Welcome to Outokumpu's results webcast. I'm Johan, responsible for investor relations. We will start with the presentation by our CEO, Kati ter Horst, and our CFO, Marc-Simon Schaar. After the presentation, you have the opportunity to ask questions over the lines. With that, Kati, I hand over to you.
Thank you, Johan. Let's start then, and also from my side, very, very welcome to our result call today. If I would couple words, just say how do we look at the Q1, I would start by saying that we clearly saw more favorable market dynamics, and that also underpinned the higher Adjusted EBITDA that you saw in our result. Our Adjusted EBITDA increased to EUR 65 million, of course, from a very low level than in Q4 last year. We've seen that the stainless steel market activity has improved, and it has been driven by seasonal factors, but also CBAM-related factors in Europe. Ferrochrome market remained very balanced and also favoring our Outokumpu's very low emission European offering.
We are continuing the implementation of our EUR 100 million restructuring program. As we said before, we expect about half or a little bit more of the savings to be booked in 2026. Our EVOLVE growth strategy is progressing. We are constructing currently the pilot plant in the U.S.A. with our proprietary technology. That is going on time and on budget. We at the same time now are developing new specialty ferrochrome products that also bring us to new customer segments. A little more about that in a while. If we then look at the import figures both in North America and Europe, I especially want to highlight the left side when we talk about Europe and compare the import share now in Q1 based on January, February to 2025.
Here you can really see that what the impact of CBAM has been. We now have a clear carbon price on European border, and that has halved the share of imports coming to Europe, which is really supporting demand for the scrap-based lower carbon footprint European supply. We look at the market sentiment, I would say, there's more activity. The market sentiment has improved both in U.S. or, let's say, North America and Europe, but the end use demand is largely still unchanged. We don't see a kind of big change in end use demand. There are some pockets of growth and more activity, if I would mention one, that would be the data centers and energy-related demand related to data centers, both in Europe and Americas.
The biggest actually lever for us has been now in Q1 really the higher deliveries. On a group level, our deliveries were 27% higher. If you look at here per Business Area, in stainless steel, of course, the key contributor here was Europe with 46% higher deliveries. Also in ferrochrome, following the seasonality, we had 17% higher deliveries than in Q4. Americas also somewhat higher deliveries, but clearly the higher deliveries in stainless steel coming from Europe, also from a volume low base in Q4. On sustainability, if we first start with safety, our safety performance was at the level of 1.8 measured by total recordable incident frequency rate. Our target is 1.5.
There's still work to be done, I would say same level as last year, currently, and development is going to the right direction. I'm confident that we will be more in our target level very soon. If you look at our recycled material content, again staying high, more than 95%, continuing with the progress towards our science-based target for 2030. We again are recognized for our sustainability leadership. This time it's been the Clean200 ranking by the Corporate Knights.
If we look at the circular economy around our annual general meeting in March, we launched an initiative regarding our Kemi mine to support the utilization of the mining site streams and resource efficiency, and we see already lot of interest for this program, and we'll communicate them more what that will bring as we go forward. What I wanted to highlight today is one example of our EVOLVE growth strategy. We said already about a year ago in a capital markets day that we want to develop our ferrochrome business and want to really see the full potential of this business and give ferrochrome the possibility to be unrestricted market player. This is exactly where we are progressing now.
Ferrochrome business is expanding its portfolio towards higher margin ferrochrome products, and at the same time then you are also expanding to different customer segments, so not only stainless steel, but also some special steel producers foundries. This gives us also the opportunity to utilize the ferrochrome production capacity we have, which is above 500,000 tonnes, and improve the earnings as the business has higher margins and then also more resilience to lower cyclicality. Here in the meanwhile, when we're developing these products, then we are of course creating the pathway then to our technology-enabled step, which would then be able to bring us really to chromium metal if we succeed with the technology that we are building in the pilot plant in the U.S.
