's Casimir Lindholm, CEO of Cargotec. We had a sixth consecutive quarter with good results. Really happy with the performance overall, and then, of course, reached a very important milestone in the demerger that is now completed. I will come back to both these items later on in the presentation. Hiab, strong profitability continued, and we saw a record quarter for MacGregor regarding comparable operating profit. We started the sales process of MacGregor, and we have also specified the outlook for Hiab and MacGregor, and our CFO, Mikko Puolakka, will come back to that topic in a few minutes. We achieved some milestones that are historical and significant for Cargotec during the second quarter. Hiab published new performance targets, and Scott Phillips will come back to those a bit later on.

We also announced that Scott Phillips will become CEO and Mikko Puolakka CFO of standalone Hiab. Hiab already had previously a very strong management team in place, and on top of that, this announcement, of course, gives very much strength and certainty for Hiab moving forward. On top of that, we have been able to recruit strong candidates for a Hiab management team, more on the functional side. We were also able to settle a dispute with one of MacGregor's customers. This was very important for us because that gave the platform to start the sales process of MacGregor. It is also important to understand that out of the EUR 1 billion of order backlog that MacGregor has, we only have roughly EUR 30 million now in offshore in the old projects.

So MacGregor is more and more a product/solutions service, spare parts company going forward. And that, of course, gives a totally different profile for MacGregor in the future. So that settlement was very important, and also here, our CFO, Mikko Puolakka, will go through what that meant, looking at the numbers. The demerger was completed, Kalmar standalone company on the 1st of July. This has been, of course, an interesting and actually quite complicated project to run. We started after the demerger announcement on the 27th of April in 2023. It took us roughly two months for starting and planning the project from a resource perspective, timing perspective, and then we really started the project in July 2023.

So in 12 months, we have been able to complete all the tasks on the legal side, on the IM/IT side, process side, recruitments, organizational changes, and so forth. More than 200 people have been working on this project, on a daily basis, and I would really like to thank everybody involved who has done a tremendous job in completing the demerger. And now we have a standalone company in Kalmar, going on its own journey. So, huge thanks to everybody and a big milestone in Cargotec's history. Finally, also, financial information reclassified following the demerger, and also here, our CFO, Mikko Puolakka, will go through what is the status now on the balance sheet side regarding gearing and so forth, in today's Cargotec.

Order books received increased and continued to increase in MacGregor. And then on the Hiab side, a slight decrease. I wouldn't draw too dramatic conclusions out of this decrease on the Hiab side. If you look at the quarters back here in the picture, you can also see that we have historical fluctuations between the quarters. Order book also declining. Now we are on a normalized level all in all regarding the order book. So we are back to levels pre-COVID. That is also reflected on the sales side. All in all, in Hiab, we are down to a normalized level on the sales side.

And here again, MacGregor continued to increase top line due to good order intake in 2023 and continues so in 2024. Eco portfolio sales, no dramatic changes there, on a stable and good level. Then comparable operating profit, we are on a historically high level in Cargotec. Of course, here, very strong start to the year in Hiab, of almost 16% also in the second quarter. And here, of course, can see that you can see the real turnaround of MacGregor. You can also see here in MacGregor numbers that we are now, to a large extent, out of the project business, and you see a much more stable business in MacGregor going forward. And that can now be seen here in the second quarter.

Due to these strong results in Q1 and Q2, we have made some adjustments to the outlook. And also here, Mikko Puolakka, our CFO, will come back what changes we have and upgrades we have made there. Cargotec, then all in all, second quarter on 13.1% comparable operating profit, so strong performance in the second quarter. With that, I'll give the word to Scott Phillips, who will go through then the numbers and the situation in Hiab. Over to you, Scott.

