Hello, and welcome to today's webcast with Freemelt, where CEO Daniel Gidlund and CFO Martin Granlund will present the Q3 report for 2025. If you have any questions, please feel free to use the form located to the right, and we'll take that up after the presentation. With that said, please go ahead.
Thank you, and welcome everyone to our Q3 webcast. Okay, let's make a short recap about who we are and what we do. So again, Freemelt, we were founded in 2017. What we do, we develop, we sell, and we service advanced 3D printers for metal application. We work with the technological electron beam powder bed fusion, which is highly suitable for productivity because it's a really efficient technology. You can see on the screen here as well, a lot of people think this is lasers, different kinds of lasers pointing. This is an electron beam moving 4 km/s , melting more than 3,000 spots per second as well. Extremely suitable for high volume. It's also a clean, let's say, environment. It's a vacuum, which is optimal as well when you really have high needs of strong and complex materials.
It's also a hot process, which also avoids that you get swings from room temperature up to, let's say, tungsten, where you need to get to over 3,400° . All in all, it's extremely efficient and also suitable for complex applications and materials, which is typically suitable and demanded in areas like defense, energy, and also MedTech. If we then zoom in on our three industrial verticals, they are all growing. I would say both defense and fusion are currently positively impacted from the current geopolitical situation that we are having. Defense, there you can see they are really ramping up volume demand. Also here, I think the importance for, if you put it like, local or national manufacturing, regional manufacturing, to really keep control and take control of your manufacturing process, like in the past when you have outsourced subcomponents.
Now you would like to take full control from the material to the end product. In fusion energy, we can also see a substantial commitment now from investors globally. Just to name drop a few, I mean, Bill Gates, for instance, and his fund is investing heavily now in fusion. You can also see that end users, although the technology is not commercialized, but end users like, for instance, Google are committing to buy fusion energy in the grid when it will be available as well. Limitless and also clean energy, which you typically call fusion energy, have been a key resource now as well for AI and cloud giants.
If we look into more on a national level, I mean, both U.S., who recently announced their top three technology focus areas, and where fusion energy was number two after AI and quantum, and also China, just I think last week announced their five-year investment plan and focus plan, and where also fusion energy was included as well. It really has become a top technology priority for the coming years. I think you even can say that fusion energy now has become the new strategic technology race globally, where you have seen AI in the past and also space. Lastly, medtech, where the majority of the orthopedic implant OEMs, they are already transitioning to AM for the new applications. All three of those have a structural and good growth underlying. Okay, let's zoom in then on Q3, which was another strong quarter for Freemelt.
We had a strong order intake and also sales, and we ended up with a record order backlog in this quarter. If we would summarize, year to date, we are up 228% versus last year. We have sold 12 machines this year, and I think we have an impressive installed base now of 40 machines. I think it's good to just recap and keep in mind that the first machine was launched in 2019, and then we had a pandemic in between. Forty machines now, which is really encouraging to see. It was also encouraging that we almost had a break-even operating cash flow, which I think also proves that we have an underlying good operation efficiency and good cost control in the company as well. Lastly, we had two strategic milestones in this quarter as well.
The first one is to scale for growth, which is we entered into China, the fastest growing market for Additive Manufacturing. We also did hand over our assembly or production of machines to Scanfil, which also now has led us to have a more agile supply chain as well when we are continuing on growing our business more forward. Projects, I think this is what I talked about many times as well. One of the key, let's say, indicators as well that the industrial side is really the demand and interest is ramping up is our commercial products. These are products we charge to customers. Just to give you, I mean, again, as we can only share the products that we have shared externally, these are a few of them.