Maybe just as a reminder, our Kemi mine, we have invested a lot in the mine in the past years, and today we can say that it has mineral resources at least until the 2050s without any bigger investment. That's an important backbone for us to develop the ferrochrome business. With that I hand over, Marc-Simon , to you to talk in more detail about our result and financial performance.
Thank you, Kati. Good morning, good afternoon to everyone joining us today. In the first quarter, a more supportive market environment combined with continued capital discipline allowed us to further strengthen our financial position. This provides a solid foundation as we continue executing our EVOLVE growth strategy. In line with our guidance, our Group-Adjusted EBITDA increased to EUR 65 million in the first quarter, mainly driven by higher deliveries in Business Area Europe and improved pricing in Business Area Americas. Order intake and the order book both strengthened significantly across Europe and the Americas, reflecting the improving market environment. Compared with the previous quarter, profitability improved notably, led primarily by Business Area Europe, while both Americas and Ferrochrome also delivered strong performances.
In ferrochrome, however, earnings were negatively affected by the discontinuation of the electrification aid and the increase in Finnish Mining Tax Act from the beginning of the first quarter. Turning to cash generation, I am very pleased to report that our operating cash flow improved further compared to the fourth quarter, reaching EUR 85 million. As a result, our free cash flow was positive at EUR 34 million in the first quarter, enabling us to reduce our net debt to a level of EUR 241 million. Our liquidity position also remains very strong with total liquidity reserves of EUR 1.2 billion. Let us now take a closer look at the performance of our business areas, starting with Business Area Europe.
We entered 2026 with a slightly improving market momentum as European manufacturing PMI, it moved from contraction in quarter four last year back to modest expansion in the first quarter of 2026. This momentum faded during the quarter as increased geopolitical uncertainty, particularly around the developments in the Middle East, reduced confidence across the market and slowed the industrial recovery in Europe. As a result, underlying end user demand remains unchanged, and at the same time, however, regulatory measures such as CBAM, together with the anticipation of the upcoming renewed European safeguard measures, are expected to provide continued support for our business going forward. Against this backdrop, Business Area Europe delivered a substantial profitability increase in the first quarter. Deliveries rose by 46% quarter on quarter, mainly supported by normal seasonality and CBAM-related effects.
While lower raw material cost, which we secured in Q4 last year, also contributed positively. Nevertheless, we were not yet able to fully capture the earnings potential from the stronger market environment. As previously communicated, this was due to a higher share of low-margin backlog deliveries carried over from quarter four, reflecting the temporary supply chain planning solution challenges during the ERP rollout. We have now made significant progress in overcoming these challenges and expect to work through the remaining backlog during the second quarter. Order intake in the first quarter was robust, and we continued to see positive pricing momentum. At the same time, strong demand for scrap combined with limited supply led to higher scrap prices, while the ongoing conflict in the Middle East started to put pressure on transportation and energy costs.
In this context, we are very well positioned to benefit from the upcoming, or the upcycle emerging through CBAM, while the renewed safeguard measures will provide additional support, particularly in the second half of the year. At the same time, we remain mindful of the broader market risk related to the current geopolitical environment. With that, let me now move to Business Area Americas. Business Area Americas once again delivered an excellent result in the first quarter, supported by several factors. First, we saw the usual seasonal increase in business activity at the beginning of the year. Second, selective distributor restocking was driven by demand from the data center and energy sector, which Kati laid out before. Third, we saw early signs of a gradual recovery in the Mexican market.
While there has not yet been any meaningful update regarding the USMCA negotiations, the Mexican government continues to strengthen measures aimed at protecting domestic industry, particularly the steel sector from low-cost Asian imports. We learned that President Sheinbaum recently announced that the federal infrastructure and public project will prioritize Mexican-made steel. Together with the broader tariff expansion and anti-dumping measures, these actions are expected to strengthen local supply chains, support domestic manufacturing, and reduce dependence on imports. Financially, the strong performance in Business Area Americas was primarily driven by improved pricing. The price increases, which were implemented during the second half of last year, remain stable and were now fully reflected in the first quarter profitability. This positive effect was partly offset by higher raw material costs linked to commodity price developments.
