Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Ferronordic Q3 2021 report. Today, I'm pleased to present CFO Erik Danemar and CEO Lars Corneliusson. For the first part of this call, all participants will be in listen-only mode, and afterwards, there'll be a question and answer session. Speakers, please begin.
All right. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for listening to this report on our third quarter, 2021. This is Lars Corneliusson speaking. If we head on straight into slide two, we're very pleased that we can report our yet another best quarter to date. We had 47% revenue growth for the group, and demand is strong, continues to be strong. We have strong operating cash flows as working capital remains low. In Russia CIS, our own equipment sales in units increased by 5% as the market grew by 40%. However, we had a 48% revenue growth, which was supported by a machine product mix with higher average prices and good growth in Contracting Services . In Germany, in our sales area, the truck market actually declined.
However, we increased our truck sales in units by 25%. We saw also in Germany good revenue growth of 45%, supported by a good business in the used trucks and a robust aftermarket performance. All in all, 47% revenue increase, 37% operating profit increase with an operating margin of 8.9% and an EPS increase of 34%. We'll move to the next slide, number three. As I said, 47% revenue increase to close to SEK 1.7 billion, which is the highest revenue we've ever had. In Russia, CIS to SEK 1.3 billion, sorry, which is then 48%. As you can see, we increased equipment sales by 44%, aftermarket sales by 27%, and Contracting Services more than doubled.
Equipment sales in Germany increased by 64%. Aftermarket sales up 24%. However, other revenue declined 25%. All over good revenue growth in our markets and in all our business areas. This then led to operating profits to a record of SEK 147 million. That was driven by the highest result we've had in Russia at SEK 181 million, which is an increase of 46%. In Germany, the operating results, however, declined to SEK 63.2 million. Our group operating margin, again, 8.9%, and working capital declined to 0% of revenue, and we turned them into a net cash position of SEK 75 million . On slide four, some more operational highlights.
As I said, the market for construction equipment up by 40% in Russia and CIS. We see strong demand in the market. There is a pent-up demand. Commodity prices are up, and we see continued increased infrastructure spending from the government. However, the concerns about the increases in so-called utilization fee remain. Our own new construction equipment unit sales grew by 5% to 306. We do have issues on the supply side, and we chose then to focus our sales on bigger machines like articulated haulers, forestry equipment, and pavers. This led then to an average ticket size of 44% up in local currency and 41% in Swedish krona.
We also saw good performance in the aftermarket, which increased by 27%. We continue to reap benefits of our digital sales platform for aftermarket sales, also for machine sales. It's performing very well, and we actually increase penetration in the aftermarket in a population that is not growing. In Contracting Services, we continue to develop our operations in Norilsk, and we also started a new project at an iron mine in Karelia, which is driven by a customer called Severstal. The aftermarket share of revenue then decreased by 3 percentage points to 21, and that is as Contracting Services continues to increase in our revenue share and is now at 18%.
Slide five. We move over to Germany, where the market is basically flat overall in Germany. In our sales area, it declined. We see again supply constraints in the whole industry. Obviously, demand is currently stronger than supply. We see continued recovery in the economic activity and also pent-up demand for fleet replacement. Again, the market growth is held back by supply constraints. As I said, in our territory, registrations are down 13%, corresponding to 17% of the total German market, but we actually managed to increase by 25% to 174. Obviously, we continue to take market shares for Volvo Trucks in our area.
Aftermarket sales are up 24%, partly as a result of our acquisitions, but also 7% organic growth. We had gross margin up to 10.4% from 9.8% last year. If we then move to slide six, talking a little about business development, we appointed a Head of Sustainability and ESG in our head office to coordinate our efforts. We promote electromobility. We have demo and test drives of Volvo and Renault electric trucks in Germany in three of our locations in the quarter, very appreciated by customers and others.
