Good morning, everybody, and very welcome to SSAB. We are going to present to you the results for the fourth quarter, 2012. Before I leave the floor to our CEO and our CFO, I would like to remind you that this is a webcast conference. So, apart from you sitting here in Stockholm, we also are followed by those who have called in on the web webcast. After the presentations, there will be a Q&A session, and as usual, we would appreciate if you could state your name and organization, and also put one question at a time, because then it will be easier for us to answer all your questions. You can be sure that we will you will get your time for all your questions.
Now, I would like to introduce to you Martin Lindqvist, our CEO.
Thank you, Helena. Good morning, and once again, welcome to this presentation of the Q4 result for SSAB. Start with some highlights. What we saw in Q4 was continued weak demand and destocking in Europe. We also saw slower markets in North America and Asia. We saw steel prices weakening compared to Q3 for standard plate, for standard strip, advanced high-strength steel, but for quenched steel, the prices were much more stable. We had during the fourth quarter an EBIT loss of SEK 665 million, in line with what we had during Q3. We had, given the result, a very strong cash flow, SEK 1.25 billion, and the main reason for that is, or a big reason for that is, what we have done within inventories, and these are sustainable lower inventories.
Shipments in Q4 were in line with Q3, and 11% lower compared to Q4 2011. We are running, as you know, an efficiency and flexibility program. That program will be finalized during Q4, and when we look into this, we see that we will be able to deliver in line with our own expectations. Sales amounted to just north of SEK 8 billion, and you see that for the second quarter in a row, we had a zero EBITDA per ton delivered steel, so much lower than we have had previously, and as said, an EBIT loss of SEK 665 million.
If we take a look into the segments, important segments for us and where we are active, you could say that the super summary is low activity among our segments, with one exception in the second half of last year, and activities so far in Q1 show positive signs. If we start with heavy transport, Q4, low demand, and especially in December in Europe, where cars with heavy transport volumes going down substantially. The outlook for Q1 is more positive. We also saw in Q4, slower activity among barge builders. That is an important sub-segment for us in North America. Automotive is the only segment in... With the exception of Europe, that did fairly well during 2012 and also during Q4.
But in Europe, we saw the lowest new car registration since 1995, and you probably saw the figures that came out from Europe, the other day, and that trend in Europe continues with a decrease January this year compared to January last year with 9%. Construction equipment, destocking, slowed down OEM demand in Q4. We have seen some positive, small positive signs for Q1. We see a mixed picture from, and saw a mixed picture from lifting equipment producers in China, some of them being fairly positive, some of them being a bit more negative. Mining, I would say, with a few exceptions, is a more stable business, both in Australia and China and in the Nordic region.
The exception is coal mining, and there is a possibility on the East Coast in Australia that we could see improved demand with higher coal prices. Energy, we see continued activity, and so a continued activity within line pipe, an important segment for us, and we have taken orders for deliveries during the first half of this year. What is a bit new is that we have started to see some optimism from the wind tower segment in North America, and that is, of course, due to the renewed production tax credits in U.S. Service centers, cautious during Q4, destocking. We have seen some small improvements, and we expect some small improvements for Q1, and more restocking could happen within the service center segment. EMEA had the sales of SEK 4.5 billion, with an EBIT of SEK -545 million.
The demand during the fourth quarter remained weak in most of the segments, and shipments were 18% lower compared to Q4 2011, and 1% lower compared to Q3 2012. Local prices decreased by 3% for niche steel and by 8% for standard steels versus Q3 2012. And we also sold roughly 100,000 tons of slabs externally, which we typically do from time to time over the years. Americas had sales of SEK 3.2 billion and an EBIT of SEK 110 million. The demand in Q4 were in line with Q3 in most segments. Shipments were 9% lower versus Q4 2011, and 2% lower versus Q3. Local prices for standard plates decreased with 12%, and with 4% during the quarter for niche steels.
