Good morning. My name is Odd-Geir Lyngstad, and I'm responsible for investor relations in Elkem. It's a pleasure welcoming you to the combined results presentation and capital markets update. We will start with the results presentation for the third quarter, and the presenters are CEO Helge Aasen. Through the business update and the outlook for the fourth quarter, and I also have CFO Morten Viga. We will have a brief Q&A session after the third quarter presentation. After the presentation, we will continue with the capital markets update. CEO Helge Aasen will give an introduction and present Elkem's updated business strategy. Inge Grubben-Strømnes and Sophie Schneider will then give insights into their respective divisions, Silicon Products and Silicones. Before Asbjørn Søvik will present Elkem's green ventures within battery materials and biocarbon.
We will open for Q&A after these presentations, and we expect to conclude the meeting by 12:00 P.M. With that, I hand it over to CEO Helge Aasen.
Thank you, Odd-Geir, and good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here, presenting another strong quarter for Elkem. The market conditions are weaker, but Elkem is delivering yet another strong result. The EBITDA for the third quarter was NOK 3.3 billion, giving an EBITDA margin of 29%. The energy markets, particularly in the E.U., have been challenging, and we have seen capacity reductions within steel and aluminum. This has also affected Elkem's markets, but we continue to operate at full capacity. Again, this is demonstrating Elkem's robust and integrated business model and our favorable energy positions. The strong performance gave earnings per share of NOK 4.81 for the quarter and NOK 13.68 year to date.
That should provide for an attractive dividend yield for the year. In the third quarter, we finally closed the Vianode agreement with Hydro and the Swedish one, Altor. That gives Elkem a remaining shareholding of 40%, while Hydro and Altor each will hold 30%. Vianode also announced the decision to build the phase one production line at Herøya. This is something we'll come back to in more detail during our CMU update presented by Asbjørn Søvik. ESG, key priority for Elkem, and we have a very broad approach in the area. In 2022 we received a platinum rating from EcoVadis, which puts us among the top 1% performers in their portfolio.
Elkem was also ranked A for ESG reporting by Position Green’s assessment of the top listed Norwegian, Danish and Swedish companies. In addition, we have been ranked in the 90th percentile by S&P Global in their corporate sustainability assessment for 2022. These strong results show Elkem's commitment to improving its performance and providing transparent information. We are well-positioned for the green transition, both with our product range, delivering key materials needed in electric vehicles, electronics, renewable energy, etc. With an already low carbon footprint. The bar is raised high, and we maintain our target to reduce CO₂ emissions with 39% by the end of 2031, and with a further target of zero emissions by 2050.
We are working on several initiatives within environmental, social, and governance, and always with a strong focus on safety. We continue on our specialization journey, and in September we celebrated the opening of a new specialized silicones facility in York, South Carolina in the U.S. This facility will increase our capacity for high purity medical grade silicones, which is used in body implants, contact lenses, wound care and several pharmaceutical applications. This is something Sophie Schneider will talk more about later today. Here we have very high entry barriers with the strictest quality requirements in the silicones industry. Our goal is to be a leading supplier in healthcare applications, and with this facility we will gain access to a high margin market of more than NOK 3 billion.
Elkem is the only fully integrated supplier in the medical silicones market, and we think we will benefit from our strong platform based on technology and stable access to high quality raw materials. Moving on, the global automotive market was weak in 2021. Total production was around 80 million units of light vehicles, which is down 13% if you compare with pre-COVID levels. We have started to see some recovery. Sales in the E.U. Were up in September for the second consecutive month. However, globally, the market is expected to remain flat this year, and with then a 5% growth projection for next year. Electric vehicles and hybrids, on the other hand, are showing very strong growth.
Sales of EVs and hybrids are significantly up, growing more than 40% this year compared to previously or the previous year, and with a very strong forward projection, as illustrated on the graph here. As we talked about previously, this is very good for Elkem. An electric vehicle contains approximately four times more silicones than a conventional car with a combustion engine. Hybrids are actually even better for us since we here have a combination of high content of silicones and also high content of foundry alloys. Is it the right one? Oh. Correct. The third quarter has been mixed in the silicones market. Good demand in specialties, and this is particularly the case in the E.U. and the U.S., and mainly driven by electric vehicles, healthcare and consumer products.
Commodity markets, on the other hand, have deteriorated, especially towards construction. In China, continued COVID restrictions, combined with new capacity additions, have kept the DMC reference price stable at around 20,000 RMB per ton during the quarter. At the same time, silicon prices have remained high, which has resulted in significant margin squeeze for the non-integrated producers of silicones. In silicon and ferrosilicon, market prices are down from the peak levels we have seen earlier during the year, but still at attractive levels historically. High energy costs have resulted in capacity closures in steel and aluminum, which in turn is having an impact on demand, of course, for silicon and ferrosilicon.
The current price levels are not supported or is not supporting production based on electricity spot prices. We have therefore seen quite a significant capacity closure also in our industry. As a consequence, the markets have been quite balanced during the quarter. The recent price decline in Europe has largely been driven by imports from China and Brazil. We continue to see a balanced supply-demand situation, and we are expecting to be able to maintain full capacity utilization also during the fourth quarter. The steel and ferroalloy markets are important drivers for Carbon Solutions, both directly and indirectly. Estimates show that the global steel production will be down about 8% compared to the second quarter this year.
In China and in the E.U., the decline is estimated to be around 11%. In these markets, the demand for carbon products is consequently down. In other regions, including the U.S., demand has held up well and sales are still on a good level. We have managed to keep stable production during the quarter. Higher raw material costs are reflected in higher sales prices. That sums up my business update. With this, I'll give the word to Morten Viga, who will take us through the financials for the third quarter.
Thank you very much, Helge, and good morning, everybody. It is certainly a pleasure to once again present strong results for Elkem, although we are not at record levels this quarter. As you know, records cannot happen every quarter. Elkem was delivering yet another strong result in Q3 with revenues of NOK 11.3 billion, which is up 28% compared to the same quarter in 2021. The EBITDA amounted to NOK 3.3 billion, which gives an EBITDA margin of 29% for the quarter. I think this result once again demonstrates Elkem's very robust business model and superior cost positions. Particularly Silicon Products delivered a very strong quarter, and also Carbon Solutions reached an all-time high EBITDA.
On group level, the EBITDA was 55% higher than Q3 2021. High sales prices have clearly been a key driver for both Silicon Products and Carbon Solutions. The results are also due to, as I said, superior cost positions and excellent market positions, where Elkem has had a clear competitive advantage versus all main competitors. As always, we have, for your benefit, included a slide with all the key financial numbers for Elkem. As mentioned, the EBITDA for the quarter was NOK 3.3 billion with an EBITDA margin of 29%. The EBITDA included a realized currency hedging loss of NOK 9 million, quite insignificant.
As we have previously communicated, we had a strike earlier in the quarter, and that also gave a rather moderate impact, -NOK 50 million for the quarter. Except for that, there were no particular one-off items impacting the EBITDA. In other items, however, we have a significant gain of NOK 1,075 million, mainly due to a positive accounting effect related to a particular power contract, and this effect is NOK 650 million. This effect is explained by accounting or IFRS ineffectiveness relating to our hedging program. As you know, extreme power prices and extreme differences in area prices in Norway has also given an extraordinary unrealized impact this quarter.
In addition, we also have an unrealized currency gain of NOK 320 million on working capital items. This is due to weaker NOK, which gives a higher value of the receivables and bank deposits in international currencies than being translated back to NOK. The net finance income was NOK 5 million, mainly due to currency gains of NOK 65 million, which here again is mainly explained by unrealized gains on shareholder loans in China. The net interest expenses were NOK 57 million, which is somewhat lower than Q3 last year, and this is, of course, then due to the improved cash balance situation. Tax costs for the quarter amounted to NOK 818 million, and that gives a tax rate of 21%.