We imported the first Volvo CE compact electric wheel loaders to Russia, which we will then showcase and then actually use ourselves in our remanufacturing center near Yekaterinburg, one of them to make sure that we understand all the aspects of these loaders. We're very excited about this development and this technology. In Germany, the network expansion and improvement is underway. We have integrated Fulda, Nordhausen, and Limburg into our network. We had a groundbreaking ceremony for our Hannover service and sales hub, and construction has started. The aim is to have that ready by end of next year. We announced the acquisition of Truckservice Bergstraße in early October, and we are continuing our network expansion going forward. We had good used business.
Also in the quarter, we accelerated our efforts to restructure and improve our organization, and making sure that we segment our teams in a good way to become more customer-centric and more performance-oriented. Obviously, this had costs involved that you will see in the results of Germany, which are restructuring costs mainly. Further on business development. Actually, I think we have two slide six here, but business development Russia/CIS. Contracting Services, we had our projects in Norilsk and in Irkutsk for a full quarter was working at their capacity for the first time actually. We saw more than doubling of the revenue.
We had one project in the northwest region completed and we then redeployed the equipment to Karelia for Severstal project. We see strong demand and utilization at our rebuild center in Yekaterinburg. We're very excited about the development of our cooperation with Sandvik. As you know, we started our cooperation on mobile crushers and screens in all of Russia in April this year. Now we have signed an agreement to also become a distributor of Sandvik's stationary crushers and screens, which are bigger and more complex installations. We will do so in all of Russia for the construction segment and in most of Russia for the mining segment. We will start in January 2022. We're very excited about this. Good development there.
On slide eight, we see the German network expansion to date and the current map of our 14 outlets in Germany. I hand over to Erik for economic development, please.
Thank you very much, Lars. If we move over to the next slide, please. I will provide a overview of the economic backdrop that we've been working in. If we start looking at Russia, we can see a GDP growth running at 4.0% in the third quarter, and the forecast for the full year is 4.7, and then a slowdown is expected in 2022 to just below 3%. There is, as in many parts of the world at this point, inflation pressure in Russia. Inflation reached 7.4% in September, which compares to 3.7% last year. There is a cost pressure from that inflation in the Russian economy. Central bank is responding to that.
We saw a 75 basis points hike in October to 7.5%. That was 300 basis points lower a year ago. We are seeing a higher interest rate environment in Russia. The ruble depreciated on an average basis, but we caught up with the big swing in the ruble, the big depreciation in the ruble that we saw during the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020. Only a 2% depreciation. If we look actually at the end of the period rates, which we use for balance sheet translation, then we actually saw a 6% appreciation of the ruble against the Swedish krona. Kazakhstan running slightly slower than Russia at 3.4%. That's year to date.
However, looking maybe a bit more optimistic for next year, slightly above 3%. Then holding on, well, actually closer to 4% for 2022 in Kazakhstan. Germany, 6.9% in Q3, with 3% expected for the full year, and then a continued strong recovery in the next year. If we move to the next slide, we present here our indexed slide of the Russian market in terms of imported machines and our performance against that development. This is indexed to 2011, which is the first full year Ferronordic was operating.
We can see that the market is still, despite the growth that we've seen this year, only 66% of the level that the market was at in 2011, and even lower if you compare it to 2012 and 2013. We continue to believe that the levels then were not even a cap on the Russian market. There is potential for the Russian market, and even indeed a need for the Russian market to grow more, to satisfy pent-up demand and replenish machine fleet. Market 66% of where it was, our revenue 188%, so 88% higher, and operating profit 453% higher. Very good leverage to the development in the market.
If we move over to the financial statements to give you an overview and a summary of developments there, on the next slide, please. We can see total revenue of SEK 1.7 billion. That's up almost 50% at 47%. The split between our segments, 80/20, 80 being Russia/CIS, is actually exactly the same as it was last year. Again, 47% growth, so a strong growth in both markets, as it were. If we look at the split in revenue by activity, we see the sale of equipment and trucks at around 2/3, 62%, aftermarket at 22%. That's a bit lower than last year. It was 26%.
