Hello everyone and warm welcome to Engcon's Q3 results presentation. My name is Anne Vågström, and I'm Head of Communications and Investor Relations here at Engcon. With me today I have our CEO, Krister Blomgren, and our CFO, Jens Blom, who will present the results. After the presentation, we will have a short Q&A session. You can ask questions in the telephone conference or by posting them on the web. With that said, I will hand over the word to Krister.
Thank you, Anne, and I will go through Q3 . We'll start with a short introduction to Engcon for you that doesn't know that much about us yet. Engcon is the global market leader in tiltrotators. We're having 45% market share. Engcon was founded in 1990 by Stig and Monica Engström. Both of them are still the biggest shareholders, and Stig is still active within the company, mainly within R&D. The yellow marked countries are the markets where we have active sales with a plan how to grow the market and boots on the ground. It is total 16 markets from Americas to Australia. Other markets we are more opportunistic, like South America and East Europe. We sell to them, but we don't have a clear business plan for each market there.
Net sales 2021 was SEK 1.5 billion, and we are approximately 400 employees. The Nordic region is still the dominating region with more than 50% of our revenue. The other regions is growing fast, and we expect them to become bigger and bigger than. We have two factories, one in Strömsund, Sweden, where we're also having our headquarters, and the other one is in Poland near Przemęt, that's close to Poznań, close to the German border. Our business model is that we buy components, and we assemble them at those factories that we talked about there then. If we come into the Q3 business highlights, we see that we're having a strong order book with a backlog that provides good basis for stable future earnings.
We have a supply chain and higher production level from end of Q3, and we still see that we can have further improvements on both supply chain and the production level then. Nordic orders for Q4 2022 and Q1 2023 is already included in order book, and they are coming earlier since we're having this strong order book. They're placing the orders early, and that's been the trend since Q3 2021 when the customer saw that we had long lead times on our production then. We can see we're still having high order activity in Americas and Asia Oceania. We also see that the price increase compensate for inflation and energy surcharges, and we gradually reaching the full effect of the price increase.
We will probably see that in Q4 and Q1 then that we're getting full price increase that we made during 2022 then. If looking on the Q3 figures here in the brief then, we're having a strong gross margin and a stable profitability. On the order intake, as we expected it to be lower since the big order intake earlier this year and Q3 and Q4 last year, especially for the Nordic market. Also our extraordinary big order book creates long lead times on tiltrotators that may affect our growth markets when they are more used to get the tiltrotators within a couple of weeks, not waiting, a few months and so on. It's also long lead times on excavators that also make everything a little bit on hold.
Also, of course, that our customers are waiting to see what the macro outlook will be. I mean, we still have the war in Ukraine, we have high inflation, and we have a higher interest rate. That needs to maybe be stabilized a little bit to move on. We are still proud of having 19% year to date on order intake increase. Net sales, we have our best third quarter ever, even if we had some supply chains disturbance with some key components that have delayed our ramp-up of production, which have led to a backlog and a big order book that we work on with during Q4 to hopefully be back on a more normal lead times during 2023. Normal lead times for us is, like, 2-6 weeks.
Our net sales have been growing 25% year to date and 11% during this quarter. Our gross margin have increased, so we see that the price increase have started to kick in. We still believe that we have some room left for improvements there also. With the higher gross margin, we're also getting a higher EBIT margin than compared to earlier quarter this year. We're still on a high level on return on capital employed. Now coming into a little bit more on business and financial development, and I will continue a few slides before I hand over to Jens Blom. We're looking on the order intake and net sales development. Backlog and supply chain problems affected, as I said earlier, the net sales for the quarter.
We have managed to get more components from late September and also prepared for increased production in Q4 and 2023 then. As we see, the order intake decreased 5% and 11% if you're looking on it organic. Currency effect was SEK 21 million on the order intake. On net sales, we increased 16%, and if looking organic on it was 11%, and there the currency effect was SEK 17 million . Order book with a higher volume and longer delivery lead time provides conditions then for stable earnings in coming quarters. Q4 2021 was extraordinary high order intake, because of the longer lead times and the big price increase that we did on 10%, from the first of January there.
That was really sticking out, and you can see that also on the diagram right there then. We're targeting normalized production levels and lead times in the beginning of 2023, and that's a key thing for us also for the markets further away then. We have a stronger demand outside Nordics and Europe. If we're looking at the Nordic then, we can see, as expected, the Nordic having a dip from a high level and long lead times last year that led to early orders. Net sales depends on, of course, the early order book. That still keeps it on the sales on a very high level. Orders in Q3 mainly for 2023 that normally would have come in Q4 or early in Q1. It's a special year with the order intake, definitely.