This is very much in line with our previous guidance. Let's then look at the divisional results and start with silicones. Clearly, the results for the silicones division were down in the third quarter compared to the corresponding quarter last year. As Helge Aasen mentioned, the market for silicones products has weakened, particularly in China, and particularly for commodity products. This has impacted sales volumes and also sales prices as we illustrated by the DMC price development. The division had operating income of NOK 4.7 billion, which was down 3% from third quarter last year, and the reduction was mainly due to lower sales volumes and lower sales prices in China. The EBITDA amounted to NOK 511 million, which was down 56% from the same quarter last year.
This is mainly explained by higher raw material costs, particularly silicon metal, and, as we said, negative price effects from commodities. The demand for specialty product was still good in the third quarter, but clearly the market for commodities products has developed negatively, and this has also caused lower sales volumes. Now, if we move to Silicon Products, we see still a very strong result, and still benefiting from high prices, although prices have come down. I think the main reason for this good result is our very good business model and our superior cost position versus competitors. Prices are still at attractive levels, but have clearly come down from the high peak levels that we saw late 2021 and early 2022.
The operating income amounted to NOK 5.9 billion for the quarter, and this was up 67%, compared to the third quarter last year. The EBITDA was almost NOK 2.4 billion, and that is up 175% from the third quarter last year, again explained by high sales prices, but also excellent operations in our plants. The EBITDA margin was 40%, and this clearly represents a very good level compared to all competitors in the industry. Raw materials are, however, increasing, particularly for reduction agents such as coal and coke. As we said, the result was impacted by the strike in Norway, approximately NOK 50 million for the quarter.
Silicon Products continue to see good demand, and we have seen good demand in Q3, but sales volumes were negatively impacted by the strike, as I mentioned. Let's move on to Carbon Solutions. Yet another quarter with all-time high results, where the total operating income amounted to NOK 1,072 million. That was almost double the revenues or income from last year. The increase is mainly explained by higher sales prices. EBITDA amounted to NOK 376 million. That was up 170% from third quarter last year. The EBITDA margin was 35%, all-time high, and a significant improvement versus previous quarters.
Sales volumes were quite stable, and we are basically producing at almost full capacity and marginally higher than the corresponding quarter last year. Also here, I think, the very good results they clearly demonstrate Elkem's strong and geographically diverse market position and business model. Despite the very strong third quarter, the markets ended weaker. We see the negative macroeconomic sentiment also into this business. We, as I said, we have very strong market positions. Strong results continue to drive improvements in Elkem's financial KPIs, also particularly the earnings per share. The EPS for the quarter amounted to 4.81 NOK per share, and that was all-time high.
This has taken the year-to-date EPS to NOK 13.68 per share as per the end of September. As you know, Elkem's dividend policy is to pay 30%-50% of the net profit as dividend. Clearly, based on the performance so far and the current share price, the dividend yield should be pretty attractive for 2022. Of course, there is still one more quarter to go. The total equity amounted to NOK 29.2 billion as per end of September, and this gives an even higher equity ratio, now up at 54%. As you can see, the financial position is very good. This rock-solid position can also be seen when it comes to financing.
The net interest-bearing debt was further reduced to NOK 2.8 billion by the end of Q3, and this is a reduction from the previous quarter due to strong results underlying EBITDA, but also due to very good cash flow generation. Based on last 12 months EBITDA, we now have a leverage ratio of 0.2x . As you know, this is clearly below the long-term target of being between 1-2x last 12-month EBITDA, but we think this is an excellent position to be in when the macroeconomic sentiment is a bit uncertain.
Our priority going forward is clearly to retain a strong capital structure to both ensure financial flexibility, but also to have the capacity to pursue growth both organically and M&A when the right opportunities occur. When it comes to debt financing, our target is to have a well-distributed maturity profile on the loan portfolio. In Q2, we refinanced and increased our bank facilities with a new maturity date in 2027 and at very attractive terms and conditions. The remaining debt maturities now in 2022 mainly consists of Chinese working capital financing, which is regularly rolled over. In addition, we have EUR 125 million of Schuldschein in the European market, which is falling due in December. A refinancing of these loans is under evaluation.
The large silicones expansion project in China with a total CapEx of NOK 3.8 billion is partly funded with equity and partly with new loans in China. Here we have attracted very favorable loans with up to 10-year installment profile, and we think this is a very good solution for this project. As I said, the cash flow generation for the quarter was very good, and we had a cash flow from operations amounting to NOK 2.3 billion. The main driver for this is, of course, a very good underlying operating profit. We also have a good development in working capital, although it has increased somewhat during the quarter.
This is mainly explained by higher inventories, somewhat longer supply lead times, clearly currency effects, a weaker NOK, higher raw material prices, and also in some areas, higher safety raw material stocks, which has proved to be a very good decision given the constraints that we see in the supply chain. The investments for the quarter amounted to NOK 817 million, and reinvestments were NOK 276 million. That equals 56% of depreciation and amortization, and our long-term target is to keep this between 80%-90% of depreciation, so you should expect a higher number here going forward.
Strategic investments amounted to NOK 540 million for the quarter, and this is mainly related to our big expansion projects in silicones, one in China and also one in France. We will probably see somewhat higher CapEx going forward, already in Q4, but we will clearly focus still on a very disciplined capital spending. Although our financial position is rock solid, we will not compromise on the requirements for return and robustness in our CapEx spending. With that, I would like to give the word back to Helge, who will then take us through the outlook for Q4.
Yeah. Thank you, Morten. For the fourth quarter, the market sentiment is impacted by high energy prices in Europe and macroeconomic uncertainty and lower growth. The silicones market in China is weak when we now go into the fourth quarter while demand and prices are holding up in specialties in both EMEA and in the U.S. Demand for silicon and ferrosilicon have been negatively impacted by the closures in the aluminum and steel industries. Elkem is able to capitalize on superior cost positions and in Carbon Solutions. We will likely see lower demand and possibly margin pressure due to the closures in steel in particular. However, coming from an all-time high level in the third quarter.
To sum up, the fourth quarter will be lower than the third quarter, but still on what I would say a relatively good level. With that, I'll give the word back to you, Odd-Geir.
Very good. Thanks. I think I need to have two microphones for the Q&A session. We will send this back and forth a little. We will now open for questions, and I think it's nice to start with the people from the audience. If there are anyone with questions, please.
Could you give some color on the EBITDA split between China and the rest of the world for Silicones?
The question is to give more flavor on the split of EBITDA between, in Silicones, between China and the rest of the world.
I guess we don't disclose specific numbers per region, but as we have previously communicated, approximately 2/3 of our silicones business when it comes to revenues is from Asia-Pacific and then predominantly in China. That gives you a flavor of the split.
To continue in China, your market share within silicones, is that comparable with the group level?
Our market share in China?
In for, yeah, electric vehicles.
Our market share for silicones to electric vehicles is very strong in some segments. It's particularly in cabling, and it's in battery insulation. Sophie Schneider will come back with some examples of our unique products in this area. Clearly this does not only go to China. We also, as you know, we have excellent EV players in the Western world or global players. Here we have sales in the global market.
Moving on to the balance sheet or cash flow. The net working capital, you have had a quite significant [audio distortion]. How should we think about net working capital in Q4?
Can you repeat the question for the viewers?
Okay. Yeah. No, the question was then regarding the working capital. We've had an increase, and how should we think about this going forward? As I said, the main driver for the increase that we have seen now in Q3 is on the inventory side. We do follow this closely, but we're not too concerned because there are quite easily explainable factors behind it. First of all, it's FX, and of course, that could go any way going forward. Then we have clearly an inflationary effect in the numbers, constantly high raw materials. I think it's fair to say that we have seen the peak here now, at least so far, and I also believe going forward that should give a more stable situation and maybe also a decreasing value of the raw material stock.
We have also built up some inventories for critical raw materials. I think also here we are very well-positioned, and we will not see any further increase. This has clearly been a very wise move because we have had a major competitive advantage as we see it in the market versus competitors who have not been able to produce due to lack of high-quality raw materials. I would not expect any further increase in working capital with the picture that we see now.
Is it fair to assume a relief for capital?
