All right, good afternoon, good morning, everyone. It's Juha from Metso's IR, and I want to welcome you all to this conference call where we discuss our first quarter 2025 results, which were published earlier this morning. Results will be presented this time by our President and CEO, Sami Takaluoma, and after his presentation, we'll be having the Q&A session. We try and limit the length of this call to 60 minutes because right after this call, we will be having our annual general meeting of shareholders. Before I hand over to Sami, we also have in this room our incoming CFO, Pasi Kyckling, and Pasi, if you can introduce yourself briefly before we go into the results.
Thank you, Juha, and good day, everyone. Pleased to meet you over this media. From my side, very much looking forward to join Metso next week, becoming part of the team, becoming part of the journey. Also looking forward to engage with many of you in different ways and forms, and look forward to meeting you face to face during the coming period. Thank you.
All right, thanks, Pasi, and welcome to Metso next week. Now let's go into the results, and I'll be handing over to Sami. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Juha, and good afternoon to everybody. Let's walk through the results. Quarter 1, 2025, from our perspective, market activity was very much in line with our expectations. We saw order growth in the equipment side in both our customer segments, minerals and aggregates. In the quarter, we delivered a result, which was a solid adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.5%. Also, we continued our actions regarding the cash flow, and the results were also delivered, so we had a good cash flow from operations, close to EUR 200 million for the first quarter of the year. Looking more from the key figures point of view, orders growth was in the whole group 4%, and that was then delivering actually the highest quarter for quite a good time from the order perspective. Sales did decline from last year, similar way to 4%.
This was heavily linked for the timing of the orders that we actually did not get one year ago from the capital side, and the deliveries then did not happen in this quarter. Because of that, as mentioned, adjusted EBITDA a bit under EUR 200 million, but relatively keeping the solid 16.5% as a year ago, and of course improving then also from the Q4 previous year. Earnings per share from continuing operations, EUR 0.14 in the Q1. As mentioned, cash flow from operations close to EUR 200 million, and that is the improvement of 25% compared to the previous year. Looking at the segments starting from the aggregate, the orders received was EUR 400 million, an improvement of EUR 35 million from the previous year.
This was thanks to the seasonal uptick that we did see happening actually from both of our large aggregate markets, US or North America, and then also Europe. This also supported the growth of the acquisition that we did last year. Sales point of view, close to flat, but a few millions more than a year ago, and that was also then, of course, supported by the acquisition that we had in our books in Q1. Services share declined a little bit from the 36% that we had, down to 33% now in Q1. Adjusted EBITDA, EUR 49 million, EUR 3 million less, and in the margin percentage point of view, then 16%, which is still very good and solid for the lowerish volume of the sales that we have in the aggregate. Good cost control continues.
We have a very high resilience for the aggregates segment from the profitability point of view going forward. Let's go for the minerals side, where orders went over EUR 1 billion by EUR 13 million. As many of you have noticed, we did not announce large orders in Q1 with the same magnitude as we did for Q3 and Q4. Q1, the order growth came from the small equipment orders and very small projects. It was definitely driven by the copper and gold customers. Equipment orders went actually up by 10% in the period. Sales, on the other hand, EUR 866 million, below the previous year number. That was visible for both services and the equipment side. Services share of the sales in the minerals segment is now 67%, so close to the same level as it was a year before.
Here especially, the sales volumes were impacted by the order intake that did not happen roughly one year ago, so the backlog was not to be realized in this quarter. Adjusted EBITDA, EUR 153 million, giving the margin of 17.7%. That's the same storyline here, that very resilient margin for several quarters now. If you look at the average there and growth from the Q4, 17.0%. Also here we have good cost control and also gaining the operational efficiency in many places. I think it's worth to spend some time to discuss about the tariff implications as we see them. First, the U.S. is accounting for approximately 15% of our sales in 2024. That's the magnitude of the business that we currently see in the highest impact of the tariffs.
We have local U.S. manufacturing, but it's very limited to mainly aggregates equipment, the three brands that we sell in the U.S. We have a few smaller product lines manufacturing in the U.S. From the business volume point of view, obviously a lot of the products need to be imported to the country. Mitigation of the tariff impacts has been ongoing since they were announced. Price increases and surcharges, they are in place. Every quote for the U.S. customers is having terms and conditions aligned for the tariff situation. At the same time, we are looking at Metso's sourcing and supply chains to look for where the minimized actions can be created. Worthwhile mentioning here that China-based supply to the U.S., we have already earlier done the actions, and we have significantly minimized those supply lanes throughout the last two years.