Europe, if we're looking in Europe year to date, we are up 20% on the order intake and up 31% on the net sales. We're having a little bit weaker quarter and that might be affected by the longer lead times that they are normally expecting shorter lead times. It can be affected by that, but also that we've been having bauma and normally ordering after shows then in that way then. If we're looking in America, still good order intake for the quarter, up 24%. Order intake year to date is up 54%. Long lead times that slow down the net sales. The decrease of 8% is because that we had a huge order intake in Q2, and we have been able to produce it, and we are shipping it over.
The long lead times in factory and long transportation is that what is ordered in Q2 will be delivered in Q4. The same thing here, the customer expect normally shorter lead times, and we working on that. Asia-Oceania, good order intake, still 26% in Q3, and year to date is 45%. Net sales and order intake affected by the lead times here also, but we have also needs to ship things over there to get it out in a better way. Net sales year to date in Asia-Oceania is 35% up, so we are still delivering good in all the markets. If we're then looking on how it's looking globally and thoughts and for the future and so on, just been coming home from bauma in Munich, Germany.
bauma is the biggest exhibition with infrastructure machinery, and it was really positive exhibition with tiltrotators in more or less every booth. Of course, not only Engcon's, and it was even a couple of totally new brands, example from Turkey. We think that's good for the future growth. People are thinking, talking, and seeing tiltrotators everywhere, and the feeling is a little bit similar to what I saw six years ago with the fully hydraulic quick couplers in every booth, and everybody was talking about that on the bauma show. We know now how much they have been growing in the German-speaking countries after that, so I think this is a really positive sign that we saw on this show regarding that.
We also believe that the Nordic market is a little bit more depending on the excavator sales. For the other regions, it's more a penetration case. If we're taking France like an example, we know that there are approximately coming out 18,000 excavators in our range every year to the market there. We, together with our competitors, have a penetration rate of approximately 10%, so we are selling around 1,800 tiltrotators per year there. Even if the excavator sales would drop 20% and will be approximately 14,500 excavators, we still have a good opportunity to grow. There are, in that way, no excuses for us to be able to grow on the new markets.
It's the same case in the U.S. where it's coming out 80,000 excavators every year, and we only have a penetration rate of 1%. There are still plenty of room to grow, even if there would be a downturn in sales of excavators then. We believe a lot in that they could compensate for the more cyclic Nordic market then. We also saw a positive report from Volvo that they still see a strong order intake on the construction machinery in their Q3 report. Also been to U.S. two weeks ago, and the feeling is that the construction industry is still very strong there, and they hopefully also start their infrastructure investment soon there. Over to Jens.
Thank you, Krister. We're gonna look a little bit short on the EBIT and EBIT margin. We ended up on SEK 104 million in Q3 compared to SEK 91 million last year, and that's a growth of 14%. If we look at the margin, we end up on 25% compared to 25.3%. We have also a slight effect of costs for the group business system of SEK 6 million compared to SEK 1 million. Overall, we presented a strong EBIT given the challenge that we have had with inflation and the supply chain. If we look a little bit closer on the profit and loss, as Krister mentioned, we were in SEK 416 million in net sales, which is really strong, and our gross margin is 45%.
We can see that we are compensated for the higher cost of goods sold. If we go a little bit down, we see the selling expenses is SEK 53 million, which is higher than last year. The reason for that is we have more boots on the ground, mainly on the U.S. and North America market. Further down, we can see that the R&D expenses is lower. The reason for that is the expenses for the third generation tiltrotator is posted in the balance sheet as an investment. If we look at the bottom line, we have an EBIT margin pre-IPO on 25.2%, and on the rolling twelve, we are ending up on 22.2%. We take a little bit closer look on the capital structure.
As you can see, we are having a higher level of capital tied up, ending up 30.7% of net sales. The main reason for that is a higher level of inventories. The reason for that is that we are securing vital components and also longer lead times. What we can see now is probably the end of Q4, we will be in a slight higher level of the inventories, and that's to meet the delivery plans for the more remote markets at the beginning of 2023. Even if we are tying up a little bit more capital, the cash flow has improved. We are going from SEK 35 million-SEK 63 million. That's a really good and strong improvement for us.
We are looking a little bit on the return on capital employed. We have a really good number here, 54.9%, and that's an effect of high profitability and an efficient handling of the capital. This combines with a good operating cash flow, gives us a stable foundation to meet the next upcoming quarters. I will thank you for your attention, and I will hand over to Krister, and he will summarize the quarter.
