Hi, my name is Frode Arntsen and I am the CEO of SalMar and together with me today I have our CFO Ulrik Steinvik at SalMar. It is a job 24 hours a day and every day of the year. When we say that we will produce salmon on the salmon terms, it governs everything we do and all the steps we take because as we said last quarter, when you are not quite where you want to be, you roll up your sleeves and work extra hard regardless of the weather, day or what time it chose. It is to solve all tasks many times, try to make the impossible possible and reverse the trend and result to once again be a leading farmer of Atlantic salmon. I know that all SalMar employees are also very motivated for this and thank you all for their job.
Job well done in the period. The financial results we are presenting for Q2 today was as expected, a result we are not satisfied with. Driven by a high proportion of downgraded fish, but underlying we are experiencing several good signals in Q2 and so far in Q3 which will give better results in the quarters ahead. We have a record high number of fish and biomass in the sea at the end of the second quarter which will give increased volume in the second half of the year. The superior share is back to normal levels from the third quarter and at the same time we also see that the cost level is decreasing which will become apparent later in the second half of the year.
At the same time we know that we have a robust corporate culture and a strong setup in the value chain which means that we can produce the best salmon for our customers all over the world in an optimal and cost effective way with a steady good demand. I will come back to all this later today. The update itself will follow the same order as before. I will take you through some highlights as well as the segments before. CFO Ulrik will take you through the financial update at the end of the presentation. I would like to focus on the status of our biologiki and the continued strong demand for our product. In total we harvested 54,500 tonnes for Norway at a margin of NOK 12.8 per kilo and delivered an operational EBIT of NOK 696 million including Icelandic salmon and Salmon Ocean.
We harvested 64,500 tonnes in a quarter with the result of NOK 524 million at a margin of NOK 8.1 per kilo. Northern Norway has had very good biological performance and associated positive cost development. Central Norway is characterized by weak price achievement as a result of a high proportion of downgraded fish. We completed harvesting from both locations in SalMar. Ocean sales are an industry with a very strong result driven by a positive contribution from the contracts and the capabilities in our setup. Weak results from Iceland as a result of continued high cost and low salmon prices, and the low settlement prices also give a negative result from Scottish Seafarms. In addition, we have taken steps to strengthen our value chain and financial position. The merger with Wilsgård AS was completed this August and we issued two new green bonds of NOK 2 billion last week.
We are increasing our volume guidance for 2025 by 4,000 tonnes to 298,000 tonnes as a result of particularly good growth in Northern Norway and the inclusion of the volume from Wilsgård going forward. To give you a little more detail, I would like to go through the operational updates. In Central Norway, we harvested 33,900 tonnes in the quarter with an operational EBIT of NOK 7 million, which gives EBIT per kilo of NOK 0.2. As expected, a weak result that is solely driven by a high proportion of downgraded fish during the period, which affects our price achievement. Although we saw an improvement towards the end of the period in the superior share, we finished harvesting from the autumn 2023 generation in the period and we continued harvest from the spring 2024 generation.
Looking ahead, it is the spring 2024 generation that we will harvest the most of now in the third quarter before we start harvest towards the end from the autumn 2024 generation. The superior share has increased significantly from July by around 35 percentage points in Central Norway compared to the second quarter, which means that we are back at normal levels going forward. The biological status of the fish in the sea is underlying good. As expected, Central Norway is now in the period with the highest lice pressure. So far, we have handled the lice pressure in a good way, also helped by several locations with preventive technology in use. Going forward, this will as usual be our biggest element of uncertainty when it comes to lice levels, fish welfare, and which locations we will prioritize to harvest from. We expect a similar cost in the third quarter.
We need to get more volume on new generations before we see clearer effects of loss. Lower cost levels. We expect the volume in the third quarter to be significantly higher compared to the same period last year. In Northern Norway, we harvested 20,600 tonnes in the quarter with an operational EBIT of NOK 288 million and EBIT per kilo of 14. The very good biological performance in the sea has also continued in the second quarter with high growth and increased survival rates, especially if we compare with the same quarter last year, but also measured against previous years. It is mainly the autumn 2023 generation that we have harvested from in the quarter, and as Ulrik gave a small indication to in the previous quarter, we have had some locations that have performed very well with cost in books in the low 40s per kilo.
