Good morning, and welcome to this presentation of Munters' Q1 2026 results. My name is Line Dovärn , and I'm head of Investor Relations, joined here by CEO Klas Forsström and CFO Katharina Fischer. Klas and Katharina will go through the results of Q1, and then we will open up for Q&A. With that, I will hand over to you, Klas.
Thank you very much, Line. Once again, good morning and very, very much welcome. A solid start to the year. Let me summarize the quarter like this. Good to strong demand across all business areas. A book-to-bill about one in all business areas. I feel it has been a well-executed quarter based on our plans. Build, scale, and accelerate growth step by step in data center technology, reset AirTech and start to grow the base business. Capture growth and continue to scale in FoodTech. Operational progress in line with the plan. All in all, a solid quarter. Our outlook remains unchanged. A stronger second half for the year is expected, though, as for everyone else, higher geopolitical and supply chain uncertainties are building up. More in detail then. A well-executed start to the year.
If I start with orders, continued strong order growth. Order intake 49% organically, 32% in Swedish krona. AirTech, robust demand across all regions despite a larger product cancellation. Data center technology, strong demand once again in Americas from both hyperscalers and co-locators. FoodTech, strong demand for controllers and software. The order backlog increased with 88%. Currency adjusted, I mean, close to 100. It was mainly data center technologies, where orders to be delivered mainly in 2026 and 2027. A book-to-bill of 1.3. Net sales affected by currency, 12% currency headwind. 9% growth. AirTech, strong performance in Americas. Data center, building it up, but continued strong delivery based on our execution plan on the order backlog. FoodTech, driven both by controllers and software in Americas.
The margins impacted by temporary factors, the adjusted EBITA margin just shy of 11%. Data center technology, the tariff headwinds of about four percentage points, and then also the well-known product transition that is taking place. FoodTech remained robust, impacted by continued investments for growth. AirTech, as planned, improved mainly positive impact on cost savings, and then also price increases and absence of the dual site cost. The EBIT margin 7.6. We see favorable trends in several regions and end markets. If I start with the on the region perspective, 67% of our orders came in from Americas. AirTech, market stabilization, pocket of growth are starting to show. Expanding in data center rapidly continued to lead globally by AI-scaled investments and AI-driven demands. FoodTech, a positive growth momentum. Moving to EMEA, 20% of the total.
In AirTech, mixed demand environment. Defense and utilities are growing. Pricing to some extent remains competitive. Data center technology, compared to last quarter, a slower quarter, not that we were slower, but generally speaking, the market was somewhat slower, but signs of pickup. Growth driven by Northern Europe and to some extent, Middle East. FoodTech, positive market outlook, driven by efficiency and animal welfare requirements. Moving to APAC. Here we can say that we start to see clear signs of improvements in China through continuous but though high, you know, competition. Also Southeast Asia and India are growing as markets. Data center, a good market outlook. As you know, here we have just started to move forward and I'm positive to our future in this area.
Here we're also investing now in building up capacity in this region, both when it comes to manufacturing and when it comes to sales force. Finally, then, FoodTech. Growing markets, a mix of mature, immature levels and the business practice. Drilling into AirTech then. Robust demand despite an order cancellation of some SEK 280 million. Order intake increased in Americas, growth in industrial, commercial, and components outside batteries. EMEA, flat to growth in some industrial areas, mainly defense and pharma. APAC, solid growth components, commercial, service, and battery segments. You can say very strong in general other than what we call the base business. Clean technologies, stable demand driven by EMEA and Americas. Order backlog slight increase. Book-to-bill about 1.
If I add back in the order cancellation, book-to-bill that is about 1.2. I think this picture is one of the more important ones when it comes to AirTech. This, but the icing on the cake, approximately 10% our total. Take a look beyond all the other segments. This is for sure now a clear trend that we are continuing to grow the other segments step by step. I've several times said that we need to have a couple of quarters with a SEK 2 billion order intake and about this. Then if I add back in the order cancellation, it was close to SEK 2.3 billion in order intake. That will give a basis for filling up the factories.
Batteries, regional differences, delays in some investments, but then also a continued push of orders in APAC. The other industrial positive development in most markets, I would say. Clean technologies continued stable development. The commercial good growth driven by supermarket in Americas. Also important, components, as you can see, is starting now to really advance forward, both when it comes to evaporative pads, to data center, but then also to some rotor replacement, predominantly in Asia. Service, a stable development. As per plan, we strengthen the margin. We delivered on the announced cost savings, and Katharina will come back to that. We have no dual site cost.