Thank you, Jens. We will go through our financial targets, and we are performing in line with our financial targets. We are actually above all financial targets if looking on year to date. Growth, we have 11% growth for the quarter, but we are above target on year to date with 25%. For the quarter, we have a backlog bigger than normal because of supply chain issues. It's better now with the supply chain from late September. Profitability, we are on a good gross margin level, which is an effect of that the price increases have started to kick in. We have increased our gross margin for this quarter with approximately 3% compared to previous quarters this year then. That's really good.
We still have some room for the price increases to reach full effect then, and of course, depends on what's happening with the component price and so on for the future quarters. Capital efficiency, as Jens mentioned, a really good level, 55%. We now also are above our goal on capital structure with 38 compared to 35%. That is our goal then. If we're moving on then to summary and outlook. Still an extraordinarily extreme order book with a lot of orders for 2023 already. We have managed to get more components, as I mentioned earlier, from our suppliers who are on a higher pace since late September to work on minimized backlog and shorten the order book. We believe that we will have more normal lead times in 2023 then.
On bauma, we could see that more or less all the OEMs had electric excavators planned to come out on the market late 2023 or 2024. These machines will be perfect with our third generation of tiltrotators. We have been delayed in planned serial production to Q3 2023 of the Generation 3, but they will be ready for when the electric excavator is coming out to the market. The delay is mainly because of problems with supply chain for our prototypes that we want to have out in field test before we go into pre-series and serial production. We have the financial strength and flexibility to manage market challenges. We are monitoring the possible Nordic cyclical decline in excavator sales, even if we see positive signals that it will not be as steep as people have talked about.
The new market should be able to grow even if the excavator markets decrease, as I mentioned earlier, like the example of France and U.S. Solid earnings and profitability with the headroom for improved production capacity and lead times give us also good opportunity for the future. The extraordinary order book provides conditions for stable earnings and good margins coming quarters. Expected full effect from 2022 price increase in Q4, and we're gonna do an additional 5% increase from year end or from the first of January then. We will also make sure to produce during Q4 for inventory to the markets far away to shorten the lead time to make sure that the customer can get the goods or tiltrotators in more normal lead times there.
We believe that that's important on new markets where they don't plan ahead like they do in the Nordic market for buying tiltrotators then. We are long-term optimists and continuous focus on innovation despite the uncertainties ahead. If looking into a little bit more key market drivers for the industry, we see that we Engcon and the tiltrotator industry are in a strong position to meet those global industry shift that we are seeing ahead then. Again, the feeling after bauma, where we're meeting with OEMs and there was a big focus on tiltrotators on the show, it's a clear sign that it's more people than us who believes that the tiltrotator is the solution for a lot of key drivers within the construction equipment transformation then.
One example of labor shortage or the war for talent is in the developed world and was one customer I talked from U.S. that told me that thanks to that he have tiltrotators, people wants to work for him because it makes the work much easier and more fun because it's really hard to get good labor in U.S. He saw this as a big advantage to get good labor that he has tiltrotators, and he have seven tiltrotators already now, and he keeps buying them to all the new machines he's getting into the industry now. We also see that the excavator becomes a tool carrier and replace other machines. I talked to one manufacturer of excavators about the risk that they will lose other construction machine sales because of that the excavator is replacing the other construction machines.
His answer was that that's why our machines have to be prepared for tiltrotators, so we don't lose also the excavator sales to other brands that have prepared their machines for tiltrotators. We see the trend is that all the OEMs are looking to prepare the machines. They see that the excavator is the fastest growing machine within the yellow industry, and they need to jump on the train, and everybody's more or less on that and want to be ready for tiltrotators and making it easy for making the installation of tiltrotators. It's a lot of things pushing in the right direction within the construction equipment. They work on this change, and it will change the industry in that way.
We're also having so many advantage if you're looking in sustainability part, where we reduce the need of fuel with 6,000 liters fuel for 30 metric tons machines. We also increase the safety both for the driver and the person around the excavator. That's also key things that they are working with. We also see that they need to increase the productivity, like in the U.S. lack of labor. Also if they start doing the infrastructure work, they will have lack of machines, and they need to get the productivity up, and we can increase the productivity with an average 25% if you're using a tiltrotator.
If you're then also using a fully hydraulic quick coupler in the tiltrotator, you become the tool carrier, and you can replace other machines and that also saving both money and increase the productivity then with that. We still believe in the tiltrotator and believe that the shift will come. It's definitely after being on bauma, the feeling is really positive that they will come. We also will have CONEXPO coming up in March that hopefully will have the same positive feeling then for the North American markets then. With that, I hand it over to Anne for more Q&As.