Scott Phillips
President, Hiab

Thank you, Casimir. Greetings, everyone, from my side. I'm Scott Phillips, President of Hiab Business Area, and so I'll guide you in the next few minutes through the results in the quarter. In summarizing the quarter, three key points here, actually, four key points. One is that we were able to continue delivering a strong profit despite the lower sales. I'll come back to that in a bit more detail in a few slides. We did have a decline sequentially and year-over-year in orders received, and I'll give you a bit of color on that as well. Strong cash conversion in the quarter, clearly above 100%, so that's excellent execution on the team. Big thanks to all the Hiabers out there and all of the support personnel within Cargotec.

Then, as a consequence of the last twelve months' order intake, we're announcing a planning phase that we're kicking off, initiated around an efficiency improvement program. I'll give a bit detail on that, in a few slides as well. Despite the fact that we are at a similar level of commercial quotation activity for the sixth quarter in a row, we had a 7% decline in order intake, primarily due to delayed decision-making, as our customers remain cautious in making investments due to the continued high cost of financing and the lingering economic uncertainty. We continue to see softness in our construction segment across our all markets, and geographically, Germany and France remain the most challenged markets.

In North America, we see delays in decision making, which caused a slight negative variance versus same period last year, and that summarizes the order intake story in total. Moving to the figures, our order book stands at EUR 676 million, which puts our open order book at 33% lower level compared to the same comparison period last year. So as Casimir mentioned, we're moving to converging towards more normal levels in the 5-5.5-month range, if you'll recall, back to pre-COVID times. And our lead times are well within our target range for all products, so that's an important point milestone for us to achieve in executing our supply chain strategy. Moving to the quarter, our order intake was EUR 348 million versus EUR 375 million last year.

That's 3% decline in orders for the first half of the year at EUR 734 million versus EUR 755 million in 2023. And then with the decline in the order book, which was in line with our order fulfillment and lead time planning we have been executing for the past two years, we saw a decline in our sales versus same period last year of 11%. Hiab sales were EUR 433 million for the quarter, EUR 847 million for the first half of the year versus EUR 917 million in 2023, which represents an 8% decline for the first half in the same comparison period.

Service sales, however, increased in the quarter and in the first half versus comparison period last year by 2% and 3%, respectively. For the quarter, our services represented 27% of our sales, and for the first half of the year, 25%, which is an improvement both in both the quarter as well as the first half of the year compared to last year. So despite the lower level of sales, the team did an excellent job executing our plans, which allowed us to deliver a return in line with our expectations. The combination of prior pricing actions due to the rapid inflationary environment, controlling our fixed costs, working in our own operations to implement Lean, and working with our suppliers to reduce cost, allowed us to mitigate the decline in profitability versus the decline in sales.

So for the quarter, Hiab delivered EUR 69 million of comparable operating profit, or a 15.9% return. As I mentioned earlier, cash conversion clearly above 100%, so overall, really pleased with the team's execution and performance. As a consequence of looking at the last 12 months' order intake, it's clear to us that we need to initiate planning for efficiency improvement program. We're targeting EUR 20 million in improvement, which should be visible in next year's results. So we feel strong, or strongly convicted in the fact that these are necessary actions to start planning for in order to secure both our short-term as well as our long-term targets.

Coming back to remind everyone about our long-term targets that we communicated in the Capital Markets Day, we target still a 7% CAGR over the cycle, a comparable operating profit of 18%, a return on capital employed greater than 25%, allowing for structural changes in the business in the next five years. We remain strongly convicted and committed to our Science Based Targets initiative company. Moving into a section near and dear to all of our hearts, we've continued to shape the industries that we serve, and just wanted to highlight in particular three of our many product launches within the quarter. The first, which moving left to right, is our HIAB eX.HIPRO crane. It's an energy efficient and electric vehicle-ready solution.

It provides unprecedented efficiency with regards to energy savings, up to 30%, with its advanced, all-new hydraulic systems. And at the heart of this solution, of course, is our SPAC Eevo control system, with the latest in intelligent control technology, combined with our Olsbergs V200 valve and PFD function. The HIAB EX-HiPro offers smooth and fluid simultaneous movements, reducing pressure drops and heat generation. So we feel strong with evidence that we'll reduce the total operating costs for our customers, while at the same time enabling a reduced CO2 footprint as well. Then moving to the right, I'm proud to introduce Waltco's new MDV liftgate series. This liftgate series was launched in June. It features multiple industry-leading safety and efficiency features.