This means that we have a positive cost development measured against the previous quarter. Even though 80% of the volume was harvested in May and June, the period with the lowest price, the segment delivered a good result for the period. We have also downgraded fish in the north, but at a lower level than we have had experience in Central Norway. As in Central Norway, we have experienced a clear improvement in the superior share from July onwards. Looking ahead, we will harvest the last of the autumn 2023 generation, and spring 2024 will make up the main volume in the third quarter. The biological status of fish in the north is good. We expect the cost level to be at the same level in the third quarter compared to what we have now in the second quarter.
The volume in the third quarter is also expected to be significantly higher compared to last year. SalMar Ocean, their harvesting from both units was completed early in the second quarter. 6,000 tonnes were harvested with an operational EBIT of NOK 35 million and EBITDA per kilo of 5.8. There was a low average weight on Arctic Offshore Farming, which affects the price achievement. Once again, Ocean Farm 1 shows good results on its production cycle with good growth and survival rates. Smolt were released in Ocean Farm 1 this August. Approximately 1 million fish with an average weight of 700 gm from which we plan to harvest into the second quarter of 2026. As you know, Arctic Offshore Farming will replace its net, and the earliest smolt release in this unit will be in 2026. The sales and industry segment delivers an operational EBIT of NOK 448 million.
As expected, there was a strong result from the segment as a result of a higher positive contribution from the contracts. Given the market price experienced in the second quarter, the contract share was 37%. Increased volume from the farming segments has also resulted in better capacity utilization of our harvesting facilities compared to what we had in the first quarter, and capacity utilization will increase further now in the second half of the year. It is also a strong performance as a result of the setup we have with the high local harvesting and VIP capacity close to where we farm our salmon. The flexible setup in sales and industry means that we can effectively handle variations in both quantity, size, and quality or what biological brings. The VIP means that we can handle much of the downgraded fish ourselves.
Even though we had a high utilization of our VIP lines during the period, we were also forced to sell downgraded fish onto other processors during the period, which affects our price achievement. In the third quarter, we expect higher volumes through our facilities as a result of increased volume from the farming segments. The contract share will therefore be lower in the second half of the year, and in the third quarter we expect around 22%. Although the good biology in Norway has meant that volumes to the market have been higher than in previous years and thus pushing prices down, and we are experiencing some uncertainty related to tariffs, we still see the demand for our products is very good. I will come back to this some later.
Moving over to the Westfjords in Iceland, where 4,000 tons were harvested in the quarter with an operational EBIT of NOK -97 million, an EBIT per kilo of NOK -24.6. Towards the end of the period, the harvest volume was increased to minimize the effects of biological challenges as a result of BKD. This increase came at the end of the period when market prices were at their lowest, affecting the result, and as expected, the cost level was still high. Looking ahead, it will still be a high cost level in the third quarter. We will harvest the last part of the 2023 generation now at the end of September and October, and unfortunately we do not expect a decrease in cost level until we enter the fourth quarter.
When we harvest from the 2024 generation, we expect the volume in the third quarter to be significantly higher compared to the corresponding quarter last year. We move to our joint venture in Scotland, Scottish Seafarms. In the quarter we harvested 11,600 tonnes with an operational EBIT of NOK -28 million and EBIT per kilo of NOK -2.4 million. Although the trend of good results on harvested fish continues in the second quarter as well, with a very good average weight of the fish over 6 kg which has given good results in terms of reduction in cost levels, market prices during the period resulted in a negative result for the period. The company reports continued good biological status in the sea where the next generation of fish to be harvested are doing well in all regions.
With this I have come to the end of the operational update and I now want to give the floor to Ulrik who will take you through the financials.
Thank you, Evrila, and good morning to all of you. SalMar, like the industry in general, have experienced and are experiencing lower spot salmon prices now in a period where the high supply growth in the first half of the year is going through the value chain in the various markets, including the new markets. As pointed out in the first quarter presentation, we also had a high proportion of downgraded fish in the second quarter, and this proportion was moreover significantly higher than average in Norway. Market prices and price achievement negatively affect our margin. We cannot control market prices, and our continuous focus is therefore on biology, cost-efficient operations, and last but not least, a strong corporate culture that handles ongoing challenges and further develops the business.