Contracting Services, which as Lars mentioned, has doubled and even a bit more than doubled, and therefore make up now 15% of the overall revenue mix. This number was 11% last year, so that's a 4 percentage points increase there. Gross margin more or less flat versus last year, slightly lower. SG&A as a percent of revenue at 10.1%. That's lower, and that's much driven by the percentage in Russia/CIS at 7.7%, which then offsets a higher, we would though argue temporarily, a bit in inflation level in Germany. The operating margin declined to 8.9%, but that is well above our current financial target of 7%.
A strong result as we see it, and that's much driven by a healthy margin in Russia/CIS at 13.4%. If we look at Germany, we point out there that we have faced some one-off costs as we continue, as Lars mentioned, accelerated efforts to restructure the organization to make it leaner and more efficient. Therefore, in the third quarter, we recognized about SEK 12.7 million of restructuring and redundancy costs. There was also bad debt or credit costs of about SEK 3.7 million. Then acquisition related carrying over from previous periods of SEK 0.7 million. Those are costs that we would probably look at as more non-recurring.
Even with these costs then if we look on a group level, we arrive at an operating profit 37% higher than last year at a record SEK 147 million. If we then move to the operating profit bridge that we provide to give an overview in this presentation on the next slide, please. We can see that the big driver of the growth in operating profit is the gross profit contribution from Russia CIS, which then is really driven by revenue growth with again, the gross margin being more or less stable.
We have a growth also in operating expenses that comes with that growth in revenue and having grown the organization also on the Contracting Services side. A gross profit contribution from Germany, which is however more than offset by a growth in SG&A and also these restructuring costs and credit costs and acquisition costs that I mentioned, all total around SEK 17 million in the third quarter. If we move one more slide forward and look at some of the important margin and cost trends that we have, starting with revenue and margin, we can see there that we're again growing on over a last 12 months basis.
Russia at SEK 4.5 billion and Germany at SEK 1.2 billion, both contributing to that overall growth. If we look at the lower graph there, we see that gross margin trend that I referred to, slightly lower than last year, more or less flat. We also have there on the graph the operating margin trend, which as mentioned is 8.9%, and well above our financial targets and as we see a good result despite a result in Germany, which we believe was at least partly affected by these one-off restructuring costs. If we move to the operating expenses and return on capital on the next slide, please.
We can see that again, looking on a rolling last twelve months basis, we have a lower SG&A in relation to revenue down 9.6%-9.9%, so below 10%, which we're happy to see that trend. That is much again driven by Russia, where it was then over the last twelve months 8.1%, whereas in Germany it stood at 17% of revenue. To the right, you will see the development of our Return on Capital Employed at 27%, much driven by the strong performance in Russia CIS, and to a lesser extent driven also by a slightly lower average capital employed, if we would look quarter-on-quarter year-on-year, it was slightly higher.
Briefly on cash flows, if we turn to the next slide, please. We had strong cash flows in the quarter. Net cash flows from operating activities at SEK 327 million. This was driven by the strong operating performance in Russia CIS, but also from working capital actually moving lower from where it was. In Russia, that lower working capital was a result mainly of lower inventories and receivables, slightly higher payables, but less of a contributing factor. In Germany, also lower working capital, and that was mainly driven by lower inventories, but also higher payables, so releasing cash in Germany as well into the operating cash flows.
When it comes to investing activities, the main investments relate to machines for our Contracting Services, fleet or business, and to a small extent also to investment in the rental fleet in Germany. Briefly on the balance sheet, we can see a growth in the balance sheet. There is some currency effect on that as I mentioned. Mainly driven by those investments that I just mentioned into Contracting Services. Excuse me, if we move to the next slide, please. I've moved on to the balance sheet. Excuse me for that. Yes, I referred to the growth in property, plant and equipment, which again was driven by those investments mainly in Contracting Services and to that smaller extent in the rental fleet in Germany.
And uh also some currency effects. Um net working capital again low; we were low in the second quarter and at 0%, and now even moving to negative working capital last -2%. They say look historically a, a not normal number. We say in the report that we think normal is typically between 5% and 15%. In Germany also then also a lower working capital situation. Uh, partly, this is obviously reflecting a, as Lars mentioned, a, a short supply situation where the inventory we, we, we take in, uh, goes out to, to meet the demand from, from our customers very quickly to a very high, um, turnover of inventory.