So for example, LED lights are mounted on a column that illuminate the work area of the platform to increase visibility. Intuitive controls save time and reduce the risk of injury. And the lift series, liftgate series offers a perfect balance between lifting capacity and low weight. Really pleased with the fact that it's designed with fewer moving parts for reduced maintenance requirements, which will reduce our customers' overall total cost of ownership. And all models in the series have a reduced weight, which will help us to enable our customers to have a reduced carbon emission footprint, as well as to reduce the overall vehicle energy consumption.

Then last, but certainly not least, proud to share with you that we've introduced a line of Red Parts components that have equivalent performance specifications to original parts, but can have a shorter lifespan without compromising on quality and safety as a new member of our services portfolio. It's a portfolio of cost-effective parts suited for the maintenance and repair of equipment that's nearing the end of its first usage life cycle. So the new offering will help our customers operate their older HIAB equipment even more efficiently and even at a safer and lower operating cost. So we're really pleased with these developments. So overall a strong quarter for HIAB, of course, characterized by pressure still that we experience in our demand.

Overall, I'd still characterize this as on quite a stable level with regards to our last six quarters. With that, I'm going to turn the floor over to Mikko Puolakka.

Mikko Puolakka
CFO, Cargotec/Hiab

Thank you, Scott, and good morning also from my side. Before going to Cargotec's consolidated financials, a few words about MacGregor, where the turnaround continued to progress really, really well in Q2. MacGregor's orders grew by 26%, very much supported by the active car carrier vessel markets. Also, services contributed really nicely to the MacGregor order growth. It's also good to note that we have not taken, and we do not plan to take any orders which would include new technologies. MacGregor's order book is now at EUR 1 billion. And, as Casimir said already earlier, the offshore represents now roughly EUR 70 million of this order book.

Out of the offshore order book, only EUR 30 million is related to this problematic loss-making offshore project. So the order book of loss-making projects is getting smaller and smaller towards the end of the year. When we look MacGregor revenues, it's also good to note that in Q2, we had to reverse EUR 39 million of revenues due to the offshore monopile project dispute settlement and closing of that project. So if we exclude that EUR 39 million revenues reversal, MacGregor's Q2 underlying sales growth was an impressive 41% year-on-year. On profitability, MacGregor delivered the highest quarterly comparable operating profit since Q4 , 2014.

The profit improvement was primarily driven by the merchant vessel-related revenue growth. The offshore business made still a 4.4 million EUR loss. However, the loss was smaller than in the comparison period, and we expect the offshore to continue to improve also performance, as the loss-making projects backlog is getting smaller and smaller. If we take into account the EUR 39 million top-line reversal, MacGregor's comparable operating profit margin in Q2 would have been 9.1%. As we made the settlement for the offshore monopile project, that impacted, or we booked for that project EUR 29 million non-recurring items, one-off costs. This is the net impact, net profit impact of that project settlement.

It's a net impact of the EUR 39 million sales reversal, and then we have been reversing also EUR 10 million of project-related costs. So that, EUR 39 million minus, minus the EUR 10 million is the EUR 29 million net effect, of the project settlement. This EUR 29 million has been reported below comparable operating profit in items affecting comparability, as we do not continue such a product line anymore. Before going to Cargotec's consolidated financials, a couple of words about reporting Kalmar as discontinued operations. Like in the first quarter, also in Q2, Kalmar has been reported as discontinued operations. We have removed also Kalmar from Cargotec's segment reporting, and now also at the end of June, Kalmar has been completely carved out from Cargotec's balance sheet.

