Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Finning International Inc. second quarter 2022 investor call and webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Analysts who wish to join the question queue may press star then one on their telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Amanda Hobson, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasury. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Finning's second quarter earnings call. Joining me on today's call are L. Scott Thomson, President and CEO, Kevin Parkes, EVP and COO, and Greg Palaschuk, EVP and CFO. Following our remarks today, we will open the line to questions. The call is being webcast on finning.com. We have also provided a set of slides that we will reference during our prepared remarks. The slides are posted on the Investor Relations section of our website. You can also view the slides on our webcast page. An audio file of this call and the accompanying presentation will be archived on our website. Before I turn it over to Scott, I want to remind everyone that some of the statements discussed during this call are forward-looking.
Please refer to slides 10 and 11 for important disclosures about forward-looking information, as well as currency and specified financial measures, including non-GAAP financial measures. Scott, over to you.
Thank you, Amanda, and good morning, everyone. On today's call, I will provide some introductory comments. Kevin will then detail important improvements we have made to our value proposition and operating model, which have enabled us to exceed our Investor Day commitments. After that, Greg will provide more details on our performance in the second quarter, including regional commentary and outlook. Please turn to slide two. We are pleased with our strong performance in the second quarter. Globally, our teams continue to deliver outstanding results in a very dynamic environment. Through consistent execution of our simple plan to drive product support, reduce costs, and reinvest to compound our earnings, we have made sustainable improvements to many important areas of our business and significantly improved our earnings capacity.
Delivering on the commitments we set out at our Investor Day last year, we've accelerated product support growth, we have reduced our cost base to become more efficient and agile in serving our customers. We have reinvested in our business to compound our earnings. From delivering approximately CAD 900 million of free cash flow during a very challenging 2020 to delivering CAD 2.66 of EPS over the last four quarters, the full cycle resiliency of our business model and successful execution of our strategy has been on full display. There are a number of key building blocks to this success. First and foremost, safety remains a top priority and a key area where we continue to make significant progress. We reduced our total injury frequency a further 11% from Q2 2021.
We are driving strong product support growth rates and improving our customer value proposition in close alignment with Caterpillar's aftermarket growth strategy. We reduced our cost structure through sustainable productivity gains and effective inflation management. In addition, improvements in our inventory management practices and advanced digital capabilities have helped us to capture growth opportunities and service our customers more efficiently. As a result, we have realized a significant improvement in our operating leverage and achieved a fundamental step up in profitability. These enhancements to our customer value proposition and operational improvements have significantly elevated our return on capital performance across all of our regions. Redeployment of capital through accretive M&A and share repurchases have also helped drive strong EPS growth.
While we are monitoring financial market volatility, we are encouraged by increasing capital deployment by our mining customers, where our quoting activity continues to grow in both Canada and Chile. During the second quarter, we were pleased to secure two important long-term contracts, including an agreement with Artemis Gold to deliver mining fleets to their Blackwater Gold project, a greenfield development in British Columbia, with a pathway to fleet decarbonization with Caterpillar, and a contract with Codelco to deliver the first fleet of Caterpillar electric drive trucks to their Ministro Hales copper mine. Our customers continue to be busy. We expect that project backlogs, healthy customer balance sheets, and high machine utilization rates will continue to support strong demand for equipment, parts, and maintenance.
Following our strong EPS growth of 52% in the first half of 2022 compared to adjusted EPS in the first half of 2021, we expect demand conditions to remain favorable for the remainder of 2022. Underpinned by our large and diverse backlog, continued growth in product support, and disciplined operational execution, we are projecting above mid-teens EPS growth in the second half of 2022 compared to the second half of 2021. We also expect to generate positive annual free cash flow in 2022, with the amount of free cash flow dependent on supply and delivery schedules. While activity levels remain robust, we are closely monitoring leading indicators and the impact of ongoing supply chain, labor, inflation, and interest rate challenges on our customer activity levels.
We remain focused on actively managing these risks and are capturing growth opportunities in a disciplined manner. The sustainable improvements we have made to our business have improved our earnings capacity through all stages of the economic cycle, which gives us confidence in our ability to continue successfully navigating a dynamic global business environment. I'd like to invite Kevin to provide a bit more color on how these structural improvements to our business model have helped us to exceed the targets we set out at our Investor Day last year.
