We miss you." That's how I started a year ago. Today, we have a small audience here. I can tell you it's completely different to talk to real people instead of just talking to a camera. Thanks for coming. My name is Marco Knuchel. I'm heading Investor Relations at Schindler. Welcome to the 2022 full year results presentation. I'm here together with Silvio Napoli, our Chairman, and with Carla De Geyseleer, our CFO. Silvio will start with key messages and the highlights. He will talk about key developments in the markets, the industry, and finish with the strategic framework. After that, Carla will lead us through the results. After the presentation, there will be a Q&A as usual. We aim to finish at about 11:00 A.M. Silvio, please.
Thank you, Marco. Good morning, everyone. First of all, for those, that kindly joined us here in person in our auditorium, which we finally can use, and also good morning to the ones that join us online, from, remote locations. Yes, it is a pleasure to be here to present as traditionally, our annual results, for the year 2022. Before we get on with the results and the, I would say, traditional business, I do think, I wanted to say a few words about the tragedy in Turkey, not only because we have there a large company with very courageous and, remarkable employees, but also because I, the entity of the tragedy is difficult to fathom.
I'm happy to say that Schindler is bringing its small contribution with our employees, becoming volunteers, going there to help people through the rubbles, releasing people in the buildings that were still standing in lifts, whether Schindler or not, but also helping the rescue teams. Again, it's a small word, but I thought that that was important, due, and legitimate. To all the people in Turkey, in Syria affected by this tragedy, we wanted to express on behalf of Schindler our strongest sentiment and condolences for the lives that were tragically lost. Difficult to move on from that, but nonetheless, that's what we have to do. Let me first start with a few key messages..
One year ago, it was an eventful beginning of the year because we announced a change in governance, and my message was, we do have some issues. We are conscious of them. We will fix them, but it will take time. Today, my message to you is that we are progressing on fixing these issues. The issues were the right one. We have progressed a lot, but we still need more time. Building on that, perhaps, a few key messages, that we will not perhaps touch on so much, as we go through the different points. Markets are developing fast with new installation declining, driven by China. Our order intake, is such that our new installation, order intake has declined on par with the market. I'd like to stress that point.
The decline has been offset by a robust growth in service and modernization. Our measures have started to yield benefits and results already in the second half of the year under many fronts, sales margins, but also in terms of profitability, which you saw as corrected its trajectory in the second half of the year. We are progressing on resolving legacy issues. I'll come to that in particular in terms of supply chain. In order to continue with this momentum, we introduced a new strategy deployment framework, which I will present later on today. Again, we are progressing, but we still need more time before we can come out of the issues that were generated in previous years. Moving on to now, perhaps the other part of presentation, continuing with the highlights.
Now, here too, we prepared here for you a set of highlights that perhaps are less addressed in the traditional financial results. Nonetheless, one that we believe are very relevant to our business today and tomorrow. First of all, cloud connectivity. You know, we were the first company to start connecting units to the cloud. We introduced Schindler Ahead. Today, I'm pleased to say that in spite of all the challenges with microchip suppliers, lockdowns, we already have one quarter of our portfolio that is connected to the cloud. That is important. I'll come to that because you see the next box there in green.
This allows us to deploy innovative solutions and services, including the Green Service that I presented already when we did the Q3 results, which is really certified by TÜV, which is again an example of the massive opportunities that will present themselves thanks to this connectivity. Another point I wanted to stress perhaps on this page is on the right-hand side top corner. It is to do with our employees. We're not obsessed by those rankings, but we were in many parts of the world ranked as top employers as based on employees' surveys. In Switzerland, we were very pleased. It's very recent. It was last week, number two favored employer.
Allow me to-- normally we don't brag, but, you know, if you see companies, much larger with even a much larger presence, behind us, that is a humbling result. Equally in Asia Pacific, thanks to a joint venture, Jardine Schindler, in many parts of that, we were actually-- we're in the top 20, and in some of these countries we are number one. Somehow the engagement survey response rate of 87% that we obtained in 2022 is somehow a testimony to the efforts we bring around the world to engage our employees at this very crucial time in our history. Of course, I'm very proud of their engagement. Talking of employees, perhaps on the bottom left corner, there is our simplified leadership structure.
That was a key move we introduced one year ago. I'm pleased to say that one year after, that was the right move at the right time. We now today can move faster, take faster decisions with a much less complex set of processes, while at the same time staying focused on the key actions. Most importantly, we can adapt to changes which will come to that, continue to come very fast. Finally, a word on BuildingMinds. I would say as we go forward in the year, perhaps we'll dedicate more time to that. This startup that we that only has a few years of existence, has already 15,000 buildings connected to the platform. 15,000. The core business concept has already been proven.
Of course, it is still a start-up, we are now into the ramp up and scaling phase, and I look forward to sharing more of their results and performance with you all. These were the highlights of 22. I also thought it was important to continue with what we started last year. Last year, we introduced the set of key challenges that we were confronted with, that led to our declining performance, every quarter we provided you with an update on how we were tackling these challenges. Today, to continue with the process, perhaps, let me say for the last time, we thought it was important to share with you the progress on these challenges.
Now, as you can tell, I'm not going through each one of them, but we can take it in the Q&A. I'm pleased to report that the progress has been substantial. Actually, in some of the challenges, we are coming to the full resolution. At the same time, there is probably one where we are the most behind, and you can see it in the chart. This is the one about regaining competitive new installation margins. You can say, "Hang on a second. How come we are not more advanced? This is possibly the most crucial in terms of regaining profitability." Allow me here, for a moment, to explain why this is the case once more. To do that, there are two ways, probably key drivers, to improve installation margins. One is the top line, by increasing prices.
The other one is by taking care of efficiency and/or supply chain issues. Let's start with the first lever, which is pricing. When we met one year ago, I remember I said, you may remember I said that in fact, we were late in acknowledging the impact of inflation. I'm pleased to say that in the year 2022, our efforts throughout the world led to progress that I think we can say very openly, probably was even beyond expectation and plans in terms of regaining the upper hand in terms of pricing. This happened throughout the world, with one exception, unfortunately. It is the biggest market in the world. It is China. Now, clearly, some of it has to do with their own performance. I understand that some other companies express similar situations.
China, a market that I know well, is indeed the most competitive, where there is still like a chronicle overcapacity, and, of course, a very fierce competition with all players of the world competing for a piece of the market, including some very strong local players. There I must say, we have to acknowledge in China, we managed to keep flat prices. In turn, you can see on the right-hand side of the chart, this had an immediate impact on our sales margins, and of course, its pricing, plus our resolve to focus on value as opposed to volume. Remember we said we would stop to just focus on growth per growth per se. You can see quarter after quarter, starting in Q2, you can see our sales margins improving. This is, of course, a very positive development.
Of course, you may tell me, "Well, why doesn't this improvement come right away into your P&L?" Unfortunately, this is the nature of our business. For that, there is now the second element, which we have to acknowledge, which is what I call the boa constrictor effect. What does that mean? I mean, we are a business where you sell something, and by the time you go and install it, and you then generate the revenue and the profits, there is a lag of time. This is similar to, say, the boa constrictor. In other words, what does that mean? A boa constrictor has to digest the food it had at the beginning before new, possibly healthier food can be eaten and digested. This is our situation today, and there is no way out of this.