We were increasing the prices and then of course, we still battle for this quarter and a few coming quarters with some lower underutilization in the factories and a somewhat unfavorable product mix. The sales increased organically. Americas were growing, EMEA declined to some extent, and APAC declined. It is Americas that is starting to come back here in a good manner. Data center technologies. First of all, demand remains strong. We don't see any call it worrying signs on a demand going down. Strong markets. Order intake increased substantially. We have a backlog of SEK 15 billion now in data center. The chiller demand is particularly strong, reflecting AI and development. The order, as I said, increased. Deliveries mainly in this quarter targeted for 2026 and 2027.
A book-to-bill, impressive. I have to say, once again, strong, 1.6 then. Perhaps, let me also look into a little bit of the customer segments and the solutions. First of all, a good balance in between the hyperscalers and co-locators. As you know, it is in general always the hyperscalers that are driving the general demand, but some of it we're selling through co-locators and some we're selling direct to the hyperscalers. A good balance here. When it comes to product categories, as you can see, chillers representing then on a rolling twelve 42%, and here that we gradually will start to pick up the profitability. As you can see, when it comes to the other categories also well-balanced spread.
It indicates that we have a strong portfolio across all the different product categories. Margins, as expected, temporarily impacted coming from two main areas. First of all, the tariff headwinds, the 4%, so backing that in, it's 4% more. It is the product transition, and it's our strategic growth initiatives. We have been driving price increases, and we are compensating cost increases in components and so on with continuous price increases on each and every project order. If I lean back a little bit and how do you scale a business? You have heard me say this several times. If you set up a new product, if you set up a new factory, in the beginning you have to invest, you have to build, and then you start to produce.
When you produce there, you have a lower profitability, and you don't get out so much. The next step, that is to increase the output. Still you're not efficient enough because you have to learn, you have to improve, you have to work with lean principles, et cetera. The more you produce, the better it becomes. If I go ahead then, this is what will happen then during this quarter, step by step moving up, and in the second half then, we have a production that is up and running that delivers both, the volumes and also the efficiency and thereby the profitability. The normal industrial pickup when you put together a new factory. The order backlog continued, as I said, to increase. We have also highlighted here the approximately SEK 2 billion order that we published just a few days ago.
As you can see, that is also then to be delivered during 2027 and 2028. I've talked about the things on the right side, but it's practically securing critical components. I think everyone working in data center and in the electrical area, it is about constantly work with procuring components and securing that. It is for us to scale up staffing and operation in engineering. It is to add when needed, if needed, extended shifts to drive throughput through. As I said, it's about expanding manufacturing and assembly footprint now for us also moving in and investing in Asia. Step by step, that is the mantra. FoodTech continued strong demand, well spread across the order backlog also here and the book-to-bill about one. Software-generated growth driven by broiler and layer.
Controllers strong growth driven by Americas. Stable and very pleasing development. A little bit weaker ARR development linked to several things. One, that is we're scaling up and we are upgrading our systems, and then also, I mean, very often it comes in waves. We should be about 20, maybe up to 30%. 15, I think it is a good quarter, but not an excellent quarter in ARR or growth. Net sales increased across the line, especially nice to see controller growth in Americas from broiler and layer segments. The EBITDA margin remained robust. We are investing to continue to support growth. We are driving through price increases and initiatives to balance that.
Despite Q1 being, from a seasonal perspective for controllers, a weaker, we delivered a strong growth also in controllers during the quarter. I think it is important to remind ourselves, we are building a business here that is more or less 100% digital. We have gone from being non-intelligent equipment to now being very much digital-driven. We are building a unique capability, and we are closing in on a run rate of SEK 2 billion in a year. A lot of our growth has come from organic growth, well-targeted innovation, well-targeted customer expansion. It has also come from, I have to say, a proven M&A execution. I give you three examples here. First of all, AirTech, in the clean technologies, what we acquired, the Airprotech, towards volatile organic compounds, a very interesting growth area for the future.