The Kalmar net assets, which have been carved out from Cargotec's balance sheet at the end of June, were EUR 586 million. And on top of that, as a result of the demerger, we booked a EUR 1 billion demerger profit in Q2, and this is visible on the last line of Cargotec's consolidated results. This demerger profit is actually the difference between Kalmar's market cap on July first, that was about roughly EUR 1.7 billion, and then deducted by the previously mentioned carved-out net assets of close to EUR 600 million. So that results the over EUR 1 billion demerger profit.

These are the continuing operations' key financials, and here I will comment the January-June cumulative first half performance. Orders were up by 8%, very much driven by MacGregor. Despite the flat sales, the comparable operating margin improved significantly, and here, a very nice contribution from both businesses, Hiab and MacGregor. During the first half, Hiab's comparable operating margin improved by 60 basis points, compared to 2023, and MacGregor's comparable operating profit margin, an impressive 500 basis points. The items affecting comparability, EUR 32 million during the first half of this year, are purely related to MacGregor. So all demerger costs are reported under the discontinued operations. And here, here in the continuing operations, we have only revenues and costs related to the MacGregor and Hiab business.

Out of these EUR 32 million, EUR 29 million is related to the previously discussed MacGregor monopile dispute settlement. Earnings per share was EUR 1.21 , and it would have been EUR 0.50 higher without the MacGregor monopile project impact during the first half of this year. Quarter 2 cash flow was EUR 89 million and improved significantly from the comparison period. It's good to note that this cash flow includes still Kalmar. However, the continuing operations cash flow would have been approximately at the same level.

Hiab made clearly the largest contribution to Q2 cash flow, and the cash flow improvement in Hiab came not only from the profitability but very much also from the net working capital, which declined EUR 30 million during the second quarter, and part of this decline came from the inventories. Cargotec's Q2 cash flow includes roughly EUR 20 million negative impact from the MacGregor monopile dispute settlement. After the balance sheet Kalmar carve-out from Cargotec's balance sheet, Cargotec's balance sheet is really strong. It has been strong before the demerger, and as you can see, it's very, very strong also after the demerger. Our net debt is only EUR 18 million, and the 2% gearing is all-time best in Cargotec's history.

We do not have any interest-bearing debt maturities this year. The next maturity is in 2025, when we have a EUR 100 million bond coming to the end. Our liquidity is on an excellent level, consisting of EUR 336 million of cash, a fully unused committed revolving credit facility of EUR 330 million, and then on top of that, we have a EUR 150 million commercial paper program, which is also completely unused at the moment. We have specified our outlook for Hiab and MacGregor for 2024, based on the solid first half performance in both businesses.

For Hiab, we estimate Hiab's comparable operating profit margin to be above 13.5%, and for MacGregor, we expect the comparable operating profit to exceed EUR 55 million. To be clear, these are the floor levels for both BAs. It's also allowed to be on a higher level. By that, then I hand over the microphone back to Aki for the Q&A.

Aki Vesikallio
Investor Relations, Cargotec

Thank you, Mikko, and thank you, Scott and Casimir. I will welcome both gentlemen back to the stage, and once they are ready, we are ready to start the Q&A session.

Operator

If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Antti Kansanen from SEB. Please go ahead.

Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

Hi, guys. It's Antti from SEB. Thanks for taking my questions both on Hiab for Scott. If I start with the outlook for second half for kind of sales and earnings, could you comment a little bit about kind of the delivery times and the backlog rotation, which has been quite extraordinary in the past couple of years? Are we now getting back to, let's say, a normal delivery time if you look at the truck production and things like that, just to-

Scott Phillips
President, Hiab

Yeah. Hi, Antti. So thanks for the question. With regards to delivery times, we are getting back to more normal levels in terms of the combination of what we're seeing from the truck chassis cabin deliveries from the many truck OEMs we partner with, as well as from our side. Frankly speaking, on our side, we've been at or below our target levels for quite some time now. But as you pointed out, it's important that those two deliveries are synced up, and that's starting to converge together nicely. There are a few fluctuations that we see in different geographies, but on balance, it's starting to come back to more normal levels.

Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

Then regarding kind of the full year guidance, the margin of 13.5%, I mean, you're obviously much above that on the second half, and I understand that it's only a floor, but you should have a pretty good visibility on the second half, kind of, delivery outlook. So what's kind of the uncertainty that would bring your full year margins towards the lower or the guidance floor?

Scott Phillips
President, Hiab

Yeah, there are certain product lines that we're relying on the conversion of orders that we still take within the year. So that's probably the first level of uncertainty, just allowing for the variance around that realization. Number two, as we talked about, we're kicking off planning for an efficiency program, so we're allowing also for space for additional one-off costs that would most probably be reflected in operating expense. So just wanted to give ourselves a good level of room, if you will, to declare that. On the bottom end, we see us at 13.5% or above, and as we get better visibility, as times are still quite uncertain, then we might revise the guidance again, yet again, at the end of Q3.

Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

All right. And then lastly, on the demand side, and apologies, I came a little bit late on the call, so perhaps you're repeating yourself. But could you talk a little bit about the U.S. market? Did you see any kind of change in trends during the second quarter on the demand? And I mean, the orders are slightly down, but I guess, like Casimir said, normal volatility, but any kind of, say, a bigger moves on the underlying demand conditions?

Scott Phillips
President, Hiab

Yeah. Underlying demand conditions remain on quite a good level, very favorable even compared to 2022, as I've been repeating for the past several quarters. However, what we do see, there are two factors I think that are important to note. One is that we still see the delay in decision-making. We experience this across the board in all product lines, where the time from a lead over our threshold percentage, then to the time of conversion has gotten a bit longer, and that's what we saw in Q2 in the U.S. market. The second factor is that the operating utilization of our loader crane equipment was a tick below our expectations. So therefore, not reading a whole lot into that one, but nevertheless, those are two data points we keep a close eye on.

So underlying... So repeating, underlying demand factors still look quite good and stable compared to the prior six quarters. What we do see is a change in time to decision, a slight downtick in utilization of loader cranes, whereas that was contrasted by a slight uptick in Europe.

Antti Kansanen
Analyst, SEB

All right. Thanks so much. That's all from me.

Operator

The next question comes from Johan Eliason from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.

Johan Eliason
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

Yeah. Hi, it's Johan at Kepler Cheuvreux. One question again for you, Scott. I think you're in the Q1 call, sort of, referred to some worries about pricing in the second half of this year, depending on where the demand would be. How are your view on pricing in the second half looking right now? Is there any change there?

Scott Phillips
President, Hiab

... Thank you. Yeah. Hey, Johan. So, thank you for the question. As I commented before, and also during the CMD, we're always gonna be under pressure. Our customers, just like ourselves, are gonna demand for the best price point. However, we still target a net price change that's positive year-over-year, and we look at that aggregately as well as by product line. So we still remain confident in terms of a on balance net positive price change for the year-over-year. So therefore, we still see the same set of factors at play as we've talked about in each of the prior quarters. And then, I think I also alluded to in the CMD during the Q&A, that we did see a higher level of discounting for last year.

We've gone out to the market and adjusted market list pricing in line with the discount level that we were at last year, so we see that stabilizing quite nicely, for the balance of the year thus far, and we see the same picture for the second half of the year. All of that, of course, is against this level of uncertainty that we're still dealing with.

Johan Eliason
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

Okay, excellent. And this new cost cutting you announce partly to hit your short-term development and partly to hit your 18% margin target. Is that more for the longer-term 18% margin target, or are you seeing something in the demand which looks stable but at a little bit of a lower level than a year ago? Thank you.