Now, as part of us getting to grip with the situation, but also as part of us being able to present it to you, in a clear way, we now prepare the chart, which was a lot of work. We looked through order by order, delivery date by delivery date, platform by platform, and observe what is coming for delivery when, what can our capacity in the factory deliver. Remember, I spoke about our capacity also suffering for an element of increasing backlog and this contrast between legacy products and new orders. You see here. What does the chart tell us? That before we can really get rid of the bad food, before we can get rid of the orders with a low margin, it will unfortunately take until end of 2024 to consume about 90% of this backlog.
It's a lot. This year already, we accelerated as much as we could. And you will see this year in 22, sorry, last year actually, we managed to consume more than 40%. Now the rest is not entirely in our hands. It has to do with delivery dates, it has to do with site readiness by our customers. Some of it has been delayed. And of course, as we show this, it doesn't mean it's not frozen. First of all, we are actively working against that. We're going to our customers, presenting variation orders, trying to reprice, inflation clauses, a lot. That moves on a hand, and our goal is what? To be able to get rid of that much faster.
On the other hand, there are also things which are outside of our control, typically site delays by the customers, or change in suppliers, supply chain constraints. This is something which is in movement, but to give an idea as to why there is time needed to flow through, this is important to visualize this concept of the again, once more abusive, probably term, this boa constrictor effect. This is to do with the challenges, but let's now go back to the bigger picture, the picture of the market. How does the market look? Some of you already asked me over coffee, and I must say, perhaps compared to one year ago, the market has, of course, evolved.
Now, while a year ago, it was possibly pure headwinds, today the headwinds persist, but you also start having some signals of tailwinds. Let me start with the tailwinds first. First of all, we have the energy crisis that is stabilizing, I would say. Look, if you want, we can come to specific numbers, which in turn is also bringing a stabilization in raw material cost, including, depending on which supplier, which material decline, but in some other cases, we'll come to that, even increases. We see sustained pricing momentum, depending on the market, typically not in China. Talking of China, we see positive signs. I'll come to that in a second. That being the biggest market in the world, that has a huge influence on the overall picture.
Now, in terms of headwinds, besides the question on China, we see inflation continuing. That is very much there, and that, of course, affects all our value chain. We see rising capital cost as a result of the rising inflation because of interest rates, which of course, has a huge impact on our customers on real estate. Labor constraints, first of all, by scarcity of labor, but also by, in terms of labor cost, and of course, the persisting supply chain risk. This is a, of a mixed picture, but really this is not a rosy picture. It is one that shows a market in movement. What is, let me come back to that, the key question in terms of movement, he key question is China.
On this one here, I'd like to present again a chart that we often present about the evolution of the real estate market in different cities. Before going into the separate charts, perhaps what is the key message here? China, after three years of decline, still accounts for 60% of the global new installation market. What happens in China impacts the whole world. Whatever things that we can do without China, at least in our business, I think is not accepting reality. At the same time, China continues in a downturn, but the downturn is easing out. That I think is a key message. However, even if this easing downturn continues, we don't see any recovery before the second half of 2023.
Now perhaps to add some data to this assessment, you see here on the bottom left, chart, we see here the floor space sold according to city tiers. The red are the tier one c ities, so Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, typically. What do you see there? You see there that the floor space sold has had a recovery more pronounced in tier one in the last quarter, which is positive. It is also somehow coming back in tier two and three. What is equally important is the chart on the right-hand side, where you can see the inventory, because you can see that unfortunately, this crisis has led to inventory, a unused housing space unsold, still at record levels in tier two and three, so the gray dark and gray light.
In tier one, this inventory is declining. This is a very positive sign, especially for us, because we tend to be, of course, with our premium brand, more present in tier one ci ties. Why is that like this? You can see on the right-hand side, we see that the key development here is that the government has started now deploying measures to support real estate again. If 2022, 2021, 2022 was the period where many of the large developers actually went bankrupt, they were confronted with financial difficulties, which are still there. Now initially, the government had decided to let them somehow deal with the issue, but today there is a 16-point rescue package. The famous Three Red Lines, Three Red Lines policy is being eased a bit depending on the situation. Most importantly, the infrastructure build-up is picking up.
Now whether this is the case or not, and this will help, I think we are in the phase now that the China elevator and escalator market is transitioning towards a more modernization and service-driven market. This, to show that, I wanted to bring these other two charts. On the left-hand side, you see the installed base of units maintained. You can see the growth rate there, if one projects to 2030 is about 8%, which is more than double the global average, which shows that really the China service business is literally in its exponential growth phase. Is it new? No. This is exactly the same thing that happened in Europe and the U.S. China being China today, it is much bigger an impact and much faster.
The same applies to modernization because in China, you start having now a huge population of aging units, i.e., units that are more than 15, 20 years old, which need renovation, therefore the modernization market pick up that you see there. Strategically, this then leads to the question: How do we adapt to this transition, which in itself presents huge opportunities, especially for a company like us. Now, with those headwinds and tailwinds, it is key that now we develop a strategy on how to deal with that. If 2022 was the year of fixing issues, the year 2023 is the year to deliver. Of course, there is huge time pressure, therefore it is not only delivering, it is delivering and accelerating. To be successful, we need disciplined execution.
There is an old saying that goes, "Whenever you feel you have no time to make a plan, then you really need a plan." This is exactly what we developed by assessing, first of all, the market, but also then by with a strategic framework. Of course, the strategy is always a result of the environment. Here, for reference, we put together what I think is important to acknowledge, which are the eight key themes that shape our industry. Now you can see, frankly, you can say, "Well, there is nothing new." However, it's important to understand how this goes. Yes, of course, there is fiercer competition. Yes, of course, there is NI/NA market declining, as we discussed.
You can see that as new things, you can see that in the existing installation and mod, there is this huge China market, but also worldwide, this digital and sustainability technology that become massive differentiators. While at the same time, these differentiators are key because one cannot compete on price only, and this is not something new. On number four there, you see that around the world, the biggest pressure on maintenance for OEMs is the local service providers that compete on your price, and so the pressure is there. This opportunity of what I put here as number five, Industry 5.0, which is the combination of digitalization and sustainability, provides huge opportunities. Now, the supply chain is point six, which I must admit was probably forgotten. People took it for granted. Now the last three years provided a rude awakening of their importance.
Of course, we need people. People not only in terms of talent, managerial, functional, engineering level, but also in our case, in our industry, front line. We have a saying, we'll come to that, which is front line is the bottom line. We need people at the front line. Today with the cultural, societal evolution, probably less people are interested to join an industry like ours. We have to invest double up on things which are part of our tradition, apprenticeship, technical career path, et cetera. Based on this situation, we came up with a response, our response is what you see here on this chart. It is our strategic framework for disciplined execution. It is, again, nothing transcendental. It is quite basic. It starts with our purpose. What is our purpose? What is our market?
Our market is quality of life in urban environment. Taking the stairs, whether you have gone shopping or not, is never a pleasant experience unless you decide to do it because you wanna be fit. Whether you're in a station, an airport, I don't need to evolve, it is quality of life. Once we acknowledge that, we define our ambition. From our ambition, we define our strategic choices. From there, we have our targets. Those are deployed in our four P model: people, product, performance, and planet, by having consistent priorities and execution drivers. I don't think we have time today, but we can go in Q&A to the discuss all the points. Perhaps I'd like to focus here on the central one, which is our choices. Our choices start with our key business, which is service.
