Good morning, everybody, welcome to this news conference regarding Wärtsilä's half year report, January to June 2021. My name is Hanna-Maria Heikkinen, I'm in charge of investor relations. Today, our CEO, Håkan Agnevall, will go through the highlights and business performance of our Q2 report. Our CFO, Arjen Berends, will go through the key financials. After the presentation, there is a possibility to ask questions. As we have only one hour for this event, the number of questions is limited. Each analyst has a possibility to ask one question and one follow-up question. Easiest way to ask question is to use the raise your hand function. Please also remember to unmute yourself. It's time to start. Please, Håkan.
Thank you, Hanna-Maria, and welcome to Wärtsilä, by the way. It's great to have you on the team.
Thank you. I'm excited to be here.
Good. Welcome everybody to yet another virtual quarterly call, but let's do the best out of this. Today I will be joined by Arjen, our CFO, and we develop the format here going forward. Quickly, what are the highlights? In general, I think we have a strong cash flow in the second quarter, but we still have a business that is hampered by COVID-19. Positive side, order intake is up 14%. One should remember that Q2 last year started to get really affected by COVID, but still, order intake is up with 14%, and the services journey continues in a strong way, I would say. Order intake is up with 24%. Also on the services side, the net sales increased with 16%. On profitability actually improved while sales came down. Lower net sales. The stronger cash flow was driven by the flow from the operating activities.
COVID continues to seriously impact our business. The business is stabilizing, but COVID creates still an environment of uncertainty. I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of the employees that tirelessly continues to support our customers in COVID times, because it's challenging to work under the travel restrictions, continue to work from home or in the factory, in the offices. A tribute to our employees in these special times. Okay. Overall view of the numbers. Order intake up 14% overall. Services up 24%. You could see net sales is down 7%, but services sales is up 16%. The comparable operating result, it's up 30%, and that brings us to 6.3% margin on net sales.
You could also see that the comparable operating results for the full half year, that is up 1% only. You still remember the EUR 20 million net provisions that we took for our challenging projects in Q1. Key message, 6.3% in the second quarter. If we look at the net sales of EUR 1.1 billion, - 7%, primarily due to lower equipment deliveries. Service net sales increased by 16% on the back of a weak comparison period. As I said, Q2 last year was definitely weaker. The comparable operating results landed at EUR 71 million, which is an improvement of 30%, despite the lower net sales. It's driven by a more favorable sales mix between equipment and services. If we talk about the markets, the marine market is recovering. It's an uneven progress across the segments. Vessel contracting in cruise and ferry continues to be slow.
If we look at the number of contracted vessels in the review period, it's actually pretty good. It's 829, significant uptick from same period last year, which was at 312. It's major driven by the cargo sector, which has continuously improved from the lows that we saw in 2020, whereas cruise and ferry remains slow. On the positive side, the transition into alternative fuel is increasingly getting traction, and we have seen 170 orders for alternative fuel-capable units during the first half year. If we look on the energy side, it is expected that the recovery from COVID will take time in the energy markets. The good activity level in the energy storage market continues. COVID-19 has an impact on the investment environment, specifically in some of our core emerging markets, which is affecting both decisions on new projects, but also project execution.
It's likely that the recovery will take time because COVID had such an impact. The vaccination programs in many emerging markets are going a bit slower, unfortunately. On the positive side, we have the energy storage market, which is more concentrated to U.S., Australia, and a couple of other markets. It continues in a good level. If we look at Wärtsilä's overall market share in the thermal space, it decreased a notch to 8% from previous 9%. Looking at the order intake, as I said, increased by 14%, it increased across all businesses. Equipment order intake up 4%, where our service really grew in a significant way, by 24%. That reflects the improved economic activity in general. We see a broad increase in many of the segments on the services side.
If we look at the order book, there is a slight decrease related to divestments in our entertainment business. The book-to-bill is improving, and you see here that if you look on the 12-month rolling, we are now back to book-to-bill above one, and the last time we were there was end of 2019, so going in the right direction. Net sales, however, decreased by 7%. On the equipment side, the net sales decreased by 24%. That mainly driven by two factors. One is less scrubber deliveries. On the retrofit programs for the container side, the rates are very high right now, and container vessels are not being brought in to be retrofitted. That leads to fewer scrubber deliveries. On the energy side, we have delays in deliveries, major impacted by COVID. The service net sales increased by 16%. Technology and partnerships.