Yeah. Thank you, Krister and Jens for a great presentation. We will now open up for questions. You can ask questions in the telephone conference or, by posting them on the web. We will start with questions from the telephone conference. Operator, please go ahead with the first questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please dial star five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial star five again on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Kenneth Toll Johansen from Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you. A question on the outlook for the Nordics. Orders were down there, and if we take into account the price increases introduced earlier this year, the volume or order intake in terms of volume must be down by 50% or even more. You also said that you're getting some signs that maybe the downturn isn't going to be as severe as some people talk about. Can you elaborate a little bit around that? Also, to add to that, I know that last year when you raised prices from January, then you had a very strong order intake in the fourth quarter ahead of the price increases. Now you're increasing prices again in January.
Are you expecting a better order intake in Q4 than in Q3 in the Nordics?
First trying to answer the questions regarding the Nordic region, then I think it's been a lot of orders coming in early on in the Nordic region. We are on a pretty good level. As you mentioned, of course, with the price increases, there are a big drop in units then, and that's no secret regarding that. But we are on a pretty stable level if you're looking year to date on sales and so on. So they're not coming up more excavators this year in the Nordic. It's actually probably coming out less already this year because of the supply chain problems the OEMs have been having on producing excavators.
That's a little bit of those signs that we talked about for the upcoming year that they probably will come out more or less about the same number of machines next year in Nordic and Europe as it's been this year because it's a lack of machines this year and that people are waiting on. That's one positive sign for us for the next year that it will be more or less the same number of machines.
In the Nordic, I think it's also will be a big order intake coming in Q4, but not as big as it was last year because people will wait a little bit more to see stabilization maybe on the inflation and on the interest rate and so on, trying to so they can make a good calculation on what price they need to have to the market if to buy a new machine and so on. That's a couple of key things. I maybe sort of lost one of your questions, Kenneth, there.
Yeah, you answered many more, so I feel happy.
Okay.
on that side. Yeah. Another issue is, you talked about supply chains, that you had some disruptions earlier in the quarter, but then those ones were resolved and you had the good production rates at the end of the quarter. Was it a specific supplier that had problems? And can you talk a little bit more around that? And also if there are risks that the supply issues will come next quarter as well.
Yeah. There were a couple of suppliers that we had problems with, and one major was that we again needed to produce and then put everything out to the factory. Then when that part came, we were putting it on again, and we needed to put it into the production line again. That's really slowing us down, of course. It's still better than doing like some other companies need to do to close everything for a week because they don't get that part. We decided to keep on working like that. Now the trend have been so far good, positive. There are no guarantees. There are still just in time things coming and we're getting more components. We don't get as many as we want to.
We still are limited by it, but it's on a higher level.
That means that the order book that you have right now, it will stretch into Q1 next year at least, for Europe and the Nordics.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. With also the expected order intake in Q4, absolutely, Kenneth. It will be like that.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Great. Okay. That's all from me. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Please state your name and company. Please go ahead.
Hi, it's Agnieszka Vilela at Nordea. I have a couple of questions, maybe starting with the comment you put on the slide three, telling that the Nordic orders for Q4 2022 and Q1 2023 are already included in the order book. Should I interpret it as the orders that you book in Q3, but the deliveries are for these quarters Q4 and Q1?
Yeah. I mean, the orders that came in Q3 are mainly gonna be delivered in 2023. From the Nordic countries specifically, they are either in Q1 or Q2, I would say, that they will be produced.
Is it so that the customers still in Q3 place this kind of advanced orders, you know, in with long delivery times because of the fact that the supply chain has been unstable? Was it the main reason, you believe?
Yeah. Because normally they would place those orders in Q4, but there were some orders that came now then in Q3 because they all know now what type of machines they will get, the dealerships in Sweden and so on. That's why they've been placing this order to secure that they get tiltrotators in time, and that's the challenge we have with the countries outside the Nordic. That was the problem we got, as we mentioned, I think, in Q2 report a little bit regarding that the countries further away or that are not as developed as Nordic, they are not used to order in advance like that. They are used to order when they're getting the or when the customer gets there.
Yeah
... wants the tiltrotator. Because the penetration rate is 90%+ in the Nordics, so they know that if they're gonna sell a machine, it's gonna be a tiltrotator on it, and they know Engcon..
Yeah
...have a 50%+ market share in the Nordic.
Yeah. Yeah
That's, they need to know how to order it.
Isn't there a risk then that the order intake from the Nordics in Q4, Q1 could be subdued, especially if the kind of supply chain improves? I mean, the dealerships will not need to maybe order that much in advance.