In addition, seasonally stronger volumes together with a positive timing and hedging effect provided further support. Variable and fixed cost of goods sold increased in line with higher deliveries, while overall cost efficiency remained stable. With that, let me now turn to Business Area Ferrochrome. In Business Area Ferrochrome, earnings performance remained solid during the first quarter. Supply uncertainties persisted during the quarter with continued production curtailments in South Africa. Together with a robust demand in our key markets in Europe and in the U.S., the demand for our low emission European ferrochrome offering remained strong during the first quarter. This was further underpinned by a higher share of long-term contracts, while the start of CBAM in Europe also provided additional support. As a result, profitability in our Business Area Ferrochrome benefited from both higher deliveries and improved sales pricing.
Compared with the previous quarter, Adjusted EBITDA was nevertheless impacted by the discontinuation of electrification aid and the increase in the Finnish Mining Tax. Looking ahead, we continue to see ferrochrome as very well-positioned for the future, supported by the ongoing expansion of our product portfolio into higher margin ferrochrome products, as well as the strong strategic positioning as highlighted by Kati earlier. With that, let me conclude with some final remarks on the group's financial position. Supported by stronger profitability and continued working capital release, our operating cash flow increased by EUR 21 million quarter-on-quarter to a level of EUR 85 million. I am particularly pleased that despite higher business activity levels, we were able to reduce working capital in the first quarter. This underlines our continued focus on capital discipline and efficient capital allocation.
With a free cash flow of EUR 34 million, our net debt decreased to EUR 241 million, resulting in a leverage ratio of 1.3 times at the end of the quarter. Looking ahead, we remain firmly committed to maintaining strong capital discipline. Our CapEx guidance for 2026 remains unchanged, at a level of EUR 200 million, of which approximately half relates to maintenance investments. With that, I will hand it over back to you, Kati.
Thank you, Marc-Simon. We have the outlook still ahead of us and the guidance as well as some key messages in the end. If we look at the outlook, Outokumpu's Adjusted EBITDA improvement in the second quarter of 2026 is expected to benefit mainly from the increasing stainless steel delivery volumes, which are forecast to rise by 0%-10% from the first quarter of 2026. With the current raw material prices, raw material related inventory and metal derivative gains, they are forecasted to be realized in the second quarter. Our guidance for second quarter of 2026 is that our Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be higher compared to the first quarter of 2026. Couple key messages to capture today's call.
As we have commented, the year started with clearly more favorable market dynamics, but the uncertainty of course increased due to the conflict in the Middle East. Outokumpu has not been very much impacted by the conflict in the Middle East so far in our result. Of course, we all understand that if the situation continues, it creates uncertainty and a certain point of time we will see it as inflation in prices and transportation costs, which has already started. Q1 2026 Adjusted EBITDA increased to EUR 65 million, and this positive development is expected to continue in the second quarter of 2026. Our financial position remained very strong, as Marc-Simon just told you, which is very important in these market conditions.
We have seen CBAM very much supporting the scrap-based European stainless steel production, as it was also meant to be. As you know, EU is implementing now the more effective safeguards as of July 1st, which should give further support to European market. On the EVOLVE growth strategy, we are progressing now with the ferrochrome product portfolio expansion, and our pilot plant for our proprietary technology in U.S. is progressing on budget and on time plan. I think with that, we will then open for the que stions.
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 Tristan Gresser from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. The first one is on the guidance. I would have expected stainless prices to be more of a driver into the Q2 guide, especially given the increase in stainless prices we've seen in Europe since the start of the year. Could you help us understand a little bit about the bridge from Q1 to Q2 in terms of volumes, prices, and also costs? I think you flagged energy and transportation costs. I would start there. Thank you.