Thank you, Scott, and good morning, everyone. I'm happy to be joining the call today to provide an update on our operational improvements. If I can ask you to turn to slide three, which shows our execution against Investor Day commitments we set in June 2021. Our net revenue of CAD 7.3 billion over the last four quarters was at the midpoint range, and our product support outperformance was offset by constrained availability of new equipment. Our product support revenue grew by 14% over this period, considerably exceeding our goal. In addition to strong demand for parts and service across all sectors, we have significantly improved our value proposition for construction customers.
We are now offering a wide range of Customer Value Agreements and rebuilds for most construction equipment models, providing attractive financing and warranty with the support of Caterpillar and leveraging our Triple R network capabilities for faster turnaround and cost efficiencies. As a result, our construction Product Support revenue was up 24% for the period. While price increases had a more positive impact on our Product Support revenue growth than we anticipated a year ago, we are pleased with our aftermarket share gains and improving volumes which drove the majority of our outperformance. We continue to make progress on improving our cost structure. Our SG&A as a percentage of net revenue over the last four quarters was 18.3%.
This was above our target, mostly due to stronger product support revenue, which is more SG&A intensive, lower new equipment sales than expected, and more inflationary pressure than we expected a year ago. Despite these challenges, SG&A in Q2 2022 was 16.9%, driven by higher new equipment deliveries compared to the previous three quarters, ongoing productivity improvements, and proactive inflation management. While we've made important progress here, we know we have significant room for further improvement and cost reductions. They will remain a key focus for going forward. Our key focus areas for productivity improvements include further deployment of our Triple R model across all regions, supply chain and warehouse optimization, back office consolidation, and procurement spend management. I would like to give you an example from each of our regions now, that demonstrate the progress in several key important areas.
In Canada, we saw improvements in our technician productivity and service quality following the implementation of our Triple R network. We are thoughtfully building our technician capacity. We hired around 250 technicians over the period, mostly in our Triple R locations outside the higher cost jurisdictions. Labor recovery is strong and quality has improved, with warranty reducing by 30%. While service revenue is not yet at pre-pandemic levels, our parts volumes through service are up 5% from 2019 levels. This is a result of increasing scope of work, such as machine rebuilds, which are up four times and faster turnaround. The quality and composition of our inventory has improved meaningfully across all regions. In South America, our aged new equipment inventory is only 5% right now, down from 30% at the end of 2019.
We are far more deliberate about standardization and categorization of our inventory by using our plan around Runners, Repeaters, and Strangers, which helps increase velocity and turns. In the U.K. and Ireland, we improved our EBIT as a percentage of net revenue by 160 basis points from Q2 2019 to 6.4%. This was driven by product support growth, including the addition of Hydraquip and the addition of CUBIQ revenue building on a lower cost structure. In 4Refuel, our EBIT as a percentage of net revenue increased by 600 basis points since we acquired the business in 2019, while concurrently making investments in natural gas, renewable fuels, and distribution capabilities. Over the last quarter, we generated an EPS of $2.66.
This significant outperformance was culminated in a number of well-executed initiatives and supportive market conditions that drove strong margins and operating leverage, enhanced by accretive M&A and share repurchases. Our improved earnings capacity and strong balance sheet enable us to reinvest in our business and return capital to shareholders. During the last 12 months, we have reinvested CAD 341 billion, including share repurchases, the acquisition of Hydraquip, and the expansion of 4Refuel capabilities into CNG, RNG, and hydrogen. Importantly, we also announced a 5% dividend increase, which marks 21 years of consecutive dividend increases. Our employees should be extremely proud of this great performance, which has allowed us to deliver strong returns to our shareholders.
In 2022, ROIC reached 17.4% in Canada, 22.3% in South America, and 16.2% in the U.K. and Ireland, driven by significantly improved profitability. South America achieved the strongest improvement in both profitability and investment full turnover relative to our targets. In summary, we have built our business to drive improved outcomes for our customers and higher returns for our shareholders. Q2 was yet another strong quarter which demonstrates we have the right strategy to execute on our goals and deliver great service to our customers in the most efficient and innovative way possible. I will now hand it over to Greg.