This is a very important way forward for us, thinking beyond COVID, so to say, also supporting our strategy around decarbonization going forward. This quarter, we were extremely excited to announce our start of the test program for some of the new green fuels. We're now starting a test program to have a technical concept ready for 100% hydrogen engines in 2025. In a similar way, a test program in parallel for having 100% ammonia engines by 2023. This is an exciting journey we are on now, and it really plays into our sustainability strategy with the green fuels, both on the marine and the energy side. In Voyage, we continue our digital journey and also autonomous journey.
This is an exciting example from Rotterdam, where we are now engaging in demonstrating the viability of autonomous intra-port and inter-terminal container shuttle in the harbor of Rotterdam. We are providing sensor systems, we are providing the route control, and we are providing the electrical driveline and batteries as well. On the Power to X and Power to Gas, in this case, the journey also continues, where we are now developing a cooperation with Vantaa Energy in Vaasa, on producing carbon-neutral synthetic methane. That is also an interesting fuel going forward in the sustainability journey. Going in, taking a little bit closer look on the different businesses. We will start with Marine Power. Order intake in general, Marine Power increased in all figures in a good way. Service orders increased by 30%. General order intake up 18%, net sales up 11%.
You can see the comparable operating results, 9.1% rolling 12. You see the key drivers here. Sales volumes on the positive side is up, equipment and service mix, but also cost efficiency actions. They clearly balance the counterweights of a factory load situation, which is not optimal, and also the cost inflation. On Marine Power service agreements, the net sales of installations under agreement, it stabilized after a COVID-19-related decline, which is positive. We have one great example from one of our key customers, Åland and Rederiaktiebolaget Eckerö. They renewed, once again, the five-year service agreement, and I think this is a great example of how we can contribute in Wärtsilä to our customers' uptime reliability, and really develop a strong partnership that creates win-win for our customers.
Marine Systems. Had a very strong order intake, mostly driven by gas solutions and the high level of activity on LNG tankers. Service order intake also increased by 34%. Order intake up 54%. Net sales down, however, 37%. Scrubbers deliveries, we already talked about that. The comparable operating results, 9.3%, 12-month rolling. The equipment and service mix is contributing on the positive side, but the declining scrubber volumes and cost deflation has a negative impact. Voyage, higher net sales. Services order intake increased by 61%. Order intake is up 9%. Net sales is up 21%. Rolling 12 is negative. Voyage is still negative, but going in the right direction in terms of a less negative result compared to last year. It's really the sales volumes that is driving the positive journey, but we also in Voyage, have to counteract cost inflation.
Our journey in cloud solutions continue. It's a steep ramp-up. Vessels connected increased by 78%. We also continue to develop our route optimization and port optimization. We are really proud about this Tangier Med example, where we had, together with our partners, the world's first digital port call. It was the container Kobe Express docked in Tangier Med in Morocco using our Navi-Port system. Navi-Port is a digital platform that facilitates the exchange of real-time data between ships and their destination to allow for accurate arrival time and also avoiding the costly waiting time. Basically, it's about saving fuels. The preliminary results were very interesting. We will come back on that going forward. It's about reducing fuels, it's about reducing emissions. Energy. Order intake and profitability improved. Services orders increased with 22%. Order intake up 11%.
Net sales down 9%. We talked about that, deliveries and certain projects affected by COVID. The rolling 12 at 6.5% operating result. What is driving the improvement is really the mix of equipment and services and then counteracting lower sales volumes, not an optimal factory load situation, and also here, cost inflation. This is a great example, our latest thermal balancing order from Omaha. Basically, we are providing 156 MW thermal balancing station, and by that, we enable Omaha to add up to 600 MW of renewable energy. I think this is a really interesting proof point of the thermal balancing opportunities as an enabler for the shift to 100% renewable power. We also had the going into execution phase of Metae nergia. It was an order we have recognized before.