Yes, maybe I take that. Thank you, Tristan, for the question. In terms of prices, we apparently do not guide on prices itself. However, yes, what we have seen in our Q1 order intake is that prices have improved. There is also an improvement in our spread, so prices minus raw material costs. However, the increase is limited because at the same time, when you see sales prices improving, we also need to see that scrap prices have increased as well.
There are a couple of other items here which are basically offsetting the positive effect on the cost side as well, be it higher electricity or transportation freight costs as a result of the Middle East, and then other items in here. Thinking from a guidance perspective is really what really matters here is our higher volume guidance on the one hand side, and then as well as the net of timing and hedging impact in here. Maybe how to think about the magnitude here, I think both are equally important in order to take into consideration when you think about the first quarter. The second quarter, sorry, second quarter.
Okay. That's helpful. Just going back to that to the timing and hedging, I feel we've discussed this many times, but given some of your peers have guided for inventory losses into Q2, I just wanted to make sure I understood correctly on how you calculate those timing and hedging effects and I think also why there was such divergence in Q1 Europe versus Americas. In terms of scale, I understand it's higher than what we've seen in Q1, but given the moves, I mean, it's a hard item to calibrate. Are we talking about mid double digit, low double digit? Any sort of scale you can give us would be also appreciated.
Yes, absolutely. Certainly if we, if we come back to the first part, Tristan, in terms of net of timing hedging in the first quarter of the year, we saw a negative impact for Europe, a positive impact for the Americas. Americas being positive in here as they have seen and we have seen a higher commodity price level and through their pricing predominately base plus alloy surcharge, also these positive impacts on pricing realized earlier than they do in BA Europe. There is a bit of a for time difference between both business areas. It's also important to assess then the performance of Business Area Europe in the first quarter.
Certainly also the backlog recovery and still providing and selling material out of the fourth quarter in the first quarter, also accelerated this impact. Just I hope that this gives a bit of an explanation now going forward. Then with current market prices, which we see, we do see then also an improved pricing level and timing gain and going forward, and then this is then how we guide on net of timing and then the hedging element to it. [Tristan]?
Any chance on the scale of that?
Well, before we, I think we guided always between, or if I look back the last couple of years, we had an impact of 0 to 10 million EUR, and we guided for some gains or some losses. Now, the impact is more meaningful. We have been guiding, as I think important what I mentioned before, both the volume side, and the net of timing and hedging impact, the positive impact here are equally important in terms of size and magnitude.
All right. That's very clear. Thank you. I jump back on the queue. Thanks.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Adahna Ekoku from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. My first one is just on Europe. Could you help us quantify at all what kind of headwind in Q2 we should consider for the remaining order backlog of this lower margin material from Q4?
Maybe if I start on that, I would say that our biggest impact, of course, on that has been in Q4 and now still impact in Q1. The last backlogs that we have, like we said, we will be working through in Q2, the impact will be lower clearly in Q2 than it was in Q1.
Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. Maybe just a question on the ferrochrome market. Could you discuss in a bit more detail how much of the impact of CBAM do you think you've seen already in Q1? There was a kind of strong volume performance there. Is there scope for volumes to be driven higher again for the rest of the year from the CBAM demand effect?
I would say that the CBAM has not had as big of an impact on ferrochrome as it has had on stainless steel in Europe. Stainless steel, the Carbon Border Mechanism really puts a clear price on imported stainless steel. CBAM, the difference is smaller because we don't have the Scope 2 in CBAM. That's where the difference would really come if you, for instance, compare to African suppliers. Where the higher demand for ferrochrome comes is, one is seasonality. We of course deliver mainly to stainless steel. The second thing is, of course, that the uncertainty continues on the production of ferrochrome in Zimbabwe and in South Africa.