Thank you, Kevin. I'll talk about our strong performance in the second quarter, our growing backlog, regional highlights, and outlook. Our consolidated second quarter results are summarized on slide four. Net revenue CAD 2 billion was up 18% from Q2 2021, driven by strong market conditions, backlog deliveries, successful execution of our product support growth strategy. EBITDA and EPS were up 27% and 43% respectively from Q2 2021. All our regions delivered strong operating leverage in Q2, which demonstrates successful inflation management and continued disciplined execution of our productivity initiatives. We're very pleased to have built our earnings capacity up to the CAD 0.80 level this quarter, while our LTIP benefit contributed CAD 0.05. Tax and inflationary headwinds were of similar value.
This brings our EPS growth for the first half of the year to 52% compared to adjusted EPS the first half of 2021. We look forward to continuing our strong execution and momentum in the second half of 2022. Slide five shows changes in our net revenue by line of business compared to Q2 2021, as well as more details on the growth and composition of our equipment backlog. With ongoing supply challenges, our new equipment sales were up 24% year-over-year, driven by mining deliveries in Chile and construction deliveries in the U.K. We are seeing continued momentum in our consolidated backlog, which was over CAD 2.1 billion at the end of June, up 4% from March, 15% from December, and 56% year-over-year. Mining order intake more than doubled in Q1 2022.
Over a third of our backlog is now mining equipment and includes 798 truck orders for Codelco, but does not yet include recently announced awards from Artemis Gold. Depending on supply and delivery schedules, we expect to deliver roughly 70% of our backlog this year. We're pleased to have already secured a backlog of over CAD 600 million of new equipment for 2023. With strong quoting activity, particularly in mining, the 2023 backlog will continue to grow from this very solid base through the second half of the year. We saw strong demand for rental equipment and high rental utilization in Q2 as supply challenges persisted. Product support revenue increased across all regions, led particularly by strong growth in Canada. Turning to slide six. We delivered significant growth in EBITDA and EBIT compared to Q2 2021.
An increase in gross profit was in line with growth in net revenue, with higher rental utilization and competitive pricing for used equipment, offset by a higher proportion of new equipment in the sales mix. SG&A was up 8% on 18% higher net revenue. An increase in SG&A from additional workforce and higher variable cost to support revenue growth was partially offset by LTIP recovery and lower expenses. SG&A as a percentage of net revenue in Q2 2022 was 16.2%, a 140 basis point improvement from 2021. We look back to pre-pandemic levels three years ago to compare our Q2 2022 results to Q2 2019, which had similar revenue levels. EBIT as a percentage of net revenue is up 250 basis points. ROIC was up 520 basis points.
EPS is up 48%. Order intake is up 45%. Equipment backlog has more than doubled that of Q2 2019. Turning to slide seven, which summarizes our Canadian results and outlook. Market conditions are strong in Western Canada. Net revenue increased by 15% from Q2 2021, driven by product support as well as higher rental and new equipment revenue. Product support revenue was up 23% from Q2 2021, which increased spending by mining customers and increased volume in construction, reflecting higher machine utilization, consistently strong execution to capture growth. New equipment sales were up 3% from Q2 2021, largely due to mining deliveries. Construction sales were below Q2 2021, impacted by supply constraints and delivery delays.
Rental revenue was up 32% year-over-year, reflecting strong customer demand across all sectors and high utilization rates in the constrained supply environment. EBIT as a percentage of net revenue was 10%, up seventy basis points from Q2 2021, mostly due to a higher proportion of product support in the revenue mix. As we look ahead, we expect mining customer balance sheet health and steady increases in capital budgets to drive product support opportunities, renewal of aging fleets, and greenfield project development. In construction, public and private sector investment in infrastructure and energy should continue to support robust activity, including demand for heavier rentals. Please turn to slide eight for our South America results. New equipment sales increased by 66% from Q2 2021 in functional currency, driven by deliveries to Chilean mining customers.
Demand for product support was strong, especially in the mining sector. However, the growth rate was constrained by challenging supply environment, product support revenue increasing 2% in functional currency from Q2 2021. Despite the shift in revenue mix to new equipment sales, EBIT as a percentage of net revenue was up 30 basis points year-over-year, driven by operating leverage from our improved cost structure as well as favorable impact of Chilean peso devaluation. In the near term, we expect stable mining activity in Chile to continue to drive demand for maintenance and replacement of maturing equipment fleet. Delivery activity remains strong, including for Teck's QB2 mine as they approach first production, as well as Codelco, where we have won several truck and support equipment packages.