That is one of our focuses to continue to grow in clean technology. Data center to become a full solution provider, expanding our footprint, expanding our offer, and here Geoclima is a good example. FoodT ech then, the shift towards controllers and intelligent equipment combined with software. As you can see then, strong growth, order intake of what we have acquired generates 13%, the net sales, 9% growth. Adjusted EBITA, 8%. What we have to remind ourselves on, that is we drive commercial synergies, we drive operational efficiencies, technology integration, and we are strengthening the market position. This of course, will improve over the years.
The other thing we need to remember, that is, and I take Geoclima as the example here, a business that were about SEK 400+ million in sales when we acquired them and has now generated order intake of SEK 6 billion. That is not counted into the organic order intake. That is counted into our growth in Americas. At the end, I think that, looking back, Geoclima must be one of the very, very best M&As done, at least in Munters' history, and I think across many different industries. With that, leaving ourselves on a high note here, I hand over to you, Katharina, and take us through the financial highlights.
Okay. Thank you, Klas. As you have heard Klas comment on, in the first quarter, we had all business areas deliver positive organic growth, although the reported net sales was impacted by currency headwinds of - 12%. The margin, profitability was temporarily impacted, resulting in a lower net income, but cash flow remained stable. We also significantly improved our operating working capital to net sales ratio to well below our target range of 10%-13%. I will now go into more details. As we said, if we look at the margin development in first quarter, the volume had a slightly positive impact across the business areas, and this was also coupled with positive net price increases, mainly in DCT, so positive to see that.
At the same time, we also had some headwinds in terms of tariffs in DCT, the 4 percentage points, as Klas also mentioned, and we have also seen negative product mix in AirTech in DCT. Operationally, the underutilization then in AirTech weighed on the margin, and then also the new factory ramp up in DCT. We continue to invest in our strategic initiatives, where we continue to scale and also advance digitalization and automation to really strengthen our footprint and also support long-term growth. At the same time, we also saw positive support from the cost-saving measures in AirTech, and I will come back to those in just a while.
If we look sequentially on the margin development, we saw an improvement then in Q1 versus Q4, and this was mainly driven by stronger volumes, but also the positive impact from the cost savings measures in AirTech then. Here you can see the good development in our cost savings program for AirTech. The 2025 initiated measures has been completed and delivered more than the planned SEK 100 million savings. This reflects strong execution by the AirTech business area. Looking into 2026, those initiatives are expected to give us annual net cost savings in the range of SEK 250 million-SEK 300 million, with the full effect reached by the end of the year. So far, we have reached more than SEK 50 million in the first quarter.
These initiatives is a combination of different activities. Of course, we have looked at the footprint, and we have also tweaked these investments that we are making sure we balance capacity, but also safeguard key competencies. We're also optimizing the workforce, and we are also working with increased efficiency initiatives to cost optimize, but also driving lean improvements. We are also having a more focused approach on the commercial side. Overall, this is a very important program for AirTech to restore their profitability, and it will position them very well for continued efficient and scalable growth in the future. Looking at cash flow then, the quarter, we had a stable cash flow from operating activities.
The lower operating profit was mitigated by positive changes in operating working capital, and that is mainly due to the advances in DCT. In the investment activities, we saw an impact from the remaining shares that we bought from MTech. So the 20%, the $18.5 million. CapEx was a bit lower in the first quarter than in the fourth quarter, so remaining at a controlled level. Overall, the total cash flow was SEK -133 million. We remain to have a very disciplined approach to capital allocation, where we prioritize investments in the areas that support long-term growth and value creation. In the quarter, our level of investments, and also on a rolling twelve-month basis, was 5.5%.
Here we are continuing to invest in all our prioritized areas. Looking ahead, DCT remains a priority area for us. You know that we are scaling and ramping up the production facility in Virginia to support the demand in the U.S. market. Also, as Klas also mentioned, in Asia Pacific, we will continue to invest to expand our presence there. Looking ahead in terms of CapEx outlook, that remains to be broadly in line with the level that we had in 2025. Also want to mention our strong progress in the working capital area, where we have now reduced that further to 6.5% of net sales, so well below our target range. Looking at leverage then, leverage increased to 3.1% from 2.9% at the end of the fourth quarter.
This was a result of lower operating earnings that was partly offset by a strong cash flow generation, but also a result of the contingent consideration then paid for MTech, the $18.5 million. We remain a very diversified funding base. That is a top priority for us, of course. While we do not have a fixed leverage target, our ambition is to be in the range of 1.5-2.5x over time. Temporary deviations above that is not a concern to us since they are due to strategic investment in growth areas that are then strengthening our competitive position. Looking ahead, we see that leverage will gradually improve as we go into the second half, where we have stronger volume and margin to support de-leveraging. Turning to sustainability.