There, providing balancing functionality to Terna and the Italian market and enable the growth of renewables in the Italian system. If we look at the service agreements, the installed base that is covered by long-term service agreement has been stable during 2021. One great example, this time from Nigeria, is where we have optimized the maintenance agreements and signed new agreements. It will be covered by a five-year agreement to produce 132 MW. We are there in the agreement to ensure uptime reliability, peace of mind for the customer. Let's go a little bit deeper on the financial side. To do that, I would like to invite our CFO, Arjen Berends. Please join us.
Thank you, Håkan, also welcome to everybody on my behalf. A few words about, let's say, other key financials, besides all the numbers that have been shown already. First of all, cash flow. I would say it was a fantastic cash flow now in Q2, again. Not as high as last year in the same quarter. That was a pretty much record quarter, Q2, I would say, but very close to that. Year-to-date, EUR 312 million, as far as we could trace back, that's a record. Big contributor is the working capital, of course, as you can see also from these numbers. Good cash flow enabled us to also, let's say, reduce our net debt. We were able in Q2 to decrease interest-bearing debt with about EUR 200 million, and at the same time, increase our cash with, what was it? Close to EUR 190 million.
Of course, this supports very well, let's say, the net debt being lower, that the gearing is also improving. Also good development on the solvency, compared to last year. Basic earnings per share, quite much better in Q2 than year- to- date, EUR 0.01 better than one year ago. Cash flow in the second quarter, as you can see from the right-hand graph, main contributor is working capital and in particular, receivables that we saw also, let's say last year in Q2, we had, what was it? EUR 190 million, if I remember right, working capital contribution to the cash flow. This time it's EUR 173 million. All these areas, be it trade receivables, be it inventories, be it trade payables, let's say we have a very high focus on working capital and trying to decrease it all the time with a lot of initiatives ongoing.
If I give the word back to you, Håkan, on the final slides.
Finally, on the guidance and prospects for the future, we expect that the demand environment in the third quarter to be better than of the corresponding period previous year. However, the prevailing market conditions make outlooks in general uncertain. With that prospect, I suggest, Arjen, that we move into Q&A. Before that, we just like to remind everybody that we will have the Capital Markets Days coming here on the 18th November, and we really would like to invite you all to that, and looking forward to that session.
Absolutely.
Okay. Let's move then into Q&A.
First question on the line. Please open your microphone and ask your question, Yuxin Lin from JPMorgan.
Hi, can you hear me?
Yes, we can. Welcome.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. My question is around the regulation proposed by EU regarding the decarbonization of marine industry last week. Can you please elaborate on what this means for Wärtsilä in general, and how the proposal compares to what you have hoped before? There seems to be some general disappointment about the slow phasing in emission limits. Specifically, what does it mean for the current four-stroke green fuel engine technology, given the focus of reducing total well-to-wake emissions, which could put your current four-stroke engines above the limit due to the methane slip? Thanks a lot.
First of all, I would say that, if I summarize the Wärtsilä strategy in one word, it's about decarbonization, and it's about our journey into different type of green fuels. The EU regulatory context, I think, will support that journey. We should acknowledge that the industries take time to move. We also have the latest IMO regulations kicking in in 2023. I see the EU steps as positive, and we are very well aligned. I think from our side, we would like to go even faster, but we also acknowledge that there is a certain dynamics in the industry. These are major assets, and they operate for very long time.
Thank you.
Next question on the line. Please, you can ask your question, Max Yates from Credit Suisse.
Thank you. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Yeah. Thank you. My first question was just on cost inflation. It is obviously something you mention in the report, and I just wondered, could you give us a feel for how much you think that impacted the quarter? Specifically, is this raw materials? Is this labor? Have you tried to, or are you in the process of raising prices to try and pass that through to customers?
If we look on the incoming side, and then I will talk on the outgoing side, on the pricing side. On the incoming side, what we see it's raw material related. We have long-term contracts with some of our suppliers, so there we lock in. We certainly also are impacted by the raw material increases for sure. On the pricing side, it's a little bit similar there. We have ongoing deliveries there. The pricing is fixed. In future tenders, there will be opportunities to work with the pricing element. Still, we need to acknowledge it's a very competitive market. However, also moving into new technology, I think there should be some opportunities to work with price realization.