We also feel that we have a very global supply chain, and our extensive geographical footprint provides us quite a good amount of flexibility to support the deliveries from multiple countries and not only one. As a consequence of all of these together, our view is that we, Metso, we are not expecting material direct impact of these tariffs now announced. The main impact will come from the increased uncertainty and volatility that the whole global economy is facing, and that is causing some customer hesitance to move forward with the project and the orders. From the group financial part, most of the lines have already been discussed here. Adjusted EBITDA below EUR 200 million, but relatively 16.5%. Operating profit EUR 170 million compared to EUR 188 million that it was one year ago. The profit from the period for the continuing operations EUR 114 million compared to the EUR 124 million.
Of course, all of this was driven from the sales volumes that were lower than the year before. Earnings per share EUR 0.14 compared to the EUR 0.15 last year. If looking at the balance sheet, the main message here is that during the quarter, we were able to reduce by roughly EUR 100 million of the indebtedness, and that was as targeted and planned, and that was heavily driven by the cash flow elements and the work that we have been doing now for the inventory normalization that continued. We have also good control and management system for other elements in the cash flow balance sheet, and that created then our net cash flow from operating activities to be this close to EUR 200 million in the first quarter. Normally, the first quarter is quite challenging, so we are happy with this result.
From the financial position point of view, our ratings are very stable from the outlook point of view. The average interest rate of our loans is now at the 3.7% level, and we have done some activities to further strengthen this position that we have. Finally, we look for the sustainability outlook and the management agenda. Management outlook. On the sustainability side, we have mixed progress. Our sustainability offering, the Metso Plus, where we have a clear target that we want this portfolio to grow faster than the overall sales of the group. We were not successful for that one in Q1, double digit below the target actually. The main reason here is that we had the cycle things when certain equipment orders or project deliveries did not happen in Q1, especially when we looked at our battery metal deliveries.
That was creating the situation to be not on the targeted level on the Metso Plus one. When we look at our own actions, what we do, our net zero target until 2030. That is progressing well and in line of the roadmap. We are currently on a 71% reduction from the 2019 level, and in the Q1, we closed 10 energy saving projects around the company to further continue this journey. In the logistics, we had an ambitious target to reach the 20% less level by 2025 compared to 2019. Where we are now is halfway of that, so 10% we have been able to reduce.
Obviously, this year being the year that the target to be reached, it seems quite unrealistic, and this is of course something that we are not happy, but this is cooperation with our partners in the logistic and the roadmap that they have for offering more green transport lines for the ocean and road is taking longer time than 2025. When we look at our suppliers, they play a big role of the whole value chain sustainability. Our target was to reach 30% level at the end of this year of our suppliers to be part of science-based emission targets, and there we are above the target clearly. We are now at the 34.1%, and we will continue this journey also going forward. From the market outlook, we see that both segments, minerals and aggregates, they will remain in the current activity level now going forward.
We also want to make a comment here that tariff-related turbulence could potentially affect the global economic growth and then also affect the market activity. This is something that we will of course observe very carefully and then take the actions if needed. The final page for this briefing is the management short-term agenda. Market potential is out there, and our target is to maximize the potential that we can take from this current market. We continue normalizing our inventory levels. As said, that program is progressing well, and the results have been delivered both in Q4 and Q1, and we will then finalize this program at the end of Q2.
We will have the third phase of our ERP program going live during Q2, and of course that is the management agenda to make sure that that is very successful and gives Metso possibilities to leverage the benefits then when the new system is in use also after the phase three. We are working with our strategy process, and the target is to be as ready as possible, so finalizing that one during Q2, latest by Q3, and you have all seen the invitation for the capital market day in the second of October. We continue to develop the company culture.
I'm really happy to get Pasi, new CFO, on board and already here today with me, and he's starting next Monday, is then finalizing also the leadership team, and we have then all the elements in place to continue the journey to further enhance the already good culture inside the Metso company for achieving the results in the future.
All right, thanks for the presentation, Sami and operator. We can now open the lines for questions.
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 Michael Harlow from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the presentation, and thank you for taking our questions.
I understand that on the topic of margins, you may not want to say too much ahead of this CMV, but would it be possible for you to highlight what are the key moving parts in the medium term and the potential sources of upside that we could see? On the thinking of your customers, you are highlighting the impact of uncertainty, but we also have very high commodities prices. Would it be possible to have some color on how you see the decision-making process of your customers should we see more certainty given the high commodities prices that we're seeing? Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for the good question. From the margin journey point of view, it's part of this company culture point that I raised at the last bullet there.