There is more demand for the reliable supplier in the Western world, which is Outokumpu, and we are in the Western world the biggest ferrochrome producer.
Would an interpretation of kind of stable volumes from here, all else unchanged, be kind of fair for the ferrochrome business?
I would say robust demand for our ferrochrome continues, and at the same time we are developing new products that will bring us also to other customer segments.
Perfect. That's helpful. I'll join the queue again. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Bastian Synagowitz from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon, thanks for taking my questions. My first one is just on the Americas and the dynamics you see there. I guess the first quarter was really quite strong. I think you hinted that the Mexican markets saw an uptick, which mostly starts towards the end of the quarter. Would it be fair to assume that we have not yet seen the full degree of the strength and the business will continue to do well into the second quarter? That is my 1st question.
On U.S. side, I think what we see now in Q1, we have the full impact of the price increases, and volumes have also improved seasonality-wise. It's the season, of course, where we should book better results. We expect that to continue. On Mexico, there was a price increase in the beginning of year that seems to stick because of also some higher tariffs for Asian imports. Now we just have to see how this new rule that the President put on the market, that the public procurement basically would need to prefer domestic steel even it's more expensive than the Asian imports. That impact we have not seen yet. Hopefully it will support Mexican market.
Maybe a bit too early yet to really quantify it. Early signs, as we said, and then in terms of how to think about the Americas as well also here, and then I think I mentioned it in some of my comments earlier that there is an increase also in raw material costs and prices, and that is also what we, what we see in the U.S. That is something we need to take into consideration, plus some other inflationary topics in the U.S.
Understood. Great. My second question is coming back on the European business, maybe also to Adahna's question earlier. I wanted to check with you, first of all, what exactly has happened? Was it a situation where basically your commercial team allowed customers to come into the order book too early, and hence not captured the magnitude of the price increase where maybe raw material costs has gone up already? Also maybe in terms of the quantification, I don't know, if you could give us maybe a bit more detail here, either in terms of what the earnings impact has been or maybe how far in the first quarter, you still had a certain percentage of your overall volumes, which were basically tied to these less favorable pricing contracts.
That's my second one.
I think it's important to notice that we have Bastian, a backlog which was created in the fourth quarter, which is then going and swapping into the first quarter and further on into and this is the second quarter here as well. This is not really much on from that perspective immediately in the first quarter on limiting. Overall, if I may describe the impact in here is, you do have a higher share of old orders with lower pricing, with lower margins in the first quarter. That is one impact. Of course, in overcoming the challenges, we have somewhat more manning and advisory costs in here.
also, there is a certain element of lost market opportunities here as well, particularly with the decrease in the Asian imports from that market. As said, we overcome the most of the challenges, made significant progress, and are now walking through the and working through the backlog basically in the second quarter.
Okay, great. Thank you. My last question is on just on cash flow and working capital. I thought your performance here was quite impressive indeed. Now metal and stainless price is obviously picking up, so I just wanted to get an update on what we can pencil in for working capital for the full year. Do you expect to be able to retain, I guess, the current levels? Will there maybe be some increase later on or not? Any help on that would be great.
We're not giving exactly a full year guidance yet on working capital. What I can say definitely is that we will continue our efforts to improve our working capital efficiency. Yes, you are absolutely right. We have seen an increase not only in commodity prices, also business activities. Now, into the second quarter, we aim to reduce our inventories in order and improve our efficiency in order to compensate for the pricing impact coming from our higher commodity prices.
Okay, great. Thank you.
The next question comes from Dominic O'Kane from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hello. I have three questions. First two, just in the context of your comments around Europe and the dynamics that you've talked to here, including to Bastian's previous question. Is it reasonable to assume that Europe will be EBITDA positive in the second quarter? My second question is, can you just maybe provide some comments on how you see the inventory positions in both Europe and the U.S.? I have one final question.