We continue to closely monitor the constitutional reform process in Chile and the recently proposed tax reform bill, including the proposal for a revised mining royalty framework. These proposals remain under discussion. Until this process is completed, the timing of investment decisions related to incremental greenfield and new expansion projects will remain uncertain. Despite these uncertainties, we still see strong levels of quoting and order intake activity for fleet replacement and technology upgrades by mining customers and contractors. Our long-term outlook for copper mining in Chile remains constructive, and we expect Chile to remain an attractive place to invest in the long term as electrification trends drive growing demand for global copper. While mining remains strong, order intake in the construction side of the Chilean business has softened, impacted by higher prices, rising interest rates and peso devaluation.
However, we expect construction machine utilization to remain strong, driving continued product support opportunities. In addition, we are monitoring Argentina closely and actively hedging our currency exposure as devaluation of the official exchange rate is becoming increasingly likely. Turning to U.K. and Ireland on slide nine. The U.K. and Ireland delivered very strong results in Q2. New equipment sales were up 23% in functional currency, driven by the construction sector, including HS2 deliveries. With higher activity in construction and the contribution from Hydraquip, product support revenue was up 25% in Q2 2021 in functional currency. EBIT as a percentage of net revenue up 110 basis points from Q2 2020 to Q2 2021 to 6.4%, reflecting operating leverage on strong revenue growth and structural profitability improvements, including through the acquisition of Hydraquip. We continue to be excited about the Hydraquip acquisition.
The integration is going very well. The cultural fit is excellent, and the immediate positive financial impact is very helpful to the UK business. We continue allocating capital towards the business with highly attractive bolt-on acquisitions starting in the U.K. Our outlook for the U.K. and Ireland business remains optimistic. Deliveries to HS2 customers, investments in other infrastructure projects, high machine utilization hours are expected to continue to drive strong construction equipment sales throughout the remainder of the year. We also have a solid backlog of Power Systems projects for deliveries in the second half of 2022 and into 2023. We expect demand for our Power Systems solutions in U.K. and Ireland to remain strong. Our balance sheet remains healthy, with net debt to adjusted EBITDA of 1.8 times end of June.
We've built a very solid inventory position to support the delivery of our backlog and strong product support for upgrades. We're closely monitoring leading indicators, taking a low risk approach on incremental inventory additions, and being very disciplined about how we capture growth opportunities. Operator, I'll now turn the call back to you for questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Analysts who wish to join the question queue may press star then one on their telephone keypad. You will hear a tone acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. We will pause for a moment as callers join the queue. The first question comes from Yuri Lynk with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, and congrats on a nice quarter. Scott-
Yuri.
Last year, you talked about coming up on mid-cycle economics for Finning over the ensuing 12 months, which we did and maybe even surpassed mid-cycle on some measures. I'm just wondering how you would characterize or how you view the next 12 months. Do you view them as, you know, do we say the word peak or how are you looking at that just given all the uncertainty in the market?
Why don't I take a couple comments and then, Kevin, you can add on. I actually think we're pretty well positioned right now. I mean, you obviously see a lot of uncertainty in the market. And frankly, even in some of our construction markets, so U.K. as an example, we're seeing a little bit of slowing in order intake and construction, we're seeing a little slower order intake. However, in our big engines of Western Canada and Chile mining, we see a lot of great activity, a lot of quoting and backlog build, and I think it's underpinned by the commodity price. We are really encouraged about the rest of 2022 and then going into 2023. You know, growth will probably slow a bit going into 2023, but we will still grow in my mind.
That's, you know, I think an important differentiator for us relative to some of the other folks out there who may have a little bit more construction exposure. Kevin, anything to add on that?
Yuri, the first thing I would say, I mean, there is uncertainty, but we feel, we're really encouraged about the rest of 2022 and into 2023. Why? We've got continued momentum and great progress in our product support growth across all regions. Our backlog is strong. As Scott mentioned, you know, we're somewhat sheltered from the construction headlines, because of our exposure to mining, where the commodities are still strong, and we see that in the order intake in South America. We also believe we've got a very strong inventory position. The inventory quality is, I mean, very good in all regions and gives us an ability to sell that through, over the period we're talking about, right now.
We've got great contributions from our rental business and 4Refuel and the recent Hydraquip acquisition which we're adding to our performance and providing some diversification, I guess, in our business operations. The last thing I would say is that from a mid-cycle perspective, you know, it is hard to predict where you are in the cycle, but what I really wanna make the point is mid-cycle is a term we've used internally to increase how thoughtful we are about how we make investments and how we manage the cycle internally. It's not necessarily a term that we use to describe the current part of the cycle, but it is something and a discipline we have installed internally to manage the trough, the peaks and the troughs in our business.