That plays a role because we still can identify from our own organization internal efficiency areas. Also, it was mentioned that we are implementing the phase three of the new ERP system, which will also increase the capabilities to create efficiency inside the organization. Of course, we have still some work to be done in productizing and standardizing the engineering part of the work, especially in the minerals capital side, which will then create the margin benefits for the company. We continue to look at the whole world at the moment from the supply chain point of view as well, and we believe that we have capabilities to identify some areas for the cost benefit for the company from that side.
I want to lift the other end of the equation that there are price adjustment possibilities for our wide portfolio that we are actively looking and implementing them into place. Your second part of the question was about the uncertainty, especially from the customer side, and how is that visible is mainly coming from the fact that especially the customers in countries or country where the price increases and tariff surcharges are happening cannot move with the orders of the projects that they are planning to do before they understand that what will be the new cost of the complete project, not maybe even the portion of the Metso equipment or parts and services. That is creating some delay for them to recalculate that what is the complete cost of the project and then the return of the investment from that perspective.
That is the expectation that we will see these kind of delays from certain customer projects. On the other hand, the activity level, as mentioned, we see it very active and very strong. There is not really this what we highlighted is not visible yet, but we are just looking forward and we believe that there is room for this kind of uncertainty. Thank you. That was very helpful. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Chetan Udeshi from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Morning, Sami. Thank you for taking my questions. I have three, and I will take them one at a time. My first question is on the minerals orders. This is clearly very strong in the quarter despite the lack of large orders. How should we think about the strength of the small and mid-size orders going forward?
Yeah, I have been talking about this earlier that we do have a very large funnel, meaning the projects or capital orders, small or big, that we have there with the certain probabilities. This quarter was a good testimony of the fact that you do not need those big ones always when you have a good amount of these small ones coming through. How that looks going forward, it is also the timing issue. Some customers that we are moving now into Q1 with these projects onwards, many of them have also flagged that they will do the same in Q2. Not the same customers, but many of the customers have flagged these kind of decisions to be made in Q2. That is why I see that quite solid, these small equipment order volumes going forward.
Thanks, Sami. Very clear.
Then my second question is on the delivery schedule of minerals backlog this year. In the release, you mentioned it is going to be more H2 weighted, but just how should we think about Q2 sequentially? I guess H2 would be a bigger step up from there.
Yeah, I think you had it right. We kind of knew that Q1 did not have these deliveries so many as the year before. Now going forward, Q2 has more of them. If I remember now right, the second half of the year was heavier with these deliveries going forward. That is the situation that we have from the backlog realization as on itself.
Thank you. Finally, I guess on tariffs, thank you for the color that you have already provided.
You've obviously mentioned that US is 15% of sales and the majority is imports. If I understand correctly, China exposure is limited. Could you please provide more details on the regional exposure of where the other imports are coming from? I mean, clearly the situation can change very quickly, so any more color would be really appreciated.
Yeah, Metso is global, and we have several locations where we have our own manufacturing. We have looked already during the Q1 at how the product transfers or supplying from different locations to, for example, US market would be happening. We see that as one option. Secondly, we have suppliers for our products or components.
We might have one as a global preferred one, but then we have been working already two, three years to identify the regional suppliers for the similar type components with the same quality that we require. This is giving us the flexibility to look different sources than the one that we have had for the U.S., for example, in the past. The China, we did that decision already three years ago and have been working with that. Alternatives have been found from Asia, from India, and also the rest of the world. This is very global is our supply chain.
Thank you very much. The next question comes from Klas Bergelind
Thank you. Hi, Pekka, Pasi, Juha, Klaus at Citi. Could we just come back to the comment in the report that you saw more volatility in April?
Did you say there and sorry,
I said Pekka, sorry,
Sami. Did you say that you haven't seen any push-outs of orders yet, but it might happen? Just to clarify that. If you think that if there is a difference here between minerals and aggregates, in general, I would say that mining as an end market is a bit more protected against the macro slowdown. If I understand you correctly, Sami, it seems like you think there could be also risk of decision-making in the mining segment as well. If you can start there, thank you.
Yeah, thank you. Thank you. I don't mind to be called Pekka if you feel like, but Sami is better. Thank you. No, we have not seen pushbacks yet.