Is it fair to see a relief? That is clearly our goal to further optimize this, but it clearly will depend on the market development and also on the inflationary pressure on raw materials in particular.
We have a couple of questions on the web from Charlie Webb in Morgan Stanley. He says that this market obviously the share price was down this morning, so this is what he refers to. This morning the market was a little spooked by a forward-looking qualitative comments on fourth quarter. Can you help us gauge the expectation in EBITDA terms? Would fourth quarter EBITDA range of 2.3-2.4 be aligned with your comments?
That's a good question. I think we have given a good outlook on what we see in the market, and I think we have a balanced view on this. We are also humble about, let's say, the macroeconomic situation, like everybody else. I think what is clear is that we believe we are very well-positioned to handle the market conditions, either if it's gonna go further down or if it's gonna flatten out or if it's gonna be volatile. I cannot give any, let's say, specific financial guidance. That's not how we do this.
A second question from Charlie Webb. What do you believe is a sustainable level of quarterly profitability in Silicon Products at the current silicon metal and ferrosilicon prices? China exports appear to be declining sequentially. Do you expect this to lead to higher prices near-term?
I think the development, if you talk about, yeah, so, should we repeat the question again or no?
No.
No. I think in China the reduced economical activity level and also there are four or five projects coming on stream this year and will ramping up next year. We have a combination of lower demand and higher supply, so I don't really see price levels in China improving, but stay at a rather stable level going forward, and we're talking about commodities. Of course, if this dynamic can also lead to closure of capacity, depending on how it develops.
Maybe if I may add, if I understood correctly, the question was also particularly about Silicon Products. I think we have seen a shift in the role of China in gigafactory standards. We'll come back to that. We have seen a shift in the cost curve in China, where clearly there is not any, let's say, unlimited availability of power and raw materials anymore. The power and raw materials is coming at a significantly higher cost than previously, and this has caused a shift in the cost curve in China and the price curve. We believe that is more of a permanent effect, which also over time, and it has already proven that, will give higher global prices for silicon and ferrosilicon.
Of course, with Elkem's cost base, where we have very good power and raw material positions, that should support very healthy margins for Elkem going forward.
A couple of questions from Andreas Lee. It has been asked during the second quarter webcast, which was the previous one obviously, and we have touched upon in this presentation. The question is if there will be an extraordinary dividend planned this year, or does the macroeconomic picture affecting this and pushing dividend into 2023?
I can take that. I think this is obviously a topic being discussed in the board at the moment. We will wait and see how the macroeconomic development will be moving into first quarter. There's no plan for an extraordinary dividend today, but this may change.
The next question is how much of the fourth quarter production is sold out? I don't know if you have a clear answer to that, but nevertheless.
I think in the commodity space this is more uncertain at the moment. We don't have long-term contracts to the same extent as we have in specialties. In specialties, we continue to see very good markets, more uncertainty on commodities. We have no reason to believe that we should not be able to run full capacity utilization with the visibility we have, and Morten already commented on the working capital.
Very good. Any questions from the audience?
Yes. A question on China and this working capital financing. Given that you have quite big macro uncertainty in China, how comfortable are you with that capital being available on a working basis going forward?
The question relates to the working capital financing in China and how comfortable we are in being able to roll that over.
I think the short answer to that is that we are very comfortable. That's the nature of working capital financing in China is that it is short term. We have seen through ups and downs previously, and there have clearly been situations in China with very tight liquidity in the market. It has never been a problem to roll these working capital facilities over, and we are confident that that will also be very doable going forward. We clearly also see that the Chinese government is very focused, let's say, on keeping the activity level as stable as possible, even during the pandemic. That should also be a support for adequate financing.
Very good. We have to somehow limit a little bit t he number of questions to move on with the capital markets update to allow for sufficient time. Sorry, we have to round off the questions here. I'm happy to take questions on email or call after this presentation, but we have to move now on and continue with the capital markets update. I will then give the word back to you, Helge Aasen, to take us through an introduction and an update of Elkem's updated strategy. Thanks.
Okay. Thank you, Odd-Geir. Thank you for also joining this capital markets update. We wanted to spend some time with you today and give a broader overview of what we do, who we are in Elkem, and why we think that matters. We will do this in four parts. First, an introduction and a strategy update from me. Then, an update on the Silicon Products division from our Senior Vice President, Inge Grubben-Strømnes. Then, you will learn more about the Silicones division represented today with Sophie Schneider, who is the Vice President for Silicones in the EMEA region. Our Senior Vice President, Larry Zhang, based in Shanghai, was not able to join us today, but he sends his best regards.
Finally, Asbjørn Søvik will present the two of our green venture projects. Asbjørn is also the chairman of the board of the Vianode project, our battery materials company. We'll round this off with a Q&A session. Please feel free to prepare as we go through the presentations. Let's start with a quick video about Elkem. I think I need some technical assistance. Our main message to you today is that Elkem is well-positioned, and that means well-positioned across a range of different future scenarios. We base this on taking a green leadership position with what we like to call a dual play growth strategy.
By developing a business model where we can produce and serve our customers quite independently across geographies in both the eastern and the western part of the world. Also across a product range with strong positions in certain commodity markets and highly specialized product positions. This is particularly the case within silicones. We are continuously developing Elkem's integrated value chain to reduce risk in a business context with significant uncertainties on growth and trade. We're also creating opportunities to capture market share and new market segments. We think this strategy already has delivered strong financial performance, and that in a period with serious global supply chain problems following the pandemic and now recently with record high energy prices and also trade restrictions.
Our current solid balance sheet will enable attractive dividend to the shareholders and also give us a position to invest in growth. You will see all these elements reflected in the presentation today by Inge, Sophie and Asbjørn. We are proud of our 117-year-old long history in Elkem, but we have to keep our eyes on the future and a strategy oriented towards capitalizing on future global megatrends. The development of the global economy is one example where Asia Pacific with China in the lead has been growing faster than the Western world. We expect this to continue.
At the same time, we see signs of re-industrialization in the West, driven by the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and the E.U. European Green Deal, which are strong industrial policy packages. Clearly with an objective to secure competitive and sustainable access to energy, to essential raw materials. The world will need more of what companies like Elkem produce going forward, not less. The green transition is another mega trend with a particular focus on sustainability, with electrification of transportation really accelerating. You probably know that silicones are critical for cabling and battery insulation and protection in EVs. In an electric vehicle, generally, as I already talked about in my previous presentation, it contains significantly more silicones than a conventional car. That is just the beginning. There are many opportunities in this green space.
Geopolitical polarization is another side of this, where trade barriers create risks, but also opportunities. Elkem is among very few companies with a complete integrated value chain in different regions. Finally, industry dynamics, where we believe that the current industry maturity and innovation supports our underlying long-term growth. We believe that Elkem's various positions are well-balanced for different scenarios and across multiple dimensions. We have a good balance between Eastern and Western markets with around 60% of our revenues in the West and 40% in the East. We have a good distribution of revenues in 2022 by division. About 43% in silicones, 50% in Silicon Products, and 7% in Carbon Solutions. Typically, you can see this creating more stability in earnings.
As we have seen during COVID, the weakness in one region has largely been offset by more positive development in another region. In addition, COVID showed the vulnerability of global supply chains. We have our independent and integrated value chain, both in the East and in the West, and this has given us a very robust situation, and we have actually been able to maintain full production during this period, which is not the case for many of our peers. We also see that our integrated value chain is creating significant advantages. Value can be extracted at various levels in the value chain. Our natural hedge on silicon metal is the most important input factor in producing silicones, gives us a significant competitive advantage and of course also protection of margins.
Another key to being well-positioned for multiple scenarios is to contribute to a better climate and a more sustainable future. Elkem aims to be part of the solution to combat climate change and to be one of the winners in the green transition. We do this through three key levers: reducing emissions, obviously, supplying products that are essential for the transition and focus on circular economy. Asbjørn Søvik will touch upon the last two later, so let me focus on the first point. Elkem has a strong position already. 83% of our energy consumption globally is coming from a renewable source.