Let's start with Saab Dynamics, where we have two ongoing projects, one that is directly between the two companies, and then one which is also, it's a Vinnova product together with Linköping University. The focus is on pure copper, and the direct product is in phase two and is running according to plan. The Vinnova product will be ongoing until early 2026. Regarding one of our other prestige projects in fusion energy, and that's Fusion for Energy. Fusion for Energy is the European part of the largest R&D fusion product globally, ITER. Here we're making great progress. This is about tungsten tiles for plasma-facing wall. Here I think it's really a great example where Additive Manufacturing, in this case now electron beam powder bed fusion, adds its maximized value. You can even create material properties that are excellent because we would talk about hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius.
It's really a hot environment, harsh environment, but also where you can. You need to. Grade different kinds of materials as well. Here. You have tungsten first, and then you have other materials to really, let's say, efficiently cool down the high temperatures as well. And to get those materials together, here additive is adding really great value. Regarding the implant OEMs, which is more in production scalability kind of phase, more improved concept. Here, one of the clients does have an eMELT at their production site. One is renting one machine here in Gothenburg at Freemelt's site. The proof of concept, I would say, is on track. I think we can expect some more tangible updates during mid or second half of 2026.
As we have the ambition to become the global leader of electron beam powder bed fusion solutions, then of course we must be present in the fastest growing market for Additive Manufacturing in China as well. I think there is still a lot of perception of China being a high labor-intensive manufacturing country, and maybe it is in some industries. As I said before, China is the world's fastest growing market in Additive Manufacturing as well. It's just a must be here. Actually, yesterday morning I heard on one of the morning shows on Swedish TV that the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt, he mentioned as well that China is expected to represent around 45% of the world's industry by 2030. I think you can also see when you go to China and you see their manufacturing facilities.
It's highly advanced, it's efficient manufacturing, and that they already have in place. They are becoming really, really more efficient from a manufacturing perspective as well. When it comes to fusion energy, where, I mean, Freemelt, we have a strong position. We have worked now a couple of years, first with the UKAEA and now Fusion for Energy and so forth. I mean, China, as I mentioned before, they're also investing a lot of money in fusion as we speak. It's included in the five-year plan. We also see a great potential and value of the collaboration that we have with Jiuli that is highly experienced and exposed to energy applications as such in China and outside of China as well. Lastly, the Chinese population is getting more wealthy, which also means that they request more and more orthopedic implant surgeries as well.
Why there is also an underlying strong increased demand for Additive Manufacturing implants. With that said, I hand over to our CFO, Martin.
Thank you, Daniel. I'm very happy to present another strong quarter by the Freemelt team. In Q3, we had an order intake of SEK 18.5 million. These are the accumulated value of the orders received in the period. We have an order book at an all-time high, SEK 23.4 million. The order book represents the orders we've received, but that we haven't yet invoiced. This order book is going to be future receivables, then turning into future cash flows, and finally turning into net sales in our P&L. This is what an indication of what we'll report for the coming quarters. Strong net sales in the period, SEK 17 million. That's up 96% compared to the same period last year.
For the year-to-date period, it's even stronger, up to 128% compared to the same period last year. We see that the main part of sales, as you can see in the figure on the bottom right, the light green, 81% is from machine sales. We have 12% coming from aftermarket sales and then a small portion from customer projects and other. What's important to note is the margins. The direct margins in the P&L are a little bit worse compared to the same periods last year. This is for two main reasons. One is the sales mix.
Depends very much which machine we sell, what the margin for each sale of the machine is, and also the outsourcing activity that has been ongoing since the spring, where we see that the initial builds of machines are slightly more expensive, but it's going to go down over time as the efficiency improves with our third-party outsourcing partner. Cash flow was also impressive. Operating cash flow of almost break-even in the third quarter. This is, of course, the result of sales. Sales do come down as cash flow at some point. We have seen the improvement is mainly due to reduction in receivables, meaning customers paying their invoices, and also a reduction in overall inventory of trade goods. This is also a great improvement from last year. As you can see from the graph, we've had a great improvement in the operating cash flow.