Here we are continuing to strengthen transparency and execution, and I'm very pleased that we, in the first quarter this year, published our first annual sustainability report under CSRD, where we have raised the level of transparency and data quality and governance across the whole organization, and we are making really good progress across our key sustainability indicators. In 2025, renewable electricity increased to 91% across our own production sites, and also renewable energy increased to 49%, which then lowers our exposure to oil and gas price volatility, but also, of course, lower our operational emissions. We have also improved the resource efficiencies with more waste reused or recycled, and that has then led to reduced landfill volumes, which is now 20%.
Our safety performance continues to be strong, as indicated by the workplace accident rate that is low at 0.8. We see service and components continue to grow. In the quarter, it amounted to 26% of total net sales, leading then to improved resilience and long-term growth and value creation. Our ambition for the group is to be above 1/3 of net sales. Sustainability is at the core of our strategy, of course. It helps us strengthen operations, also manage risk and deliver long-term results. With that, I'd like to thank you and turn it back to you, Klas.
Thank you very much, Katharina. Let me start to summarize it before we move into Q&A. I'm very pleased to see that we are continuing to progress towards our financial targets. If I start with the top performer of the quarter, the 6.5% operating working capital per net sales, well ahead of the target. The EBITDA margin, in what we predicted it should be, around just shy of 11%, indicating that the second half of the year will be an improvement. Currency-adjusted growth of 9% in the quarter. Also here, we're very confident that the year will drive us up to be ahead of our targets. If I summarize that, what we see for 2026, no change in the outlook.
The status in AirTech, improved order intake across several segments, one of the strongest quarters when it comes to base business in Munters history, a positive book-to-bill, and ongoing efficiency programs. In data center, showing clear evidence that the wide product portfolio supports continued growth. The order backlog is now up to SEK 15 billion, and the U.S. chiller ramp-up is progressing as per plan. FoodTech, now a fully digital offering, new regions being brought in, and we continue to invest for future growth. Summarizing starters, bang on the plan. The market outlook remains flat to positive for AirTech, and I can say we saw clear evidence that that is the case in the quarter. Data center positive, I would say I'm even more positive in the market for data center moving forward. FoodTech, I mean, here it's us basically driving it.
A positive market, a good interest, on what we offer. Many customers are saying we are bringing something into the marketplace that is unique. It connects intelligent equipment with capabilities to draw conclusions through software and AI. The business outlook, to summarize it, net sales growth expected to develop positively, supported by the strong backlog. It will be, with high probability, the best year ever in Munters history. Adjusted EBITDA margin expected to improve H2, driven by the order backlog and DCT margin and margins, and improvements in AirTech also when it comes to margins. All in all, we look forward to an excited second half of this year. With that, it's over to all of you, and welcome back, Line Dovärn.
Thank you. Thank you, Klas and Katharina, for presenting. We are ready for questions, so we will hand over to the telephone conference and start there.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six again on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Adela Dashian from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Klas and Katharina and Line. Thanks for taking my questions. Let me start on the one on DCT margins and expectations for Q2. Can we just confirm that you will no longer import the finished goods from Europe by the end of Q2? Also maybe in terms of timing, is there any way you could be a bit more specific on when the localized production has actually started to ramp up? Like, has it already been from the first of Q2 or like timing-wise, when should we start to expect to see chiller production in the U.S.?
Thank you for the questions, and you're correct. The plan is that by end of Q2, the remainder of the imported chillers produced in Italy should be gone. It could be, I mean, one or two then if I put it like that. The plan is by end of Q2, it should not be any importing from Europe. In the same way then, we are now scaling up production. Beginning of Q3, if all goes well full speed ahead, we have then all the capabilities to produce chillers in U.S. at the speed in order to deliver on the backlog that we have booked into the U.S. order book, so to speak. Gradually improving during the quarter and reaching full speed ahead then, beginning Q3.
Great. Thank you. If we then think about the 4 percentage points tariff headwind, it was the same now in Q1 as it was in Q4. I mean, it would be fair to assume that a total mitigation of that effect is not going to happen in 2026? Like, I would assume that you are still to some extent dependent on potentially component suppliers from Europe and so on, or have you already been able to create those sort of relationships with the localized suppliers in the U.S.?