We are planning, and we'll have an outage, production outage, maintenance outage in Montpelier during the latter part of March, beginning of April, and that will affect the earnings in that period with -SEK 150 million to -SEK 200 million. APAC, sales of SEK 560 million, and an EBIT of SEK 46 million. Chinese steel demand started to pick up during Q4, and the shipments of niche products were 23% lower versus Q4, but 11% higher versus Q3. We saw also local prices for niche steel, and that is both advanced high-strength steel and QT being unchanged versus Q3. Tibnor, obviously, and clearly felt the lower demand from the Nordic region and Sweden. They had sales of SEK 1.3 billion, an EBIT of -SEK 42 million, and an EBIT margin of 3.3%.
They saw lower shipments in most product groups that affected sales negatively. Shipments were 18% lower than Q4, and 5% higher than Q3. We also, in Tibnor, had a fairly strong, given the result and given the size of the business, fairly strong positive cash flow. So the market environment and outlook. Global steel production, according to World Steel Association, fell 2% in Q4 versus Q3. But for the full year, the global production increased 1.2% versus the full year of 2011. Capacity utilization for the overall steel industry in Europe for Q4 was 67%, but in December, it was below 60% for the European steel industry in average. Demand affected by destocking and prolonged outages among customers in December and early January was clearly felt by us as well, and other steel companies.
If you look into the EUROFER forecasts and the sequential change in demand, they expect a somewhat better demand in Q1 compared to Q4, mainly driven in by restocking. And as you know, EUROFER is the European Steel Organization, so they only have a opinion, a clear opinion of about Europe. Prices in Europe have stabilized, or as we see it, bottom out, although announced price increases have not yet materialized in contract prices and spot prices fully. U.S. steel demand was also, of course, affected by the worries about the fiscal cliff problems, and combined with the destocking in Q4. And there, we expect restocking everything else equal in Q1 and Q2. Michael?
Thank you. Just a couple of highlights when it comes to the financial figures. The sales was about 4% lower than Q3, mainly due to the low prices that we saw in Q4 compared to previous quarter. Operating loss was at the same level as Q3, SEK -665 million. Just like Martin said, our efforts to improve our inventory management has given results, and we had a very good operating cash flow at SEK 1.25 billion. Due to the fact that the tax rate in Sweden has been lowered from 26% to 22%, we got a one-time impact in our tax of SEK 253 million. Just going into some key figures, and the board has proposed a dividend of 1 krona per share.
The debt equity ratio, due to, or thanks to the strong cash flow generation, was lower than previous quarter as well, and amounted to 54%. Just look the EBIT level, -SEK 665 million, and compare that with the same quarter year before of +SEK 50 million, and we see that we had impacts, negative impacts from prices, and also the currency of SEK 1.1 billion. And it's about the same amount that we have in a positive impact from lower costs. Unfortunately, the low volumes and low production affected negatively about SEK 600 million. And then in the others, if you remember, in 2011, the fourth quarter, we also sold emission rights, and the amount was about SEK 275 million. So that gives the impact, the difference between these two quarters.
The operating cash flow was SEK 4.9 billion at the full year. And of course, one big impact here compared to last year is that last year we had still big investments that we finalize those big investments in order to increase our niche sales in the future. Total investments last year were in 2011 SEK 3.6 billion, while including acquisitions, while this year, in 2012, we had SEK 1.5 billion. The net cash flow, SEK 2.6 billion, of course, gave a good impact in our net gearing, and net gearing lowered from 60% to 54%. And also the net debt lowered to SEK 15.5 billion. We still continue to have a very strong liquidity preparedness, and if you relate that to twelve-month sales, it's about 30%.
And we continue to work with our debt portfolio and secure that we have a good maturity profile, and we've been doing some work during the quarter as well, compared to Q3. And if just look this picture, you can see that 2014 bar has been lowered about SEK 1 billion compared to end of September. And the first bar with the very light gray, you see our backup lines and cash. And the cost of debt continues to be just south of 3%, and the maturity in average is about 4.8 years. But if you only look at the long-term portfolio, it's 5 years. A couple words about the raw materials. As we mentioned last time as well, we signed a new contract with LKAB, what comes to iron ore pellet deliveries.