The cash at bank at the end of period was SEK 45.1 million. For the funding strategy going forward, an important part is the listed warrant, which was part of the capital raise in February 2025. It's going to expire in June. It has the potential to provide the company with SEK 50 million in additional funding. It does require every warrant holder to take action and subscribe. I just want to reiterate the favorable terms of the warrant, where the price paid is going to be a discount towards a volume-weighted price, which is measured in the second half of May 2026. Subscription is in June, and the maximum price for the warrant is going to be SEK 1.33.
Just as a reminder for those of you who have this in your holdings, you have to take action if you are interested in being part of the future Freemelt journey. Thanks a lot.
Thank you, Martin. Let's wrap up Q3. Q3 was another strong quarter regarding sales and order intake. I think this also together with a strong Q2, we have ended up with an all-time high order backlog as well, which of course is extremely encouraging and important moving forward. We also achieved two major strategic milestones during the quarter. Again, from a commercial growth and expansion point of view, our presence now in China, the fastest growing market for Additive Manufacturing, is extremely important.
I think we can also see that based on the first order that we also received on the machine within such a short, let's say, time after we entered into the collaboration with Jiuli. I think it just proves how Jiuli is operating and executing. Secondly, we also, with the strategic agreement with Scanfil, we managed also to hand over according to plan with Scanfil, which is now independently assembling our machines as well, so which can, will help us a lot when we continue to grow and also when we continue to grow as an industrial company as well. I think we just must remind ourselves that we have sold 40 machines until now. Again, the first machine was launched in 2019. We had the pandemic in between. Only in this year, we have had, we have sold 12 machines now.
I think we're taking clear steps towards our ambition of being a leading E-PBF supplier. Lastly, I think at this moment now, it's very energizing to be the CEO at Freemelt. I think we're well positioned to continue turning our technology edge into further commercial growth. Also, the external factors that we are seeing now, the geopolitical situation, is actually also helping the acceleration as well for the adoption of Additive Manufacturing. With that said, thanks for listening in. Now we open up for questions if you have any.
Yes, thank you very much for that presentation. We'll start with the first question here. Could you give us a breakdown of your order book as of Q3 and also a timeline for the machine deliveries?
I can respond to this one. We don't provide a breakdown of the order book. We do mention in the press releases sometimes when we expect the delivery to take place. Typically, it takes between three and five months from received purchase order until delivery. That's also when the machines end up as net sales in our books. We do invoice them in between. Machines are invoiced 30% at purchase order, 60% at delivery, and 10% at install, which is a typical case. It's not always the case, but the typical case. I could highlight with regards to the order book that most of it is machine sales, but we also have a few rental solutions which provide income over time, and those are for longer periods. This is a small part of the order book as well.
Thank you for that answer. Will the transfer of production to Scanfil. Incur any further non-recurring costs? What impact on gross margin do you expect from the transfer?
Scanfil has been building our products since October 1st on the premises in Åtvidaberg. They have been taught how to build these products. Initially, we do see that the unit cost is higher in the transition. It is going to go down over time. Scanfil is also a partner which helps us to industrialize the machines, helps us with procurement and purchasing. I do see that the margins will improve over time when we work with Scanfil. In terms of one-off costs, it depends very much on what kind of initiatives we want to do with this third partner. I think it is very much up to us what we want to improve, when we want to improve it, and how much we are willing to spend on such improvements.
Thank you, Martin, for that answer. What are your investment plans for 2025 and also 2026?
I can jump in on this one as well. We normally do not talk about the future investment plans in detail, but just as a broad outline, we have an application center in Gothenburg. We have an application center in the U.S. The projects that we are doing, we see interest in projects. We need machines in those application centers to perform those projects. That is one area where it is likely that we need to do a bit of investment in order to be able to get new interesting customers and especially industrial customers as well for the future. As we have spoken about in the past, the projects that we do, those are the really interesting ones which we should keep an extra eye on.
In Q2, you made a breakthrough with increased traction in the market, driving record high order intake. In Q3, your order book is at record high level, and order intake is at the same level, but with fewer machines sold. Can you elaborate on that and how you should think about the order values going forward?