Our absolute priority is to create density in a maintenance portfolio. Once you define this, you also start deciding which are the new installation businesses that you want to go for. There is a topic of margin, but also a topic of what value accrual does that build to our portfolio. It's quite simple really, but I must admit, probably over the last few years, there was a bit of a different focus on volume and growth per se. Equally, that applies to modernization. We will focus on modernization, on renewing our portfolio, on securing opportunity, which are also accretive to our service density portfolio. Our choices here is what we do. Of course, the most important is what we don't do. We will stop taking jobs at low margins, unless they are additive in terms of service density and portfolio.
We will stop doing modernization businesses simply because it's an exciting engineering challenge, which of course, as engineers we love. Nothing dramatic, if you could say. In fact, we have now to drive this disciplined execution across every corner organization, geography and function. That's what we've been doing starting last year, beginning of this year, there was no day lost. As we speak, this is being deployed throughout every corner of the organization. I said we don't have time to go through every single point. Let me perhaps focus on two elements of the four P. The first is the planet. I presented already in Q3 our Net Zero commitment certified by Science Based Targets Initiative. What does that mean, in fact?
It's a big picture, but you can see here on the right-hand side of the chart, that this is of course split in two element. One, probably on the left side here are these bubbles. These are what we need to do to deliver on our Scope one and two, which is an infrastructure, our car fleet, how we drive our factories. On the right-hand side, there you can see the opportunities. What does that mean in terms of products, services? You have the Green Service here again, you have a Class-A product sale, which in fact are huge opportunities. I can tell you, more and more our customers demand that. It's no longer an option. It is key in the real estate.
By the way, we see also the same from our BuildingMinds effort, where real estate customers with large portfolios are very keen to have a sustainable portfolio meeting the Paris Agreement targets by 2030, 2040. Otherwise, there is a risk of stranding risk of this portfolio becoming obsolete with a huge risk of value loss. Another example now going on our internal aspect is one that I know very well because I was involved in this from the very beginning. When we built our campus in Jiading, there are two factories. Now, in the meantime, they've become three. From the beginning, we decided to invest. Before any formal commitment, before any regulation, we started investing in sustainability. You can see here on this picture, this is the escalator and elevator factory. This is the escalator one here.
80% of the whole energy requirement is generated by solar panels. Because it's a huge factory, we have space, but is the idea how you use the space intelligently. What you don't see here is the geothermal installation that we did from the very beginning when we laid the ground for this factory, which then helps generating a huge part of the whole electricity in the rest in the whole campus. Moving on to the other part of the 4 Ps. There is people, product, performance, planet. We did planet. Let me just focus for a moment here on the product. This is much more than a product. This is a key lever for our not only recovery, but for our performance optimization. It has to do with our NI margins as well.
This is the reintroduction, or I could say relaunch, of the real simplified modular elevator platform, which we said already very openly was not deployed the way it was supposed to. It was even designed the way it was supposed to. Good news, we don't have to invest many years because the key elements are there. We just have the fixing took place in 22, and now in different waves, which are highlighted on this chart by colors, we're now deploying quarter by quarter, the factory, the new product in each factory. It starts with standardization, the real radical reduction in components and variation with consistent configurator deployment.
Of course, there is a topic of cybersecurity, which we now can deploy into each one of our product much more than we do today, even though today we are think we're in the leading position. The second wave will be about introducing Net Zero functionality, but also having much unique and advanced user interface. The third phase will be the one you see here in the contemporary design, and this combination of physical and digital functionalities. Finally, we're gonna come with a product at the end of this evolution that will look very different. It's gonna be, I believe, the leader in its category, which Schindler was always the leader of. We were the leader in the commodity business, and now this is finally gonna come back towards the end of the year.
Now, there is much more to be said about that, and maybe I'd like to introduce one element here. As promised, now we plan to have more interaction with our investors, and we plan here in the second half of the year to have a technology day, which we'll hold here in Ebikon, where you'll be invited, and we will pre-present to you this product with its functionality and plus a few other things on our technology, which we look forward to sharing with you, and more details will follow in due course. With that, I think now it is time to move to our financial results, and I'd like to hand over to Carla De Geyseleer, our CFO. Carla, please.
Thank you, Silvio. I would say I would echo my two colleagues. It's a real pleasure, you know, to see some of you here in person, thank you know, for coming. Before I start my presentation, just a couple of reflections on the current performance. Having now worked here six months together, you know, with Silvio and the colleagues, I'm really convinced that we are focusing on the right priorities. I think that is clearly evidenced now by the progressive uptake of our profit, but also the recovery of the top line, especially in the second half of the year. Clearly, as Silvio mentioned, the nature of the challenges they are of that, I would say, nature that it require a reasonable time to solve them.
Yes, we are making progress, but obviously we have not reached the end point yet. But together with the colleagues, we are focusing on, you know, the measures that we have already implemented, and at the same time, we are framing additional measures to really look, you know, beyond 2023. In this context, I particularly focus on steering the performance first through the pricing discipline. Secondly, through efficiency improvement. Thirdly, recovery of the supply chain, and obviously the monetization of the procurement savings, which will also play quite an important role going forward. Last but not least, the net working capital management. At the same time, we are developing that strategic framework, and that is really dedicated to secure the mid and the long-term success of our company.
Let me turn now here to the page result in a nutshell. Obviously, I will not comment on all the elements here as I touch on some of these topics further on in the presentation. However, just some high-level comments here. Overall, you've seen that the results came in at the upper end of our outlook, and that is driven by that progressive trajectory of the revenue and the profit in the second half of the year. Order intake was broadly flat in local currencies for the 12-month period, and that is reflecting the deteriorating markets worldwide, but as importantly, our shifted focus to value and margin.
Revenue, as I said, it recovered in the second half of the year with a growth of 6.3% in local currencies and an increase of 2.5% for the full year, supported by a couple of bolt-on acquisitions, mainly in the Americas and in Asia-Pacific. Our service business continued to grow solidly, that was supported by an increase in units by approximately 4%, and disciplined pricing measures. I also like to draw your attention to the fact that the number of connected units now increased by almost 13% in 2022, and the number of digital service contracts increased even more, resulting in a monetization rate of more than 50%. EBIT adjusted positive trajectory, resulting in a progressively improved margins in the second half of the year.
If you look now at the cash flow at the right-hand side, cash flow from operating activities recovered in the fourth quarter. However, for the full year, cash flow from operating activities remained significantly behind previous year for the full year. Now the following two lides, they show the key figures for the fourth quarter and for the full year, respectively. You notice here that for the fourth quarter, 2022, the results confirm really that positive trend with a continued progressive improvement in revenue and EBIT adjusted. Printing a margin in the fourth quarter that was higher than any other quarterly result in the year.
The weak second quarter, which was particularly impacted by the lockdowns in our China operations over several weeks, but also impacted by the internal and external challenges as presented by Silvio Napoli, they took clearly their toll on the full year 2022 results. That resulted in a significant performance drop affecting profit and cash flow. Nevertheless, revenue growth in local currency amounted to 2.5%, and that is a result of this disciplined backlog execution. Moving on now to the next slide, we take a closer look here, you know, at the order intake. For the fourth quarter of 2022, order intake reached CHF 3 billion, corresponding to a decrease of 4.3%, -2.7% in local currency.