We are ranking among the world's top-rated companies by CDP, but we are also committed to reducing emissions further and to contribute in line with the Paris Agreement, with an aim of reducing global warming well below two degrees centigrade. We target a reduction in absolute terms of 28%, but we are also going to grow the business and this means delivering 39% reduction on product carbon footprint by 2031. Our long-term goal is to achieve fully carbon neutral production. Like many other companies, this is easy to say, but we are developing technologies and a roadmap today. We are investing in it today, where we already are looking at innovative process technology combined with evaluating CCS, carbon capture, both storage and utilization options. This is jumping all over the place. Let me see.
Is this where we... Okay, we are... Okay. That, that's... Hmm?
One back.
One back? Let me see here. Yeah. Let me summarize our corporate strategy on this last slide. For us in Elkem and our entire global team across geographies, divisional lines and from top management and all the way to frontline workers, we are aligned around a clear mission. That is to provide advanced silicon-based materials, shaping a better and more sustainable future. This describes what we do, but also why we do it and why it's so important. We have set out specific growth ambitions to do so. We aim to be among the top three players in the silicones industry worldwide, and to be a number one player in silicon products and carbon solutions in the Western part of the world.
That means not just growing with the market, but faster. We plan to do this through a dual play growth strategy and taking a green leadership. Dual play is about being balanced geographically and balanced across the value chain, upstream and downstream. We aim to grow with more than 5% per year, but also to do so profitably with an EBITDA margin of at least 15% per year. Green leadership is about being in the forefront, reducing emissions and increasing recycling in our industry. Focus growth on markets and products that are essential for the green transition. Let me leave you with one last reflection for this capital markets update. I have been in Elkem's top management for 22 years, and now more than 12 years as CEO.
I don't think I have seen such volatility in markets as what we have seen during the last couple of years. Now combined with significant inflationary pressure, higher than what we have seen in decades, and a lot of uncertainty about future economic growth and activity level. You know all of this from papers and from the media. I also have to say at the same time, I see an unprecedented opportunity space for Elkem as a company, given our diversity geographically and culturally, a very broad product range and very good positions that are really driven by these megatrends that I've talked about. I mean, think about it. Elkem was, when it was divested from Orkla, their revenue was NOK 9 billion. This year, we are likely to pass NOK 40 billion.
With a very clear downstream and specialization strategy. I think with that, I will leave the word to Inge Grubben-Strømnes, who will present what we are working on in Silicon Products.
Well done. Thank you, Helge, and good morning, everyone. We are a global leader in silicon-based materials and solutions. In the Elkem Silicon Products division, we cover four different business lines: silicon, ferrosilicon, foundry alloys, and microsilica. As Helge touched upon, underlying demand in all these four segments are supported by strong trends related to electrification, especially in transportation, renewable energy production, digitalization and growth in electronics, and also growth in standard of living across the world, especially in Asia. Our businesses can be divided into two main categories, the commodities, silicon and ferrosilicon, where we have a strong underlying cost position, and the industries are seeing a renaissance driven by the energy transformation and the developments in China. We have the specialties, foundry alloys and microsilica, where we also have a good cost position.
Of course, partly a joke, but mainly a truth, low cost is never a problem. In these specialty areas, what is even more important than the cost position is our product quality, it's our, application knowledge and our long-term customer relationships. If we start with the first one, silicon, two keywords, low cost and integration. Integration both upstream into raw materials, but also downstream into silicones, which Sophie will cover afterwards. In the silicon products division, silicon, it's easy to believe that this is all about silicon, but silicon actually only constitutes about 30% of our revenues. The way to produce silicon is quite simple. You start with quartz, basically rocks, which you reduce by carbon using a lot of electricity. For every ton of silicon we produce, we use more than 10 MWh of electricity.
In Elkem, we have a total silicon capacity exceeding 200,000 tons. We have, in-house consumption in the silicones division of about 160,000 tons, which means that we have an underlying long silicon position. Outside of China, we are the second largest producer of silicon with a global market share of approximately 16%. As I said up front, silicon is a commodity, and of course, we sell it as such. Our contract portfolio of silicon typically consists of annual contracts with volume commitments, and then we adjust prices mainly on a quarterly basis based on the previous quarter index development. As a material, silicon is a semiconductor, and it's also defined by the E.U. as a critical raw material. There are three main application areas.
The biggest one is silicones, where it's used as a raw material, making up approximately 50% of our silicon sales. Silicon is also an alloy, increasing the strength of aluminum into products such as wheels and automotive structures. This makes up about 30% of our silicon sales. Silicon is a raw material for polysilicon being used in electronics and solar, and also a raw material for different specialty niches such as electronic fillers, refractory materials, body armor, and in the future, maybe also batteries. These segments make up the remaining 20% of our silicon sales. We have between 250 and 300 customers all around the world. About 70% of our sales is in Europe, and this is primarily the commodity part of silicon.
We sell about 15% in North America, and the remaining 15% in Asia. The sale in Asia is primarily tailor-made silicon into very specialty applications. I said one of the key words in silicon is integration downstream into silicones, and about 15%-20% of our silicon sales goes into the division that Sophie will cover afterwards, making up between 4% and 5% of our divisional revenues. If you look at the end markets and the underlying market development, there is quite a good underlying growth in silicon, approximately 7% per year, primarily in China, driven by strong growth in solar energy and silicones. Of course, driven by consumer goods, by healthcare, by automotive, especially electric vehicles, electronics, etc .
Ferrosilicon shares a lot of similarities with silicon, also from a financial perspective, as ferrosilicon makes up the same 30% of our sales as silicon. The production process is also very similar with the main difference that we add iron. This of course means that there is a lot of synergies between silicon and ferrosilicon related to production, raw materials, technology and logistics. We have a total ferrosilicon capacity of about 185,000 tons split between the plants in Rana, Norway and in Iceland. When you make ferrosilicon, you can choose to make different grades. About 25% of our production is what we call standard ferrosilicon. Then we make about 35% refined products and 40% high purity. Of course, the more specialized the grades are, the more difficult they are to make, but the more profitable they are.
This comes down to flexibility related to raw materials, process stability and equipment. Ferrosilicon is, as I said, also a commodity, and we sell it pretty much in the same way as we sell silicon on annual volume commitments, but then with short-term price adjustments, depending on the index. The key difference between ferrosilicon and silicon is that in the specialty grades, then we have premiums. Of course, the more specialized, the higher the premiums are. Underlying ferrosilicon is used as a deoxidizer going into steel production. Globally speaking, the largest steel segment is commodity steels going into automotive and construction. We have a more specialized mix, where more of our products is going into segments such as electrical steel, stainless steel, and other specialty steels. Because of this, our geographical split is a little bit different compared to silicon.
About 1/3 of our sales of ferrosilicon is into Asia, primarily Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and India. Whereas 60% is in the EU and only between 5% and 10% in the U.S. Same number of customers as Ferrosilicon, 250-300 customers. Underlying demand growth of ferrosilicon, though, is more moderate. In general, this follows steel production. But as I said, we are more exposed to electrical steel and stainless steel, where growth is much stronger. Electrical steel is driven by electrification and increased electricity production, whereas stainless steel is driven by increased standard of living. We move on to Foundry Alloys, which is one of our most attractive business lines, where we are a global leader in supplying metal treatment solutions to iron foundries.
The Foundry Alloys, the products we sell, they constitute a very small share of our customers' cost, but are crucial for the properties and performance of their products. Furthermore, the supply side of Foundry Alloys is very consolidated. There are only a few players in the main markets, whereas the customer side is quite fragmented with strong needs for technical customer support. Of course, this provides very high barriers. It gives very good opportunities for close cooperation with the customers over long term, and it, of course, also gives a very good opportunity to price the products according to the value they contribute to the customers. In our Silicon Products division, Foundry Alloys constitute about 25% of sales.