Scott Phillips
President, Hiab

Great question. Actually, both, to be perfectly blunt with you. So if you think about the actions that we'll take that'll hit, we'll realize above gross profit, that's much more about the long term, largely driven by, design to cost and other, product design-driven initiatives. Similarly, working on implementing lean within our own operations, which we've seen help us to reduce our order fulfillment cycle time, improve cash conversion, that should also stick long-term as well. Some of the actions that we'll take, however, below gross profit, in terms of adjusting fixed cost, would then be much more about, the short term and, and honestly, just, reconciling the math of the last 12 months' order intake versus, the conversion of sales moving forward.

Johan Eliason
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

Okay, excellent. And then maybe a completely different question to Mikko. Obviously, very strong balance sheet, as you point out, and hopefully you're getting some cash for the MacGregor business as well, when and if that is sold. What sort of expectations should investors have on returns going forward? Have you discussed that in any way? I mean, where do you see an optimal gearing for the remaining Hiab, for example, going forward? And what could be potentially then envisaged as some extra returns to the shareholders through extra dividends or share buybacks or similar? Any input on that would be appreciated. Thank you.

Mikko Puolakka
CFO, Cargotec/Hiab

Yeah, thanks for the good question. Too early to say about the extra dividends or share buybacks. Of course, we need to bear in mind also that we have ambitious M&A or inorganic growth objectives also for Hiab. So part of... Hopefully, we can also use part of that strong balance sheet for the M&A purposes. Of course, taking a very close look on the financial parameters of the acquisitions and not get blinded by the strong cash position. Definitely, this kind of 2% gearing might not be the optimal level for the company or for an industrial company.

So, it's also next year then for the board of directors after the MacGregor exit has taken place, to evaluate if there is a need to change return dividend policies or such going forward.

Johan Eliason
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

Okay. Looking forward to that. Thank you very much.

Operator

The next question comes from Panu Laitinmäki from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.

Panu Laitinmäki
Analyst, Danske Bank

Thank you. I have a few questions. Firstly, starting on Hiab. Did you get, like, a raw material cost tailwind in Hiab in Q2, and how do you expect this to develop going forward?

Scott Phillips
President, Hiab

Yeah, I wouldn't say that in Q2 we've saw much tailwind from raw material pricing, as we're still converting backlog, but definitely an overall improvement in the cost curves of our build materials.

Panu Laitinmäki
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay, but was there, like, a sequential improvement in what you had in previous quarters?

Scott Phillips
President, Hiab

Slightly.

Panu Laitinmäki
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay. Then on MacGregor, maybe the same question as was for Hiab's guidance earlier. So, I appreciate that you increased the guidance, but still, it's kind of more than EUR 55 for this year, implies kind of lower second half than what you delivered for first half. So what are the uncertainties that you see in MacGregor in second half, that you guide this as a floor, given that you have now settled this customer dispute and the offshore losses probably should be lower?

Mikko Puolakka
CFO, Cargotec/Hiab

... Yeah, I would say that the main uncertainties are related to the merchant project, the order book deliveries. So, even though MacGregor has an order book of EUR 1 billion, it's good to note that this order book has a very long delivery time due to the vessel construction timetable. So part of this order book can be delivered even in 2026, depending on the vessel construction. So, it's very much dependent, the second half profitability on the timing of the merchant equipment deliveries.

Casimir Lindholm
CEO, Cargotec

Yes, and the milestones in the different deliveries towards customers. And again, like in the Hiab case, if and when we feel that we have more visibility, we might come back to this topic then as part of the Q3 report.

Panu Laitinmäki
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay, thank you. Then the final question, still on the Hiab cost savings, to be clear. So, is it so that the demand turned out in Q2 to be weaker than you expected, so you are now launching new measures as a response to that?

Scott Phillips
President, Hiab

Yeah, just a matter of looking at our last 12 months order intake, very similar to the factors that caused us to announce the plan program that we executed last year, Q3. Very similar factors there. Combination of taking advantage of being able to accelerate efforts to secure long-term, better cost curves above our gross profit. At the same time, looking at the prior 12 months order intake, making some adjustments in our fixed cost base in line with order intake now, that'll convert later into sales.

Panu Laitinmäki
Analyst, Danske Bank

All right. Thank you.