This is a result of the slowing down growth, mainly in China and towards the end of the year, also in some European markets, but also, you know, because of our focus, you know, to value and margin. On the right-hand side, you see the full year 2022. For the full year 2022, order intake reached CHF 12 billion. Corresponding to a decrease of 1.7% and 0.2%, so let's say flattish in local currency. The organic growth slightly decreased by 0.6%. Acquisitions contributed 0.4 percentage points, while the FX had a negative impact of 1.5 percentage points. Thanks to our continued efforts to increase the prices and focus on these higher margin products, our order intake margins improved significantly.
In combination with the globally slowing down markets, the focus on higher margin pro-projects resulted in mid-teens drop of new installation units. The order intake margin for elevators, escalators, in contrast, improved by more than 25%. You've seen it also on the earlier slide that Silvio commented on. Let's take a closer look now at the overview of the order intake by region and by product line, comparing 2022 with 2021. On the left-hand side, you see the comparison for the fourth quarter. On the right-hand side, you see the comparison for the full year. The order intake here, it represents all product lines, so the new installations, the modernization, and the service. I will only comment on the full year development here.
You see here the Americas and the EMEA region, they grew in local currency, while the significant contraction of the Chinese new installation market weighted rather heavily on the Asia-Pacific performance. Overall, new installations declined in units and in value. On a positive note, the new installation margins improved in almost all the regions. The modernization and the service business continued to grow, and this actually is nearly compensating the decline in the new installations. Order backlog, CHF 9.6 billion, broadly unchanged compared to last year, and the backlog margin sequentially improved in the fourth quarter for the first time in years. The year-on-year backlog margin drop stands now at less than 50 basis points, still reflecting cost inflation, product legacy, and the portfolio rotation.
I continue here with the revenue development. Starting with the left side, the fourth quarter of 2022 generated a solid revenue growth due to that continued strong backlog execution throughout the quarter. The revenue increased up to, increased by 2.8%, up to CHF 3 billion, and that is corresponding to an increase of 4.7% in local currencies. EMEA and the Americas regions, they continued toward their growth path, while the growth in Asia-Pacific paused towards the end of the year, obviously, you know, impacted by the newly introduced lockdowns in China. Nevertheless, taking everything into consideration, growth in Asia-Pacific was slightly up too. Moving to the right-hand side here, there you see the development for the full year.
Revenue reached CHF 11.3 billion, equivalent to an increase of 1%, 2.5% in local currencies, respectively. That was mainly driven, of course, by the strong development in the second part of the year. Organic growth reached 1.8%. Acquisitions contributed 0.7 percentage points, while FX had a negative impact of 1.5 percentage points to the growth. Solid increase in EMEA and the Americas region, which was diluted by the decline in the Asia-Pacific region, which was a consequence of the China situation during the second quarter, but also during the last two months of the year.
Overall growth in new installation was negative, particularly due to the weak growth across all regions in the first six months of the year and due to the situation in China. Modernization was muted in Asia-Pacific, while service remained solid across all region and throughout the whole year. Moving now to the development of the EBIT adjusted and the EBIT. Of course, you know, inflationary pressures, the product legacy, semiconductor shortage, supply chain issues, restructuring costs, they still persisted, impacting the fourth quarter. However, you see here clearly on the left side the positive performance trajectory, how that continued nicely, you know, especially in the second half of the year, and really printing an improved margin in Q3 and in Q4 .
EBIT adjusted in the fourth quarter of 2022 reached CHF 309 million. That is the highest quarterly result since the second quarter of 2021. It represents an increase of 1% year-on-year and 3.6% in local currencies. For the full year, so moving to the right-hand side of the slide, EBIT adjusted reached CHF 1,047 million. That's a decrease of 16.4% and 14.5% in local currency. The adjustments between EBIT and EBIT adjusted, they relate to the Top Speed program, Top Speed 2023. They relate to the restructuring costs, and they relate to expenses for BuildingMinds.
The EBIT drop in the fourth quarter, that can be explained by a net increase in these adjustments, particularly the higher restructuring costs related to the resizing of our operations, mainly in China and mainly in the U.S. Coming back to the Top Speed, over the last two years, we have spent CHF 130 million for the program. A realignment with the operational priorities and lower investments for mass connectivity, they are expected to lead to a significantly reduced overall program cost of CHF 170 million, opposed to the initially planned CHF 270 million. As a consequence for the remaining 2023, the spend is expected to amount to CHF 40 million.
We are making continuous progress on these various initiatives, and one that stand out that is clearly the fact that, already a quarter of our portfolio today is cloud connected. Moving now to the operating cash flow. Cash flow from operating activities weakened, and that is driven by the substantially increased net working capital requirements. That's mainly an increase in inventory and work in progress. Of course, you know, that is related, you know, to the challenges, you know, that we have been facing and are facing in the supply chain.
Cash flow from operating activities declined by 12.4% to CHF 312 million for the fourth quarter in 2022, and to CHF 688 million for the full year, equivalent to a decline of 47.6%. Moving to the dividend, the dividend obviously is subject to approval of the annual general meeting, is maintained at CHF 4, which is equivalent to a payout ratio of 70.5%, which is above our stated dividend policy range of 35%-65%. Taking into consideration the closing price of the registered shares listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange on the date of the board decision, which was yesterday, the dividend yield stood at 2.5%.
It's, it should probably not be a surprise, you know, that we, you know, stick to our CHF 4 dividend because we have a very strong balance sheet, number one, but we also really believe in our recovery plans going forward. Obviously, we had no intention to break the our dividend track record here. Now, you might have noticed that we are accelerating our initiatives in the area of sustainability over the last few years. It is clearly also part of our strategy going forward, and a pretty important part. On this slide, you see here now, you know, the overview of our achievements compared, you know, to our roadmap 2018-2022. That sustainability roadmap ended this year.
Schindler met five of the six targets that were set in 2017. We missed one, and we missed it with 0.3 percentage points, and that is our objective, you know, to reduce the CO2 emission by 25% in the global fleet. It is clear, you know, that our miss is partly also due to the plant or the slowdown of the plant conversion to e-mobility, you know, which is related to the challenges that the automotive industry has been facing. With regards to the other targets, I believe that we have made good progress since 2018, so we comfortably met our ambition.
Clearly our focus shifts to our 2030 sustainability roadmap, which is being developed on the basis of our updated materiality assessment and our Net Zero target. Moving on to the outlook. Starting with the market. The global new installation market was mid-teens negative in units in 2022. That was mainly driven by the situation in the Chinese market. Modernization service held up well. For 2023, we expect a similar pattern for the global new installation market, driven by a continued weak Chinese market as well as a slowdown in some European markets. The overall development is very much dependent on the timing of the supportive measures in China and the effectiveness of the measures. Modernization and service markets, they are expected to grow between 5% and 10%.
This is the basis for our outlook 2023. As already mentioned, we very much focus on pricing and efficiency, and barring any unexpected events, we expect low single-digit revenue growth in local currency for the full year 2023. Positive EBIT adjusted margin trajectory is expected to continue, since of course, pricing and efficiency are expected to more than offset the inflationary impact that we are facing. Finally, I would like to assure all our colleagues around the world, wherever you are, that we very much appreciate your hard work in 2022, you can clearly see that it resulted in an improved performance in the second half of the year. We all know that tough times are not over, it will take a while before we can close all the identified gaps.
However, we are very, very convinced that we will reach our ambition in a unified effort. With this, I hand over to Marco. Marco, floor is yours.