I can take that one.
Sorry?
I can answer that one. I think we can all, of course, confirm what we communicated in the second quarter. We are seeing in general an increased traction in the market. I think in fusion, we have strengthened our position recently. I think in defense, all of us can read in the news and see in the news that the pressure for change is great.
When it comes to the order value per the respective orders, it is really depending on the type of machines that we sell, but also depending on the aftermarket that has been generated during the quarter and during Q3. We did sell less machines, but two of them were the industrial machine eMELT, which have a higher order value than our research machines. Yeah, I think that's the explanation why it was different. The mix of sales, I would say, is really depending on the outcome.
Thank you for that answer, Daniel. You write in the report that your production has now transferred to Scanfil, which reduces your investment needs in the future and ties up less capital. Can you elaborate on it further, and do you see any risk in the collaboration going forward?
Right. It is a central part of our strategy, right? We've walked through this. It does minimize the capital tied up in the company. It increases our production delivery capacity for the future, greatly, I would say. It also mitigates future risks if we would do all this in-house with competence, tooling, production space, strategic purchasing, etc. It's much better to have a specialized third party to do this. I mean, with the specific risks, we've already covered that in the short term, we do see somewhat higher unit costs. It's going to go down over time. We do see that we, of course, will be reliant on a third party. It's not all in our own hands, and it's a third party we have to manage properly. That's going to be extremely important for us going forward. It also reduces our flexibility a little bit because, again, we need to provide firm forecasts to our third-party production partner.
Whereas when you have it in-house, there's always a bit more flexibility and, yeah, easier to handle, if you like. I would say those are the main sort of things to look at from our side.
Understood. Thank you. During the period, you visited your partner, Jiuli, in China, and you have already received your first machine order. How do you see the collaboration going forward?
Yeah, as I mentioned before, China is the fastest growing market for additive. Again, it's a must for us to be there. I think Jiuli maybe is maybe not the typical partner to additive OEMs like Freemelt or like to be a reseller. I think Jiuli, they are a big manufacturing company in high-tech applications, mainly in energy applications.
I think, again, with the focus on fusion energy, then I think Jiuli, they have really strong and good capabilities to get a good presence there as well. I think also, the machine order that we received within such a short period of time as well after our collaboration agreement was signed, I think that also underscores how well the collaboration has started. Moving forward, I just expect this to continue in the same positive path that we have seen from the start.
As—sorry. Martin, did you want to add something there?
No?
Okay. Sorry. As you mentioned, there is great pressure for change in defense, and you have several ongoing projects in the sector. Can you tell us how they are developing and what we can expect going forward?
Yeah. I think, again, as I mentioned before, there is a high need of advanced components in very complex materials as well, which is critical for defense. Here, I think AM will definitely have a, it will play a crucial role. I think I also have seen somewhere that AM now is expecting to actually grow substantially within the defense industry, such up to 19% of the total manufacturing at 2035. I mean, we are currently running two projects, which I mentioned before, but with Saab. They are running according to plan. We also got a new order with not the named defense customer, but who acquired a Freemelt ONE machine for material development. I think all in all, I think the projects and the collaborations, engagement that we're having in defense is running well.
In what way do U.S. tariffs and government shutdown affect Freemelt?
Maybe I can provide some light on this, if I can. I mean, the tariffs is something which we roll over to our customers. That's our initial standing point. It remains to be seen what the sort of price elasticity is and whether the customers will accept this or not. I think it's very difficult to have a view on that. When it comes to the government shutdown, sure, it is problematic, but I think the signals we hear is perhaps that it creates uncertainty, and the uncertainty as such is the problem, not necessarily anything else as a sort of first problem.
Thank you for that. Compared to last year, direct margins have come down. What is the reason for this?
I elaborated on this previously. It's the sales mix, and it's also the fact that we've transferred production to a third party where we initially see slightly higher unit costs. I'll just stop there.