Production process shares a lot of similarities with silicon and ferrosilicon, as the starting point is ferrosilicon, which we then process, which means that we alloy it with various elements such as magnesium or rare earth minerals. We tailor make sizing, which is very important, depending on the individual customer needs. We have production capacity of approximately 190,000 tons across Norway, Canada, Paraguay, India, and China. We are the only global player serving iron foundries, and we are serving more than 1,200 customers across the world. Due to our geographical presence, sales cut differently across different regions compared to silicon and ferrosilicon. Only 30% of the sales of foundry alloys is in Europe. We have a little bit less, around 25% in the U.S.
15% of our sales is in India, 15% in China, and the remaining 50% equally split between South America, primarily Brazil, and rest of Asia. We have strong market shares in most of these markets. In Europe, in North America, in India, we have approximately 50% market share. Whereas in China, we are quite a bit smaller, but with a good potential to grow. Foundry alloys are true specialties, and prices are not based on index price developments. They are typically negotiated customer by customer, either quarter by quarter or half year by half year. Even though contracts and prices are being negotiated quite frequently, they are all based on, or most based on very long-term customer relationships offering stability. I must admit that underlying demand development for foundry alloys is not great. It's pretty stable in the Western world, whereas it's growing in China.
As you see, China and maybe even more in India. As you see towards the right-hand side, automotive is by far the major segment, making up 50% of the market. This is a market in decline, but this is compensated by engineered products and especially windmill, where we see very strong underlying growth. Maybe what's more important is that the quality requirements of the foundry alloys in these segments are even stricter than in the automotive space. We move on to microsilica, which is the smallest business line making up about 15% of divisional sales. This is quite a fascinating story, and this is a story that started long before sustainability became important. Microsilica is pollution. It's pollution emitted from silicon and ferrosilicon furnaces.
When environmental permits became stricter, we were required to collect microsilica and deposit it. Elkem has pioneered the development of using microsilica into different industries, making it now an important business line for us. The days of microsilica being a pollution is way gone. We deal with about 300,000 tons of microsilica a year, of which half is sourced internally from our smelters and the remaining half sourced externally from other silicon and Ferrosilicon producers. Microsilica is used in three main segments, in construction to strengthen concrete, in refractories and ceramics for heat resistance and strength, and in oil field applications, either for cementing wells, for drilling fluids, or for stimulation.
These three segments are approximately equal when it comes to revenues, but from a profitability point of view, refractories and oil field are the most important segments. As for Foundry Alloys, microsilica, and specialties, we negotiate pricing customer by customer, with prices reflecting the underlying value of the product, and again, typically based on long-term customer relationships. Across all our businesses, whether commodities or specialties, we are among the leaders based on the combination of two things, low cost production platform and strong market positions. When it comes to the cost side and the raw material side, you see a typical split for our competitors in silicon and ferrosilicon on the left-hand side, with electricity making up typically 35% of their cost. Our plants are located at locations where we have long-term access to clean, cheap hydropower.
In Norway, we have CO₂ compensation, and we have free quotas compensating for additional ETS cost. We have captive quartz covering 70%-80% of our needs, and as Asbjørn will come back to afterwards, we have our in-house biocarbon development ensuring sustainable reduction materials going forward. Where we do not have captive raw material positions, we have long-term relationships and a broad supplier base ensuring supplies if there is scarcity of raw materials. An example of that is our sourcing base in China, where we are sourcing a lot of the alloying materials for foundry alloys from, where we have been able to operate at full capacity, whereas some of our competitors have had to declare force majeure due to lack of, for instance, magnesium. Our plants are well-invested.
They are well-operated based on Elkem Business System, and we have economies of scale, both individually at the plants, but also as part of a larger system. We have invested in energy recovery at four of our smelters, reducing energy consumption and improving cost. We also have the ability to switch product mix depending on what is the most profitable, whether it is moving from silicon to high-value microsilica or moving from standard ferrosilicon to high-purity ferrosilicon. This is a flexibility that we have due to the raw material access we have, due to the process stability we have, and the equipment setup we have. Our plants are located at strategic locations, typically at the harbor, allowing smooth logistics and low logistic cost, both for incoming raw materials and for outgoing finished goods. This is also important because the location ensures us market access.
We are not covered by anti-dumping duties, and it also allows us market proximity and short lead times, which has become even more important over the last few years with all the logistic problems we've seen. Maybe the most important part when it comes to our plants are our people. We have the best teams in the world when it comes to operating silicon and ferrosilicon furnaces. Elkem is a strong brand among our customers, and as Helge said, we have 117 years of long-term customer relationships. Individual customers might change over time, but we have a very robust standing in the market. We know the customers, we know their processes, we know how to help them, and they know that they can depend on us. This is also appreciated by the end markets, especially our sustainability profile, our quality, reliability, and our relationships.
We see several examples of the customers, of our customers prescribing them to source materials and work with Elkem. As a consequence of our raw material positions, our operational excellence, and economies of scale, we have among the lowest cost, both when it comes to silicon and ferrosilicon, in this case, serving the European market. Of course, this is the most important on the commodity side, but we are also benefiting from this on foundry alloys. Our production process is very energy-intensive, and access to low-cost renewable energy is a key success factor. We have witnessed an energy transition over time, but of course, the deindustrialization has accelerated over the last year with the war in Ukraine, with increasing closure of nuclear plants in Germany, with the problems of nuclear plants in France, and other issues.
If you consider forward electricity prices in Europe for next year, and I'm not talking about this winter, I'm talking for the full next year, you will see that only silicon smelters in Norway and Iceland should produce. The other smelters have energy costs, which are prohibitively high. To put this into perspective, if you are trying to produce silicon with an electricity price of 500 EUR per MWh, it means that you have more than 5,000 EUR cost per ton of silicon. When the price is 4,000 EUR or maybe a little bit less, that doesn't add up, and then you have to add quite a bit of raw materials on top of that. If these red and yellow smelters are to produce, we will have to see significantly higher prices than what we see today.
Of course, this is based on how the market perceives the electricity market into next year. Energy and electricity is politics, so let's see how this plays out. This is how the fundamentals look. We in Elkem are, to a large extent, protected from this. We have hedged more than 85% of our electricity needs in Norway for the next few years. We have CO₂ compensation, and we have equally robust situations in Iceland, in Canada, and in Paraguay. In addition to the energy transition, China is the most important factor explaining the underlying attractiveness of silicon and ferrosilicon going forward. China is balancing all global markets, ensuring sufficient amount of materials in the E.U., in North America, and in the rest of Asia.
While this is the case, the E.U. a nd the U.S. have long ago established anti-dumping duties on China to ensure level playing field. What we see more and more is that countries, industries, and companies are becoming more and more concerned with dependency on China, focusing on regionalization of supply chains. China is going to continue to balance the global markets of silicon and ferrosilicon, but the importance is likely to change. When China started exporting silicon, for instance, it was based on three things, low cost, low or no environmental requirements, and heavy subsidies. They did not have a domestic market, it was all for exports. What we see on the right-hand side is that the gray part, the share of domestic consumption, has increased a lot and is expected to continue to increase.
This was initially driven by aluminum, then and still by silicones, and even more by solar energy. In parallel to this, we see that costs are increasing in China. China is not an energy-rich country. Electricity prices are increasing due to underlying demand growth, due to scarcity, and to cost increases. We also see stricter environmental regulations, both related to local emissions to water and air, and also CO₂ increasing the cost. Last but not least, the cost of everything in China is increasing, whether it's raw materials, consumables, logistics, or salaries. It's all increasing steeply. From a Chinese point of view, it doesn't make any sense to use the energy to export energy-intensive commodities with a low price, especially when there is an increasing need for these materials domestically.
What we expect going forward is reduced availability of silicon and ferrosilicon for exports at a higher cost. Of course, this is increasing the attractiveness of producing these materials outside of China. I guess that is quite a good note to end on. We are supplying silicon-based materials and solutions globally based on strong underlying demand drivers. In commodities, we have a leading cost position based on operational excellence, raw materials, and renewable access to low-cost renewable electricity. In specialties, on top of the low-cost position, we benefit from high product quality, application know-how, and strong customer relationships. Our strategy and focus going forward is quite simple. It's to do more of the same. It is to maintain a leading cost position. It is to improve our carbon footprint, as Helge presented.
