Good afternoon, and welcome to our pre-silent call for the first quarter of 2026. My name is Carina Geber-Teir, and as you know, I'm heading Investor Relations at Kalmar. Today, as always, Sakari Ahdekivi, our CFO, will start with a short summary, and then we will answer any questions that you may have at the end of the session. Please also note that this session will be recorded, and the recording will be available later at our Investor Relations website. With these words, Sakari, I'll hand over to you.
All right. Thank you, Carina, and good afternoon from Helsinki, and welcome to our pre-silent call also from my side. If we look at the agenda for today's call, it is the typical one. We'll have a recap of the previous quarter, and in this case, also a little bit on the full year 2025 highlights. We will cover the orders booked and communicated during Q1. We'll speak about the latest market indicators for 2026 and onward. We'll have a Q&A at the end. That's the very straightforward agenda for today's call. Move forward and look at the Q4 just to remind us where we left off. Last time, we had a record high order intake and solid sales growth in the quarter.
Orders received reached a record level of EUR 511 million, which was higher than the comparison period, even though also that quarter was a very high one back in 2024. Overall, we said the market demand remained stable. However, the uncertainty and trade tensions were, of course, present also during that quarter. Our services orders increased to a record high level across the entire service portfolio, which was another positive in the quarter. The equipment orders were then boosted by a couple of sizable orders. Our sales growth was 11% in the quarter and reached EUR 487 million. We also had a strong operating cash flow in the quarter, and that was positively impacted by a decrease in inventories as we were able to deliver the high sales number.
What's not visible on this slide is that the profitability in the quarter was 12.4%, and that was compared to 12.1% in the comparison period in 2024. Moving on to look at the orders received picture a little bit more in detail by region. It was the Americas that drove the growth in the orders. However, I would say that across all of the geographies, the situation was quite good. Although in EMEA there was a decline in orders, that was mainly due to the timing of larger orders in the comparison period, whereas in the Americas, the order intake was boosted by some larger orders. In the APAC, the orders received were stable in the quarter. Regarding the demand environment, just to elaborate a little bit on that. Demand remained good with ports and terminals, sequentially stable in manufacturing and heavy logistics.
The uncertainty still prevailed in the distribution end customer segment in the Americas, impacted by trade tensions and some decision-making timing there. Otherwise, overall, good demand environment in Q4. Having a look at the full year. For the full year, we delivered an orders growth of 8%. Orders growth came from both the equipment and the services side. We were able to grow, actually faster than market growth in 2025. When it comes to the Eco Portfolio, also there, the good growth. The Eco Portfolio grew slightly faster than the overall orders. Profitability-wise, we were able to grow the absolute comparable operating profit by 3%, and relatively, we reached 12.8% compared to 12.6% in the previous year.
Cash flow, thanks to the strong fourth quarter, was also good for the overall year, and actually our net debt at the end of the year was only EUR 5 million. If we move on to the next page, Q26, we have guided that we expect our comparable operating profit margin to be above 12.5%, and that's compared to the 12.8% that we reached last year, but let's remember that the guidance is over 12.5%. All right, then. Just to recap the orders that we have booked and published in Q1. There's a couple of straddle carrier orders, one in Antwerp, in Belgium, and the other one also actually in Antwerp, in Belgium. That's what we have published so far for Q1. On the economic indicators, no big change. The latest ones are from March.
Whether we look at the global GDP or the container throughput or the global manufacturing output development, very stable compared to the previous months' outlook. However, there's a slight uptick in the global retail output development. That has somewhat improved from the previous forecast from 2.2%-2.8%. Otherwise, relatively unchanged, which I guess is a little bit surprising even in a way, given all the turbulence that is going on in the world, hasn't impacted these numbers. In connection with the Q4 and full year statements, we also said that our demand outlook for the first six months of 2026 would remain similar to the second half of 2025. We also said that trade tensions and increased global instability could affect market demands or market and end customer demand.
Of course, I think we can all say that turbulence has continued and it is a turbulent and interesting world every day when you read the news. Of course, that may impact also our activities. Overall, demand expected to stay similar to the previous six months. On the 30th of March, so last week actually, we published some news on leadership changes, one concerning myself. Katri Hokkanen has been appointed Chief Financial Officer and a member of the Kalmar Leadership Team, latest on the 1st of October 2026. I will continue in my position until the end of September and also will remain with Kalmar until the end of the year in order to ensure a smooth transition and no specific drama here, if I can comment on that.