Adela, you are well read on, and what I mean with that is everyone that produces anything based on metals and components that is not manufactured in U.S., and that is quite a lot of that, will of course have a certain effect of tariffs then, always. That is for us, that is for our competitors. When it comes to the direct finished goods of chillers, I mean, as we talked about that will be gone then by this quarter. But when it comes to the rest, of course, that will be there. We are gradually improving. That is also why we talk more and more of vertical integration. We have a strong base. But even our sub-suppliers in U.S., of course, they are also importing certain components.
It is the reality for everyone working in U.S. that they will have a, call it, direct or non-direct tariff hit then in their production. When it comes to the products produced in Europe and imported to U.S., that will then vanish away. Anything, Katharina, to add on that?
Would you start-
Yeah. No. Yeah. Yes.
Would you start to feel more comfortable raising the prices of chillers once you have the localized production set up? Because obviously you haven't been doing that given the European set up.
No, but it's good that you bring this up as well. I mean, we are constantly rising our prices. We have been rising prices in U.S. in many different areas. Each and every project order is then a new price point being given based upon cost and based upon estimations moving forward. When I started to talk about, I mean, what is the market price, when we enter the U.S., I mean, then we priced it at the level of price performance in the market at that place. Then the tariffs came, and that was a negative impact. I'm not correcting myself, but perhaps I'm clarifying myself. We are constantly working with pricing, but we need to price it in the context of the U.S. market. I hope that clarified.
Definitely. If I can just squeeze one last in before getting back into the queue. I mean, you've been guiding for DCT order intake of roughly SEK 1.5 billion-SEK 2 billion per quarter from here on. I mean, how should we think about this now with you already announcing that you have a SEK 2 billion order in the second quarter? Is this just an incremental on top of this, I guess, small to medium-sized order intake? Or, yeah, like how should we, I guess just, if you could give a clarification on the guidance there.
It's also a fair question. Please understand me right. Whatever answer I give now will sort of bite me in the tail, so to speak. Yes, we maintain, if we call it then, the normal order flow that should be in the range of SEK 1.5 billion-SEK 2 billion. Then on top of that, on and off, we will have larger orders like this. Of course, it is clear that in this quarter it will definitely be ahead of SEK 2 billion. I cannot say another number, but I can say like this, I'm confident in what we see in the market. We are continuously winning with our broader portfolio.
If we are able to win smaller large orders to substantial large order as the last one, I mean, then we will be at a high probability about SEK 2 billion per quarter. We maintain this SEK 1.5 billion- SEK 2 billion, call it. Now the forbidden word comes as the base business. There is no base business, but you know what I mean.
Other business.
Great, Klas. I'll get back in the queue. Congratulations on.
Thank you.
The northern front then.
Thank you.
We can take another caller from the telephone conference.
The next question comes from Carl Deijenberg from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Good morning. Could I ask firstly on a little bit the phasing or maybe taking a step back, I mean, in conjunction with the Q4, I believe you were guiding for at least 30% organic sales growth for DCT for the full year. I guess first question given the comments around the phasing here and the ramp up and so forth, do you still expect that full year assumption to hold?
Yes. In between 30%-40%. It can shift in between quarters, but that ramp up that I expect, yes.
Yeah
With the clear, it is the second half you will see the big inflow.
Yeah. Because that was onto my second question. I just wanted to ask a little bit if you could talk about the phasing here going into Q2 on the invoicing. Would it be possible to say anything? You know, now you were at 1.4, and I believe you were at 1.35 on the net sales in Q4 in DCT. And with the comments around the ramp up and so forth, do you expect a similar invoicing pattern for Q2 as well, and then they ramp up from Q3 and onwards? Or would it be possible to say anything on that?
The simple answer is that we will stepwise ramp it up then. In earlier calls, I used the description then saying, "What will happen then when you are building up capacity, when you're building up a new product production in a..." First you start with a smaller volume, and then you're at the lower efficiency and lower profitability. Then you push the volumes upwards. You're still not efficient, so I mean, the margin on each and every product will not be as good. Then you push up your efficiency, et cetera. In simple terms, then, we will increase volume during the coming quarter, but we will not have the effect of the profitability drop through.
Then in Q3 and Q4, we will have, if I use the expression, full effect of the volume drop through and the efficiency and the profitability. It follows pretty much the pattern that we had in earlier ramp ups, et cetera. A gradual ramp up on output and a gradual up lift on margins then, but in the beginning, not the margins that we would have when we have full speed ahead.