If I may add.
Please
A few comments to that. Let's say we are also facing definitely price increases on the logistics side, both inbound and outbound. Transportation is getting much more expensive than it has been before. Furthermore, we also face cost inflation in the use of people. Getting people around the globe with all the quarantine requirements, it's a very inefficient use of people. That has been mentioned many times in the past as well, and as long as COVID is around, I think this will continue to affect us. We try to do as optimum as possible to make sure that we use the people as efficient as possible. Also more and more making possibility from remote services, et cetera. For certain jobs, you need people on the ground, and that's not easy today.
Oh, okay. Maybe just my follow-up question is on energy storage. Could you give us an idea of your energy backlog, how much energy storage currently makes up, ideally in a sort of euro value number? Also, given this is going to be a much bigger part of 2022 revenues, how should we think about profitability for the Energy division as this business evolves? Will it look sort of different, either better, worse, or how should we sort of prepare and think about this for next year?
Still, we are not separating out the storage business. We don't give guidance there. As you've seen, order intake for Q2, 500 MWh . There is still a continuous trend. I think if you look on the lifetime margin on the battery storage business, it is lower than on the thermal side. We are not providing transparency on that. On the question, what is the profitability of the storage business? We are not providing guidance there. The comment we are making, it's a growth business. Arjen, do you want to comment?
Okay.
Sorry, what's that?
I guess the reason I asked, consensus has an increase of 160 basis points in margins next year, and I'm just trying to understand kind of obviously you'll be benefiting from higher volume service recovering, but will the mix mean that that may look meaningfully different? Or do you think actually kind of the combination of recovering volumes, services can still allow for that step up in margins even with more storage?
We don't give future guidance on margin given the uncertainty. I think one of the way that we are working with profitability and evolving profitability on the storage side is also to moving up the service value ladder, where we are looking to evolve our type of performance-based contract, so to say.
Okay. That's helpful. Thank you very much.
Next question on the line, please ask your question, Manu Rimpelä from Nordea.
Thank you and good morning. Continuing on the energy storage team, how do you see the pipeline? If you could be a bit more specific in terms of what are the regions where we're seeing that growth coming through? Obviously, we've seen a very significant step up from virtually no orders in the first half of last year and still quite low for the full year, suddenly, this very strong growth.
Yeah
Do we see that the first half order intake rates in the energy storage is kind of a new normal level? Or how should we think about this business in the second half of the year and also then further years on?
I think that the battery storage business is on a significant growth trajectory. When we see core market is U.S., it is Australia, it is the U.K., and the growth is very rapid.
Okay. If I may follow up on that, can you help us to understand what is the competitive advantage that you have against, I guess Tesla and Fluence are the two, number one and number two, and you're probably the number three in the market. What is your competitive advantage and why do customers choose you?
I think on the positive side, we have quite a few of the strong utilities coming back to us. The feedback that we get is that the way we think around power system and our capability to integrate different assets with the GEMS platform and optimize the operation, that is one element where we stick out. The other one is also how we continue to evolve certain functionality of the GEMS platform to provide support for trading, energy trading, et cetera. I would say it's our system knowledge and also how we can optimize operations in cooperation with our GEMS platform.
I would add definitely also our customer context. I think we have been in the energy market for a long time. I think that definitely helps us in this journey.
Okay, thank you. I'll get back in the queue.
Next question on the line, please ask your question, Edward Maravanyika from Citigroup.
Hello, good morning all. Thank you for taking my question. I just had a question on the cash, on the sort of potential use of cash, just given the strong cash performance and the deleveraging. Can you give any guidance on whether you'll be more aggressive with use of cash?
I think we will utilize cash definitely for, let's say, R&D.
For let's say R&D.
Sorry, I have a strong echo now. We will use cash for sure, to continuous develop our portfolio, spending money on R&D. I think that will not decrease. Furthermore, cash allocation might be in the area of M&A. Of course, that needs to be evaluated case by case, and it needs to fit our strategy. Otherwise, I will not answer anything more. This is what we are looking at, and let's see what happens in the future.
Okay. Thank you.
Next question on the line, please ask your question, Antti Kansanen, SEB.