The indications of that in the mining side have been coming mainly from the U.S. side and mainly from the perspective that the customer needs more time to understand what the new cost level could be, taking into account that everything will be more expensive in the U.S. That has been the discussion there. Actually, no real indications at all from the aggregates side, which is a very regional business globally, and even from the U.S. distributors. The seasonal pickup that they started to see seems to be continuing now also in April. I wanted to make on the service organizing in minerals. They are improving, quote unquote, but part of that is a bit of seasonality. Year over year, XFX, they are flattish. We have had quite soft order growth now for quite some time.
I mean, you've said about these push-outs of sort of shutdown services because the miners want to maximize production given the high commodity prices. Eventually, this is creating sort of a pent-up effect. I'm just wondering, is waiting for that sort of kickback on the maintenance contract side, whether we can start to see an improvement here soon. I mean, it can't be pushed out forever. If you could comment on sort of maintenance plus spares and wears within the quarter and what you see ahead. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that. Yes, it's clear. If I start from the order side of the services, there we see this year kind of a very solid looking when we look also the Q1 and then the coming quarters going forward.
Regarding the Q1, the comparison from 2024, if you look at the numbers there, that was the highest quarter from the orders point of view. Comparison was tough, and our performance was okay to fixed currencies. We did match that one. Regarding the sales there, the topic was exactly as you said, that the upgrades and modernizations, which we did not see coming through in 2024. That is then the result that the sales, because typically these ones, they have a longer lead time. We talk about six to nine months. Orders that we did not get into Q2 and Q3 of last year resulted that the sales was not happening then into Q1 of this year. Underlying demand and also the underlying performance in terms of the small orders is in a good level and in the growth trajectory. Okay. That's fine.
The final one on the inventory levels in the channels in aggregates. I think you said before that if we had a solid spring season, which we now had, then inventories at the dealers going into the second quarter could start to look a little bit more normal. Would be great if you could comment now on the levels of the sort of dealer inventory levels here now going into the second quarter. Thank you.
Yeah, from the customer perspective, end customer perspective, they have a good level. We have seen this slight decrease in the inventory levels of our distributors, especially in North America, which is a good indication. It shows that the equipment is moving to the end customers.
There is not a significant drop, but at the same time, as commented, we did start to see also the orders coming to Metso already at the end of the Q1. The expectation is that that will continue into Q2. Thank you.
The next question comes from Edward Hussey from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, Sami and Hussey. Thanks for taking my questions. I guess first question is just on the dynamic between Brownfield and Greenfield. The reason I ask is because we have just talked about strength in Brownfield, but failed to mention Greenfield. I'm just wondering what the dynamic is that you're seeing there and whether in light of tariffs, which one is more exposed.
Yeah, there is a good amount of Greenfield discussions, and I have been happy to be able to be part of many of those as well when traveling and meeting the customers.
What is maybe worth mentioning is that Greenfield discussions, they are interesting and they go forward, but they are also taking a long time to then really be realized. It is also a very good indication of how the future, a little bit longer future will look like. That is clear from that perspective. The Brownfield, as our Q1 orders were also indicating, the small equipment orders, they are Brownfield ones, and that activity level stays stable from that perspective. Which one is more impacted of potential tariff uncertainty? Most likely that is the Greenfield part. That will be a larger investment that needs to be done. If there is uncertainty, typically that is creating the hesitance more than the Brownfield one.
Okay, thank you.
Just thinking about the sort of strong pipeline that you've been talking about on the equipment side, how much of that pipeline is made up by the U.S.? I mean, do you have like a kind of, is it a very, very material part of the pipeline, or is it just a relatively smaller amount? Thanks.
Yeah, if we looked at the total business, it was 15% in 2024 that was coming from the U.S. We do not see any material change of the share of business, so that is the amount that is linked to the U.S. At the same time, the years are never the same. There are customers who are located in a region X, and they are active at the same time. It can be that region Y is slow one year and very active the next year.
U.S. customers are very important for us, and they play a role, but so-called hotspots in our map where we see a lot of activity happen, it's more elsewhere than in the U.S.
Okay, thank you. Just final question on the margins. Sales down 4%, but resilient margins, and that's been the case last year as well. I mean, could you just talk through what you've been doing to protect the margins? If sales do pick up in H2, as you've been talking about, given the order pipeline, could you talk about what operating leverage might look like in H2?
Yeah, I can just say that obviously there is a leverage there. I cannot quantify that. I don't have that kind of processor in my head to be able to calculate that, but it's clear that it's there.
Thank you for recognizing the resilience. We are having a very strong not only management agenda, but also the culture inside the company regarding this topic. This is then visible. It is a combination of multiple things that do happen inside and also outside the organization. It is not one silver bullet that has created this one, which also makes, by the way, that it is sticky. It is really resilient from that point of view.