It's to optimize our product mix, which ensures that we always make the most profitable products based on our production platform. It is to grow further where we find attractive opportunities to continue to improve profitability. We are well-positioned to do that, both through M&A and organically based on brownfield expansions. Thank you, and then we will move downstream into silicones. Please, Sophie.
Thank you, Inge. Bonjour, Oslo. In case you would not recognize my French accent, I'm coming from France, and very happy to be here with you today. Before jumping into the silicones world, I would like to remind the link between Silicon Products from Inge and silicones. I just brought some samples here. The raw material for Inge is the quartz rocks, which it transforms into silicon metal, and this is what we receive to produce our silicones, liquid silicones that enters in many application. This setup is with the integration enable Elkem to have a certain competitive advantages versus other silicone player. We have a security of supply, and with all the uncertainty that we have described on the market today, this is a key asset for us.
A security of supply of high-quality silicon metal, and also with a low carbon footprint, thanks to the unique energy setup just described before by Inge. A unique chemistry silicone. First, may I remind you that this chemistry is not an oil-based chemistry. It's a silicone-based chemistry, which is just after oxygen, the second most important element on Earth. With this, we are making a lot of silicone solutions that bring unparalleled properties and performances to materials which are essentials in multiple industries for application as vital as healthcare. Here also I try to bring some example because there are many application in silicone.
Here I bring with me one example, which is a wound care application, which is used in very severe burns to enable to remove it, with no trauma to your pain when it's done. The silicone is the adhesive, so the major part of this, which is on this part. In healthcare application, we also talked before about implantable. Here I just bring something that we printed out in our lab. It's a 3D-printed silicone nose, but that's for the future. I wanted to show you also some example of what we are doing in with 3D. Other application where silicones are essential, we mentioned this several times this morning, it's on electrical mobility.
I bring here just one example of a cable so that you understand that the silicone part here is very important to ensure the insulation for this kind of cable. This cable are also used in construction, where you need to have a safety fire resistance when there is a burn in any kind of building. I can go with many other example, just for your information, where we train newcomer at Elkem Silicones. They have four days training about all the application and the chemistry linked to the silicone. I assume I have not that much time today to go in all those example. About the silicone industry. Today, we have five global integrated player, including Elkem, in the world. Integrated means starting from this quartz material.
We have so five global players and also some local players, mainly in China and Asia, who emerged over the past couple of years. The total global silicone market size today is $16 billion, which with the market share for Elkem of roughly 8%, and we hold a number four position in Europe and number four position in APAC. The silicone demand annual growth rate is expected to be around 7% in the next couple of years, with a strong growth anticipated in China and in Europe. Some markets will grow faster than others, including transportation, we discussed this point several times this morning, electronics, medical, and healthcare. Ooh. Oh, yeah. I understand now what you were dealing with before.
An additional driver that I would like to mention here is the continuous expansion of the middle class rise around the world, and it has been and will remain a main and strong driver of silicone demand growth over the next decades. This could be illustrated on the graph here on the slide, where we see that the consumption of silicone per person grows rapidly as the GDP per capita rises. This is a good illustration of the benefits of silicone that they bring in advanced consumer societies. The demand increase combines with the additional demand driven by the green transition that we talk about this morning also is linked to the fact that silicone will bring unmatched performances towards more energy-efficient technologies.
We have here also a study on the right side of this slide that have been demonstrating that silicone enable 9x reduction of the greenhouse emission during their life cycle versus the level of CO₂ needed during their production. Also to come back on a previous commitment done by the Elkem company, at Elkem Silicones, we also strive to continuously reduce our emission associated to the production of our silicone, and we have plans and commitments to reduce by 28% by 2031 as aligned on Elkem's carbon roadmap. I need a third hand. Okay. A few example of the solution brought by silicones towards the megatrends.
Just one example, which is not here, but, silicones, I think that all of you, the most famous one that you know is the sealant that you can see in your bathroom. I just want like to share with you that this one has been invented in our labs in the, I was not there, in the early 1950s in Lyon. That's just to show you how this technology is evolving over the years, and here today, linked to the megatrend, starting with the rising middle class. Of course, here silicone brings solution to different player in the personal care industry like L'Oréal or Beiersdorf. Silicone brings also a solution for digitalization, where they are essential to semiconductor assembly or moisture protection in different electronic devices. Those are used by players such as ABB, Samsung or LG.
On the healthcare and aging of population, silicone brings medical grades for key players such as Freudenberg and Paul Hartmann. On the mobility side, we discussed this a lot this morning. Silicone brings a lot of technology for management of the thermal management in the battery pack, vehicle lighting, weight, and also all the cable that we discussed. Here we are serving a big player like BYD in Asia and Stellantis in EMEA. Last but not least, silicone plays a key role for the decarbonization of our societies, including in solar panel assembly where silicones deliver technology for top players such as First Solar. Okay. Another way to show you the silicone solution is to look at it through our end markets.
On this slide, we see our five main markets that Elkem is serving today. Starting on the right side, we are serving a chemicals company with what we call commodity or intermediate standard silicone polymers. Here that represent 25% of our total sales at Elkem Silicones. The second end market that we are serving, which is the largest one, is construction. Here, as you can see, with 30%, we have partly what we call a commodity business there with high volume silicone polymers, but we start also to have some businesses in specialties. For example, in green sealant, where we have leading position in this kind of technology. The consumer and packaging end market represent 15% of our sales, and we have, for this market, leading position in release coating application for food and label industry.
We are here very strong asset in terms of technology, because here we are developing silicones here, technology which are Solventless and UV curable technologies. On the energy and mobility, which represent also today 15% of our sales, we have leading position of our silicone solution for battery pack and cables. Here again, we have a strong asset in terms of our technology in foams and in thermal management. The last end market that I will highlight here is the healthcare and personal care, which represent 15% of our sales today. Here again, we have leading position in orthosis and prosthesis market, and we have here also a broad range of technology to deliver solution to this kind of market.
Here you understand that moving from the right side to the left side, you do not have at all the same key success factor for those markets. On the full right side, on the chemical parts, we are mainly on commodity, and here the cost is the key driver for this volume market. The more you move, starting in the construction part and the more you move on the left part of this slide, you are on specialty market, where the key success factor are directly linked to research and development, application capability, formulation expertise. On this part, we are no more selling a chemical product. We are selling a silicone solution that fits the needs of our customers.
On this slide, you can also see the direct impact of our specialization strategy, and I will highlight the two last markets on healthcare and on mobility, where you can see that our annual growth rate over the last three years is 18%, which is two times faster than the market growth over those periods. Our main lever for specialization is innovation. Here, I'm not sure we said before, but until June 2022, I was in charge of the research and innovation for the full Elkem Silicon division, leading our 450 researchers worldwide with a unique setup, because here also we have a real dual setup. Half our researchers are based in China, and half are based in the western part of the world.
Today I'm rather proud to be here to share with you our achievement in terms of research and innovation, and I will point out a few data. Here are a few figures. In 2021, more than 25% of our sales have been generated with products of less than five years. We deliver specialty innovation year-on-year, up to 57 last year, mainly focusing on markets like healthcare, power and mobility. On the example of the mobility, I put here on the slide the example of the four product range that we have launched over the last three years. As you can see, product for EV battery pack sealing solution, product for connecting sealing, product for battery cables, and product for electronic modules, putting all of them entering in EV cars.
Our innovation are also recognized by international communities. In 2021, we get the award with the R&D 100 Award, with our 3D printing and healthcare range, which has been recognized there. In 2022, we won again this award, this time for our foam technology, where you can have silicone foam with very low density and which is used for its also thermal properties in battery pack assembly. To achieve such results, Elkem is investing year-on-year several hundred million NOK in research and innovation. I would like here to highlight two major investment over the last year, and one is coming. First one is our new research and innovation center in Lyon that has been inaugurated in 2021.