Yeah, good morning. This is Antti from SEB. Thanks for taking my question. It is a bit of a follow-up on the previous one on the M&A side and capital allocation. Håkan, you've been with Wärtsilä for a number of months now, so what do you think about the technology portfolio and especially regarding the decarbonization, the battery storage side? Is the offering complete enough to maintain the competitive edge, for example, on the storage market? Is there something that you should add via M&A or partnering regarding renewables or things like that? What are your first views on that matter?
If I widen the question before I zoom in on battery storage. I think in general, we have a very strong technology portfolio in the thermal space, if we start there. With evolvement of the new green fuels, it goes directly to the core of Wärtsilä, which is about fuel efficiency, it's about fuel flexibility, and it's about, since many years, a leading knowledge and experience in different type of fuels and also the systems around the fuels. There, I think we have a really strong portfolio, and we are really continue to allocate capital into investing in R&D there. On the battery side, I think we have, certainly with the GEMS platform that we continue to invest in, we continue to evolve there. I think also going forward, would we consider partnerships?
Potentially, if they make sense, I think this is an area where we need to continue to explore. I think we have a strong base to build. It could be that we need to complement it a bit. Then I would say that the third element, we should not forget Voyage and the journey we are doing there with FOS, also with autonomous system. Also there, I think we have a core that we can really build upon. Similar partnerships, probably we need to consider that to evolve, so to say.
All right, a follow-up on the storage side, you mentioned that the lifetime profitability may be lower than on the thermal side, could you comment a little bit about the earnings pool on this project? How much is the GEMS system and kind of the license payments and recurring revenues and things like that, of the total earnings pool that you are looking at on these projects?
I mean,
Versus kind of the initial CapEx.
Yeah. No, today, I would say that the major chunk is still on the equipment. We're evolving our software-as-a-service model, for GEMS, as we build on functionality and as we also prove our optimization capability. Today, I would still say that there is a high degree of equipment, but we are evolving into the SaaS space, so to say, with GEMS.
All right. Thanks so much.
Next question on the line, please. You can ask your question, Sven Weier from UBS.
Yes, good morning, thanks for taking my questions. The first one is coming back on the decarb regulation. Of course, if we look at the latest EEXI from IMO, it's hardly very ambitious. I was just wondering, I mean, Maersk has recently said that 50% of their clients are already following some kind of ESG agenda. That is really driving the decarbonization move rather than the regulation. I mean, isn't that, at the end of the day, also what is going to drive business from your customers, not so much the regulation, which is not so ambitious, but really the ESG move? That's the first one.
No, no. Thank you, Sven, for that question. I think you're very much right. When we look at the IMO, I mean, EEXI, it's a design. There will be a lot of speed reduction, probably. There might be some facilitation of air around to make the vessel run smoother. I think the real opportunity or could really make a difference, going forward, is the CII, because as you know, the classification of vessels in different kind of CO2 emissions categories, that opens up opportunities, and that ties to your point, for the customer's customer, so to say.
I think we all, and you certainly know that as analysts, I mean, I would say any company, certainly any industrial company these days, including Wärtsilä, we are, of course, getting even more formulated on our sustainability targets going forward. You look through your whole value chain from a CO2 perspective, somewhere in that value chain, you have transport and logistics. I think there will be many industrial companies that want to decarbonize the transport. That goes for the land, but certainly also for the marine transport. I think there is a strong logic, for that will create opportunities for the operators to provide that green transport. Then these classifications that you have in CII might actually give an opportunity to kind of be more specific on what type of sustainable transport you want to purchase.
I think, yes, there is a regulation, but I think the business opportunity will also evolve and drive the development, and maybe that will drive the development even faster than the regulatory components.
Yeah. Thank you, Håkan. The second question I had was just on the Voyage business, because I think here you're aiming for EBITDA margin break even in the next few years. I was just wondering, how that compares when we look at the StormGeo business or Wärtsilä Val, obviously already making quite some nice mid to high teen EBIT margins. How does that compare to the navigation bit of your Voyage business, and why are you not more ambitious in terms of the profitability of the business overall?