The new contract period is from first of October until end of March this year, and the prices were 23% lower compared to Q3 purchases. When it comes to coal, we purchased about 60% to 70% from Australia, and the residual from North America. The consumption that we had in Q4 was about 10% higher compared to Q3, and that will give an impact in Q2 and later on. When it comes to U.S. coal purchases, the contract period ends in the end of March as well, and then we will have a new contract. When it comes to scrap, we buy scrap for North American facilities on continuous basis, and during the quarter, prices by the end of quarter were actually a little bit higher than end of Q3.
Back to you, Martin.
Thank you. So the outlook. Well, we expect volumes in Americas and APAC to improve compared to Q4. We say that the trend in Europe continues to be uncertain. We expect, though, apparent demand to be a bit more positive compared to Q4. We see that steel prices appear to have stabilized or bottomed out. We will have a positive effect or impact from lower iron ore costs that will affect earnings in Q1 and Q2 compared to Q4. As said, we have a planned outage in Montpelier that will affect Americas in Q1, end of Q1, beginning of Q2, and the efficiency program and the flexibility program runs according to plan and will be delivered. So the summary, 2012 was a very challenging year for the steel industry and for SSAB. Our shipments fell with 10% compared to 2011.
Following the recovery we saw in the beginning of 2012, or the first six months, there was a downturn in both volumes and prices during the second half. We managed to have a decent operating cash flow of almost SEK 5 billion, despite the weak results. We have also finalized our big investments, the quenching capacity in Borlänge, the quenching capacity in Mobile, Kunshan step two, the plate service center in Asia, and also our ability to produce higher quality of thick plates in Oxelösund. They are all done, ready, up and running, and we are, in that respect, well, very well prepared to serve the market when the demand increases. With that, Helena.
Yeah. Now the floor is yours, and please go ahead with your questions. And, as I said, we would appreciate if you could take one question at a time. You will get a microphone over there. We can start here, please.
Thank you.
I think it's on.
Okay, thanks. Okay, on the inventory level, to start with, Joakim Ahlberg, Schroders, by the way. You're talking about the sustainability here going forward. This is on the level of inventories you're talking about, and not anything to do with the prices of coal and iron ore, et cetera?
Okay, I can just-
I just mean then, should we then expect a further reduction in inventory levels going into Q1 due to the cost effect we can see now that should be effective in Q1?
What I'm talking about is volumes, and we are, we have been running a global inventory management project, and that is, I mean, with the new stocking points and looking over the full supply chain. So, this is volumes we are talking about. If prices goes up, that will have an effect. If prices go down, that will have the opposite effect.
... Okay, so we should see another effect positive in Q1 due to the price agreements that will be effective then?
Mm-hmm.
Okay. How much more on this can you do in working capital on receivables and payables in your view from now? Because I think that has been quite a strong focus from your side.
Well, first of all, if and when, or when, I would say, volumes goes up, accounts receivables will go up, of course. And, but, the mix of AR and AP we had at the end of the year was not extremely different compared to a normal year. We had lower, of course, due to lower volumes, AR, but we also had lower accounts payable.
Okay. And on the cost savings, SEK 800 million, should we see that evenly spread, I mean, SEK 200 million per quarter, or?
You will see, I mean, that program will be finalized during Q1 2013, and then you will see effects over the quarters.
Okay, so in-
But a part of it is flexibility, so you will see the full effect when we are running at lower capacity utilization, a lower effect when we are running full.
Okay. Finally, on the CapEx levels, do you have any view on that for 2013 and maybe 2014 as well?
What we have said is that strategically, if you talk about big projects, we are fully invested, and we have spent a lot of money, as you know, the last couple of years during a fairly tough business cycle. You should expect us to be roughly at maintenance CapEx levels, and that are, I would say, SEK 1 billion, give or take a couple of hundred million.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Could you please hand over your microphone to the colleague over there?