In this context, it is good to see a significant reduction in on-growth costs so far this year compared with the same period last year, and this has also begun to be reflected in the cost released from stock. Here we can mention the positive cost development we have in Northern Norway the last quarters. Furthermore, our previously stated cost reduction target of NOK 1.2 billion in the group remains in place, which we will return to in more detail at the next quarterly presentation. At the same time, we have continued to build biomass and recently completed acquisitions that facilitate further growth not only in the second half of the year but also in the years ahead. This gives us a good starting point for the way forward.
The financial update will as usual focus on changes in a quarter compared to the previous quarter, and towards the end I will comment on a merger that has been completed with Wilsgård . It is time to look at the numbers, and I will start by giving some comments related to the profit and loss statement. At the top right, we see that the operational EBIT fell by NOK 274 million compared to the first quarter, from NOK 798 million to NOK 524 million. We see that the reduction is driven by lower price achievement. Price achievement in Norway compared to the previous quarter is approximately NOK 10 per kilo lower than in the first quarter.
Sea salmon index fell in a period by NOK 18 per kilo, but due to an increased positive contribution from contracts, good utilization of raw materials in the period, and a more even harvest profile throughout the quarter compared to the first quarter, the reduction was lower despite a higher share of downgraded fish in the second quarter compared to the also high share in the first quarter, and this shows some of the strength of the SalMar setup. As expected, costs are at the same level. Iceland and Ocean contributed with a negative change from the previous quarter of NOK 118 million, which is explained by the lower salmon prices. It is also worth noting that the cost for Ocean and thus the result in the second quarter includes depreciation from the entire production cycle.
For other offshore units, depreciation as part of cost released from stock alone amounts to NOK 110 million now in the second quarter and helps to explain the result from Ocean. If we move to the profit and loss statement, we see that production tax in Norway and resource tax in Iceland amount to NOK 74 million, an increase of NOK 30 million driven by volumes and increased share of volume from Iceland. Non-recurring items reduced profit by NOK 11 million in the quarter and consist of litigation costs and costs related to organizational changes in Iceland as a result of higher numbers of fish in sea and increased biomass. Net fair value adjustments of biomass are positive. The change in fair value increases profit with NOK 75 million.
Profit from associated companies was positive with NOK 26 million in Q2, and positive fair value adjustments of biomass also affect the results of associated companies. Net financial expenses amounted to NOK 351 million, an increase of NOK 25 million from the first quarter. In total, this gives a profit before tax of NOK 190 million. Ordinary corporate tax together with the resource rent tax amounts to a total of NOK 43 million, and profit after tax is consequently NOK 146 million. This gives an adjusted earnings per share of NOK 1.9 per share for the second quarter 2025, and now to the balance sheet. We will see that total capital has increased by NOK 968 million from the previous quarter to NOK 55.7 billion. The underlying driver is investments in preventive technology at sea and investment in biomass.
Increase in biomass is something that Frode will comment on in more detail later today. Towards the end of the quarter, a dividend of NOK 22 per share was approved. The equity ratio has consequently been reduced to 32.8%. Because of this, cash effect will come in the third quarter. Net interest-bearing debt including leasing has been reduced by NOK 261 million to NOK 21.7 billion. Key figures for the debt ratio NIB including leasing on EBITDA have been increased to 3.8. Without leasing, the net debt ratio is 3.6. The underlying driver of the temporary increase in the key figure is due to lower summer prices in the first half of the year and profitable investment in biomass that will result in a significant increase in volume in the coming periods.
Our strategy is to be optimally and robustly financed at all times as well as to be ahead of maturities. We therefore issued two new green bonds in August totaling NOK 2 billion. This increases our flexibility while also clearly demonstrating our desire for further sustainable development of the industry. As you can see from the graphs to the right, we have a flexible financing that is diversified between bank and bond where there is a long time to maturity and with limits that ensure sufficient liquidity at all times. At the end of 2Q25 we had NOK 8.2 billion available liquidity in the group, also taking into account the facilities of the partially owned subsidiaries. If you take into account the dividend of NOK 2.9 billion that was paid early July and the bonds that were issued this August, we have NOK 7.3 billion in available liquidity.