Thank you, Carla. We move on to Q&A, and we propose that we start with questions here from the audience, if there are any. Remo, please.
Thank you. Remo Rosenau, Helvetische Bank. In the outlook, you're positive on the modernization and the service business looking forward in 2023. However, on slide 24, it looked like the momentum in modernization was negative in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the full year. This would rather suggest that modernization has a negative momentum entering the new year. However, you're positive on it for the full year 2023. Could you elaborate a bit on this, which is a bit of a contradiction?
Excellent question, Mr. Rosenau. Indeed, it is noteworthy. Modernization has two different type of jobs. One are the, I'm gonna say, bread and butter, components, replacement for energy or simply for obsolescence, reasons. The other one are big, large projects. In fact, last year, Q4, we had a number of those, like, very huge projects, typically a high rise or I think it was even a metro. I forgot now, Marco, if you can remember. The year-on-year development has to be also to be taken in that regard. Contrary to NI in service, which is still very much of a mature market where somehow the big and the small can broadly offset one another.
Modernization, if you have a job that can be CHF 20 million, CHF 30 million plus, you will see it as a blip, and conversely the following year. This was the reason why you see this notable but circumstantial observation of the difference in order intake, for that period. The trend is very much the one that we signaled. If anything, it's more an issue of having enough, you know, capacity not only to produce, but also to design and making sure we have the efficient way to deliver.
Okay. Thank you. My second question is, going back to one of these legacy issues, could you give us a bit more detailed update on the configurator situation? I mean, a year ago, you explained quite in detail what a big mess it was. I mean, you had to produce more cabins, not less. You took in orders which you were not supposed to take in because the configurator was wrong, so you had to produce cabins which the sites were not supposed to produce. Has this been resolved? Are these bad cabins out of the system now or not yet? Yeah, tell us a bit about that.
Thank you. Let me start with the first with the last part of your question. I'm afraid those bad orders are not totally out of the system. You saw this b-slide reverse exponential. You will see it will take until end of 2024 to get rid of 90% of them and a few years more to get rid of them completely. However, we managed to reduce actively going back to the customers to do that. Now, this is the fixing. Fixing also applied indeed to the configurator. There are different phases. Already as of half year, we had already blocked the configurator, call it a band-aid solution. Some options even they were not all more. They couldn't be ordered.
For other options, we increased the price remarkably in a way that even if people wanted to order it, at least we were sure it wasn't causing negative margin in the factory. That has been done effective since second half year, including what we call factory transfer price increase that was somehow covering for inflation. Now, what is coming as part of this relaunch of the modular platform is a whole new configurator where it won't even be blocked. Those options will no longer exist. Let me make an example. We had, maybe because we thought we wanted to make great lifts, we even had on residential commodity products, we were providing 10 centimeter thick marble slabs as an option.
Now, you have to wonder, just very openly here, maybe why anyone would like to have, you know, in a normal residential home these type of options, but we had it. We first blocked it, but now in the meantime, it's no longer available. None. By the way, if you want it, we can give it to you have to buy another elevator, design elevator, which is designed for this type of luxury applications. This is a perfect example. We now are, as part of this reintroduction that I meant, is much more than a new product. It's really fixing a business or relaunching it the way it was supposed to be. This is coming progressively, starting in wave one. As we introduce this new product, the configurator will be reintroduced accordingly.
It is a huge challenge, but one on which we have worked non-stop, maybe one of the biggest that we invested on a lot in 2022.
Okay. The bad order, so to speak, from the wrong configurator are more or less fixed now. However, you also had legacy cabins from, you know, the past. Are these also not worked out yet?
No, we go back to that slide. Can you maybe revert to that one that we showed?
Yeah.
There, yeah.
40%. Okay.
So-
It applies for that as well.
Again, we are actively still working with our customers to say, "Are you sure you want this?" We are actually, we're not taking it for unfrozen, but, you know, there is a contract. The customer, I trust, will see more and more reasons why they better change. It's coming.
Have you lost any customers due to this, you know, all these issues?
Customers lost, if you look at our Net Promoter Score, we don't see any evidence of that. There is a blip, but we did lose some orders. Oh, yes. In some case, where we could apply the inflation clause, and the customer refused. In some cases, we said, "Okay, then we cancel the order." That is a tough choice. We had to take it, which involved, in some markets, losing locally on some large orders. Overall, I think that's the right thing to do. We always explain why.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Alexander Koller, Stifel. Is it fair to assume that the positive impact on margin from this simplified platform is negligible for the current year, since you are generating most from your profitability in service business?
Sorry, The from the new platform?
Yes.
Because the new platform, as you know, it will be introduced now. We have usually a lead time, which is average 18 months. That will be very, I would say, this year, very, very limited. What will start coming through, but at a limited time as well, is the orders with the higher margin that we sold in Q2 last year. Q3 probably is not gonna come yet, this is the one that will flow through. What will come on top of that is the efficiency measures we're introducing across the value chain, which starts with supply chain, it starts with in-installation, all other aspects that are under our influence, hoping to get what we call a better pre-post gap, meaning pre-margin, pre-installation margin, post-installation. That's something that we drive very actively.
Hence, are a limited impact, to answer your question, of the new new product coming this year. Thank you.
Hi. André Schneider at Schneider Capital Group. First question would be on the market outlook in China. 3Q call, you said it could again be -15% to -20%. Now bigger -10%, which still could mean the same, or did you become a little bit more positive because the indicators got better?
Honestly, two element here. Speculating on China is something which is very difficult. Today, already, if we had this meeting in December, I would have told you -15%, -20%. -10% already shows that there is an easing of the downturn, and that is today the latest, best estimate we can have. What is the degree of margin of error? I think it's large. I would say it's plus minus 50% or so. You can go again -15%, but you can also go back to -5%. Having lived in China, one thing I said, never underestimate the speed of China reaction. If they decide to put their mind to it, the bump in the second half could surprise, but it's big if.
I cannot give you a better answer, I'm afraid.
No, that's fine. Thanks. On market share losses, we discussed that before too. You said last time that you hope it doesn't continue for 18 months. It obviously continued in 4Q. Can you give us an outlook on that for 2023?
As you know, we don't usually elaborate on specific market shares. However, what I can tell you that if you look at our order decline, which Mr. Geisler explained, it's in fact in line with the market. In line with the market, there are pockets where we lost some market share, it is clear. In particular, I mentioned unfortunately in the commodity because the product wasn't suitable. There are some geographies where we were behind in price, and we had to accelerate price increase more than in others, where also we had some local market share gaps.
Overall, I'd like to stress, based on now the final market assessment 22, if we had any market share loss, we're talking about very minimal marginal, due to some specific markets.
Last question. I think I asked that every time we spoke. KPIs, midterm targets, you promised or to give us something at some point.
Can you give us an update on that? When do we hear something?
No, I promise to give, if anything, an idea of our direction, which as you can see, I am. I've already started today with our strategic framework. As we continue developing, and moving, we can, we can elaborate as we go forward. Today, if you ask me to give you a specific midterm profitability target, there is too much in motion, and I don't wanna. I'd rather be here and tell you I deliver on what we committed to, which we did last year, and I like to continue in this way. I look forward to continuing this dialogue.
I understand you asking for it, but I think at this stage there are so many things moving that it's extremely, how can I say, not only risky, but, you know, it wouldn't be consistent now to give you a target where we are. There is too much in motion.