We will inaugurate next year our new center for the research and innovation in Shanghai. Today, what we can share also is that we aim to further accelerate investment in research and innovation by expanding application capability with pilot tools, as well as increasing the number of researchers. I would like to talk a little bit more also about our job in research and innovation. Our main objective is to understand our customer needs. This is done thanks to a solid expertise on their application. Developing a new product is a long-lasting process from several months up to several years. During this process, we have several iteration. First, we are simulating the customer process in our own lab, making formulation adaptation.
We go to the customer to make trials on-site to see if what we have understood in the lab fits with what we can see in their facilities. This is run through several iterations until we get the final product validated. In those labs, we are not only working directly for customer focus, we are also preparing technology for the future. Here I put one example where we leverage also collaborative open innovation to work on the technology of the future, which is the silicone chemical recycling, which aims to bring more circularity in our economy or the silicone economy. All our know-how in application, formulation, technology, plus our patents. I didn't mention it, but we have a portfolio of 1,200 patents at Silicones.
All those facts create entry barrier to competition on specialty market. Specialization is aiming to grow in value faster. To produce specialty products, we need to invest in very specific industrial capacities. Today, in our industrial investment roadmap, we have more than 20 projects in our portfolio, and I will comment here two of them. One of them has been commented already earlier about the medical-grade silicone plants that has been inaugurated in North America. I would like to highlight here a second one, which is the new capacity of silicone sealant, green silicone sealant, that will open in 2023 in China for the construction market. Besides those investments on a specific industrial tool, we are also accelerating our specialization journey thanks to merger and acquisition.
I will here highlight two of them. The first one, based in France, where we acquired last year the organofunctional silicone plants. We will use those very, very specific polymers to bring additional and new properties to our product. Also mentioning here the merger and acquisition with Polysil and Basel in Asia, where we definitely bought those company for very specific expertise and knowledge in some technology that were missing or weaker in our portfolio. We talked a lot this morning about dual strategy. For silicones, dual strategy is there as well. We in parallel to our specialization journey, our strategy is to grow our capacity to cover both Eastern and Western needs.
We have currently two parallel project ongoing. One project in China, in our Xinghuo operation site, where by early 2024, we expect to release additional 170 KT of siloxane. In parallel in France, where we expect to have 20 KT additional in our plant in Roussillon by 2023. All those additional volumes are to be consumed internally through our downstream specialization and expansion project, and they will all generate in 2023 and 2024 significant revenue increase. While also enabling cost competitiveness for the commodities and improving environmental performances. Through this speech, I hope I did convince you that silicones are essential to sustainable global growth.
That's because we are convinced of that at Elkem, we pursue our specialization strategy where innovation plays a key and central role. We invest in research and innovation, and we will further accelerate such investment in talents, in equipment, and in infrastructure to deliver even more new products in the coming year. We will continuously build entry barrier, also thanks to our strong patents. With such a specialization strategy, we will create value to the world and capture part of it for Elkem. As part of our specialization strategy, we expand, as I mentioned just before, our capacity, both in China and in France, to fuel our downstream specialization strategy with competitive and high quality silicones intermediate. Tusen takk. Now I will leave the floor to Asbjørn for the Vianode presentation. Thank you.
Yeah, this one is tricky.
This one is tricky. Okay. Thank you, Sophie. I will present two exciting projects. Let me.
All right.
That was the trick part. I learned it. Two exciting projects. Vianode, a project that we do together now with Hydro and Altor, and Elkem Biocarbon. I will start with Vianode. In Vianode, we target to build a leading position as a sustainable supplier of battery materials. Before we go through the business case as such, I will go through what do we do and where we are in the value chain. Vianode produces anode graphite, which is one of the most advanced products that we produces in Elkem today. This material is supplied to battery cell producers, like Panasonic, LG, Northvolt, FREYR and Morrow in Norway in the future.
These battery cells are then assembled into packs and modules, and then they are integrated into the electric vehicles. The battery materials can be recycled into the future, and we expect that this will increase over time, and Vianode has already done promising tests of recycling the anode graphite. The business case for Vianode can be summarized as follows. The growth is very high, double-digit growth, and we expect this to continue into the future. There is a significant undersupply of this material, especially in Europe and in North America. There is regulation also supporting that direction. Vianode has developed a very efficient technology that makes the company very competitive going forward. The process has close to zero emissions, supporting the green shift, and Vianode will be located close to customers, both in Europe and in North America, going forward.
We'll provide an efficient supply chain and guarantee a stable supply of material. We plan to enter into long-term contracts, which is the standard in the business, and we have a very good backing from three strong partners in Elkem, Hydro, and Altor that has both industrial and financial experience to support the growth of the company going forward. The global market is expected to continue with double-digit growth in the foreseeable future, driven by the demand for EVs and the need for more energy storage. China is by far the biggest market in absolute terms, and we expect that this will also continue for the foreseeable future.
However, Vianode is going to target the markets with the biggest growth, Europe and North America, and annual growth in this market is above 30%, on annual basis, for the next five to ten years. In 2030, the estimated demand for cell capacity will be around 2 TWh. The cell capacity of around 2 TWh correspond to close to 2 million tons of anode graphite in 2030 for Europe and North America alone. There is a significant undersupply of anode graphite in these markets and a need for the local supply and a need for the sustainable supply with low CO₂ Footprint. Besides Vianode, there is limited capacity in this market announced for the next five to ten years, so there is a big opportunity for Vianode to get into these markets.
If you go to the right, this is just an illustration, but it shows that the market and the partnership in the industry are developing. There are several partnerships being formed. We expect this to be developing going forward. A new partnership will be established. As I said, the standard is long-term contracts in the industry due to the criticality of the materials and the cost of change if something would go wrong by being in the shorter-term market. In this market, Vianode is well-positioned because we're quite early in the development in the Western market, so we can be well-positioned to play both in new industry structures, take part in partnerships, and develop this going forward. From the authorities in the E.U. and North America, there is a strong push to develop this industry.
There are critical materials, and they want to secure these critical materials and develop the value chain through regulations and incentives. For example, in the E.U., the Critical Raw Materials Act, and in the U.S., the Inflation Reduction Act. From customers, it's a strong pull for a regional supply of anode graphite with a low CO₂ footprint and guaranteeing stable, secure supplies. We expect that, these new, changes in the regulations will result in price premiums for companies like, Vianode, that are local-based, but also produce with a low CO₂ footprint. For the markets, we at Vianode has developed a wide range of products, and we have achieved very good results in customer tests, as of today. This includes materials that support fast charging, increased range, long service life, and materials that can be recirculated, and increased safety.
Let me see. The anode graphite from Vianode has close to zero emissions, making batteries greener. This is achieved due to a combination of technology developed internally in Elkem, use of renewable power, and a clean processing. The graphite as such is produced in a closed process, providing high yields, low energy consumption and low emissions. Compared to conventional technology, Vianode expect to reduce the emission with close to 90% when producing this material. The company backed by Elkem, Hydro and Altor, Vianode is on track to achieve industrial scale production in 2024, and we are planning for several sites by 2030. Vianode started the development in Elkem approximately five years ago with a small pilot. Later, we followed up with an industrial scale pilot, which is now in operation with good performance.
Last month, Vianode decided to invest in a full-scale production line that will be operational from 2024. With this investment, we will achieve the acceleration into the market. We will qualify the product to several customers. This will prepare the basis for long-term contracts and bankable financing for the full-scale plant. We will gain production experience in full scale, and this experience will be used to establish operating standards to ramp up the large-scale plant in an efficient way. A decision for the large-scale plant is planned in 2024, and the plant will be operational in 2026. The capacity of the first plant will be above 50,000 tons with an estimate of the CapEx between NOK 15 - 20 billion.
By 2030, Vianode expects to have a capacity above 150,000 tons per year and an annual revenue between NOK 15-20 billion . Going to Elkem Biocarbon. We are developing biocarbon to replace fossil coal at a competitive cost. We will use waste materials from forest operation and sawmills. These residues will be converted into a high-quality biocarbon through a new process developed in Elkem. The biocarbon will initially be supplied to customers like Elkem and will help Inge to reduce the CO₂ emissions when producing silicon. The silicon is then supplied to markets like silicones, as Sophie presented, aluminum, electronics and the solar markets. The business case in brief is fossil carbons, with the high CO₂ emissions, need to be replaced. The demand for biocarbon is high, but supply is extremely limited as of today.