Why should investors believe that 3D printing can move from prototype printing to serial production? Why would traditional manufacturing not be an alternative when, for example, printing tiles for a fusion reactor?
That's a very good question. I think maybe before I start to answer that question, I think it's also important to remind of the fact if we take the total metal manufacturing industry globally, I think that is, I've seen somewhere it's like EUR 880 billion business. Approximately 1% of it is manufactured by AM. Still, it's a huge opportunity, and AM will not take over, will not replace conventional manufacturing in all this.
I think also it's important to highlight as well, I mean, the conventional manufacturing has thousands, actually thousands of years behind a long legacy. To change a massive industry. Like this, I mean, it takes time, and often it requires a crisis as well. Actually, it is a lot about change management. Actually, now we have sort of a crisis. We have the geopolitical situation. As I said before, I think now we can at least feel that there is some tailwind on that kind of change attitude. I think it is also important to mention, I mean, Additive Manufacturing has been there for a bit more than 30 years. If you look into the design of the machine as well, the machine design has really been set up for more prototype-focused business.
How you operate a 3D printer is that you stand at the printer and do all the preparation. You also, after the print is done, stand at the printer, do all the post-work. You actually block the machine for productivity. If you cannot produce as much as you can do with conventional, then of course, I mean, yeah, the cost per printed part actually becomes too high. I think that is one reason. This is also a reason why Freemelt did actually redesign our machines. I mean, we, as you potentially saw on the first slide, and if you follow us, you have seen as well that we have an interchangeable modular system. Before the print, we prepare everything in a different part of the factory. After the print, we replace this build module with the one that has been prepared.
Really quick turnaround times to reduce the cycle time, which is key for production. Get more parts produced, get down the cost for it. Secondly, I think also, and more related to the complex design parts, I mean, some of the conventional, let's say, technology cannot manufacture parts where you, for instance, need internal channels for cooling, for instance, or graded materials. Like if you are in fusion, for instance. These kind of things are not nice to have, but really the difference between the part to survive in this environment and does not. Thirdly, and then maybe more related to the fusion part of the question, I mean, fusion tiles, these are small tiles that you put into the plasma, on the plasma wall. I mentioned before, it is like hundreds of millions of degrees. It is extreme heat and also thermal shock.
Conventional manufacturing creates stresses and also multiple failures in the interfaces between the different kinds of materials that you need to have. With additive, and in this case, electron beam part of the fusion, you can print fully dense tungsten parts and also engineer porosity where it is needed, where you need to add other materials. All in all, I think you get better kind of material. You get less joints and less cracks, and in the end, longer lives. From that point of view, additive is really adding so much more value to, in this case, fusion tiles than conventional manufacturing.
Thank you for that answer. I believe you already answered this question, but maybe you can add some more color. Why not just use traditional manufacturing for fusion tiles?
Again, I mean, fusion tiles at this moment are being manufactured with tradition. As I tried to explain, you can get additional value with additively manufactured. You can get longer life. What you do not want to do is to stop a fusion reactor when it is up and running and have long, let's say, cycle times before you can run it again. If you can extend the life of the reactor to be up and running with having better materials, etc., then of course, it is better for everyone in the end.
Thank you for that answer. We will take one final question here before wrapping up. Do you get any powder sales from the installed base?
At this moment, Freemelt, we have taken an open-source approach when it comes to our architecture and software, but also when it comes to powder. Most of the other, let's say, OEMs do have a, let's say, closed ecosystem. You need to buy the printer, the software, and the powder. Freemelt is taking a different kind of approach. We collaborate instead with partners that can add most value from a powder point of view. We work a lot with Sandvik, just to mention one. With that said, no, at this moment, we do not sell powder to our customers, but we do that through our partners.
Okay. That concludes today's presentation and also Q&A section here. Thank you very much, Daniel and Martin, for presenting and answering all of our questions. Thank you for everyone for tuning in. Thank you.
Thank you.