The next question comes from Christian Hinderaker from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Morning, Sami. You heard and welcome, Pasi. First question is coming back to tariffs. I guess, I mean, we have sort of talked to this in terms of the initial response on your side with regard to pricing. How do we think about this midterm? I appreciate it is a fluid dynamic, but do you think there is a need for footprint changes?
Might you look to acquire or build out production, say, in aggregates in the US at some stage? That is the first one.
Obviously, we as a management, we have been looked at all of those options and a little bit more that you already mentioned. Right now, we have not announced anything. We obviously also want to understand first now during the Q2 when the 90-day freeze period is over, what will be the real situation with the tariffs regarding the whole world. Based on that, we will then execute that scenario that best fits for that situation. It is very clear that we have options, and we are looking to then make the best option to be then executed going forward.
Right now, we are, and if we would make a decision to, for example, build a Greenfield factory for the U.S. because of this situation, that could happen. We also then understand that the benefit of that will be somewhere in two years or something like that to get the production ramped up from the completely new factory. That needs to be then looked at after we fully understand what is the situation in the whole world regarding the tariffs and also the counter tariffs.
Thank you. Maybe just secondly, coming back to the discussion on customer behavior, I am in Q1, I think very much in the past now relative to April. How do we think mining customers are thinking in terms of project commitments given the volatile backdrop? I mean, do you think that there is risk of push-outs to come?
Can we just cover off the modernizations part? I know that's improved in the first quarter, but if we see a further softening in the macro, would that weaken as well? Thank you.
There is no discussions, no signs of any kind of pushback of already agreed project deliveries. They are continuing exactly as agreed with the customers. Not even a hint from the customer side of any kind of changes needed or wanted for those. I think this uncertainty really boils down for the new orders and is there elements for the customers to need to rethink of their investment need at this point or postpone it to later.
As said, we have flagged this potential risk in the situation that we do not really see anything of that happening today, but understanding and being aware that that would be normal behavior for certain situations for certain customers.
Understood. Thank you.
The next question comes from Andreas Koski from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Thank you. And good morning. A couple of questions from me. Start with aggregates. Strong order intake in the quarter. Do you think it was positively impacted by pre-ordering ahead of tariffs?
Yeah, obviously something that we have been very much thinking as well here when we started to see those orders coming already in March from the U.S. And there is a possibility that there was some pre-ordering, but then again, that was only a certain amount of the total orders that we got.
If that was the case, we are happy of that. What we have seen now in April, that continues.
Okay. Say longer term, are you worried about your market position in the U.S. versus competitors as you import most of what you're selling? Do you have a sense what price increases are necessary to offset tariffs as they stand today? When will they kick in?
Not worried. We have done quite a lot of market studies to understand our position and our supply lanes and also the known competitors. It seems to be that there is quite a similar situation for the players in both industries. From that perspective, the worry impact is quite low.
That combined with the fact that I have discussed here already that we do have quite a good amount of flexibility to look where the sourcing happens to the US. That gives in our mind maybe even better position compared to some of the competitors.
Thank you. On working capital, I think your inventory level is still at around EUR 1.9 billion. Can you give any indication of what kind of inventory release that we should expect in, say, Q2, Q3 based on your plans that you have?
Yeah, yeah. I think the peak number was EUR 2 billion that we had in mid-2024. The program that is created now is to reduce EUR 200 million out of that. So EUR 1.8 billion.
You need to remember that we did acquire a business, and with that, we also gained a little bit of inventory that was not fully known at the time. Anyways, point is that EUR 1.8 billion, EUR 200 million down from the peak. That is the program that we have ongoing.
Okay. Lastly, if it is okay, you mentioned many times during your presentation the increased uncertainty and that it could impact your end markets, but you are still guiding for unchanged activity over the next six months. I am just a bit curious how you discussed the outlook internally and came to the conclusion that the base case is that demand will not be impacted by the uncertainty.
Yeah, that is a very good question. Thank you for that.
It's always a challenge because you have, when you are looking at the global markets, you have areas where you see the positive uptick for the short-term view. You have areas that have some risks. We need to make the judgment call that how do we see the whole global view. The global view is based on the several points that we review when making this statement. It's stable, but we just want to acknowledge that we are also a management team that has understood that this tariff situation could have an impact on the customer behavior.
That's great. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Tor Fangman from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hi, Sami. Thank you for taking my question. Only one left. Just one question on pricing.