If you look at the change in net interest-bearing debt including leasing in the quarter, there are minor changes. In this quarter we started with a need including leasing of NOK 21,976 million and during the period EBITDA was NOK 1 billion. We paid taxes of NOK 45 million. Change in working capital amounted to -NOK 457 million. Total investments amounted to NOK 560 million in a quarter. NOK 11 million is related to the sale of smaller assets in the group as well as dividends received from associated companies. Investments in property, plant and equipment totaled NOK 571 million and are mainly related to the activity at sea.
Farming had a somewhat higher level of investment in the second quarter driven by the establishment of submerged operations at several autumn 2025 sites and investments in CLI lasers to increase the proportion of our sites that have preventive technology in use. We are already seeing a good effect from this, but we also expect an even better effect when the proportion of sites with preventive technology increases. In total, these investments alone amount to NOK 200 million now in the second quarter, and the right technology at each site is crucial and guides decision making for future investments. Taking into account payment of interest and changes on leasing, we end up at NOK 21,715 million in NIB including leasing at the end of the second quarter of 2025. As mentioned earlier, we in SalMar are always open to growth opportunities when the price, quality, and location are right.
In April, we announced that the Board of Directors of Wilsgård and SalMar had approved a merger plan for the companies. Wilsgård has 5,844 tonnes MAB and also owned 17.5% of the shares in Norway sea food which has 3,916 tonnes where SalMar already owns the remaining part of their shares. The agreed consideration for the transaction is NOK 1.7 billion on a 100% basis. We already own 37.5% of Wilsgård and for this part no remuneration will be given. Therefore, 20% of the cash in the consideration will amount to NOK 221 million and 80% of the share will amount to 1.6 million shares in SalMar .
This transaction was completed in August after we received approval from the relevant authorities and the creditor demand had expired, and consequently 1.6 million new shares were issued in SalMar which will have a positive impact on the equity ratio. We have also agreed that Wilsgård will take over all other activities in Wilsgård that do not involve the production of salmon. We are pleased with this solution as it ensures an optimal setup for further development of the business and the Senja region. We take care of the salmon, our core business, and all of the business is taken care of by Wilsgård . This provides opportunities for further profitable growth in close proximity to existing farming areas, further development of existing activities as well as realization of synergies in acquired activities.
With this, I've come to the end of the financial update and would like to give the floor back to Frode.
Thanks for the update. As we have mentioned, we have experienced a very good growth in the sea and at the end of the second quarter we have a record high biomass in the sea, both measured in number and in biomass. If you look at the graphs on the screen, there are 3% fewer salmon in the sea in Norway at the end of the second quarter compared to the same time last year. We in SalMar have 11.8 million more individuals in the sea, which means that the others have 24.9 million fewer salmon in the sea. If we look at the biomass, it has increased by 6% for Norway or 52,000 tonnes.
At SalMar, we account for as much as 34,800 tonnes of this, corresponding to an increase for us of 26% or two-thirds of the entire increase in Norway, which is significantly above what our relative share of the licenses in Norway would indicate. This clearly shows that SalMar is the driver for the increase of biomass in Norway, which gives us a good foundation for the growth we will have in the second half of the year, but also for the next few years to come. At the same time, the biological status of our fish is good at the moment and I can mention that yesterday we received the Fish Welfare award at Aqua Nor in Trondheim. An award we are proud of because it pays tribute to the long-term work we do every day to ensure that our production is on the salmon's terms.
If we take a closer look at the on-growth cost per kilo we have used the first half of 2025. Compared to the same period last year, we see that it has fallen by 12%. This is due to both good growth but also due to reduced cost of important input factors such as feed. This will not immediately translate into lower costs in our result in the third quarter, but when we start harvesting from new generations later this year, we expect the cost level to decrease further. The first half of the year was weak when it came to the superior share. As you can see in the graph to the right, it has already increased significantly in July. Overall in Norway, it has increased by 28% points, a significant improvement. We are now back to normal levels.