Hi, Gustav Sandström at Erik Penser Bank. Just one question regarding the service centers in the States. Last quarter, you mentioned that the volumes of the inventory were exceptionally high. Is your view now that we're back on healthy levels, and we should not expect any further reduction of the inventory, or?
That, of course, depends on where the demand goes, but I would say that the destocking phase is, to a large extent, over.
Great. And also regarding the working efficiency program in EMEA, reducing the hours for the employees, that extends till May in 2013. Do you see an extension of that program possible, or?
We haven't discussed that, but, I mean, we launched the program with the ability to have it running until end of May or close it earlier. Of course, for a couple of reasons, then, of course, one reason was to save money, for sure. But I would say, for me, the biggest reason was to introduce a new flexible thinking into the organization as well, so it's a combination. But if we will prolong that or not, we haven't discussed that, and that is, of course, very much dependent on the market situation. And then, of course, what we are able to, I mean, agree with the employees, but we haven't thought about that.
Great. Finally, you mentioned that there would be no substantial investments going forward. But given the current gas price in the States and what seems to be an economy recovering over there, in what scenario would you consider increasing capacity by DRI or something like that?
We are, of course, looking into that and thinking about it, but what I talked about was 2013.
Great. Thanks.
Okay. Any other question? Mm, if not from the floor here, I will turn to those of you who have called in. Please go ahead.
Thank you. First question from the phone line comes from Alexander Haissl from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Good morning, it's Alex Haissl, Morgan Stanley, London. I have one question. I mean, it seems despite the cost savings as for effort, the underlying business is really deteriorating quicker. At which point would you consider taking real structural measures in your European operations? Are there any possibilities to optimize your setup in Sweden?
To start with that, yes, there are always possibilities, of course, and we have done some things. We have closed some lines, one galvanizing line, and there are some other options, minor options available, of course. But, but, I mean, we have the structure we have with the two blast furnaces running, and, and there are no big things that we can do structurally.
Okay. The next question I have is on the steel prices. You indicated that we see more or less a stabilization, but the hikes didn't stick in the market. Is it more for the standard grade products, for the strip steel, or also for the niche products, what you are seeing right now?
I would say we expect the prices of quench and temper to continue to be fairly stable, as they typically are. For standard steel, both ordinary plate and ordinary strip, they tend to follow, to a larger extent, the spot prices, and I would say that prices for advanced high-strength steel are somewhere in between. So I would say mainly for standard steel, but to some extent also for advanced high-strength steel, if prices started to starts to move.
Thank you. Your next question comes on the line of Julian Bowen from SCB. Please go ahead.
Very good morning to you. I hope that Martin gets better soon.
Oh, thank you.
On capacity utilization, if I may, particularly in the EMEA or Swedish region, what were the various utilization levels of your mills and furnaces in Sweden during Q4? Where are you now at the start of February 2013, and what was your marginal profit or your cash margin on slab sales during Q4?
... When it comes to capacity utilization, we had in Q4 about 65% in the Swedish mills. When it comes to capacity utilization in Q1 this year, it depends totally how strong the restocking that we can experience in Q1 will be. So let us get back to you on that in the later part of Q1. And when we sell slabs, usually the margins at the EBIT level are quite thin. So it's not a big impact in our, you know, profit, but we get the impact on our profit by having a higher capacity utilization in our blast furnaces.
Right. Okay, so you avoid a fixed cost under absorption by running the slab?
That's correct, yeah.
But we don't earn any money, I would say the opposite.
Would you have had to have shut down Luleå if you hadn't run the slab volumes?
No.
Okay, so it's not that bad. Can I just then ask, I understand you're not wanting to give us a forecast for how the trend may be for utilization during the rest of the year, but where are you now as of today?
We can't really comment.
We can't really comment that, but we are not worse than during December.
Oh, okay.