Move that one to the previous one. Let me put this together. Um, 0% from 2% in the, in the previous quarter. Um, strong cash flows, um, and, and to some extent driven by that low working capital, um, put us also back in a net cash position at the end of the third quarter. And then, uh, if we move to, uh, financial objectives, uh, uh, and see where we're standing today, then, um, as of, uh, the third quarter, uh, last 12 months, um, so, reaching into fourth quarter of last year and out to, uh, into this, uh, third quarter now, um, we stand currently at 1.2x the 2020 revenue.
Our objective being to double the 2020 revenue by 2025. And then, uh, again, if we look on a last 12 months basis, uh, our operating margin stands at 7%, which is, um, uh, again, above our target of being, uh, north of, of 7%. And, uh, if we look at our, uh, leverage ratio, uh, of which where we target to, to remain below 3x for the quarter, again, way below that at a slightly negative, uh, net debt or, or a net cash position, as it were, of 0.15, uh, in the quarter. And with that, I would hand the word back to Lars to comment a bit on the outlook, and before we take questions and answers.
All right. If we can move to slide 18, please. Basically, we expect our markets to continue to recover in 2022. Most likely at a slower pace though, and off a higher base. In Russia, there is this positive outlook supported by high commodity prices, pent-up demand, which is still out there and will continue for a long time, and also increased activity within the so-called National Projects aimed at infrastructure investments, but obviously then moderated by the risk of increased utilization fees. In Germany, we see a broader European economic recovery to boost demand. We see good activities. Current uncertainty mainly relates then to supply chain constraints, and we expect these constraints to continue well into 2022.
In a longer perspective, we are very optimistic about the fundamentals and business opportunities in our markets. With that, I'll hand over for questions, please.
Thank you. If you have a question for the speakers, please press zero one on your telephone. Our first question is from Adrian Gilani of ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, this is Adrian at ABG. I would just like to start off with a couple of questions on the Contracting Services segment. You started a new project here in Russian Karelia. Is it of a similar size to the Norilsk and Irkutsk projects? Also, could you say anything about the ramp-up timeline for this project?
No. It's not the same size. It's considerably smaller at this stage than Norilsk and Irkutsk. We basically hope to ramp it up very quickly. We have had the equipment in, maybe not in the neighborhood, but at least in the same region, and we have already started to work. It's a considerably smaller size than Irkutsk and Norilsk.
Okay.
We also write, Adrian, in the report that we completed one project up in the north and we moved the machines to this other project. I think for you to think about this, it's more replacing the one that we completed with a new project. Obviously of varying size , so you would expect sequentially more or less the same.
Okay. I understand. Also just to continue, you gave an update on Norilsk, but I could have missed it, but I couldn't find any status on the Irkutsk project in the report. Could you just give us a quick update on that?
Well, I think what we write in the report is in the second quarter, we wrote that we reached capacity at Norilsk and that we expanded our work in the Irkutsk gold complex that we work in. In this quarter, we worked at full capacity throughout the quarter. This I think is what you can take there, that in second quarter we reached the full capacity. In the third quarter now, we were operating through the quarter at both those projects, meaning Norilsk and Irkutsk at that full capacity. Meaning that variations on the basis of those going forward would be more driven by seasonal and some operational variations.
There are always such variations, quarter-on-quarter, depending on where we operate within the mine, and geo conditions and et cetera.
Okay. Also within equipment, there was a large year-over-year increase in the average selling price. I'd just like to ask how much of this was from a sort of mix effect in the products that you mentioned, and how much is just prices increasing on the same machines?
Well, we don't give that information. I mean, obviously the main change was from the product mix. I think that's how you should look at it, basically. Obviously, we have been able to take our prices as well, but in terms of the main chunk of it is from the product mix, yes.
On the Sandvik deal that you announced, is it possible to sort of say anything specific about the expected revenue contribution from this deal, partly in Q4 but also into 2022?