So far in August, we have a level of 94% superior average across all facilities and as you know, all our fish put into the sea from the summer of last year or the autumn 2024 generation onwards have been vaccinated with a new winter wound vaccine which we expect to have better effects when we get to the coming winter. We are increasing our volume guidance for 2025. In Norway we are increasing by 6,000 tonnes to 262,000 tonnes. The increase comes from Northern Norway, both as a result of good growth but also as a result of the fact that we are taking in volume from Wilsgård. Now from August we have finished ocean for this year and the result was 200 tonnes higher than what we have guided. We are reducing Iceland by 2,000 tonnes as a result of the challenges I mentioned earlier.
I would like to add that we also have a very good increase in both the number of fish and biomass in Iceland, which leaves room for increased volume. In 2026 we keep Scottish Seafarms unchanged. In total we are increasing our guidance by 4,000 tonnes and now expect 298,000 tonnes in 2025, a growth of 18% compared with 2024. We have additional organic volume potential that we will gradually take out in the years to come. With Wilsgård coming in, we increased the potential to 378,000 tonnes, which is 79,000 tonnes or 27% higher than this year's volume and is a growth that will come in the next few years. As you know, the start of 2025 has been characterized by lower spot salmon prices than in previous years. This is mainly driven by good biological in Norway, which means that the volume to the market has increased.
At the same time, tariffs to the U.S. have also contributed to increasing global uncertainty. Tariffs are never a good thing, but so far we experienced that the volume is absorbed as usual despite the tariff rate for our customers in the U.S. I can also mention that we have recently signed a new annual contract to the U.S. with an important customer where both volume has increased and price levels are attractive compared to what you can see on Euronext Salmon Futures because we experienced that our customers want more volume and are very interested in new contracts for 2026 at attractive price levels not just in individual markets, but in markets all over the world.
As you can see from the pictures to the right of the screen, it's salmon from SalMar in all corners of the world and I want to share some data points for demand with you. China has had a very good growth this year and Norway now has a market share of 71% in the Chinese market, almost doubling from the market share Norway had four years ago. In China, volume growth from Norway to China so far in 2025 has been strong and above 100%. We also expect this to be strong going forward as we have had a good dialogue with several major players in China. If you remember back, we also established a sales office in Thailand in 2023.
Now in 2025 the growth in this market has been very high with close to 50% in volume, which shows that establishing ourselves closer to certain markets is important so that we establish new sales channels and new customers. If you look at the graph on the left of the screen, you can see that the price decline has made salmon more attractive compared to other proteins. This also strengthens the position of salmon in competition with other proteins. In many markets, campaigns are now underway that are important to further increase the demand for our products. Even though it is demanding in the short term with lower salmon prices, it also has some positive sides. We are building a market which over time builds the demand for salmon further.
With our volume and our facilities, it means that we can produce products that the market has a great demand for. The flexibility we have also means that we can adapt the product portfolio of salmon we offer in the market and thus ensure that we can deliver salmon to a wide range of customers in different customer groups and markets. This is a clear strategic strength for us at SalMar . As we move towards the end of today's presentation, I have gone through the guidance going forward and you can see it summarized to the right on the slide. For 2025 we expect global supply growth to slow down in the second half of the year after high year-on-year growth measured against the previous year in the first half of the year.
As mentioned, we at SalMar have a record high seasonal number of both fish and biomass in the sea, which gives us a good foundation for the growth we expect from ourselves in 2025, but also for growth into 2026. The global uncertainty related to tariffs and increased and different tariffs is generally bad news for world trade. The Norwegian aquaculture industry has been out on a winter night before and as mentioned, we work hard every single day throughout the value chain to find the best solution for us and our customers. At the same time we assume that the Norwegian authorities will do their utmost together with the seafood industries organizations to remove or reduce trade barriers such as this.
In addition, one must ensure stable, safe and predictable framework conditions here at home. This is something the Norwegian authorities can do on their own regardless of what happens in the U.S. Because we have a positive view for the future, we are building the market and getting more new customers who eat salmon, and together with better quality of harvest volume and the downward trend we see on the cost side, this gives us a positive view of the development going forward. With this, we have come to the end of the presentation. Thank you very much for your attention. Our next presentation is in November. Before that, I hope that everyone will have a nice late summer and autumn, and as always, remember to eat lots of salmon wherever you are. Thank you very much.