I think we first need to acknowledge that Voyage is coming together quite recently. As you know, we made acquisitions of, overall it's five companies coming together and we are molding this into one company. There is a core, which is very much hardware related, and then there is a growth area, which is much more software related and platform and cloud related and optimization related. Voyage is a mix of those two businesses, and the team is working on finding the right balance there and to evolve the software business. That takes a little bit of time. I think the program that the Voyage team is running in terms of finding the right balance and finding the right cost structure is evolving as we expect.
Okay. Thank you.
Next question on the line, please, you can ask your question, Sebastian Kuenne from RBC Capital Markets.
Can you hear me?
Yes. Now we can hear you.
Okay. Perfect. Yeah. On the Marine Systems and LNG side, the orders that you see currently, the order increase in Marine Systems, is this already related to the boom in the container vessel business, or is it still the old, let's say, inherited business from the last years? When do you think the container vessel boom will kick in? The next question may be because it's related, how much more business do you think you can make on a new container vessel that runs on dual-fuel and needs more, let's say, environmental equipment? Is there a big jump in content per ship? That would be my first questions.
Yeah. Container and LNG, I think the LNG related orders we see, it's based on There has been a growth in the LNG tankers. What we are providing there is equipment for liquefaction, re-liquefaction. It's not engines. You could say it's gas handling equipment.
Cargo systems.
Yeah, cargo systems. That is directly related to new vessel being awarded, LNG tankers being awarded. Strong correlation.
I mean more the LNG or the dual-fuel container ships.
Yeah. Okay.
because late orders we saw is mainly dual fuel, they probably need much more equipment.
Coming to the LNG tankers, from a driveline perspective, these are still where you have the four-stroke today is in more challenging applications like Arctic application where you need variable power. This is a sub-segment in the LNG, and we have had some success there. Coming to your question, as I understood it, on the journey of green fuels and container vessels, I would say that there is an avenue there where the auxiliary engines, which are four-stroke, will become a bit decommoditized, and that we see should have a positive impact. Since the journey of green fuels will take some time, this development will also take some time.
Okay. Just to be clear, the order increase you saw in Marine Systems is not related to the boom you saw in container vessels in the first six months.
No.
No. Because Marine Systems is about the handling the LNG as a cargo system. It doesn't deal. The LNG engines, that is in Marine Power.
Yeah. I know that. Scrubbers for the new vessels is also not included yet in the orders, I guess?
On the-
big boom in container
yeah, on the container boom.
Yeah
We see a lot of tendering activity for scrubbers.
Those order are not in the order intake so far, no. To a significant extent.
Understood. Perfect. Understood. For energy storage, could you just, again, explain that? Might have missed it, but what exactly is your value add for energy storage? Who is your battery supplier for energy storage?
Okay.
That would be all. Thank you.
Our value add is that we acquire the batteries, and I don't think we are public on the battery providers, sorry about that.
No.
We procure the batteries, then we integrate them into a battery system, which is containerized. We do the EPC contracted installation, and we add the GEMS platform to it, which then enables integration with different assets and sometimes also with trading systems, et cetera.
Okay. Thank you. That would be all.
Also on top of that, sorry, because I was focused on the equipment, then of course, services. As I said, the running service of battery storage, there are no moving parts, so there is a limitation. We are evolving the service business into an outcome-based, performance-based service business, where we are warranting uptime reliability, and where we are also looking at evolving this even further, so to say, in making commitments on providing available power.
Thank you very much.
Next question on the line, please, you can ask your question, Tom Skogman from Carnegie Investment Bank.
Yes, good morning. I have a couple of questions. I'll start with Net Working Capital. I understand that you have been able to cut your NWC during the COVID crisis, is there a structural change because of the growing energy storage business in the way that you can have structural lower Net Working Capital levels in the future, or should we just expect that you go back to old levels again when demand picks up eventually?
I think that depends very much on, let's say, what we can agree with customers. Let's say, of course, the working capital has many elements. Let's say, how do we buy the batteries, for example, is a very important factor. Also, let's say, how do we agree, let's say, contracts with customers? What are the advance payments, the intermediate payments, et cetera? I would say, in general, we don't guide on working capital, that's first of all, but I wouldn't say it would deteriorate tremendously, at least not with what we see today.
I think you need to clarify. It will not.