We can still expect it at some point, even if it takes another year.
You can expect that we continue improving. That's our commitment to you, but it will take time. Thank you.
I would like to come back to the standardization of your products. You have a long history in trying to standardize your products, and you had some benefits in the past, and they were then over time, always a little bit diluted, if I may say. What makes you confident that this time it will work and will be sustainable in terms of products that you will sell on the market going forward?
Thank you for this question which goes at the heart of our issue today. What makes me confident is that we did it, as you say. We did it. I was actually, my very first job in Schindler in 1994, I was head of corporate planning, and I was involved in the introduction of the Schindler Smart 001, which then became the Schindler 3300. I've seen how this was a major really, a change in the, in the company mindset, which required massive efforts, and we did it, and it brought us to lots of success where we are today. Unfortunately, probably the, it...
The issue is more to maybe a question to your question, how could it be that in the last few years, some people possibly driven by good intentions thought they could do better and change that, and having a seamless elevator offering, allow me here the analogy, a Fiat 500 with a Porsche engine, and that cannot happen anymore. It is fixing that which also requires making sure we get the priorities right. The strategic framework execution we are reintroducing is exactly meant to do that, so everyone understands what is our purpose, what is our ambition, our choices, and it's hammering it through every corner of the organization. I think to some extent that was lost.
At the end, it is a leadership task to communicate and explain. We are now dedicating more and more of our time to do that. Thank you for your question. It goes really at the heart of the situation we're in today. Thank you. Should we take a question online?
It seems there are no further questions here in the audience, so therefore I suggest we move on to the people waiting in the line. Operator, please.
The first question from the telephone come from the line of Andrew Wilson with JP Morgan Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for the time and for the very extensive commentary around the market particularly. It's very helpful. I wanted to ask, I guess it's probably a bit more specific around 2023 and just trying to understand some of the margin drivers. You clearly talked about looking to improve the profitability and clearly there were a lot of challenges in 2022, which makes that, I guess, quite likely. I'm just trying to understand particularly around things like raw materials, around labor inflation, and around the modularity, I guess, challenges that you had last year. I assume some of those headwinds will reverse in 2023.
Also if you could try and help us a little bit on the price contribution we would expect to go through the sales line in 2023, that would be very helpful as well. Appreciate I'm asking you to fill in my model, but if you could at least give us, I guess, some thoughts on those line items, that'd be really helpful.
Andrew, hello. Thank you for the question. If I understand it is about what are the key profitability driver in 23. Carla, would you like to take that question?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Andrew. Maybe starting, you know, as you point out, wage inflation because that obviously is one that will stand out in 2023. If we, you know, make a bit of our, you know, estimate on wage inflation, we could say, yeah, this will be definitely around 4%-4.5%, you know, in 2023. We are actually, you know, very, very confident, I would say that this inflationary effect, if it's now wage inflation or some of the others, that we will offset them with the pricing and, you know, with the efficiencies that we will generate in 2023.
If you go to the other element, which material cost, which has actually had a big impact in 2022, that will ease, obviously in 2023. You know, with the measures that we have put in place, and I particularly refer here to the procurement savings, we are actually more or less confident that whatever, you know, comes through there, you know, that that will be completely offset. We should also not forget that in terms of the commodity prices, these are actually coming down, so we have also a positive effect next to the procurement savings coming from that.
If you really, you know, look or compare 2023, you know, with, 2022. I think the big difference is that yes, we will also of course have positive effect from the pricing, but, you know, we are working hard on monetizing efficiencies in 2023. That is where overall, you know, we are aiming, you know, to continue that progressive trajectory of the profitability. Does that answer your question?
Thank you. Can I just follow up? Yeah, no, it's very helpful indeed. Yeah, I just wanted to maybe follow up actually on the last comment around the productivity and just I guess I'm thinking of things that will be tailwinds in 2023 versus 2022. I guess it sounded like materials will likely be a tailwind given the commodity prices have come down, which makes sense. Also further productivity, and as I said, assume it will be a lower headwind, at least from modularity year-on-year, 'cause that was a big challenge I think in 2022.
I don't know if it's possible to kind of wrap up some of those sort of tailwinds into a number in terms of, I guess the benefits that you would say that Schindler are driving themselves, whether it be productivity or kind of a non-repeat of some of the challenges on modularity. Appreciate that might be a hard number to give, but even just some sort of broad quantum would be really helpful just to try and think about that benefit.
Well, I think I pointed out there, you know, the big pillars, you know, that are, that will impact our results positively. As you say, yes, there are a couple of these tailwinds and you refer to one, internally, there. Of course, the other one is what Silvio pointed out. As we are working through the backlog, yes, there is still a major amount to work through, but also in 2023, the impact will be already less than in 2022. It is a combination of elements there that will impact our results.
Building on the question perhaps here, just to build on Carla's point. I understand, your question also for the year of the model. We probably cannot go here in every detail. It wouldn't be even appropriate, but maybe the four blocks, right? There is the pricing, the efficiency. Another block is what I call one-off hits that we had in 2022 that will no longer be in 2023. The fourth block is what I, you can say it's basically China. Sorry, it's a big block in itself, but that caused a huge impact. If you then go backwards on things, that hopefully will not go there, these are the four ideas. On the efficiency, this is why maybe it's a bit complex to discuss here. There are in itself also there are a number of elements.
There is the efficiency in installation. There is the efficiency in servicing. There is the efficiency in procurement. There is the efficiency in supply chain. It's. We are, as you saw before from the strategic framework, there is a bullet for each one of these. Not only a bullet, every one is a module, every one is a work stream on which we are driving targets, not only centrally, but deployed for every single element of the organization. Perhaps if we can take it offline, I think. I wanted to explain to you the model, how we're going for it. At the same time, I said there are headwinds. Biggest one of all is the backlog that you have to consume. We saw that. There is inflation, which is still there.
The whole topic of pricing, for example, now there is pricing on new things coming that we need to make sure we manage. This is somehow the big building blocks of the plan. I hope this helps, and maybe we can discuss offline if you'd like to go into more detail.
That's very helpful. Thank you. Thank you both for the color on that.
Thank you, Andrew.
The next question comes from the line of Andre Kukhnin with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you very much for taking my questions. I'll go one at a time, please. Firstly, can we talk about pricing? I'd love to hear what your current intentions and kind of current actions on pricing front ex China. Should we think about it as something that was quite a clear push, as you demonstrate in the numbers with the double digit increases, and now we are kind of stable at that level? Or are you continuing to push for price further? Secondly, could you comment on how pricing has been developing in China, please?
Yes. Andre, hello. Let me comment on the topic of pricing. First of all, let me split it again in two big blocks. There is pricing service and pricing installation. Starting with service. As previously discussed, I'm sure most of you are well aware of, service contracts in many parts of the world are in fact already including an inflation index. Of course, the inflation of last year, since the contracts were indexed, would have by itself a flow-through impact on the top line pricing for this year. Other price increases, inflation-driven, or material-driven, are very carefully looked at because of course, what we want to ensure is to minimize portfolio losses. We want to make sure we preserve this density as a priority. This is the first block.