Okay. Was that all your questions? Thank you very much for calling. Next question, please.
Thank you. Your next question comes on the line of Bastian Synagowitz from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, gentlemen. I've got three questions, just very briefly. Could you confirm the European operating profit, I mean, which came in probably a little bit weaker than most of us were expecting. Was that really a clean underlying number, or was there any positive or negative one-off item in there?
I would say it was mainly a clear, a clean number.
Then you mentioned earlier that your coal consumption in Q4 was about 10% higher than in Q3. What was the reason? Is it just because volumes were relatively similar? Was it volumes, or was there any special reason why it was 10% higher, or what, what-
I think it was what Mike described was prices.
Okay.
Q4 compared to-
Q3.
Q3.
Okay. Then, you obviously will have the outage in Montpelier in Q1 and Q2. Could you give us any sense of if and how much the possible cost impact will be from that?
What we write in the report and what we said is that between SEK 150 million and SEK 200 million would be the total EBIT effect.
For the first half?
For that period, spread-
Yeah.
Between first and second quarter.
Okay, understood. Okay, perfect. Thanks so much.
Thank you for calling. Next question, please.
Thank you. Our next question comes on the line of Neil Sampat from Nomura. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. A couple of questions from my side. Firstly... Sorry, good morning. Firstly, on the—I think it's, you know, referencing the very last question, on the question just asked, on the EMEA, underlying profit, could you confirm that there were no CO2 emission sales in Q4? And, and if, if not, then, given, I imagine there's a, a fair bit of inventory there of CO2 permits, why you decided not to sell, sell those permits during Q4?
Well, we didn't sell any emission rights during Q4, and one of the main reasons for that is that we still don't know in Europe what kind of allowance the steel industry will get from the first of January 2013.
Okay. And then second question was on the maintenance outages. Firstly, could you give a bit more color as to the second outage that you expect later in the year and the size of the financial impact? And then also, I guess we've had a maintenance outage in Montpelier in October 2011 with a similar cost implication as well. Are these the kind of outage? If you could elaborate on why exactly there is an outage here? And is this the kind of outage we can plan for, you know, to come once every two years or so?
I mean, in to talk about the out—I mean, the outage in Mobile will come later during 2013, and the effect will be roughly the same as the outage in Montpelier. In Sweden, we have a system where we typically always take outages during the summer period in July and sometimes extend it into August. In U.S., we take the outages when we feel that we need it, due to maintenance reasons or investment reasons. So we are not, I mean, as in Sweden, where we are more or less forced to do it during the vacation period. So they—They come with regularity, but they come when we feel, due to the maintenance need and so on, that we need to take them.
They have to be taken once every two years or so?
Yeah, and it's exactly compared to Sweden, where we take it every summer.
Okay. And then finally, I guess you've cited destocking in the EMEA region as a key driver behind the weak profitability over the last two quarters. If underlying demand in Europe stays flat through 2013, would you expect your volumes to grow? And if so, what kind of quantum would you expect?
I mean, I don't really know what we expect, but, I mean, for sure, after destocking, restocking always comes. We are not expecting any fantastic or booming business cycle in Europe. We are planning and expecting, I would say, a fairly stable development for 2013 from where we are today. But what we are talking about here is, we saw quite substantial destocking during the second half of the year, and normally, that is followed by restocking, or at least that apparent consumption and real consumption meet each other, so to say.
Thank you. So one last question. I guess you've been throwing off a lot of free cash flow through the year, and that's helped by, you know, sticking to maintenance CapEx going forward. What, how should we think about your dividend going forward? Because clearly, it's covered by free cash flow. Or is it, you know, is there a possibility that it gets reinstated at 2 SEK as of next year? Or do you look more at earnings cover?
No, but you should expect us to, over time, distribute 50% of the profit in dividend. That's, I mean, what we state. That could differ from year to year, but, that is what you should expect over time.
Okay. Thank you. Next question, please.
Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Christian Kopfer from Nordea Markets. Please go-
Thanks, operator. Good morning. Just one follow-up on the niche steel deliveries. I mean, you have quite recently opened up for the new volumes in the market, and but if I look at the fourth quarter shipments, you are at the lowest level since the third quarter of 2010. Could you just give me some color on what is happening here? And, I mean, what are your customers saying?
Well, I tried to cover that when I went through the segments, but, I mean, we have not had booming segments during the second half, or the segments where we are active have not been booming, so to say, during the second half of last year. We saw destocking and lower demand from construction equipment, from heavy transport and areas that are quite important for us. So that was what we felt during the second half, and I would say, especially during Q4 last year.
Okay. I try to recall what we talked about a few quarters ago, when you anticipated delivered volumes on the niche steel side continuously increase going forward. So, if we have these as a start-
Expect that, and we expect to continue to ramp up the investments.
Okay.
We haven't changed our view on that subject. Not at all.
Okay, so for 2013 and onwards, you expect the niche volumes to gradually increase then?
Yes.
Okay. Thanks.
I mean, the reason why we do that is, there are many reasons for that, but we also saw that during the second half of last year, we had a very good development with the customer development projects. And that will, I mean, that is the way for us to introduce these kind of products to new customers, and also introduce new products to existing and new customers. So we have a couple of KPIs as well, pointing in that direction.
Okay. Next question, please.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Stephen Benson from Goldman Sachs. Please go-
Hi there. I just had a question around inventory. So with the LKAB contract that will be renegotiated again in April, is it fair to assume that you will be carrying maybe 8-10 weeks of the lower priced iron ore into the second quarter?
Yes, I would say the majority of the second quarter, yes.
Sorry, would it be the... It would be the majority of the second quarter?
Yes.
Okay. Secondly, just on D&A, will that come down, or should we expect that to come down from the SEK 2.6 billion from 2012?
During this year or?
Yeah, during this year. Yeah, what, what could be the annual D&A charge this year?
Yeah, we have done those new investments that have increased depreciation somewhat, and we will get the full year impact next, this year, while in 2012, due to the fact that we actually brought those in operations in the mid-year, so we didn't have a full impact of those yet. But when it comes to amortization of intangibles due to the IPSCO acquisition, those will decrease gradually going on, onwards, from 2014 and forward.
2014 forward.
Yeah.
Okay. And then just on the maintenance shutdowns, could you give us an idea of what the shipment impact would be, or how much capacity we're talking about for the first closure?
What we've said is the EBIT impact in total, and we haven't gone into details exactly where that's coming from. So the total impact is about SEK 150 million-SEK 200 million in EBIT.
Okay, but there's no, no, way you could give us some color on the capacity that's being closed?
No, because we're going to have that down, basically down about 3 weeks. So it means that during those 3 weeks, we cannot fully operate the capacity either.
Okay. Okay. Okay, thanks.
Thank you so much. Next question, please.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Alessandro Abate from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
... Hi, good morning to everybody. Just one question related to the energy segment in the U.S. You're speaking about continued activity in line pipe with order received for H1 and optimism for wind tower. Can you just give us a kind of sense of directionality in terms of percentage, whether it's improving, it's flat, or it's basically coming a little bit lower than expected versus 2000?
You should not overestimate the optimism within wind tower, because as you know, the last two quarters, Q3 and Q4, that market has been more or less dead. But when they decided to extend the tax credit, we have seen positive signs, but from, I would say, zero, very low levels. When it comes to line pipe, that is, of course, driven by the energy boom or whatever you call it, in North America, with shale gas and everything. And we have seen already in Q4, an increased demand for those kind of steels that you produce line pipes of.
Yes, but my question was not complete. Basically, I was trying to ask you if you compare H1, 2013 versus H1, 2012, for line pipe, do you see an improvement, stabilization, or it's slightly coming off?
It's too early to say.
It's too early to say. Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you. Next question, please.