The Q4 order intake will absolutely be lower compared to last year because last year was extraordinary in so many ways, and the whole 2022 have been really hard to draw any conclusions from the order intake because it's. We've never been in this situation before with this long order book. We are normally having like a 2 months order book and able to deliver in 2-6 weeks. That's our normal lead times on product, and now it's been like 6 months delivery times on it and.
Yeah
It is really strange the order intake. We, as I said or so on, then we have a lot of orders for 2023 already, so we in that way, well, we also feel confident that 2023 will be a positive start at least for us in that.
Yeah. Perfect. If we look at the markets outside of the Nordics and maybe focus on Asia and Americas, here the organic order growth was about 25% in both of these markets, but that's basically half what the year to date growth has been. I mean, you talk about the penetration case, and obviously it is out there, but what's explaining the lowered orders momentum in these regions?
I think it is a lot of that, the long lead times on our product. They are used to be able to get it, and that's why it's so important for us to during Q4 be able to produce for Q1 and Q2 in those markets so they can get it in the shorter lead times. You probably know how Americans are. They want to buy the car directly from
Yeah
From the car dealer, and they don't wanna wait on it. It's the same thing with the excavator. The dealers having a lot of excavators in stock, and then they can get the excavator, but they can't get the tiltrotator right now then. That's a challenge we've been having, and that's where we've been maybe hurting our growth markets a little bit with the big order intake from the Nordic countries, where we have produced towards customer order more and not be able because of the supply chain problems being able to produce for inventory for the countries in the pace that they need. Because you remember that we had in Q2 96% increased order intake in Americas.
We now have a drop in net sales, and that's because we didn't get that out yet.
Mm-hmm.
That's the problem we're sitting with right now then.
Yep, understand. I have two questions still, if I may. The margin in the quarter was very strong, both when we look at the gross margin 45% or EBIT margin 25%. Could you just remind us about any kind of seasonality quarter on quarter that we should expect? Is there any volatility in the margin, in Q4 compared to Q3? Maybe if you could just allude to any kind of tailwinds or headwinds that you see in terms of pricing or raw materials or production volumes. Thanks.
You can say if we're getting like we had last year, then the reason why we've been having a lower margin in the first two quarters is of course that we had those big order book on the price from 2021. That's normally Q1 we don't get as high gross margin level because there's a lot of units sold to the old price list. We normally increase the price the first of January. That will normally affect Q1 and maybe Q2 , and then normally Q3 are a little bit better, as you probably saw from Jens' presentation there also, we had a good EBIT margin on Q3 last year also.
That's a little bit trend regarding that because that then we're getting the full price increase effect coming for H2 of the year then. Otherwise, it's also then a little bit depending on that the Nordics are stronger in the beginning of the year where we're having a little bit lower revenue per unit sold compared to the new markets where they're buying the full system from Engcon, and we're having a higher revenue per unit, and that of course affects the bottom line in a positive way in that sense. Now I think I forgot one of your questions again then, but.
No, no, no.
Please.
Just maybe tailwinds and headwinds moving from here. Obviously you will raise production rates, so that should be kind of positive for your earnings. Input costs are hopefully coming down a bit. You have raised prices. I would say that, or do you agree with the conclusion then that you will see kind of more of tailwinds now to your profitability coming to the next quarters?
Yeah. I've been saying that earlier on also. If there is no more problems coming up, I would believe that the supply chain should be sorted out sometime early 2023. We don't know with the war and energy prices and so on, where we're gonna end up. If everything are as it is or what we know about right now, because I agree with you, the prices on like steel and so on are much more stable and on a much lower level compared to the highest level it was on. With that, I agree it should be much more stable and easier for us to both produce and have a good earnings in that way then.
Perfect. Very clear. Then the last one from me, if you have any update on the patent infringement process that you are involved in, too, on your opposition. Any timing, when can we hear more from that? Thanks.
Yeah, there are a lot of steps in it. Of course, now, as we mentioned, their initial is SEK 120 million, and now we are sending in all the papers and stuff like that. I don't know exactly the dates. Do you have the dates, Jens, where?
We have some deadlines tomorrow when we need to answer some of the questions, but we are early in the process. We will keep you updated if there is any new information.
So far it's more just been giving in more and more information to them, and then from there we will move on. At the same time we're having that towards the European patent that we're working with. That will probably be a slower process than the other process that we're having in Sweden.
Perfect. Thank you.
You're welcome.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial star five on your telephone keypad. There are no questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers.
Okay. Thank you, Kenneth and Agnieszka, for your questions. We have no questions on the web. With that, we'd like to thank everybody for taking the time to listen in to our presentation. Should you have any questions, please reach out. We are more than happy to help. Thank you and have a nice day.
Thank you.
Thank you.