The drive is there, but going back now to a very clearly spelled ambition and targets, the goal remains to keep service density. The second part is new installation. There, I think, 2022 really recreated that reflex about driving price increases. When we spoke, I think in Q1, I did say how surprised you were to say that, you know, after a decade or more on negative interest rates, the whole topic of price increases was for some of our staff unheard of. China being a particular example. That has for most of the world now being recovered, and now I think this is going very well. What are we doing? There is a pricing module as part of our strategic execution framework, which is being driven systematically with functions across the whole world. There are different element to that.
1 is this market-based pricing model that we discussed already in the past, that we introduced back when I was CEO the first time. There is now another element, which is artificial intelligence. We now use data science to assess what is, based on history, based on specifications, the most likely award price for a certain project. I must say, I'm so pleased at the same time also for how effectively this method has been to wherever we introduced it. We've introduced in a few key markets, and now it is being deployed worldwide. China, the situation is tougher. I explained the reason why. There, I think also the cultural element is particularly important.
There we have, I'm afraid, we are restarting a bit from the base, but there too is to find the right element between market share and price, and making sure we drive new installation and we secure the jobs we want to, where we then have to be prepared even to make some price concessions. In the other ones, we need to make sure that we get sufficient margins. Pricing, used analogy in the company now of breaking on ice, for those who drive in the winter or used to drive when there was snow on the roads. It's, it's a bit of an art, and you can use technology that can help you fixing it. We are very much in the process. I cannot give more details now, in fact, because it's extremely complex.
We are definitely all in to continue with the momentum.
That's very clear. Thank you. If I may ask, on the backlog margin evolution, we used to talk about that, and now you're giving very helpful disclosure on how the order intake margin has been evolving. If we just try to translate that back to the backlog margin and think back of the historic, I think it was kind of minus 50 basis points that then flattened out in Q4, did that backlog margin now go into a net positive? Maybe if you could comment to what extent.
Thank you, Andrew. Carla.
Yeah.
expect the question, please go ahead.
Yeah, absolute. Yeah, as I just pointed out, you know, for the first time also, you know, between quarter three and quarter four, sequentially, the backlog margin improved, hence, you know, the fact that it narrowed, you know, to less than 50 basis points. Obviously, you know, also in terms of margin, it definitely became positive. Yeah.
Great. Thank you. If I may just last one very quick one. On digital, the 25% cover of your maintenance base, with connectivity, is that all Schindler Ahead units? Could you possibly comment on kind of the revenue level against that, or at least is that now in the break-even territory versus the kind of recurring costs that you incurring on that program?
Andrew, yes, thank you. Let me answer the first question and then pass it on to Carla for the revenue part. Yes, it is all Schindler Ahead. I'd like to specify this is cloud connectivity. It doesn't include TeleAlarm, the old analog lines. This is really Schindler Ahead based. Carla, the second part of the question.
The second part regarding the revenue?
Yes.
I mean, we don't disclose the exact revenue, but it's already a substantial of, yeah, CHF high tens of millions, you know, that are flowing through to the bottom line. Yeah. And a very solid number. Yeah.
You can even think, we can see that probably, you know, year on year we're talking about doubling. You saw in our drive, in our, again, as part of our products, this is the first bullet, drive, innovative services based on connectivity. This is something which, after the investment we did between P 2023 to get connected as many units as possible, now we can start harvesting the benefits, and this involves now generating the services. We have the tools for it and more is coming.
Yeah. Silvio, if I just may add-
Sorry.
because it, you know, next of course, you know, to the financial benefits, you know, that it brings, it's also important, you know, because it really relates very well, you know, to our sustainability ambition here. That's also one of the reasons, you know, we are so forceful in accelerating the rollout.
Good point. Thank you very much for your time and for your answers. Really appreciate it.
Thank you, Andrew.
The next question comes from the line of Supriya Banerjee with Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Just a quick question on slide seven, where you disclose the new orders margin and also the margin that is PL. Do we have some sense of how it is trending by geography? The reason I'm asking this question is also, I mean, very strong for Q and obviously driven by pricing trends to flow through. Just wanted to know which regions are doing well and if we have some magnitude on that subject.
Sorry, I didn't get the question. Yeah.
The line was not excellent. Apologies. Can you repeat? Is it about flow through or the margin? Am I correct?
Yes
In terms of timing?
Sorry, I'm trying to get some sense in terms of the auto margin. Do we have a split by geography? Which regions are kind of driving this?
Okay.
No, on the, when you look across all geographies, I mean, it is, it is a worldwide, I would say, positive development in the margin, yeah, across the whole portfolio.
Do we know which regions are kind of doing well versus others? I mean, let's say China, is it around the group level versus DM somewhat lesser? Do we have some sense around that?
Honestly, I mean, they are pretty similar, you know, in terms of region. They are all, you know, on a similar level, you know, the improvements here. Yeah.
Perhaps to clarify the reason how the answer is built.
Yeah.
We look now more and more at what we call wall-to-wall margins. This is important because this is what makes the difference. Wall-to-wall meaning from field operation, when it is sold and installed, all the way to the factory who delivers them. To your question, indeed, as you correctly hint to, in some part of the geography, maybe the front, the field operation margin might be a bit lower, but then the supply chain margin is higher. Carla's answer is exactly spot on, because on average, you end up having the similar positive evolution. Of course, against the effect on before it flows through the P&L, it will take time because we have to first to consume the backlog. Hopefully this... This is again why it is important to drive efficiency.
If you drive efficiency today, then this pricing effect then into the wall-to-wall margin is even compounded with these other benefits, which are then are in our hands. That's why, Carla said this 2023, the key focus for us is on efficiency, because in all this many multiple, and fast-changing things, efficiency is in our hands. Candidly, I say very openly here, we have way to go. We use ruthless benchmarks, actually. We invest a lot in that to see what is the market benchmark, what is the best-in-class benchmark, and we operate towards that.
Thanks very much for the color. I'll step back in line.
Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Angelika Gruber with Tamedia. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, thanks for taking my question. I would have one on China. Sorry. China has been a growth market for a very long time for you, I'm wondering whether you see it coming back or whether you need a different growth market in the long term. There is also a political component to this question. I was wondering whether you are a bit more cautious on China, given the conflict between China and Taiwan, you know, after what happened in Ukraine. Thanks.
Thank you. Let me take that question. As explained, China, in spite of the contraction of the last three y ears, remains 60% of the world market. You may remember, some of you, the Pareto chart we presented in Q3, where we showed that the second-largest market is India, which is seven times smaller still today than China. China remains the key market for any global player, where one has to be successful only. One wants to retain a global presence, including growth. At the moment, I think we need to grow all over the world, but we need to continue growing in China as well. Yes, we grow in India very successfully. We grow in the rest of Asia Pacific, which are the other fast-growing market as a result of urbanization.
Today, China remains the key driver. That's the first part of the question. On the second one, are we cautious? First of all, I'm sure you saw the figures. I don't know, EIU just published a study last week whereby you can see that trade between China and the United States grew by 2.5% in 2022, and this growth has never stopped, even at the highest moment of tensions. Clearly, one has to be carefully watching without taking any political side on the tensions. Trade so far continues, and I think, thanks God for trade, because hopefully that also keeps people clever in avoiding to cross boundaries, which are then very costly once they're crossed.
At the same time, I think what we have to learn from the period of lockdowns in terms of what does it mean in terms of risk management, and this is the key element. The risk management, because we see that we have many suppliers that are, in fact, producing only China. We have been producing all over the world from the beginning, but we have components that we don't produce, and some of these components are produced in China only. And that is the one thing we need to look at. This is what we actively, you will see, or you have, you may have noticed into the product, we have to now to reduce drastically the number of single sourcing components or suppliers that we have.