Maybe if I can take, we're not guiding on business areas specifically, but what I can say is here to help around this is that most of the EBITDA improvement which we guide for from Q1 into Q2 is related to Business Area Europe, both on the volume side and also on the net of timing and hedging.
That helps.
Hopefully answers number one. The second one was on.
Inventory position.
Inventory position. I think, well, inventory position, you mean from our internal inventories or?
Just broadly in terms of how you see the inventory volumes held in Europe and in the U.S. at the market level.
Okay.
Distributors.
Our distributors or customers in itself. Yes. Maybe on the European side, I can say that the inventory levels are on a low level here right now. Also in terms of days rather on a lower level, given also the weak demand which we currently face in the European market over here. What we have seen in the U.S. is that there is an improvement, quite a substantial improvement also in the manufacturing PMI data, which we have seen going above 50, 52, 53 in the first quarter, and there is an increase in business activities.
I would say that inventory levels are more or less on a more moderate level in the U.S. compared to Europe.
We've seen some selected restocking.
Yes.
In the U.S.
Some-
More in U.S. than in.
Yes.
In Europe.
My final question is, I wondered if it's maybe too early, but yesterday there was the announcement about the European Commission's change to the ETS variables, including the benchmarks. I just wondered if you had any observations on those changes and how it may affect the European stainless steel market, including the confirmation that ferroalloys, ferrochrome, sorry, ferrochrome will be a mandatory inclusion within CBAM.
I have to be honest, I have missed that message from yesterday. I don't know exactly what it's been saying. I can give a bit, like what is the Outokumpu stand on certain things. For instance, if you look at ferroalloys, what we would find very important on regarding CBAM is that ferrochrome, the Scope 2, which is what you the purchased electricity that you have, what you purchase from the market, that would be included because that makes a big difference indeed between, for instance, Africa and Europe. If the African production will be now clearly subsidized by the country, we maybe have also an anti-dumping case here, at least what we could look at it from European perspective.
I don't know exactly what you referred to because I have not seen the message. On ETS, I would say Outokumpu is clearly a supporter of the ETS system. Since 2005, the whole ETS system has brought investments about EUR 110 billion to Europe to green transition. We are some of the first movers. I think a lot of Scandinavian companies have been. There is now clear price on European border for carbon, and it is really important that we maintain the ETS system because it makes Europe more competitive, and it ensures that there continues to be a carbon price. I understand that there is some discussion whether some of the free allowances schedule could be slowed down to help the current industrial situation.
I think Europe's energy problems and energy price problems are not coming from the ETS system. They're coming from the fact that we are still dependent on fossils and too much in Europe, and we don't have that supply from Europe. That's the Outokumpu standpoint. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly what message you referred to, so that we will need to check.
Okay. Thank you.
The next question comes from Maxime Kogge from ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. My first question would refer you to a comment made by one of your competitors regarding Europe. They said that they were able now, thanks to the improved market momentum, to switch back to transaction prices. I mean, you know, from transaction pricing, which was the norm, to recently, back to base price plus a lloy surcharge, a bit like in the U.S., where it's still the dominant mechanism. Are you seeing the same phenomenon at play? I think you said previously that the proportion of base price was just 30% of your European activity. Has this ratio evolved recently, and do you expect it to increase?
Right now and given what we see in our order or intake and order book is not reflecting that one that one yet. There are indeed opportunities and discussions here to look forward into it into this pricing opportunity.
Okay. Likewise, considering the improved market momentum, are you reactivating your plans potentially to build a new annealing and pickling line in Finland? This was a plan announced last year, and it has been shelved in the meantime. Same question on the high-performance alloy investment that you were also contemplating last year, which has not yet been announced. Your main competitor in Europe actually announced significant investment plans recently to really capture the benefits from the improved trade defense framework in Europe. What are your thoughts on that?