Okay, that makes sense. Maybe just a follow-up to that. On the above mid-teen EPS growth for the back half of the year, is it fair to say that that's gonna be mostly top-line driven? If so, I'm assuming you're comfortable with your inventory position to be able to get that iron in the hands of your customers.
Yes. Thanks, Yuri. Yeah. We feel solid about the second half of this year. As we discussed last quarter, we saw a step up coming out of Q1 in revenue, which you saw. We see a step up in Q2 and Q3. As you see the backlog of CAD 2.1 billion with 70% for this year. A lot of that is on the ground or on its way. We feel confident in that step up. That continued momentum at a little higher revenue level is what we're expecting.
Yeah. I'll just add to that in terms of the backlog there is in mining products. While we still see some challenging constraints and lead times in construction. In our mining backlog, we have actual confirmed and booked build slots in the Caterpillar factories and firm contracts in place with those customers. That backlog is extremely secure, and we've already got CAD 600 million backlog, 2023.
Thanks very much.
Thanks, Yuri.
The next question comes from Jacob Bout with CIBC. Please go ahead.
Good morning. My first question is on supply chain disruption. I know Caterpillar was saying yesterday they haven't seen much of an improvement. What are you seeing? You know, how are you thinking about supply chain disruption? What have you baked into your second half guidance? More of the same or?
Yeah. We don't see the supply chain getting any better, and we don't see it getting any worse. We've built a solid inventory position, and we're effectively using rental and used and rebuilt to manage through that. I guess I would say is that we're taking control of the situation, using the tools that we have available for us to manage through what is still a challenging supply chain environment. You know, it has no real indications of improving right now, but we don't believe it impacts our second half execution. We're already thinking about how we manage it through to into 2023. Like I said, in our backlogs, our order intake in mining from Q1. Mining is the key differentiator here. The supply chain constraints are not as great in the mining product.
Like I said, we've got confirmed build slots. They aren't standing out to the end now. We feel that supply chain constraints won't impact our delivery and earnings capability in the second half of the year.
Okay. Maybe just going back to the backlog. So, you know, it does appear that the growth is slowing. Just this, just on the duration, the 70-30 split, I guess back half 2022 versus 2023. Is this more front-end loaded than normal?
It's interesting. For middle of the year, there's always gonna be some mining or power orders that extend into the next year. I'd say 70-30 would be kind of typical for a mid-year backlog.
I think the only thing I would add to that is in the U.K., which is our largest construction market, you know, we have seen some of the right-sizing can move to the right. I would suggest that that's backlog right now. As those customers manage through the current uncertainty and get a feel for lead times. Construction in the U.K., I would say that maybe it's moved to the right a little bit.
Are you expecting in 2023 year-over-year growth in backlog? Is that what you're saying?
Sorry, say that again, Jacob.
In 2023, is your expectation today that you're gonna see growth in backlog year-over-year?
Our expectation is we're starting from over CAD 600, and we'll continue to build that strongly in the back half of the year. We'll ultimately have to see where we get to by this time next year, but order intake is strong, mining quoting is strong, and so that's encouraging. We expect to have that level of backlog already for next year, but we'll have to see ultimately where we build in the back half as we get through the first half next year.
Okay. We'll leave it there. Thank you.
Thanks, Jacob.
The next question comes from Michael Doumet with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, guys.
Good morning.
Good morning. You know, I think you get a version of this question each call. You know, I'll ask it again anyways. You know, you've seen or you've shown us, I guess, how this business can take on more revenues with less cost. You know, Kevin specifically spoke to some of the structural improvements that we've all been tracking. You know, market conditions have been very favorable. On gross margins, like, are you expecting pricing discussions to become a little bit more challenging in the near term? Maybe are you seeing any signs of that at all today?
The answer is not today. I think we've had probably one of the most interesting quarters in terms of managing an inflation environment, certainly in North America. I'm really pleased with how we've progressed and handled it as a team. You know, we built capabilities two years ago to analyze and to help us to develop the right kind of pricing discussions. We were proactive going into it, and we worked closely with our client teams to educate them on the path of data to learn about what we were seeing in the pricing environment right now. I think those conversations we've had were very constructive.