Operator

As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Tom Skogman from Carnegie. Please go ahead.

Tom Skogman
Analyst, Carnegie

Yes, hi, this is Tom from Carnegie. I wonder about these savings in Hiab, whether that will also have some impact on the footprint, or, or are you happy with the manufacturing footprint?

Scott Phillips
President, Hiab

Yeah, if you think about our savings program, we're looking at structurally all possibilities, so that's certainly part of our planning process.

Tom Skogman
Analyst, Carnegie

There might be changes to the footprint, or?

Scott Phillips
President, Hiab

Well, we're certainly always going to look at evaluating potential changes in the footprint, Tom, and that'll be certainly part of the analysis phase that we go through now that we have initiated the planning.

Tom Skogman
Analyst, Carnegie

Yeah, and can you specify what you mean by design to cost? Is it more modular products or, or just changing the type of components that you use, or?

Scott Phillips
President, Hiab

Yeah, I'd say, especially in three different buckets. So there's standardization and simplification, much like, in our new MDV liftgate product that we just launched. A similar way of thinking about, less parts, more commonality across part families, so that's certainly part of it. Two, then looking at where we might be able to reduce cross-sections and weight, material specifications in our product that would come at a lower cost point without sacrificing performance. And then, of course, three, certainly hitting your point, designing, much more modularity in our products, taking, more advantage at being able to then, have commonality and, our key and differentiating technology across, the full scope of our portfolio, much like we're doing now in our, loader crane business.

One of the keys of the Space Evo that I talked about with regard to the EX-HiPro crane that we just introduced. So those three buckets combined with other logical changes that we can make to make our products more manufacturable and hence reduce the cost of producing.

Tom Skogman
Analyst, Carnegie

Is this new EX-HiPro crane like a new main product or a niche product, or will there be different sizes of this launch?

Scott Phillips
President, Hiab

There will be different sizes, but it, it's part of a broader, more comprehensive, product launch, and there will be other announcements to come, through the balance of the year.

Tom Skogman
Analyst, Carnegie

It's like a new main product. That's how we should see it?

Scott Phillips
President, Hiab

Correct.

Tom Skogman
Analyst, Carnegie

It's really a big launch.

Scott Phillips
President, Hiab

Correct.

Tom Skogman
Analyst, Carnegie

Okay.

Scott Phillips
President, Hiab

Yeah. Part of a broader launch.

Tom Skogman
Analyst, Carnegie

Then I have to ask about this MacGregor profitability. I didn't fully understand Mikko's comment there. What is really now the underlying margin in the merchant business? You said there were, like, EUR 4 million losses from offshore, but then there were something, you know, how you book the disputes itself. Can you repeat that to make it really clear?

Mikko Puolakka
CFO, Cargotec/Hiab

Yeah, so, when we had to reverse, basically EUR 39 million of revenues, that kind of, artificially, to a certain extent, boosts the comparable operating profit margin in MacGregor. So if we exclude this EUR 39 million, revenue reversal, MacGregor's Q2 comparable operating profit would be 9.1%, which is a significant improvement year-on-year. So roughly 2 percent units impact coming from this project settlement. And then in the overall MacGregor picture, the offshore basically diluted, as mentioned, by EUR 4 million, still the profitability.

Casimir Lindholm
CEO, Cargotec

So the merchant-

Tom Skogman
Analyst, Carnegie

The margin is kind of, it's 10% in the merchant business now, or?

Mikko Puolakka
CFO, Cargotec/Hiab

Around that level, a bit higher even.

Tom Skogman
Analyst, Carnegie

Okay, thank you.

Operator

As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.

Casimir Lindholm
CEO, Cargotec

Thank you all for the great questions and for the great answers. We will be back in October when we publish our third quarter results on October 23. See you then. Thank you.

Scott Phillips
President, Hiab

Yeah. Thank you.

Mikko Puolakka
CFO, Cargotec/Hiab

Thank you.

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