Elkem is developing the technology, and we have decades of experience from operating smelters that use this product. The biocarbon has close to zero emissions based on forest residues, and the cost will be competitive with fossil carbon sources, adjusted for CO₂ pricing. Elkem will supply the internal customer first to gain economies of scale, and then we will target other markets. We will evaluate cooperation with partners to develop and scale this business further. In total, CO₂ from coal constitute approximately 40% of total CO₂ emissions globally today. In other words, biocarbon and other solutions is needed to replace coal in several areas to get those emissions down. As I said, there is a significant undersupply, so multiple projects are needed. This poses, of course, a big opportunity for those with new technology that works.
As an example, demand for coal for metallurgical purposes in Europe only is above 50 million tons per year now. The current European supply of biocarbon is estimated today around 20,000 tons only. In Elkem, what do we do in order to cope with this challenge? We pursue parallel tracks. On one side, we are cooperating with suppliers globally and continue to develop and evaluate new suppliers and partnerships. On the other side, we are developing our own biocarbon technology, and we are now starting up an industrial pilot in Canada, close to our plant. With this development, we will initially target internal customers. Nothing is happening? Good. As I said, the biocarbon pilot is now starting up in Chicoutimi, Canada, and we are planning that the first large-scale plant will be operational in 2025.
The main targets with the pilot is to qualify the product, verify technology and to gain the production experience so that we get an efficient startup of the large-scale plant, very much similar to Vianode. The large-scale plant will have a capacity around 55,000 tons, and a CapEx of $120 million before incentives. By 2030, we anticipate the need for several plants, and we need to evaluate to develop those in partnerships. To summarize, similarities between Vianode, biocarbon, but also other green ventures that we'll focus on in the future. As Helge said in his introduction, we will focus on projects with solid value creation, but also projects that support the green transition, and that these projects should be connected to Elkem core competencies in technology, R&D, and process.
We will work with partners to achieve scale, to achieve synergies, and to mitigate potential risk. When timing is right, we will evaluate to reduce our ownership or other alternatives in order to realize the value from these projects. Thank you for the attention. I hand it over to you, Odd-Geir.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you to Helge. Thank you to Inge, Sophie, and Asbjørn for good presentations. I hope that they have provided some insights into Elkem's strong and exciting businesses. We are running a little bit behind schedule, but we will still try to open for some questions. First, let me ask if there are any questions from the audience, and there is. Morten?
I have one question for two questions really for Asbjørn. You mentioned big plant, Vianode plant revenues in the range of NOK 15 -20 billion. Can you elaborate a little bit on the cost side for that? The second question is, the very last chart, you said that the sell-down was a method to realize values. You have now sold off 60% in Vianode. What value did you realize from that sale?
There are two questions related to Vianode. One is on the cost side, what it actually costs to produce, and the second is, regarding the sell-down, and, referring that Elkem has sold 60% in Vianode, and what value that has created.
First, on the cost side, I as we're now in a developing phase and a phase that we're also negotiating with customers, I would not like to go into details on the cost side, and I hope I get the understanding for that. But what I can say is that we will have a competitive position. On the sell-down in Vianode, this was a first step, and the main purpose or the first step in getting two partners in was to get both more industrial experience into the company, financial experience, and a strong partnership that could develop this further. We expect that the main value creation will come in the next rounds when we develop this company further.
Okay. We have some, yeah. Kenneth?
First, a general question to Elkem. I think, you know, you have a rural geographical footprint, and that's some benefits there. But also the global tension is increasing and as you said, protectionism here. Given your exposure.
Helge's question
Dominated by China, what do you think about risk here going forward?
The question is related to risk and Elkem's kind of global business model and shareholder distribution with the large Chinese shareholder, and how do we see the kind of risk globally, if I understand correctly? Yes.
Take both microphones.
Both microphones.
Both. Okay. Yeah, understandable question, obviously. Like all global companies, we have to live with the increased geopolitical tension with the presence in different geographies. I think, in our case, if we had been very dependent on having to ship intermediates between geographies, it would have been a more challenging situation. Having, as we have tried to focus on also previously now, this independent, integrated business models, both in EMEA, Americas on the one hand, and then Asia Pacific on the other, I'm not too concerned that we will be hit hard by trade sanctions like that. We are also then well-positioned in markets that are going to continue to grow, even with geopolitical tension.
I think that's my short answer to it.
Thank you.
You have the data speaking and the chart to show that. You're losing market share to other, or if it's other?
I think the 18% was a historical number. We are growing with the market, definitely. More than that, I mean, it's quite interesting fact is that our largest customer, single customer today, is an EV company, and that was not on our customer list five years ago.
Perfect. To follow up on the Silicon Products, you have only made investment in energy recycling or whatever the point on three or four plants, which gives us some 30% savings. Why don't you invest in the other plants? Was it a potential payback time given the current energy?
I think we have, especially in Norway, two plants without energy recovery, Rana and Bremanger. With the current electricity prices in that area of Norway, that's still not very attractive without support schemes. For Salten, the latest one we did, we received about 30% grant from Enova. That option is not yet there anymore. I think that has to come back in order to realize those projects.
Last and final. No, no. We have to-
Okay.
You say close to customer. Will that indicate that you will build a plant in North America?
I think Europe will be the first.
Yeah.
-first location, and then maybe-
Sorry, for the benefit of those on the webcast, the question is if Vianode plans to build any plant in North America.
Yeah.
Sorry.
Europe first, America maybe second.
Sorry to interrupt, but in the interest of time, I'm trying to merge a couple of questions here, and it's for you, Helge, on the shareholder. It comes from Charlie Webb in Morgan Stanley. Can you update us on Elkem's largest shareholder's thought on the company's strategy as well as the medium-term intentions to as it relates to their holding? And also, if they have an opinion on Elkem's capital allocation priorities, and furthermore, update on Elkem's capital allocation priorities.
Four questions in one. Let's see, what was the first part again? I can't see without my glasses. Can you,
It's update on Elkem's largest shareholder.
Yeah.
It's on the company's share.
Yeah. They
Increase or decrease the holding.
China National Bluestar currently holding 51.8% of Elkem shares. The signal I get is that they're happy with that position, and they have no intention of increasing or decreasing their shareholding. Their main focus when it comes to the strategy plan, we had a two-day strategy meeting with our board in September, and that's what we have presented today. Strongly supported by also the main shareholder. They are mainly focusing on us delivering on growth and on profitability, and they have a very long-term view on their shareholding. I think that in a way also answers the question around the current share price. In other words, that's not the main focus.
Last question, and it goes to you, Sophie, and it's a little bit related to the expansion in EVs and batteries. The question is, are we seeing any real market share gains in specialty silicones? What percentage of the business today is specialty versus standard grades?
Okay. I have to take both. Here also several questions in one. On the EV part, what we have shown before is that we are growing faster than the market in terms of silicon application for EV. The 18% that we mentioned before is the Silicon Products market delivering solution to EV technology. This one is growing at Elkem Silicon Products two times faster versus the equivalent silicon market for EV. That's the first point. On the specialty ratio. Sorry. I have to keep the two. Here, as you have seen on my slide, in the middle of the presentation, there is not a clear cut between the different markets.
The more you move on the left side of the slide, the more you are specialized. What we see here is that when we invest in innovation in high-end specialty market, we grow faster, and that's what we want to see here. I am not able to give one official number about the ratio. I don't know how you communicate it usually, but clearly, as you see the trends here, we are growing faster and faster on the left part of our journey, where we have the specialization. We want even to accelerate this thanks to further investment in research and innovation.
Thank you, Sophie. We are a bit, as I said, over time, so I think we have to say and conclude today's presentations now. Thank you very much for attending, and have a good day.