We had a lot, and by the way, this used to be the fashion-In the '90s, 2000. Like, you know, single source, outsource, go for that. Now you can see, depending on where the single source is, it can be very risky. This is now. This of course, in a, in engineering business like ours is not that easy because you have to make sure that the other supplier is certified, that has the right quality, the right engineering. This is all in itself a huge effort, which has substantial cost, which we're driving for now. I hopefully that then this is our situation with China, but also with other countries. Of course, China being so big, this is the one that is the most affected. Hopefully that helps addressing your question.
It does. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Xiaomeng Zhang with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two, if I may. The first one is actually I want to switch to other countries like U.S. I know you have a new CEO in the U.S. I just wonder if there are any changes in strategy there, or, what's the new direction there? The second one is on your orders. Can you, if possible, to quantify how much % of decline is like voluntarily you take less because of lower margin? Thank you.
Thank you. If I understand well, the first question is about the U.S., any new direction with the new management. I'll take that. The second one, if I understand. Can you repeat this? Is the percentage of market share or orders? Can you repeat the second question, sorry, again?
Yeah, sure. No worries. Yes. How much % orders like you voluntarily like decide to take not to take because of lower margins in your order decline in 4Q?
Okay, good. I will, Carla will address the second question. Yes, you were informed indeed we did disclose it. As part of our effort, by the way, in 2022 we did change a number of key personnel, including leaders in some key markets. That is the U.S., but also our China field operation. There are most of our supply chain heads. All that has been again, a huge investment of which, as you can imagine, I myself invested a lot. In the U.S., the direction is not change, it's discipline execution. In the U.S., we need also to make sure we have the right products for the market on which we have been investing as part of our Top Speed 23. Now it's about bringing them to the market.
o do also some investment in the U.S. in terms of infrastructure. And of course, the whole topic about frontline capacity, which is true for most industrial companies, is a key burning platform in the U.S. So we are working very actively towards it. To do that, we have streamlined there too, like with a central level, the whole organization in a way to make it much less complex, much more decentralized and close to the field with much closer proximity. This has involved some restructuring for which you may have seen some of the cost coming in Q4. This is the it's about discipline execution of our, and the product introduction will play a key role. Carla, would you take the second question
Yes.
On the, on the orders?
On the orders, obviously, yes, we lost orders, but that is rather, I would say, a minor part and we actually don't, you know, don't quantify them as such. You know, we don't disclose them here. It's not, as you can see, it's not an, I would say a major problem. In the cases we were dealing with, it's then, you know, conscious decisions.
Perhaps, building on Carla's answer, the key maybe market where this has to be discussed carefully is large orders, typically infrastructure. Because those are very large volumes, so they're very appetizing. One can get very quickly excited by huge figures. Then the question is, yes, we can do it. Do we have the right margin? Most of all, what will it do in terms of portfolio density? Depending on the country, some of these orders have a, I wouldn't say automatic, but have a very high chance of conversion into service contract. This is for us, the key area.
To be candid now, honestly, and not trying to evade the question, top of my head, I wouldn't be able to tell you what a percentage, but there are large orders on which we backed out from because the maintenance was at risk. Unless you have the right margin in your, in your equipment, you don't take it. In the past, we did. That is a very, I think, very specific example of the type of orders we will now be scrutinizing much deeper in the future.
Yeah. Very clear.
Thank you.
I think we have time for one more last question from the call. Then we are also looking back in the audience if there is one remaining one. Then we close.
The last question from the telephone line is coming from the line of Miguel Borrega with BNP Paribas Exane. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Just following up on the recent price increases. Obviously 2022 was an exceptional year, looking forward, do you think it's possible to keep raising prices in a situation where construction and markets are becoming weaker? I understand some of the price increases are still yet to be delivered in the P&L, once they do, what will be the key for improving your margins? Will it keep raising prices or is it to focus more on the product costs and internal measures? Then on China, you talk about the transition to modernization. Can you give us a sense on how a typical modernization project compares to new equipment in terms of size and margins?
If by 2030, the modernization market in China is the same size as the new equipment today, how will your profitability compare, modernization versus new equipment today? Thank you.
Thank you. Let me start with the first question. You're absolutely right. As I highlighted in my headwinds, tailwinds slide, the real estate industry is under pressure because of rising interest rates, increasing capital cost, in some parts of the world, also risk of recession. Now, we all heard the story about now is Europe or US hard landing, soft landing, now no landing. You, you in your institutions know this much better than I do. This is a big question. You're right. We are very conscious of the fact that pricing will be more challenging in 2023. That's why we spoke about pricing momentum.
The key for us is to apply the formula that has carried us in 22, which I presented actually as my 1 year ago, which is pricing plus efficiency has to be bigger than inflation. This is the magic formula. Pricing plus efficiency has to be bigger than inflation. If we cannot get the pricing, we need to get the efficiency. This is now we even have, together with Carla and her team, we have now data and cockpit charts to observe how this evolves across the world. In 22, we were very good on the pricing. We were not so successful on efficiency. Now it's the perfect time to switch, because indeed, I agree with you, pricing will be a risk. Where would it be more at risk?
I think the big key question is, first of all, Europe. We can see even in Northern Europe, some construction. The demand is still there, but some, we see some of our customers start postponing decisions in terms of final investment. This is one to be close watching. The other one is the U.S., where I think demand is there, but there is a scarcity of labor and delayed construction with some uncertainty. This is one that has to be watched very carefully, including the vacancy rates in some, in some cities, which then not only is a question for future projects, but also in terms of service. Again, big tailwinds and big risk. Now the second question is about the modernization margins in China. There are two type of modernization in China.
One is the, we call it the actually three. There is the replacement, because as in China, just you have an old unit, you take down the unit, and you replace it in the same shaft. Those margins are actually very healthy. Very healthy. The tougher margin, which is smaller in units but bigger in volume, is the transformation ones. Transformation, in China, there is an issue of scarcity of labor. It's very much of a skilled work. This is where we need to improve the margins. To do that, we need to develop a self-standing delivery mode, which is there in Europe, which is there in the U.S. In China, it wasn't there.
It's really And we are working towards developing that in order to do that, provided it adds to the density of the business. There's a third element of modernization in China, which is in between new installation modernization, which is the outside lift, the add-on shafts. Some old buildings in China, back, even when I was still there was a law until I think 2008, buildings less than seven floors could not have a lift. With the aging population, this has changed. Now you can actually, instead of tearing down the building, which used to be what used to be done in the past, now less and less, you can actually add a shaft outside and connect it to the building.
This is a fast increasing business on which we are investing and which is showing improving margins as we go forward. Now, honestly, how will this look in 2030? I cannot tell you today, but I am positive that this, as it did in other parts of the world, this will provide a business possibly even more profitable than what we have in new installation.
Very good. Thank Thank you very much.
Is there any last question from the audience? That doesn't seem to be the case, therefore, thank you very much for attending this call. Please feel free to reach out if you have any follow-ups to me. I see there are a few questions still in the line. I will contact you in the course of the next few hours. With that, we would like to say goodbye to you. The next call or the next occasion we are in contact with each other will be on April 20th. We are looking forward to that, thank you very much and take care.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you for your question. Thank you for being here. Bye.