I joined Kalmar back in the summer of 2023, in preparation for the demerger and listing and was part of that and also setting up the team and getting Kalmar on the right course as an independent company. I think we can conclude that mission accomplished. There is also another announcement, Thomas Malmborg, the President of Services, will also step down from his position at the end of September. He will also continue with Kalmar until the end of the year. The search for a new President is ongoing as we speak. Maybe I'll hand over to Carina here to say a few words about our upcoming Capital Markets Day.
This is just a reminder of the save the date that we sent out on the Kalmar's second actually Capital Markets Day. We take the first one that was during the listing period and the site visit in conjunction to that Capital Markets Day that will be held in Copenhagen on the Monday, the 2nd of November. There will be a site visit to Ljungby the next day, the 3rd of November. Just save this date, and we'll come back with a formal invitation then after the summer. That's I guess all about, kinda complete.
I think that concludes our presentation, and we're ready for Q&A.
Just please raise your hand if you have any questions and we'll dig into the Q&A session. Tom Skogman, you are first in line here.
Thank you. I would like to ask first, how big business do you have as a share of sales in 2025 in the Middle East? What has happened to that during the war?
Yeah, I would say that, of course, it has some impact and we have activities in the region. However, of course, it's a fairly small part of the total Kalmar. Of course, I would say that the possible impacts are more on the cost side of logistics and things like that and how inflation and demand will be possibly impacted by the situation rather than the direct impact in the region, especially when you put it into perspective of the total Kalmar volume.
Tom, as an addition, the first priority, of course, has been to make sure that our people, especially service people, are safe that are in the region. The focus has been on safeguarding that on top of what Sakari just mentioned.
Can you give a number? Is it less than 2% of sales or how small is it for you?
Yeah. We're talking low single digits in percentage of total sales.
Continuing just on the theme you brought up yourself, have you seen any hesitation among customers too? I mean, TRATON yesterday said that in TRATON they start to see hesitation in the logistics area in Europe. Have you seen anything similar, that some customers are postponing orders or so?
Not really directly. Of course, there might be some isolated cases, but not as a general big trend in any way.
Yeah. On the other hand also there is some deviation. You might have some that are hesitating, but on the other hand you have heavy materials and flows of material that need to be moved from one place to the other. Some other customers might have a need to invest in order to make sure that the new trade routes and trade flows keep up and running.
Last year you said that there was an impact of the U.S. tariffs also in Canada and South America. It's quite understandable that people postponed orders or canceled orders when they see that export from their countries to the U.S. could decrease. Do you see any signs of a normalization here now? Maybe people get used to the tariffs and business keeps on moving now?
I think so, Tom. Yes. There's of course the impact of the ever-changing tariff landscape then that we need to continuously adjust to, but that's not so much on the demand side. I would say that yes, I think the world is getting used to the tariffs, and therefore it's becoming more part of normal life.
Do you see that as a positive in signing deals generally, that people have started to accept this new situation, or is it just on a more high-level view?
Yes, I think so. I wouldn't say that is any kind of big boost in any direction. I think everybody's getting used to the fact that this is the new reality.
Perhaps an update also on the costs, how the savings that we should have now in Q1 and Q2, we have these ongoing programs, but if there have been any changes and any new bridges.
Well, we reported at the end of last year that we had reached a run rate saving from our Driving Excellence of EUR 34 million, and we'll have to come with an update of the figure then at the end of Q1, well, when we publish the Q1.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Tom. Any further questions? Mikael Doepel from Nordea, please.
Yes. Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. Just firstly coming back to the Middle East, if you just could remind us of how big of a total the energy share of cost is for you?
You said energy share of cost?
Yeah. Energy.
We're not very energy intensive as you know because we're not in process industries. That's not a big driver. Logistics cost is of course quite a big part. That's more potential impact than energy.
Okay.
We run four plants as you know, and it's not energy-intensive production.
No, that was basically my next question. Did you care to give any number on the logistics, the scale of that cost compared to the total or to your revenues or something?
I think we'll have to come back to that then also in connection with Q1.
Okay. In terms of the aftermarket business, is there anything you can say about the connected units, I mean, the operating rates or the utilization running hours here in the beginning of the year?
Yeah, Carina, you-
I was just actually looking.
you want to go for that one.
Yeah. I was looking into the data and surprisingly, we do not see any huge changes there. We have to come back to the exact numbers, but the activity levels have remained stable compared to the previous quarters.
On a year-over-year basis, are we up, down?
I will come back to the exact, but I think there is no huge changes on that.
Does this go for all the regions or is it the same in the U.S., for example, as in Europe?
Well, as we said in the end of the year that there was an uptick in North America. We didn't see as strong in the beginning of the year, but now it seems like the activity level is fairly good there too. Let's revert back to that in our Q1 call then.
Okay. On the service business, can you just remind us, I think there were some issues with the margins, I would say, in the latter part of last year? Maybe you could just remind us of what kind of, and how we should think about the margins here going into the first half of the year. I think you booked a lot of additional costing, if I remember correctly, distorting kind of the margins to some extent. Maybe some comment around the service margin.
Yeah. It wasn't really additional cost as such, but there was a little bit of discrepancy between Q3 and-
Right
Q4, in the tariff impact, you should actually view those two quarters together when you look at our service profitability.
Okay. Just finally, in terms of your equipment project pipeline, how would you describe the situation currently? Do you see a lot of active quoting activity there? Are there any differences across the regions currently? If you could talk a bit about the pipeline that you see and that you have, and how that looks across the regions.
Yeah, I would say that what we said about the demand in connection with the Q4 still holds. Basically quite stable demand or similar demand as overall for the second half of last year is what we continue to see.
Okay. Just a final question in terms of pricing. How should we think about pricing? You have done tariff adjustments across the service business, across the equipment business. I'm thinking, beyond that, there is of course underlying inflation as well. Just wondering, how should we think about pricing going into 2026? Is it a normal average 2%-3% increase or something else?
Yeah, I think the way you should think about that is, of course, we try to compensate the tariff impacts as best possible. In addition to that, it's normal inflationary price increases. Of course, the other side of the equation is then the Driving Excellence and the sourcing savings, which are there to also support the margins and to counter inflation.
Okay. Good. Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
All right. Any further? Tom, you have an additional question?
Yeah. Reading industry, for instance, you can see that there's a lot of discussion about Chinese truck manufacturers opening up assembly in Europe also, and that the European truck manufacturers are now kind of trying to prepare for this. What do you see in your markets about SANY and BYD, et cetera? Do they move assembly to Europe in these products where they compete with you as well? What do you see in the field?
There's nothing I'm aware of in terms of new assembly from SANY or others in Europe. At least I have no information.
They make all products they sell in your industries in Europe, they are made in China, basically?
As far as I'm aware, yes.
There must be some data on what is happening to market shares. Are they gaining market share? What is the market share of the Chinese companies in electric machines, et cetera? There must be some data that you follow, basically.
Yeah. Well, maybe to say that the share of our electric orders, as you've seen from our Q4, has slightly been increasing. Overall, the electric market, of course, has continued to grow as well. Maybe that's a couple of indicative data points on that one, but can't be more specific than that. Carina, anything you would want to add?
Yeah. What we've also previously said, the situation on the emerging markets where we've seen this kind of strong competition of the Chinese, more than in kind of the traditional markets.
Is it so that you do not know or is it so that you do not want to provide this very important information? The future is electrical. You said in your Capital Markets Day that in 2028, 40% of the market is expected to be electric. At least I struggle to get data. I just wonder, is it so that you don't have data or is it so that you do not like to give out data?
Of course, we are disclosing the fully EVs, the order intake, the share of fully electric equipment on our behalf, how our numbers and orders are developing, than disclosing other market share numbers. That's something that you need to ask from our competitors then. We are trying to provide you both with the Eco Portfolio numbers, with the hybrid equipment, and then the fully electric. That is how the market is ordering fully electric from us.
You said in the Capital Market there that 40% is expected to be electric of the market in basically 2028. You are pretty close and you have, is it 11%-12% of orders? What is now electric machines out of the market, just to have some reference point?
It depends a little bit on also the equipment and what we are going to do. We are in the process of updating our market study, the one that we did with KPMG, in order to provide you with updated numbers also then in the Capital Markets Day in November as such. No signals of that there would have been major changes in the appetite or development of electric equipment.
What do you mean by that? That 10%-40%, we are on that path towards 40% in 2028, basically?
That the market is on the path of becoming more and more electrified. It depends a little bit on the product. If you have lighter products, the market where we do not play, they are further electrified than, for example, some of the heavier equipment. Whereas, for example, in straddle carriers, we think that we are doing quite a good job in the electrification and how customers also are buying fully electric equipment from us.
There's, of course, when we think about the U.S., then of course, there's a little bit less appetite due to the circumstances there in electric equipment compared to what we assumed back then. More or less, the market is on the track that we spoke about back in our CMD.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Mikael, please, an additional question.
Yeah, thank you. Just a very brief follow-up on Tom's question about the Chinese players. You mentioned that in emerging markets, you do see strong competition here from these players, but not so much in the developed world. I was just wondering, what is your view on that? What would you say are the key hurdles for the Chinese players to really get a better foothold in the bigger European markets like Germany, France, or Spain and Italy? What's your view on that?
Well, I think you have to turn it back to what is the strength of Kalmar? It's providing not only the equipment but also the services, so complete solution. I think that's where we still continue to be stronger than the Chinese competition. We're not competing purely on price.
Would you say that there are also some regulatory hurdles, for example, in terms of reporting requirements or something like that that could be an obstacle or not?
Not necessarily, no.
An additional thing that I would mention is data sample throughout the years when we've done the EV development and how much data we have collected together with our customers and the partnership thinking. In order to get to the same level and depth of data, it takes time. It's not anything magic, but you really need to work on that. That's where we think and believe that we are strong.
Sorry, Carina, you were breaking up a bit there in the beginning. Did you say that the fact that you are gathering data through connected units and sharing that with clients, is that what you're saying?
Yeah, just the kind of process. Yeah, exactly.
Okay.
Process of developing and collecting data. Can you hear me now?
Yeah, absolutely. Now I hear you. Yep.
Yeah. The process of developing and together with the customer, partnering up, collecting the data, and that has been done for 10s of years already together with the customers. I believe that's a stronghold that Kalmar has and something that we're continuing on developing together with the customers.
Also the long-standing customer relationships, of course.
Okay. That's clear. Thank you very much.
Tom, you have a question?
Yeah. I would like to continue a bit on this subject. Can you give some kind of updated information on your prices compared to the prices of Chinese competitors for similar products? How close are you now? Is the difference less than 10% or is it a very large difference? The second question is, what kind of financing do you see that they provide? Do they get access to cheap financing to help emerging market customers somehow from the Chinese government or Chinese banks or so?
Yeah, I think again on the price differential, maybe not getting into detail in this call on that one. On the financing, of course, I can't really comment on the competitor's financing.
Do you feel that it's like fair business? Kalmar cannot start giving big credits to customers. What are the Chinese doing just generally in this industry?
Well, what we do see is competing on payment terms and things like that. I would say that, I think it's probably not my job to comment on their financing.
Yeah. Okay. It's, of course, very important for you that your customers, if there are different ways of providing financing, it can be very decisive from whom they buy, basically.
For sure. Also when we think about how we've been developing our service offering, we also can offer equipment as a service, charging as a service, and things like that. That's what we can provide as solutions as Kalmar.
How do you arrange that then? Who owns the equipment then?
Depends on the contract.
It can be you as well. It's in your balance sheet then?
It could be.
Yeah. Finally on batteries. You use mainly Chinese batteries, to my understanding, but you can also use other suppliers, I guess. It's the customer's kind of choice, I assume, what battery they want to have. Do you think you get batteries at competitive terms compared to your larger competitor? If you have BYD, they make batteries themselves, so I guess it's difficult to know how they book the cost of batteries. Other companies in Asia that buy Asian batteries, do you think you get the same prices as they do?
Well, first of all, we can procure batteries, of course, from several sources. On the pricing, I believe the pricing is competitive. Whether it's exactly the same as someone else, that's difficult to say, of course.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you, Tom. Any further questions from anybody? Doesn't seem like that for the moment. I think we are about done with the pre-silent call, and looking forward to meeting you all online on the May 5th on our first quarter reports call.
Thank you. See you then.
Thank you.
Have a good day.
Bye.
Bye