This is, I mean, first, the new corporation actually starts on January 1st, we put in the press release.
Right.
The stationary crushers and screens. The mobile crushers and screens we started in April that we are developing, but it will be a process where we build up our new business area, we build up the customer relations and expand it. I think you should probably expect very little contribution in the immediate near term. This is something that we do expect to grow over time. What we have provided and we stick by is that we've said over time, we expect this to contribute or be between 5% and 7% respectively of our revenue in Russia, specifically. Five then being the mobile and seven being the stationary.
I think over time, we should probably think in the area of three to four years, and then obviously growing gradually over that period. It's a corporation that we're very excited about and we see big potential for.
Okay. Just a final question, zooming out a bit on the market. You've mentioned for a couple of quarters now the potential of an increased utilization fee as a market risk. If this does come into effect, can you quantify in any way how large of an effect you see it having on market volumes?
No. To be honest, the rumors have been there for a long time, as you say. The scale and the level of a potential increase is not known. It has also gone up and down. It's very difficult to give some estimations. What we can say is that the utilization fee is a flat fee, and it does not then have any correlation to the price of the machines. It's a flat fee depending on what type of model of machine we're talking about. Since we are the price leaders in the market, it relatively affects us less than value products, so to speak, that have a considerably lower price. They will be more affected by an increase if it comes.
Since it's so uncertain whether it will come and at what level it will come, if it comes, we can't really speculate on that. I would love to be able, but it's not easy, to be honest.
What we have said, Adrian, is that these fees are fixed. So they impact smaller machines more in a percentage term, lower priced machines. In that way, I mean, it is, we think, you know, a negative, of course, actual risk for the market. On a relative basis, given that we're price leader in the market and also at least recent trends in product mix, it could affect us relatively less than other players in the market.
Okay. That was all for me. Thanks for answering my questions and congrats on a very strong quarter, of course.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from Victor Hansen of Nordea. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Lars and Erik. Victor here. I have a few questions here and the first one on Germany. It would be very interesting to hear how you for two quarters straight now have made such large market share gains in Germany, if you could expand upon that.
Yeah. I mean, we're very happy with that, of course. The truth of the matter is that we had poor numbers in Q1 when the old model of Volvo was being phased out. In Q2, we got deliveries of the first new models of Volvos. They've been very well received in the market and we have been able to take market share since we received the new models. Of course, we're making improvements in our organization. We're becoming more customer-centric, and that now pays off in market shares. Again, although the supply is actually limited, we should remember that. But in a supply-constrained market, we take market shares, and that we're happy about.
Okay. The final one on Germany. Is your plan still to reach the break-even results in early 2022 for Germany with the current footprint? Also if this is on an adjusted or on a reported basis.
Yes, we still aim to break- even. We have done a lot of work in this direction, as you know, with the acquisitions, with the restructuring of the organization, which we have accelerated in Q3. We are still targeting a run rate of break- even towards the end of the year.
On Russia CIS, Lars, you mentioned further potential from the cooperation with Sandvik.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, in addition to the two press releases you've already sent out and discussed on the call just previously. I'm wondering if you could expand upon this, maybe in terms of potential timing or the magnitude, perhaps what products will be in scope in the future. Perhaps if you have the number, it would be really interesting to know how much of Sandvik's total Russian operations you currently handle, something like that.
Well, actually, I was mainly considering, you know, our deepened cooperation when it comes to stationary crushers. I think, you know, we've basically only been partners with Sandvik for half a year, and now we're expanding the cooperation on stationary crushers. It is a very good fit for us. These both the mobile crushers and stationary crushers are working on sites where also Volvo machines are active and obviously customers are similar. Many customers are the same. The Sandvik brand is very strong in Russia, as is Volvo brand. We see very good business opportunities in itself with Sandvik, but also we see synergies in the sales processes and in the service processes because they are actually on the same sites.