Okay. Very well. Thank you. I just also wanted to ask on AirTech, on the order cancellation. I appreciate the comments you gave there that they seem to be fairly customer specific. Could you say anything more about what is behind this? Is this a you know full cancellation of the project, or has anything changed in the overall market that's been triggering this?
First of all, no, nothing has changed in the market. This is a specific project and a specific customer. The way we look upon it has been communicated as a delay in the build-up, but our interpretation is that delay is going to be for such a long period that we treat it as a cancellation. We work with the involved parties how we should sort that out. In reality, it has nothing to do with our activities. It has nothing to do, generally speaking, with the market. It is one customer that has substantially delayed its build-out of a certain project, and we treat it as a cancellation. I would like to add on that, and that we deduct on order intake in this quarter.
If I bring it back, I mean, the underlying order intake in this quarter is SEK 280 million more than what you see on the real numbers, so to speak. This is one of our strongest order intake quarters in AirTech for several years.
Okay, great. Yeah, that also explains my second question then. I think that was everything for me for now. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Carl. We will take another caller.
The next question comes from Anders Roslund from Pareto Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. I just have a couple of questions here. Your DCT expectations on 30%-40% sales growth for this year. How has the first quarter and what you know so far of the second quarter? Are you closer to 30% or closer to 40%? Any changes in this?
No changes. As you know, now into the details. First of all, I mean, the monetary value is all was affected by, if I remember it right, 12%-13% currency. The invoicing on order intake, it was up to 17%, so substantial call it then currency effect. With that said, my expectations on the year remains 30%-40%. Then, you can say how much I would like to go out on what I call the plank. I mean, if I go out, then it's closer to 40. If I'm a little bit more, let's just to pick it then, let's say the average 35%. That is not the prediction, Anders. In between 30 to-
No. Okay.
40%.
Also on the margin development, you indicated here that the margin will still be impacted by the ramp up of production, but could it be even lower than the outcome in the two first quarter, or should we expect about the same level?
You know what I will answer on that. I mean, we don't give detailed guidance on each and every quarter. What I'm super confident about is that the second half of the year will deliver results that both myself and Stefan will be very pleased about in data center. During the first half of the year we will have weaker margins. Some of the tariff effects will ease off during the second quarter. We will not have full impact on the volumes and the efficiencies in the quarter, but a normal ramp up procedure. That is the best advice I can give, Anders.
Yeah. Why I'm asking this is technically you could start to in an investment phase, you don't put on depreciation and et cetera. So could it be that you get sort of lower margins due to the ramp up here of production that it will be slightly costly that way?
In simple terms, the ramp up will drive lower margins than when we have call it more stable production. Yes.
Mm.
If-
Okay.
That's the case. Yes.
My last question about AirTech. Adding back the canceled order means that you had extremely strong. Could you just elaborate on where we have seen this strong growth?
It is first of all fairly good across all regions, generally speaking, stronger in Americas. That was very pleasing, but also strong in Asia, China. It is about 9% of the orders are outside the batteries. Coming back to the icing on the cake, that is battery. So about 90% of our order intake is outside that. A substantial improvement in components driven primarily by the wet pads, i.e., also data center in this case, one of our strongest component quarters in quite a long time. Good development in service. In the particular segments you can say like defense, even if it's small numbers, I mean a couple of percent, but defense is moving upwards. Pharma and food processing is also, so a wide spread of stable to stronger markets done.
Anything on top of that, Katharina, that you see on different segments done?
No. Some increased rotor sales in Asia.
Mm-hmm
as well.
That is.
Components
Battery then?
Mm-hmm.
That's, I mean, to sum up here in AirTech, that means that you should start the year with a significantly better underlying order intake and providing that your-
That is.
And then you-
That is correct.
That means also that your sales development should relatively quickly reflect it. I mean, there shouldn't be orders for one or two years ahead.
No, no. If I analyze it, as you know, I mean, when it comes to AirTech, it is half a year to nine months generally. Some of the components are actually, I mean, you get it in one quarter and you deliver it in another quarter. I have to give one tweak on that. When it comes to the strong demand in wet pads, I mean that is data center that is driving that. To some extent they are ordering ahead because I mean, we are one of the few providers of large capacity done in wet pads in North America, and that is appreciated. There it could take-
Okay
A little bit longer.