Thank you. Our next question comes on the line of Johannes Koncellis from ABG Stockholm. Please go ahead.
Yes, hello there. Johannes Koncellis, ABG here. My first question is on the US market, a little bit of a follow-up, though, but, can you tell us, how do you regard this, this, fourth quarter as a clean quarter in the US? I know that you have previously been talking about a bit of seasonal negative seasonality in the fourth quarter. Did you see this, and how do you see... Yeah, how do you view that?
I would say there is always a seasonality, of course, but I would say rather clean quarter. What was different from before was the thin margins between plate prices and scrap prices in Q4.
Right. Yeah, and on that theme, I mean, going back a few months, I know there was a couple of price hike attempts in the US, which obviously didn't stick then, but, what's your take? Why didn't they stick? Was it because of the supply side, perhaps price discipline, or was it a weakness in demand?
It's always a combination, of course, but the biggest obstacle was a very high import of standard plate. That was, you could say, more or less taken away from the Chinese market and imported to the North American market. And a couple of months, the import from Asia of standard plate into North America was all-time high.
Okay. Another question that I have is on the financial cost. You highlighted that, Marco, that your interest rate here in the fourth quarter remained under 3%. Can you help us to look at what kind of interest cost should we look at 2013, and if you have some flavor on 2014 as well, please?
When it comes to this year, we don't see any major changes.
And how much will be renegotiated, you think, for 14?
We continuously push forward our maturities, so I don't have any exact figure yet, but ambition is to push forward as much as possible according to our ambitions.
Yeah. And then my final question is on Tibnor. Was loss-making something unusual in that quarter, or... And how do you see that earnings level in 2013?
Tibnor was clearly affected by the weak apparent consumption in Sweden and the Nordic region.
So it was like-
It was a mainly volume issue.
Yeah. Were there write-offs in the inventories?
No.
Okay.
Not any big write-offs. So, I mean, the result in Tibnor was fairly clean as well.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Next question, please.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Thomas O'Hara from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. The first question I have is on goodwill. We saw ArcelorMittal just before Christmas announce a $4.3 billion write down. SSAB's goodwill at the minute is about 30% of the total assets. So, I mean, do you have any view on that? Any, any comments relating to the goodwill on the Americas business?
Yes, we do an impairment test every year, and, I mean, Americas has been generating good results and good cash flow, and we expect them to do that going forward as well. So we don't see any big problem with the goodwill. And that, as you say, is fully related to the North American operation.
Okay, thanks. And the next question was just on your currency hedge. I think at Q3, you said that you were hedged well in 2013. What's the latest on that?
Yeah, we have the euro sales is hedged in big part of Q2 as well. But of course, the hedge volume, hedge levels, are going down every quarter that we go forward because of the lower euro-SEK relation.
Okay. And on the U.S. dollar front, are you pretty much netted off between the Americas business and the raw materials purchases?
Yeah, in U.S. dollars, we hedge the long-term purchasing contracts, like the U.S. coal purchasing and LKAB purchasing contracts, from the same date when we signed those contracts.
Okay, thanks very much.
Thank you. The next question, please.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of James Gurry from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. I just want to ask a bit of a more of a strategic question. Can you tell us about your plans for the new CFO, whether he'll come from internal sources or externally, or maybe even from your operations in the U.S.? And what sort of a person you're looking for? Like, what sort of leeway they would have to perhaps make further changes and look to improve the financial performance of the company going forward.
We are in that process right now, and I must come back to you, but we have quite a few interesting options. So I will come back on that one.
All right, thanks.
Okay, no further questions. Do we have any further questions from the floor? Yes, please just wait for the microphone, please.
Yeah. Rutger Smith. I just wanted to know what the total income from the emission rights were during 2012.
Uh, zero.
Yeah.
We didn't sell any.
We didn't sell-
No, it was 2011 we sold.
Fourth quarter, 2011.
SEK 275 million was the-
Okay, thanks.
If we don't have any further questions, we would like to thank you so much for your attention. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.