That's what I meant. I think we can develop this very well. Again, it's a very trusted brand. It's premium products. It fits very well into our Volvo CE offering as complementing each other. That's where we are optimistic. We're also optimistic in being able to apply our digital sales platform, the system we have developed for Volvo CE. We should be able to apply also for Sandvik machines to grow the aftermarket and make use of that data into our customer database and get a better total offer. We don't
I can't give you the numbers, the share of wallet, or so to speak, that we have with Sandvik in Russia. Obviously, we with the add-on of stationary crushers have more than doubled our potential in this cooperation. That's what I can say.
Great. Understood. Lars, if you could add some flavor around how the supply chain issues have affected your supply of new units in Russia CIS. Your deliveries, for instance, were down 17% quarter-over-quarter, despite the overall market growing year-over-year well above that.
Yeah, I mean, it's clear. There is no secret here. We have suffered from supply constraints. We could have sold more if we had the machines available, which we didn't. But again, I think we were quite early on understanding that this is something we need to adapt to and focusing then on machines that have a higher initial price or more complex, and gives more aftermarket potential going forward so to speak, so investing in that. I think, yeah, we are losing market share big time obviously with only 5% increase in the market that increases 40%.
I think for us, the more important is the mix of machines that we were able to sell in the quarter, which is not only for this quarter, but for many quarters to come, a very important factor for us, obviously.
Okay. Net working capital continued its decline as you spoke about. Could this hurt your ability to deliver in the near term as it always, but continually?
I mean, with regards to working capital, I mean, what we say and I think have reiterated is that these are abnormally low levels that we're seeing in Russia CIS, mainly. Germany, I think we're being more in territory where we should be more long term. In Russia CIS is low. It's partly driven by the situation you just discussed in terms of suppliers. As soon as we get machines or as soon as we import machines, they fly off the shelf, so to say, to customers. I wouldn't expect, maybe regrettably the situation to change in the immediate near term.
We write in the report, and Lars stated in the outlook that we expect these supply constraints to probably remain well into 2022. It's likely if the market remains strong, so that the limited working capital situation would remain. I think long term, it is a low level, and we would return to a higher level somewhere again between 5% and 15% we mentioned in the report.
Okay, great. Only a final question. It's a follow-up on Adrian's question regarding the Karelia project, the new Contracting Services project. First, I'm wondering if you will no longer release press releases on new Contracting Services partnerships as you didn't do it with this one. And then I'm wondering what the sales add is and the length of the project. Thanks.
Thank you for that question. I think when it comes to press releases or not, it depends on the scale and significance of that project or a project in relation to our overall operations and overall revenue. As I elaborated on to Adrian's question, we completed one project and moved those machines over to another project in the same region, and that replaced that project. In terms of where we are, I think the market should expect no big change from that. We swapped one project into another with more or less a sustained revenue profile. That's what I would say.
When it comes to duration of the project, the initial stage is six months. We often see and we hope that we can extend this project going forward and develop the cooperation further with Severstal, as it were in this case.
Great quarter. Thank you for taking my questions.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from Kenneth Toll of Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you. Most of us—my questions have been asked, but some questions I have still. With this National Projects in Russia, I mean, that started to benefit your machine sales this year, but how would you say that those projects have been ramped up? Are there more projects initiated, and when are the first project ending, so to speak? Do you expect much more demand for machines due to these projects also next year?
Yes. The National Projects are being implemented, and they are being extended and expanded, which is very good to see that finally there are serious investments into infrastructure in Russia. Yes, we do expect these projects to continue for many years. These are massive investments into new highways that will last until at least 2028, unless something appears that we don't know now. The plans are for the first ones to be completed in 2028, and then the ones that are coming after will probably continue longer. We see good development there.
The fact is that as we talked about many times, the machine fleet due to non-replacement for so many years is not. The fleet has not the capacity to actually perform these projects, neither in Russia nor in Kazakhstan. For these projects to be able to be made in the first place, there will need to be an expansion of the machine fleet, and that means new machines. Obviously we're very excited about that. We don't see any hesitation from the government as to the spending of these funds. Finally we see good traction, and if anything, Kenneth, an expansion of these investments.