Excellent. Thank you, for me .
Thank you. We can take another caller.
The next question comes from Gustav Berneblad from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. It's Gustav here. I thought maybe just to build on what you just said here about the wet pads. Is it possible to quantify how much of the order intake in AirTech is related to data center today? Also, if you can give a bit more color on, you know, the 6% organic growth that we see in orders here in the quarter, you know, despite the $28 million cancellation here. You know, how much of the growth is driven by data center?
That I don't have on top. I take a look here and try to calculate it fastly. You can say that about 60%, and please correct me, 60% of the component sales, maybe a little bit more than 60% of the component sales is driven by data center today.
Wet pads.
Wet pads. It's a split, then.
Yeah.
It's more in data center than call it.
Yeah
in other.
Yeah.
Maybe then ballpark it's out to 50%, data center growth.
Of components.
Of components.
No, that's very clear. Perfect, thanks. Just sort of on the ramp up here in data center of the new production line of chillers. Just, I guess you will start off with the chiller order of SEK 775 million here, and correct me if I'm wrong. Is it possible to just give some ballpark figures or how much this will be divided between Q2 and Q3?
Not in detail. If I once again take a look here, you can see when we have expected it to deliver. It starts in Q3, and then it's well, call it evenly spread during the coming quarter. Don't take this as a exact instrument, but one-third per quarter, that would be a good- Good average.
Perfect. Just on the CapEx here, you comment a bit on the data center in APAC. How should we think about the CapEx level going forward? Will it be just small adjustments, where you utilize current facilities, or are you you know exploring or thinking about greenfield?
No, the CapEx level is projected then to remain broadly at the same level as 2025. We will expand from the existing base that we have in Thailand.
The step, as Katharina said, we will expand the Thailand operation, the one that we acquired through Geoclima, and that is the base built up. If we need to do more, I mean, we will pursue either utilizing AirTech facilities or expand even more. We have learned a lesson, that is you take it gradually per market, and then you expand. We will. I know Katharina will keep a close eye on me and Stefan then when it comes to manage capital here. We will spend it wisely where growth is generated.
That's very clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you. We can take another caller.
The next question comes from Lacie Midgley from Bloomberg Intelligence. Please go ahead.
Hi. Morning, everyone. Thank you for the presentation. Just two from me. Looking at the working capital, I mean, I think we've touched on the DCT margin and growth, and congratulations on the orders there. Just thinking about that working capital. Should we think of the Q1 inventory build as mainly supporting that local DCT capacity expansion, or is it a bit broader than that? I guess secondly, related to that, you know, I think you talked a lot in the release about the customer advances in DCT. How sustainable is the elevated level there? Is that now kind of a normal feature of the DCT business model, or is it more large project specific? Just a little bit more color there would be really helpful. Thank you.
Please bear with me if I didn't pick up. It was a little bit of a broken line here. If you talk about the order pattern, I think that was the first one. I mean, in an AirTech context, pretty much all orders within DCT would be viewed as a large order. We talk about very seldom below a value of SEK 100 million, and then it moves itself up to sometimes about SEK 2 billion then. Very often the SEK 2 billion larger orders, they are either then orders that will go into, call it, larger sites or multiple sites, but it's one customer orders it, and then it will have a prolonged delivery time.
We indicate all the larger orders in our report and in our presentation material when we start to deliver it and when it comes. It is very seldom, I would say hardly unknown, that a provider can accept an order and deliver it faster than, let's say, nine months. From order to first delivery, nine months. Sometimes it could be if it is the same customer, it could be a shift in between projects, et cetera. In a nutshell, all orders that we take from now on, they are to be delivered 2027 and 2028. As the SEK 2 billion we recently released, that is to be delivered mainly 2027 and to some extent 2028. I think that covered the first question, if I interpret right. Please, add on if
It was about customer-
Yes, that's.
Advances as well.
In this case, normally I've said several times that we receive between 10%-30% in customer advances from customers that continues to be in that range. So we have worked out the model that we are more or less balancing the cash flow in a project that we get advance payments when the order is placed, not from all customer, but from the majority of customer that is in the range 10%-30%. Normally we receive that, let's say, within 60- 90 days. Then per delivery, it is then spread out over the project. Okay. Understood. That's really helpful. Thank you very much.
Thank you. We have another caller.