No, let's say, I don't think our working capital will be majorly impacted from, let's say, what we have seen in the past. That's what I mean.
All right. Eventually it might tie up again, EUR 0.5 billion more in net working capital, basically. What insight do you have to these cruise vessels that have been ordered but where construction has been delayed due to the pandemic? Please help us to understand what's happening there. Will these ever be built, or what's really going on?
I think there are delays. As you know, there have been orders with options. I would say many of these are sliding in time. I think the industry needs to see a market recovery on the passenger side, and let's see then how this evolves. So far, to my knowledge, there hasn't been any cancellations. They are being postponed.
Then, if you order a dual-fuel vessel, is there a strong incentive still to install a scrubber if you're prepared to run it increasing on gas? I guess the backup power could be low sulfur fuel in the future and not HFO.
Well, I think that every customer has his or her own view on this, so to say. I must say that, for instance, if you look on the new container ships that are being built now, there is a lot of scrubbers that's going to be installed still.
I realize you have the losses in Voyage, which makes it a bit perhaps troublesome to acquire other companies with future technologies. There seems to be a lot of things popping up, like sales coming back in shipping as a way to decarbonize, logistics, et cetera. Are these losses in Voyage holding you back from being brave and trying, buying many small companies with different technologies? It seems to be so many things happening at the moment.
Yeah. Oh, I think we are still brave. We hope we are. To your point, for us, Voyage is a growth story, and the whole digitalization space. Sorry, there was some noise on that. The whole digitalization space, there is a lot of M&A activity, as you know. Certainly as Wärtsilä, as a group, we are in a position to be active in the M&A space, and we have a continuous process where we are looking at M&A opportunities, not only in Voyage, in different businesses. If we find something interesting in the digitalization space with the right valuation and the right cultural fit, we can still definitely do acquisitions.
What do you think specifically about this modern way of sailing with cargo ships? Is that going to be a thing or not?
Personally, we believe very strongly in this. The way how you can optimize the routing, and therefore the fuel consumption, and therefore the emissions. There is significant value both in the fuel and emission reduction and in the time saved. This is for real. One should also acknowledge that this is an ecosystem. It's about the vessels, it's about the port, different parts of the port. It's a journey, and it's not a quick fix and easy fix. Another element is, of course, also that with certain size of container vessels, the infrastructure in certain harbors might also be a bottleneck. We still see a very strong logic for the value creation potential in the route optimization space.
My last question was really about sails. Going back to the age of having sails on large cargo vessels.
Sails? Okay.
Yeah.
We have a partnership with one of the providers for rotor sails. This is also in the journey going forward, there will be multiple solutions. They all have their pros and cons, they all have their sweet spots. Yes, there are certain applications where sails would make a lot of sense, but there are many applications where it probably wouldn't make sense. Is this going to be a major solution for the future? I think that remains still to be seen.
Okay. Thank you.
Next question on the line, please you can ask your question, Antti Suttelin from Danske Bank.
Thank you. This is Antti. The question is about your reporting practices and in the storage business, because I can see that last year you spoke about megawatts when you reported storage orders. Now, this year you have been talking about megawatt hours. I would just like to update myself, what on the value per unit. When you get a storage order, how much worth is 1 MWh , please?
Yeah. This, we don't disclose for competitive reasons, so to say, but just coming back, the shift, because you're fully right. We did a conscious shift from megawatt to megawatt hours. If you want to assess the value, even if we don't disclose the value for competitive reasons, you need to look at the energy stored in the storage. That is measured in megawatt hours. A lot of megawatt hours is a big battery. Theoretically, you could have a lot of megawatts, but with it lasting a very short time, and then the megawatt hours will not be so high and the storage, and therefore the value will not be so high. That was the reason why we moved to megawatt hours.
Given it's such a central part of your business these days, it would be really quite helpful to have a ballpark.
Yes
How much is one unit worth?
Yeah. We appreciate that, but we don't want to give that away to competition either. That is of course a balance that we need to strike.
Okay. Thank you.
Next question on the line, please. You can ask your question, Erkki Vesola from Inderes.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Yes, we can.
Okay. Very good. On the marine engines, in your presentation, you talked about a 170% alternative fuel-capable units being ordered on the first half. Is this the number of engines, and if so, how many vessels does this transfer to? I've got a couple follow-ups on that.
It's the other way around. It's the number of vessels. It's not the amount of drivelines.
Number of vessels. Okay.
Yeah.
What were these fuels actually? What is considered as alternative fuel?
It could be different type of hybrid drivelines. You have batteries combined with ICE. It could be biogas, it could be methanol a little bit, et cetera.
Everything else but the traditional.
Everything that is not diesel and pure LNG. Pure diesel or pure LNG.
Okay. Finally, where does Wärtsilä stand in this regard regarding these numbers?
Out of those 107, how many do we provide Wärtsilä drivelines for? Do we have that figure?
No, I don't think we have that figure. We have a market share figure. That should work more or less like that. I think, let's say we can offer solutions for any of these, right? I don't think we have that figure exactly.
No.
Our market share should give a good indication.
Yeah.
Okay.
So-
Fair enough. Thank you.
We are providing hybrid solutions, we are providing for biofuels, et cetera, and for methanol. We have a very broad offering, but we don't have the exact out of those, how many has Wärtsilä drivelines. No, we don't have that.
Fair enough. Thank you so much.
Next question on the line, please you can ask your question, Antti Kansanen from SEB.
Hi. Thanks for taking my follow-up. This is more detailed regarding the near-term profitability outlook and kind of the P&L impacts of the cost inflation. You have a lot of positives going for you, book-to-bill is above one, you are seeing a positive mix from service recovery, but how cautious should we be that we see a de-acceleration when the bigger impact of the raw material cost inflation, logistic cost inflation hits, let's say Q3 and seasonally important Q4, you have a lot of fixed price contracts. Arjen, could you give us a little bit of a bridge about the positives and negatives going into the, let's say, second half of this year?
Thank you for the question. Yes, of course, let's say I can understand that this is a question that many of you have, but let's say as you know, we are not guiding on profitability. We are indicating, and I think that that picture does not really change a lot, that yes, we face challenges on the supply side. Let's say raw materials have been mentioned as well. I think it's also good to remember that COVID-19 is not gone, so let's say all these restrictions and complications that we have in utilizing our resources globally, as well as in the logistic chain, are still there. We need definitely a recovery from COVID-19. Then, how raw material will develop over time, let's see. On the short term, I think we are reasonably well mitigated.
We have good contracts, longer term contracts also with our suppliers, but also in this whole supply base, certain contracts are due and up for renegotiation, and then it might be a different story. Yes, we have pressure. I think it will get a little bit worse on the product cost, component cost side. This cost inflation, I don't see immediately disappearing. I think it will stay there, at least on the short term.
And then, thanks. Specifically on the services side, I guess where the lead times are maybe a little bit shorter, what type of inflationary pressures are there and how quickly can you adapt with price increases?
I would say that-
There you need a bigger recovery. Yeah.
I would say the contracts that we have with many of our suppliers cover both new build and services. I think, if you buy pistons or whatever component, it's a long-term contract where we combine, of course, for scalability and volume reasons also to suppliers, all the volume together, and then get the best price, basically. What applies to new build also applies to service.
How about the pricing in the more transactional service business that would be more dynamic than what you?
Yeah, I think there you have better possibilities to be a bit more dynamic on the shorter term. If you have a contract agreed with a customer on the new build side and the delivery is next year, I could almost say 99% of the cases, it's impossible to renegotiate that. I don't know of any case where a customer would have that easily accepted. On the service side, it's of course, a bit more flexible and so we can maneuver a little bit with the global price list.
Lastly, can you say anything about kind of the seasonality on Q3 versus Q4? Last year there was not a typical quarter- on- quarter margin expansion. Given what you see on the environment and on your outlook, how should we think about this year?
We are not guiding on that. Let's say we are guiding on demand and order intake, and that was in the prospects. We are not guiding on sales and profitability. Sorry.
Okay, thanks.
Are there any further questions? It seems like that the presentation was very clear. Thank you for great questions and excellent answers. Please remember that our Capital Markets Days, like Håkan already earlier said, will be on November 18. Save the date on your calendar. Before that, please enjoy the summer, stay safe and healthy. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you.