One of your peers recently mentioned negative pricing pressure, especially for steel-heavy equipment. Is this something you see as well? If so, how has this developed over the recent weeks? Thank you.
Yeah, we do not see that kind of pressure in those discussions that we have with our customers and the equipment and projects that we are discussing. That is our situation regarding the pricing pressure. Thank you.
The next question comes from Nick Housden from RBC. Please go ahead.
Yes. Morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two left. Just returning to the aggregates business, plus 2% organic order growth in the quarter. Looks like the first positive number here since Q4 2022. Equipment orders up 16% year over year. You are saying the market is largely unchanged, but we assume that pre-buy was only a minor impact here.
Are you getting a sense that we're finally moving off the bottom of the construction equipment cycle? Is that something you're seeing?
Yes, that seems to be the case now. Of course, there is this part of the seasonal activity happening, but two large markets that we are in, U.S. and Europe. The positive signals were really coming from the election of Trump. That was our understanding that what will happen in the market. It seems to be right that it creates positiveness for the construction market in the U.S. The second one, Europe, then, of course, the German announcement of the infrastructure spend for the upcoming years is something that has created the trust back for the customers. We did see the first positive signs regarding that one as well.
In that sense, it looks that the worst is behind from that perspective.
Great. Thank you. My second one is just on the level of capacity utilization at your facility. I think you've had some temporary layoffs in recent quarters, particularly in Finland. The order backlog is looking a little bit healthier. I'm just wondering if you're taking some steps to accommodate potentially higher volumes there.
Yeah, those temporary layoffs, they were very much needed at that point. It's also a very good system in these countries that we are able to use that model because we also can get then the very skilled and important workforce back to the work relatively quickly. That gives us the flexibility to react for the market conditions, which happen quite quickly, more quickly in the aggregate market than in the minerals market.
From that perspective, we, of course, are really happy of these increased order volumes and the order backlog. That means that there is a good amount of work for our employees.
Great. Thank you very much. The next question comes from Vlad Sergievski
Thank you very much for taking my questions. I'll have three and I'll ask one at a time. First one, you mentioned price elasticity in the U.S., which obviously could have an impact on demand. Would you be able to discuss how does this price elasticity, do you expect it to work across your key business lines? Where it is more significant and where perhaps which business lines are less elastic to price, you think?
Yeah, I think that the impact for us, as communicated, is not so much coming from the tariffs as such.
There is not one product or one technology that would have the major impact. The biggest impact for us comes if that creates global degrowth and global hesitation of the customers to move forward with their investment plans.
Understood. If I can ask about the inventory place, obviously very good to see absolute inventories going down a bit again in Q1. At the same time, inventory-to-sales ratio has barely gone down sequentially and actually up a little bit year over year. How do you see this specifically inventory-to-sales ratio developing in the coming quarters and how dependent it is on the demand environment that you are going to see?
Yeah, thanks, Vlad. Very, very important question because it is also very important to understand that we are in a business that without the inventory, you are not able to do the business and serve the customers.
That is something that we will be following up and also gaining more understanding where the right level, right level, not having negative impact for our business volumes is lying. It was clear that this program that we are now executing, the EUR 200 million off from the peak and reaching that level, it's calculated so that that is not going to have an impact on our capability to do new business and serve our customers.
Very clear, Sami. The last quick one from me. Question on FX hedging. I remember a few quarters ago, Metso actually had a pretty material headwind to profitability from FX hedging. Does it happen to be a tailwind in Q1 at all? If it was, are you able to roughly quantify it? Maybe Pasi can answer this one. Or Juha.
I can take this one.
Yeah, Vlad, you can see the positive in other operating income and expenses in the profit and loss statement. This quarter, we were plus 6. A year ago, it was minus 8. Basically, the delta is coming from FX. It was quite a bit of a negative a year ago and this time positive because, of course, our hedging comes a little bit, let's say, delayed compared to what happens in the market rates and with the fluctuations you have seen in the first quarter, that was the result. It is disclosed there. Plus 6 is almost entirely FX-related.
Very clear. Gentlemen, thank you very much and all the best. All right.
There seems to be no further questions. We thank you for joining us this busy day. We will start to get ready for our AGM, which starts momentarily.
Before that, let me remind you about a couple of important dates. Our second quarter results will be coming out July 23rd. As Sami said, the CMD planned to take place October 2nd. Of course, invitations and other information will follow in due course. This was it for the first quarter conference call. Thanks again and goodbye. Thank you.