The next question comes from Mats Liss from Kepler. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking my question. Just to get a feel about the order momentum here, I mean, could you say something about the development during the first quarter there? If January maybe started out somewhat slower, and then you gain momentum towards the end of it. Maybe also if you could say something there about, well, the clients being more cautious now and maybe try to secure order deliveries due to the political risks, et cetera.
If I start with data center, here we have not seen any change in order patterns. I mean, the normal, I mean, a couple of medium size, smaller orders, and then on and off then larger orders. One example is the one that we recently announced here. So there, no change. Please interpret me right when I say this. I think it is a strong to even stronger demand market there. With that said, it is also an industry that is under quite substantial pressures. It is pressure from some of the customers, their build rate, I mean the end user, it is component supply, et cetera, et cetera, when it comes to CPUs and stuff like that.
It is a constant positive battle in the marketplace in order to gain orders on those you trust and then to deliver to the customers then. No change, but a tougher market situation, if I put it like that in a data center. On AirTech, we remain with our view flat to positive. If I'm optimistic, I would say that there are positive signs emerging in Asia, and there are early positive signs in U.S. emerging. I refer mostly to data center and the wet pads that has increases to strong but has a stronger momentum in deliveries at the end of the quarter then.
In FoodTech it is we that are driving the market and normally the first quarter is a weaker quarter, so I was very pleased about the controller order intake positive, and the controller installation but a strong market. Anything that you pick up Katharina from our reviews?
No, I think you covered it very well.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Great. Just if you could just say something there about data center and I guess America is the largest demand with Europe. Could you say something about the opportunities there?
Yes. The main driver is U.S. That is good for us. We have a high reputation. We are building up capacity. I'm super excited that we are getting repeat orders of several products from existing customers, but we're also expanding the customer base. I mean, strong market as such then. The normal, call it, bottlenecks in U.S., I mean, it is power grid, it is building rates, et cetera, et cetera, but a strong underlying market. In Europe, last quarter, as you remember, we had a good progression. I rate us as we had a good progression in a market that has started to ease up.
In this quarter, in our customer base and what we see in the customer activities, it was not much to pick up, so to speak. Europe is gradually improving, but it's far, far away from a U.S. build rates there. I'm positive when it comes to Europe moving forward. More and more so-called legislation, more and more governments, et cetera, understand that this is a security issue, basically. You need to own your own data centers, basically, within your borders. When it comes to Asia, positive underlying market, and here it is each and every order we take in Asia, just underlying, that is 100% market share. If we grow, if we have 5% or 1%, both are 100% market share in Asia.
I'm very positive when it comes to Asia, but it is a build-up phase there.
Okay. Just finally, I mean, the energy prices are booming now, hopefully not too long, but I mean, your well core is somewhat to offer energy efficient solutions. Do you see that customers are sort of starting to appreciate that more, or is it sort of-
Yeah. I can comment a little bit on what we see from customers, and then maybe Katharina, you can add a few comments on, I mean, what about our energy cost increases.
How is that then? You're absolutely right, Mats. Even if we, generally speaking, are not liking energy price increases, I mean, that drives the need for energy efficiency. Honestly, we don't see that has an instant impact, but everyone is more and more concerned how could you drive efficiency and especially energy efficiency. In the long run, even if I hate energy price increases, in the long run, it talks to our value proposition, if that is the customer base. We don't see any new orders coming through due to this then. If we move over to our situation.
Now, what we can say is that our regional strategy in the region, for the region then, where we produce in the region, that provides some resilience, of course, but in some pockets, we do have, of course, more longer term freight and so on. There we could see a limited impact. In terms of energy prices, some of our energy prices are also fixed, for a period of time, and then, as I talked about earlier, we are then focusing more on renewables, so we are less exposed also to some of the price volatility.
Just even if this is not a blockbuster, but I think it is an important indication. As an example, in Brazil, in some of our facilities there, we are 100% self-providing when it comes to energy.
Good. Thank you, Mats.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you. I think we have to cut it there. I think we've taken all callers on the telephone conference, and we have a few questions here that we will get back to you on. Thank you very much, Klas and Katharina.
Thank you.
For presenting today.
Thank you very much.
Thank you everyone for listening in, and please reach out to us at Investor Relations if you have any further questions or would like to meet up with us during the quarter. We will see you back on the July 17 when we present our Q2 results. Thank you.