Sounds great. Then also, we read in the newspapers that the coronavirus is a more of a problem in Russia than what it is in Sweden right now, at least. There was an extra vacation week to dampen the spread of the virus and so on. In Q4, have that sort of hurt your business with the extra vacation week and are you seeing more problems now in Q4 than you did in Q3?
Well, yeah, you're right. I mean, there was a spike of infections and there was a non-working week in the whole country, and that has been extended in some regions, not in Moscow and St. Petersburg, for instance. We have not felt any disturbances on our business. I think our guys and our customers have become very used to working with Teams and Zoom and Skype, and I think we have not felt, and we don't foresee any disturbances from that at this stage at least.
Great. Then also when you have a shortage of large machines and machinery, and I guess that a lot of your competitors probably have some problems to supply as well, did that create a good pricing environment in Russia specifically?
Well, obviously when demand exceeds supply, that should drive prices upwards, and hopefully we will also see that going forward. I can't say that we have noticed considerable movements. But yes, logically it should. And again, I mean, as you can you know, market is up 40%, so some suppliers are obviously less affected by, or some brands are less affected by this. It should drive price realization in the market for sure. It would be strange otherwise, I suppose.
Okay, great. That's all from me. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Just as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, that's zero one on your telephone keypad. There'll be a brief pause while we register any further questions. There are no further questions at this time, so I'll hand back over to our speakers.
Operator, we have a question coming in via email. A question on whether we can speak more about the potential collaborations with other products or brands similar to Sandvik, if we can comment on any discussions or similar potential. There is a follow-up question whether the increase in sales of used machines and trucks both in Russia and Germany is more of a strategic shift, or whether it's more driven by the component shortage and the situation in the market, so external factors.
Well, to the first question on potential collaborations with other products, we do have discussions quite constantly with producers or OEMs of different equipment that are complementary to our existing offering. We don't comment on that, what that might be. What we also are very concerned about is of course that we need to make sure that we have focus and that we deliver and perform on the engagement, so to speak, that we have taken on. Sandvik is, as we have said, a big opportunity for us.
It's a big potential and a big responsibility to make sure that we get the Sandvik business in Russia to a good stage. Again, we, with our network in Russia, with our organization, we are a very attractive partner for potential partnerships for brands. That's what I can say. We are discussing quite a lot with different potential partners.
Second question was with regards to whether increase in sale of used machines and trucks was more of our strategic initiative or externally market-driven.
Well, I mean, we always strive to, so to speak, have a good product mix in our sales. We want to sell big machines because it's good for our sustainable profitability in the aftermarket. It's also very often so that these machines are critical for the customer's operation and productivity himself and for his profitability. That's where we can make a difference in terms of how we service and in terms of our parts availability, logistics, and service contracts and everything else that we do. Yes, we, this is our strategy and has always been a strategy to focus on, for instance, articulated hauler, where we have a very strong market position, and pavers, where we have close to half the market.
Obviously, when supply is short, you choose what is best for you in the long term. We should not forget that we obviously want to have market shares in smaller type machines as well. I don't see here a contradiction in what we're doing, both in strategy or due to the supply constraints. They just happen to fit, and we were successful in performing on our strategy. We would have liked to be able to sell more, but we simply couldn't. I think long term, this is a good mix that we have now.
Maybe if on specifically the used side, I would say that this is an area that we want to grow and develop. It's part of our offering to customers to do trade-ins. We take their old machines and provide our machines, which we believe are superior and a better solution for our customers. We sell the machines that we traded in, of course. We also see in itself in the used business potential to be a liquidity provider to the market, so to say, as customers change their machine park .
It also fits into the work that we have more overall, going from new machines, used machines, but also the rental pla n that we have. On the one hand, it is a conscious strategy for us to expand this and develop this opportunity. On the other hand, inevitably, it's also driven by external factors, how much supply there is and how much turnover there is in the used business. It's a combination of both, I would say.
I pass over to the operator again to see if there are any more questions.
Thank you. There are still no questions from the audio lines.
All right. I say thank you for listening in, and have a good day, and speak to you again next quarter. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your interest, everybody, and be in touch if you have questions. Thank you very much. Bye.