Maybe starting with the annealing and pickling line, possible investment in Tornio. It is purely a cost competitiveness investment, how we are looking at it. The purpose is not to increase the overall capacity but to increase capabilities. If capacity increases in our biggest integrate, then we would take capacity down somewhere else. It's a cost competitiveness investment. Now that we got in Finland now, higher mining tax, the removal of the electrification aid and also for the mines and higher electricity, like electricity kind of tariff, all these impacts are about EUR 30 million on annual basis. We are looking at the investment case again. It's still under review, we have not therefore made a decision, but it's a cost competitiveness investment.
Regarding the potential investment in Avesta meltshop to arrive at high-nickel alloys, it is very much valid and very much alive. Again, we are still reviewing the investment case, and we are also looking at other opportunities on the market. We'll come back on those when the time is ready for that.
Okay, that's clear. Just the last one is on the scrap market because as you said, yeah, stainless steel prices are increasing, but scrap prices also. The net impact on margins is perhaps not that big. Starting the first of July, yeah, we should head for perhaps up to 10% increase in volumes for stainless steel. Do you think that the scrap market in Europe can absorb that? Isn't there the risk of a structural tightness? I was curious to know if your partnership with Cronimet was allowing you already to somehow manage this situation.
Yes. I think important here to highlight is that we don't have any issues in terms of availability and access to scrap. The price increases which I highlighted before are fully reflected also in our guidance now going forward for the second quarter. I think what it requires also on the scrap market is that industrial activities do pick up and therefore also increasing the supply of scrap over here. As I said before, I don't see any shortage for us and as that everything what we do see right now is being properly reflected and also in the guidance which we gave today.
Okay. Regarding the partnership with Cronimet.
Partnership with Cronimet
Helpful in that?
Is working very well, and also with all our other scrap suppliers which we have, and this basically through this very strong partnerships which we have, allows us also to have this access to the scrap which I just mentioned before.
Okay. Thank you.
The next question comes from Tristan Gresser from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, just two quick follow-ups. The first one is on Americas. I think you mentioned that if, for your Q2 guidance, most of the volume kind of tailwind will take place in Europe, so leaving maybe a little bit less in the U.S. I was wondering why we're not seeing a better volume performance in Americas. I think volumes are down year-on-year. I think your commentary on the demands were pretty positive on the imports as well. What is holding back a bit on the volume performance there? Is it more regional, Mexico, U.S.? Any color there? I have another question on Europe.
Maybe one comment there. What is good to understand is that in the past when we didn't have the tariffs between in the same way between U.S. and Mexico and when the melt and pour were still kind of applied, we of course could use much more the Mexican capacity also for the benefit of the U.S. market. We don't have that lever at the moment. We are somewhat restricted also in the capacity we can bring to the U.S. market. Yeah, our volumes are not on the top currently. I would also say that our operational performance could have been better in Q1. That's what we're very much working to be able to max our volumes in the U.S. order books are strong and delivery time's quite long right now.
Okay. No, that's clear. Then if we look back a bit further up the, down the year, let's say end of this year when you have the implementation of the fully, the CBAM, the quotas, you have some volume increase. Let's see what the spreads end up. Maybe you get back to this dual pricing system for more orders in Europe. Is there, is the target to go back to some sort of historical margin level in Europe or can you aim even to go above that historical average level?
Well, what I can say is that certainly all the aspects which you just mentioned are favorable in a way, that if the market environment is improving for local producers in Europe, through CBAM safeguards coming up, et cetera as well. Then certainly also that given that there is then also a certain assumption that also margins do improve. However, in order to recover to historical levels, what we also need to see in Europe is a recovery in the underlying end user demand, really.
Okay. All right. That's very clear. Thank you.
Thank you.
There are no more questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Thank you everyone on behalf of me and Marc-Simon today for participating in our Q1 result call. you know, we're working towards a better result in Q2, and we'll then talk more about that when it's time for that to present the Q2 result. Thank you for being us with today. Thank you for good questions and see you then soon when we talk about Q2.
Thank you.