There were some challenges around timing as it relates to lead times and plus moving into a new pricing kind of period. We managed through those and we've had constructive conversations with our major customers and I feel we're well positioned for the second part of the year, but we still remain very thoughtful about the pricing environment moving forward.
Got it. Thank you. Then maybe just switching gears here. At the Investor Day, Greg, I think you called out CAD 250 million of capital deployment through Q2. You've exceeded that just by a bit. You know, should we expect maybe a little bit of a pullback in terms of capital deployment? Or, you know, is this something that, you know, you think is a repeatable annual kind of reinvestment number? Something that, you know, the pace of reinvestment and capital deployment that we can expect through a cycle.
Yeah. Thanks, Michael. Yeah, we had a couple of acquisitions we're very pleased with, as well as we're buying about 1% of ours each quarter in terms of share buybacks. As we highlighted at Investor Day, yeah, we'll have approximately CAD 250 million as a starting point. We'll look at the size of opportunities available to us. Ultimately, it's gonna be a competition between share buybacks and acquisitions. We've got a really long checklist for things that we want from an acquisition that I think we got all of with Hydraquip. They're really pleased. They're hard to find.
We'll look at one off versus the other, and certainly at the moment it's really hard to find acquisitions that would compete with the accretion of our share price. As of right now, we probably balance towards share buybacks, but we'll continue to evaluate and track both of them.
That's helpful. Thanks.
Once again, any analyst who has a question may press star then one on their telephone keypad. The next question comes from Bryan Fast with Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning. Just to maybe piggyback on that last question and understanding it's still early days, but could you discuss some of the learnings, from Hydraquip, maybe how that business has performed, relative to expectations?
Yes, I'll take that one. Yeah, we're really pleased with it. We had a joint meeting right off the bat with the team. Great cultural fit, desire to work together on a lot of back office functions and really free that business up to go, hit high, hit more growth. You know, it's a business that can do smaller bolt-ons really on a really attractive basis, and they've actually already executed a couple of those. Really excited about it. I think there's good synergies with customers. There's already been a number of integrations that have helped. Actually May was its, you know, all-time record financial performance as a business, and we continue to work collaboratively to drive that forward. Pleased with that.
You know, we expect that, you know, at this point, EBIT margins the UK business and we're at the higher end of that this quarter. Really pleased with it. It's a business that's got lots of legs.
Yeah. Bryan, I've been really encouraged by my interactions with the UK team and the Hydraquip management team. They've got a really strong growth plan. The focus right now is to deliver that UK growth plan. We see lots of exciting opportunities in adjacencies, supporting the dealership business model, and adding to our services that we provide to customers. Of course, there's a geographical expansion opportunity that we'll continue to explore. The focus right now is delivering the business case and making sure that we're accretive to the U.K. I think we learned so much from the 4Refuel acquisition frame model.
The actual Hydraquip team and the 4Refuel team are connected, you know, what it's like to join a Finning organization. We have this philosophy of protecting and making sure the acquisitions can deliver their business plan and remain true to their value proposition and their success. In both cases, we're really happy with how those acquisitions have landed, how they've integrated, how we've supported them to join the new organization. They both have exciting opportunities in the future to expand and grow.
Okay, thanks. That's helpful. Maybe just switching gears, could you provide some color on customer sentiment, I guess, around the proposed mining royalty framework in Chile? I mean, are you starting to see a higher interest in quoting as we get closer to a resolution, or is it just kinda status quo?
Yeah. Thanks, Bryan. I think it's been interesting. I mean, we're monitoring closely. It's been going on for quite a long time now, so there's been many waves of news. But ultimately, I mean, customers are busy. Copper prices remain attractive at $3.50. With the lower peso, their cash margins continue to be strong, and their fleets are aged. So we've been encouraged that we've had a lot of order intake on kind of what I call partial fleet replacement. So those have really ticked along at quite a good pace. But interestingly, the reaction hasn't been quiet. The reaction has been more quoting and frankly, more discussions about technology packages and how do we lower our costs in any scenario. Because if royalties are medium, you need to reduce costs. If they're high, you need to reduce costs.
There's a lot of new technology and fleet that can help people reduce their cost per ton. We've been pleased with the number of conversations that continue and in some cases stepped up.
Okay, thanks. That's it for me.
Thanks, Bryan.
This concludes the question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Amanda Hobson for any closing remarks.
Thank you, operator. This concludes our call. Thank you for joining us, and have a safe day.
This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating.