Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, in our meeting with the Management Board of Grupa Kęty S.A., dedicated to the presentation of the results for Q2, 2023. Related to yesterday's publishing of the report, the Management Board will present the results together. CEO, Dariusz Mańko, Piotr Wysocki, Member of the Management Board, Tomasz Grela, Member of the Management Board, and Rafał Warpechowski, Member of the Management Board. Additionally, we have Mr. Rafał Lechowicz, CEO of the dominant company of flexible packaging company, Alupol Packaging. The presentation will be started by the CEO. Good morning. Welcome at the next meeting in 2023, where we've covered two quarters of the current year already. It's good to go back to the genesis of the budget for this year.
As you remember, it was created in a situation that was quite difficult for us, where we expected a very poor year of 2023. The atmosphere was not too good, therefore, the budget and the projections that we presented were not wonderful to the, to, to the shareholders. We did not feel good about it anyway. We had to prepare those projections based on the signs we received, signals we received from the market and our best knowledge that we managed to collect. What happened this year? It turned out that Q1 was not as bad as we thought it would be. Obviously, there was a huge struggle in every segment on the market. We need to face a lot w e had to face a lot of challenges in the procurement sector, adjusting costs to the situation.
Yet, Q1 ended on a better tone than what we expected, which was due to the difference between the projection and performance. What were the factors that contributed to it? Well, the drop of raw materials. Aluminum can compete with substitutes of products, with PVC and wood and other products that can be used to make products similar to ours. I think this is the main driver and the main source of hope that for the aluminum, that is the material of the future, it will cope with the situation. There's no doubt about that. The condition, there's just one condition: the price of the raw material has to be at a level that will allow all producers, all manufacturers of aluminum-based products, to compete with other manufacturers who base, who rely on other materials.
In this period, we focused on investments, so the construction of a new plant in Złotów. We call it Aluprof Bis, internally. In the north of Poland, a paint shop will be constructed. That's where we want to distribute our product. The critical mass is so huge that we cannot service everybody from the location here in the south of Poland. We've got three shifts operating in the facilities, so it has increased our capacity, and I must say that we could expect that the investment, well, it's too early because there's no 100% load. There's not enough orders. This additional operation allows us to implement orders that are briefer, shorter, smaller, that we get from our clients, and this flexibility gives us an opportunity of increasing and boosting our sales.
It's good we have enough work to cover in those three shifts. As for the other factors, like I said, the results were pretty good. EBITDA and net profit, we're happy about the result. We proposed and the extraordinary general meeting accepted the management board's suggestion was accepted by the general meeting of shareholders, PLN 62 of dividend payment. Compared to the record-high amount was pretty good. That's the dividend we're sharing. Based on the first quarter, which was good, like I said, we decided to update the projection for 2023. We increased EBITDA by 12%, 25% increase of net profit, and 17% decrease of the net debt, which is a s for net debt, what can a company do if there's not enough, not that many orders?
If the market is not at such a fast pace, we can work on working capital, and, and that's what we can do, and that's what we succeed in, in terms of debt collection, freezing funds in ongoing production and raw materials. It's an element that we always work on because it reduces our debt and as a result, increases our net profit. 25% more of net profit and EBITDA, +12%. We've received various reactions and opinions.
Yesterday, I read some articles about that. What I can say is that if we had 2 record years, specifically the last year, when EBITDA exceeds EUR 1 billion, do believe me that it does not happen often, and we can forget about the situation where the company reaches its capacity limit with generating huge EBITDA year to year and all the macroeconomic factors will have a positive contribution to the results. Unfortunately, well, today, there is drops of production of windows. It reach even according to some, 25%. It happens. It happened in the history of our company, so I don't see anything wrong in having EUR 810 million of EBITDA instead of EUR 1 billion of EBITDA. It's a.
It's just a regular cycle of a company, which with good macroeconomic conditions and factors, can return to EBITDA at the level of EUR 1 billion. We're not a lone island. It affects all our competitors, what's going on, inflation. The results of, the consequences of the COVID pandemic, of the war in Ukraine. In 2023, the economy reacted in this and not other way to it, and we are embedded in this economy, and therefore, we try and cope with the situation as good as we can. As the CEO of the company, I must say that I'm really satisfied with the results of Q1, and I'm happy we could update the projection and present better results to the shareholder for 2023.
What I can say is that we'll be working very strongly for this basis that we have to be a step to attack even higher levels of EBITDA, if macroeconomic conditions allow. Thank you very much. I would like to thank all my coworkers for this first half of the year, and I'm giving the floor to my colleagues, and I'm ready to answer all the questions you might have after the conference. Thank you for this introduction. Now, I would like to ask Piotr Wysocki to present the segment of extruded products. If we have a look at the market in the first half of the year, as for extruded shapes, aluminum products in Poland and in Europe, it was much worse than in the previous year. Obviously, raw materials contribute to the help us in a way.
Aluminum, EUR 2,000, it was even above EUR 3,003.5. Today, it's EUR 2,200. It's a good level of aluminum to work for, to work with, and hence, good results for the second half year, first half of the year. Now, the price of the billet, the billet premium, there was at the level of, it's at the level of EUR 580. There were some attempts to increase it to EUR 600. The producers of billets tested the market, but the price stabilized at the level of EUR 580. What's interesting about the whole European market, there's huge pressure from Turkish manufacturers, where in the complainant group , which is 60% of the European market.
As for extruded profiles, we've done the first analysis performed by a law firm from Brussels that carried out dumping-related, price dumping-related cases with, from China. We've got all the analysis. Now we're preparing an action claim. Well, the litigation will last for quite some time now, for sure. Numbers, they used to be better, but like I said, in 2023, we're very happy with the results in these poor market conditions. EBITDA dropped by 21%. Look at the percentage, EBITDA margin, it just dropped by 1%. It's related to the fact that the whole margin is calculated with reference to aluminum, which is PLN 2,200, like I said. What I could boast about is our expansion to the German market.
It's the weakest w ell, we not, maybe not the weakest, but the drops in the competition on the German market is double digit, up to 20% in, of, of drops in production for the operation of plans, we managed to increase, to boost our production in the 1st half of this year. This is the result of the policy that we adopted some time ago, which is going into those market, operating in those markets via companies, a German company in Germany, an Italian company in Italy, Czech company in Czech, in Czechia, with the citizens of those countries being employed in those plans. We operate on those markets. We've got big plans.
We've increased our team in our staff in the German company. The general German market is dropping, and we are growing in this environment. This is pretty good. The use of our production capacity, if the market is poorer, we don't use our full production capacity, obviously, which is, on the other hand, pretty good because of, well, the press, 2,000 press that was commissioned this year, works in three shifts. We have some extra capacity at hand. If the market changes, reverses to the level that we saw in 2022, these dynamics that we observed then, we're ready for it. We have extra capacity, and we'll be even better prepared when we launch Press 4,000. We are getting components for the press. We started assembling it last week. We're working on it.
We're getting prepared for the future, and we believe that in the future, the market will come back to the growing track. As for Ukraine, we work 24/7. These are 3 shifts, but in a slightly different hours due to the curfew that they have because of the war. We see some new projects related to the reconstruction of Ukraine in the future. Well, we are there already in Ukraine, as the only facility, European facility producing aluminum profiles, we're a step ahead as for recovery of reconstruction of Ukraine. As for EMMI, it's really nice. It's growing. This direction that we selected, which is automotive, is growing. There were sectors where that we don't see anymore that are closed, so we just focus on automotive projects.
Our flagship project is Fisker. Project Fisker Ocean, is a, a all-terrain, vehicle. American. 100% of aluminum components come from our facility.
Well, a few words before about energy transformation. We are here focusing on building photovoltaics. Please look, in EMMI, in Slovenia, we have invested in photovoltaics, 1 mega, and now we have 1 mega installed there. We also have projects to expand it, also develop it, and this is 29% of what we are consuming. In Kęty, 1 mega, not installed yet, and we are at the final stage of bureaucratic operations, at the final stage of tough discussions with the current supplier of energy. it's a question of getting connected to the grid and, well, various. Well, comparing these two markets, Polish and Slovenian market, investment in photovoltaics, installing photovoltaics there is much simpler there. It is simply two different worlds, I mean, regarding Poland and EMMI.
We have a project in common here together with SSA Karpaty, why? Because they are in the group and in several locations which we have in Grupa Kęty, we have quite a lot of parking areas. In Kęty alone, it's a couple hundred cars, an excellent area. To create something like this and base photovoltaics, base it on carports, based on our own ideas, on aluminum sections, this would be that much from me regarding this topic. Thank you very much. Now, Mr. Tomasz Grela is kindly requested to present the segment of aluminum systems. Welcome.
A very warm welcome, ladies and gentlemen, a few words of wrap-up for the second quarter and the whole half year in aluminum segment systems. Revenue of the second quarter, close to $6 million, 14% below last year. All in all, the first half year is closed by sales 10% below last very good year. As you know yourselves very well, construction sector in the first half year actually noted a significant drop. It seems that with the background of the results we are presenting to you, our situation is very good, and we are convinced that we have behaved definitely better in this market compared to our competitors.
Therefore, we count upon increasing share in the coming half year, although we noted a 10% drop. The situation with profit based on EBITDA is similar, almost PLN 110 million, and the whole half year, PLN 186 million, 18% lower year-over-year, and still a very good margin, maintained over 18% in the second quarter and over 16% in this first half year. Maintaining this margin at the moment will probably be quite difficult. July is the first month where we had to announce a reduction of price lists by 3%-6%.
We have to count upon a gently lower margin, which we will have to try to get up to catch up with increasing sales. The sales should be definitely better compared to the same period last year. July is the first month when sales is higher year-on-year by 4%, and we hope that the second half year will also be aiming in this direction. We assume also that in case of our segment and level, both level of sales and EBITDA level should not be different compared to the first half year, this year. We maintain stability in sales structure regarding the breakdown of our segments. Let me remind you only that our main segments are aluminum systems for construction and roller segments.
This breakdown stays at a very similar level. Regarding our sales within the country and exports, close to 30% is in export sales, in spite of the fact that European countries, especially European countries, in some cases, behaved clearly worse compared to the national market, domestic market. Well, among European markets, German market is worth attention. In our case, as Piotr mentioned, in our segment, a clear drop, about 30% drop. Unfortunately, the German market is the largest selling market for our customers in Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, and even in Hungary. Companies exporting to this market felt it clearly.
In spite of that, in the perspective of the whole exports market, as you heard in presentations earlier, result, the level of sales is very positive, and we feel also signals which in 2nd half of the year should also give positive result, and here we expect higher sales in exports markets. Domestically, we feel definitely increase in construction and refurbishment production. In the 1st half of this year compared to last year, it is not an increase to the level of the 1st half of last year, but it gives us clear signal that in the perspective of the following months, quarters, construction markets in this country should display growing trends. Of course, we are noting clear drop in big investment projects.
Whereas at the same time, clearly, what is growing is the number of offers we are preparing for medium and small size investment projects, especially the public ones. We are also noting quite a high level of demand for industrial and warehouse units. This is a segment of construction which seems to be not actually being affected by a clear drop these days. What else? We mentioned the correction of the price list. It's the first time in the history of the company that we had to correct it downwards, well, at the level of 3%-6%.
As Piotr mentioned, this resulted from the price of aluminum and the price of US dollar being quite clearly lower than last year, and the behavior of competitors who, seeing the shrinking market, of course, with their prices also are playing, and this is the result, the outcome of the market activities we had to make. It seems that September, October will be the nearest months when we will be watching the outcome of the price reductions. I think, I hope we will be able to catch it up with the volume. Regarding investment projects, one big one, president mentioned the Złotów plant being expanded. Investment project is going on according to plan, and it seems to be possible to be completed before the time schedule deadlines.
The beginning of next year, I think it will be the full startup of production warehouse part. To remind you only, I will say that in June, we formally got merged with ROMB Złotów company. ROM, as a separate company, ceased existing, and now formally it is part of the whole Aluprof group. Well, among interesting points, I think I should present some information about investment project we implemented last year, but the outcome is displayed only in this year. This is a plant producing Fire-resistant glass, and we started producing this glass starting January this year, and parallelly ending the cycle of tests and certifications in domestic and export markets.
It seems to be that the most necessary certificates were managed to be obtained by half the year, June, July are the first months when we managed achieving the production level at the level of 80%-90% of our capacity. Talking here about the capacity of the first shift, estimated to be 3,000-3,500 sq m a month. That will force us to work starting September, in two shift system. This is our target for 2025. That means in two years from now, we would like to achieve the maximum of our production capacity and to be selling with a range of 70,000-75,000 sq m of fire glass annually. I believe this is very, very possible.
Well, among information related to our activities, developmental activities here, it is worthwhile boasting about an opinion we obtained in ITB Institute, confirming the only opinion, confirming that our facades are safe in a situation of fire. Again, also parallel, we obtained anti-break-in certificates regarding the whole European market. These are two components, which, for sure, our products in this facade scope will make us different, sticking out domestically and abroad. Thank you very much. Next segment, Flexible Packaging Segment, Mr. Rafał Lechowicz, welcome. The floor is yours. Very warm welcome.
Segment of flexible packagings, Alu- Alupol Group. Ladies and gentlemen, over the recent months, we had to cope with well, we are practically struggling all the time with extremely unfriendly market conditions.
Prices of all raw materials dropped in broadly understood packaging sector. This might be positive if it was not for the fact that it reflects a very poor situation in polypropylene segment. First of all, as you can see in the slide, rapidly dropping were the prices of two basic components in Alupol, polyethylene and polypropylene granulates. Please note that still in April last year, the price, low spot price, following ICIS platform, of polyethylene granulate exceeded $2,000 per ton, and polypropylene $1,800 per ton. In June, prices of these components dropped significantly below $1,000 per ton.
In July, we were already buying these raw materials at prices close to EUR 800 per ton, which means, well, close to 60% drops. Well, unfortunately, these drops, rapidly speeded up over the recent months, which doesn't suggest a quick bounce back in the market situation.
Therefore, we're happy to see good results in the segment after Q1 this year. Because the value of sales and EBITDA exceeds the assumptions made in the current budget plan, 2022-2023. At the current level of its performance, we assume sales at PLN 1,156 million and EBITDA, PLN 195 million. After six months, these parameters are PLN 643 million and more than PLN 111 million. To show you clearer the scale of our problems that we need to cope with, I would like to give you an example of a price of Polypropylene foil, which in June last year exceeded PLN 14 per kilogram, and at present, due to the causes described before, the price is half of what it was.
Even operating on the budget assumed margins with regards to in, in percentage terms, the mass of profit by Alupol Films is much lower than what we remember from the previously year. It is a natural situation for petrochemical industry, where the cyclic changes in, on the market are normal. That's a regular thing, like achieving spectacular financial results by entities operating in this sector in a situation where raw materials are very expensive and struggling with all kinds of challenges when they are historically low, and this is the situation we are facing currently. These mechanisms, why it happens, and what effect the migration movement due to the war in Ukraine, how it affects spectacularly abstract results, financial results in the previous year. I spoke about it a lot during the previous year, specifically after Q, 1 result conference.
I don't want to return to it, but if you feel you need more information, go to our website, to investment relations tab to see what I said before about that. Now, thanks to the ongoing process that has been ongoing for over a year of recomposition of the product portfolio and order portfolio in the company, we're managing, in those difficult times, to achieve 80%, high 80% level of use of production capacity because we stopped this damaging struggle with our desperate Asian competition for the biggest orders dedicated for intermediaries and wholesalers, and we focus on small batches of products, of more technologically refined products.
Hence, that's why, that's how we managed to maintain continuity of our business, because recently, our competitors and also our customers, halt their production in their plants all over Europe, more and more often, unfortunately. As you remember, a lot of our production, majority of our production performed by our, by the, by our core business, flexible packaging, is dedicated to the biggest international companies from the food industry that has recently reported drops by several or over a dozen % volume, percentage point of volume, which is the result of lower demand, which is the consequence of high inflation. Those companies are looking for savings, obviously, among their suppliers as well.
Let me remind you that packaging is one of the main items in the cost of production for those facilities, for those companies in the food production sector. We're under great pressure, price pressure for the products we offer. Let me remind you that in the previous years, public tenders, based on which we work, cooperate with those entities, happened once every 3, 4 years. They take place in 2-year cycles or even annually. I think that after what you've heard, you won't be surprised to see this highly balanced level of assumed investment outlays for the coming months. Let me remind you that the outlays were only related to maintaining the potential, the production potential in the segment. Traditionally, it was the last point, item in my presentation.
I will be happy to answer any questions, should you have any, later on during the conference. Thank you for your attention. Thank you very much. Now, let us move on to the financial part. I would like to give the floor to Mr. Rafał, please.
I would like to summarize consolidated financial results. Like my colleague said, we hope that this is the last quarter of such huge deviations year-over-year. We know why it happened. Q2 was very good. The first half of the year was pretty good in, in terms of operating results, but compared to the previous year, obviously, there are drops and decreases that are due to two things. As for revenues, it's the macro effect, 20%-25%. These are drops of aluminum listed prices.
As for flexible packaging and raw materials used there, it's drops up to 40% and also volume. This effect, that's what we observe, several to over 10%, 10%-20%. The volume, operating volumes are smaller compared to the previous year, but the level of use of our production capacity is above 80%, so it's pretty high still. Thanks to it, after adjusting the cost base, we managed to generate PLN 240 million of EBITDA in the second quarter, and PLN 440 million in the first half of the year. As for operations, these are interest rate costs, that and FX foreign exchange rate changes are responsible for the result as well.
As we, we obviously invest, with the use of reliefs, and in this quarter, we had $10 million costs of deferred asset costs. A 150 million of profit in the first quarter, $280 net profit in the first quarter. For cash flows, we have a reverse situation. Operating cash flows are much better in the quarter and in the first half of the year as compared to analogous periods of the previous year, which is mainly due to reverse trends.
As for changes in the working capital, last year, the demand for the capital was increasing significantly, and this year, due to drops in the prices of raw materials we use, it's more than PLN 200 million in the first half of the year, and Q2 is more than PLN 100 million, and therefore, we generate a lot of cash. As for investments, we carry them out according to schedule. We've spent about PLN 160 million for investments in the first half of the year, which implies a bigger amount in the second half, because the original plan, let me remind you, is PLN 380 million. Some events regarding cash flows, like one-off events in Q2, we settled the tax for 2022.
We make prepayments in a simplified system, and this is what we settled in June. This year, it was PLN 60 million, and that's the main item. We also reduced our net debt by PLN 179 million in Q2. Therefore, our financial situation is very good at the end of June. Net, our debt is PLN 700 million. Net debt to EBITDA is 0.8 due to high operating cash flows. We can expect, we know we have a decision on the dividend payment and continuity of the investment program. The debt, according to the updated projection, will increase to PLN 1.2 billion, which will be still a safe level and no factors will be exceeded. We're financing our operations in a very stable way, in terms of debt structure.
Almost 30% of our debt, this is debt in euro, to compensate our exposure to this currency in a natural way. Let me tell you 2 words about our perspectives for the coming quarter. As for aluminum, we're expecting stabilized prices of aluminum. We've been observing it in the last 2 months, as Mr. Lechowicz has said, for petrochemicals, perhaps there might be some space for reducing these listed prices. We can still observe the pressure on trade margins, which is the result of those drops of volume, decreasing demand. As for operations and investments, we will definitely focus on finishing 2 key investment development projects. These are the 2 tasks that we announced in our organic development project, as Aluprof base in Złotów and the press that we mentioned. Also maintaining at least 80% of use of our production capacity.
Financial factors, coefficients, here, we're not expecting any dangerous levels. By the end of the year, PLN 1.2 billion, it does not create any risk. We have investment-based long-term financing provided and secured. Actually, those events that might happen in Q3 will be the first tranche of dividend. It will be PLN 20 paid out in the first 10 days of September. Thank you very much. Thank you. Now, we'll be starting a Q&A session. Some questions that we received from you. Question one.
Well, it is more about. It is more general in its character, whether Grupa Kęty is planning to maintain the increasing dividend in the coming years. Mr. President, may I ask you for a few words of an answer?
Well, growing dividend over the coming years, dividend depends on the profit, generated. If profit this year is below the profit last year, dividend will be lower. Here is, in my opinion, to maintain such a level. Well, in line with stipulations of the strategy, yes, the company is a dividend company, and the dividend will be paid. 85% is declared from the board in the strategy, and definitely, we will stick to this promise. Thank you very much. Next question is related to the presented forecast, presented last year, forecast for the second half-year, or forecast for the whole year, based on which we can calculate the forecast for the second half-year.
Like one of participants of our meeting noted, this forecasted EBITDA level is about 10% lower compared to what the Board expected earlier. At the presentational forecast, we said that the second half year was estimated to be about PLN 400 million EBITDA. We presented a bit less because this results from our estimations that it will be PLN 370 million, and we're from this lower level. Mr. Rafał Warpechowski, Financial Director, perhaps would like to comment on something. Well, updating the forecast, it was a look at July and what we see till the end of the year. It was a repetition of the budget exercise for the second half year.
Yes, actually, this difference is at the level of $20 million for the second half-year, mainly in the third quarter, where we assumed, planning the original budget, we assumed a significant bouncing back by the market and improvement in the results. This $20 million is divided 50/50 between the SW and SWA. This is based on our current estimations. As President Grela mentioned, we are introducing the correction in the price list, and from this, this update results as well. Thank you. Whether now question about flexible packaging segment. To what extent the drop in margins results from launching new capacity in Europe, and to what extent possible importation from Far Eastern countries? Can something like this be estimated?
Well, no, of course, nobody would dare decide to allocate the ways to these two factors, which, of course, influenced making margins more realistic in the business, to PP. All the more that these are not the only factors. Of course, the margins were made more realistic also by the process of optimization of warehouse, or stock, situation of, at our clients, which were all the time, relatively high, and also a drop in buying power by consumers in Europe. All these factors had significant influence on making the margin in PLPP more realistic.
One more question about Flexible Packaging Segment, whether the drop in sales results from more to greater extent to the drop of volume of orders at the clients, or losing some customer? Well, no, of course, the drop in sales results from a factor which is outside our influence completely. That means a reduction of prices in our core business from last year. It appears that this core business was BOPP. As prices, as I mentioned in my presentation, of BOPP foil dropped by 50%, quite naturally, the sales value is significantly lower. Well, to satisfy somebody's curiosity regarding the Flexible Packaging Segment, this segment in the first half-year had value increase year-over-year.
First of all, for the drop of sales value, the unit price in BOPP business is responsible. Thank you. Thank you very much. Question addressed at extruded products segment , whether with the recent drop of Turkish lira value, you can see increased activity by Turkish companies in supplying aluminum sections, aluminum profiles? No. We see the constant situation regarding Turkish companies' activities in European market. Well, lira, well, always weak lira helped, but now, no, rather not. Thank you very much. A question regarding share of foreign companies in sales in, and in EBITDA of, extruded products segment . Maybe Director Warpechowski could give his opinion whether we specify such detailed breakdown.
Well, I mean, Akal Alüminyum and the Ukrainian company, how much they contributed in the sales and into EBITDA in the first half year? Well, we did not point at such detailed breakdowns deeper than the segment itself, but we commented regarding the Ukrainian company that from here, also part of the positive deviation results, because that company, as you remember, we declared that at the level of EBITDA, it would be neutral at the level of 0, and in the half year scale, a couple million of profit have been worked out. Thank you very much. Next question, related to extruded products segment : What are the prospects of the segment in transport and automotive sectors?
Can we see shallowing down of the level of orders, which is reflected in size of orders from individual clients, or whether we managed to obtain new clients in this area? Well, regarding transport, very nice this year. It is developing, all our clients from transport sector, which is quite a big surprise for us, are receiving very good quantities and sometimes bigger compared to last year. Regarding automotive, automotive is a very broad sector, from exclusive cars, where never such a drop was noted. Even with weak market, the exclusive brands of cars keep growing. We have a very nice measure. Number of elements sold to Mercedes G is always, I mean, there is a possibility to sell more than you can produce.
Regarding automotive market as such, is behaving quite strangely recently, because in some clients we see significant drops and some of them maintain these forecasts. The forecasts which we are getting from them stay at the level we had. We are strong in this market. Regarding the Polish press shop, Prasownia Polska , we are an unquestionable leader regarding supplies for automotive sector. We are very strong regarding supply of those most elite products. That means products responsible for security, for safety, so-called crash alloys and crash profiles. We definitely can see a potential in this market, the direction we once chose, selected. We are developing new projects, products.
We have new projects on our desks regarding supply of so-called raw profiles, but we have quite a lot of projects regarding supply of already worked, machined products to be supplied to the assembly line. Thank you very much. Next question is about the segment of extruded products. What does such a serious drop in sales of extruded product segments in Poland? Is it only an outcome of demand change, or is there a segment which is negatively sticking out? Well, this generally results from the weak market existing now. We are dropping by 3% year-on-year. The weakness of Polish market and the weakest sector, which is the construction sector.
We can see serious drops there, not resulted by loss of the sector or most important clients. If we look at the first or the top 50 clients in SWW, there is no client without drops. There are also clients who note some growth, but it depends on the sector. Here we have to note that aluminum price in zlotys dropped quarter to, I mean, year-on-year. Yes, value of sales-wise, looking through an absolute measure, ton of sales, the Polish market is now the weakest market. Well, you can see it in the bars. We are losing here. Thank you very much. A question addressed to aluminum system segment about volumes which were commented in the former quarter, and whether Mr. President would like to share information on what those volumes looked like in windows and roller shutters.
Well, with full awareness over the recent few quarters, we were using two numbers. I mean, quantity, volume, and sales value, because volumes didn't were not taking into account year-over-year. The earlier introduced rises, but end of the 1st quarter made prices more equal. Now, today, showing you, comparing the sales value, we can, with very close reality, say that they reflect volumes as well. If we are presenting a drop in volume quarter-over-quarter, also volume-wise, starting the 2nd quarter, the sales is at a similar level. Therefore, it is difficult to separate the information about volumes in tons and value, sales value, because starting 2nd quarter they overlap.
The same value of drop value-wise is related to quantity drop as well. Thank you. Next question to the Aluminium segment systems. May we estimate what % of sales is related to residential buildings construction? Can we estimate? Yes, definitely yes. Several times I told you that sales of our products got related to large projects which we so keenly present to you in photographs. In our case, it is about 8%, so those large projects is only 8% of our sales. All the remaining volume of our sales is distributed on small or medium-size objects, on detached houses and segments of roller shutter systems, and this component gives us the whole volume.
I can only tell you that now we can only see the trend in large projects. Also such trend that investors are going away from office buildings versus residential buildings. Well, also at the raw finish stage, buildings are actually redesigned from office to residential. Well, precision breakdown, honestly speaking, I cannot do it. Thank you. Okay. Question at SWW: What does the increase of share in German market of sales in German market in relation to its current weakness? As I mentioned, we increased the staff in German company. More of the market is being penetrated by ourselves. This is today the largest market in Europe.
It is 2 million tons, and in that market there are lots of opportunities for us to start existing and this is how we are operating. Of course, with lower costs of ours, we can offer the product cheaper in very good quality. German industry in extrusion is a 20-year-old industry. The presses are 20 years old, roughly. We have better solutions, better quality, but generally speaking, we are developing sales and reaching clients which we had not been reaching. So with such a large market, you can always get a piece of the share for yourself. Now, a question addressed at SSA: What percentage of purchasing the sections, the profiles, were the extruded products in segments? 95 in the first half year. Thank you.
How do we evaluate both Aluminium Systems and Extruded Products seg- segment? A joint question: How do we estimate Carport demand on the market? Do we see any option of external sales? What is the estimated price of such a module of a Carport? Okay, now, for now, it's our internal group project to cover all the volume that we need to i t's gonna be like take a few years to develop all the car parks. We're not, we don't want- we, we're not planning on going outside the company with it. It's an internal project. As for the price, well, like, we will shape the price w- for our needs. It's definitely cheaper than what we can buy on the market, but we're not going outside the company with the product i n two aspects.
As for the panels that we are intending to buy in a different way than the market does, we are having an idea, and the structure will be made by us. It's gonna be our own structure. Okay, thank you. A question to Sog. Do you on the Flexible Packaging Segment, when you see the trend, trends in recycled packaging, growing share of recyclable packaging, does your segment consider some steps here, like entering the area of paper-based packaging, acquisition or, or something, anything like that, to develop packaging segment based on the recyclable materials? As for Flexible Packaging Segment, it very strongly relies on paper, and we're also developing and growing, and I informed you about that during the previous conferences.
We have this growing share of paper-based packaging in the total portfolio of the segment. As for relying on recyclable components, because that's what the question is about, I suppose, I'm guessing, we are at the very beginning of it in flexible packaging, not only in our company, but in the, on the market in general. There's a problem with sanitary approval of materials received through recycling. As for BOPP segment, we're relying on virgin raw materials, and we regranulate the total waste material from the production, so it's a kind of recycling, and we use it for on a permanent basis during the production process. Zero waste in the production process, in the BOPP segment, in other words. Two questions to the Aluminum Systems Segment.
What will be the cost optimization to support EBITDA in the second half of the year? That's the first question. Well, you could see it in the results for the first half of the year. We, as the management, restructured the cost. I'm not going to get into details here, but to maintain the EBITDA result, that's what we're intending to do by higher volumes than in the first half of the year. Do you envisage any cuts in the marketing budget? What's the scale of this budget, more or less, for the whole year? No, we're not expecting any cuts. We think it's a period where big market players can strengthen their position and develop and grow in marketing terms, so we're not planning any limitations here. Thank you very much.
How long do you think will the slowdown on the construction market last, and when can we count on some improvement of the market situation? Well, I would like to learn the same thing from analysts who are sitting probably on the other side of this screen. We don't have the such precise analyses. They predict not as long as n ot further than the following quarter, and they deviate from reality anyway, I don't want to make any promises. We see some first signs of it, and that's what we stick to. That's why I said that the result for the second half will definitely be better than the second half of the previous year. A question to Mr. Lechowicz. Does the area of BOPP foil generate positive cash flows? Yes.
What part of the Aluminium Systems Segment products go to B2B, and what part is sold to distributors? We don't sell our products via distributors. 100% of our production goes to our end customers. Our end customers are manufacturers of the finished products, finished goods. We, over 12 years ago, we departed from distribution via third parties, and for now, 99% of our sales go to end customers, final customers. Thank you. Question to Flexible Packaging Segment and competition on the capacity from Portugal regarding BOPP foil, could we see it? The competition from Portugal is not a decisive factor that has impact on the situation in BOPP segment. Like I said, answering one of the previous questions, there's a lot of factors contributing to the market environment in this segment, this one is not.
Competition from Portugal is not the key component. Thank you very much. Can we compare margins in aluminum system segments on big projects and small and medium-sized projects? We're talking about smaller number of bigger projects and increased number of medium and small-sized projects. Are there any differences in margins? Well, it's not a secret. It, Obviously, there's, if we have a bigger project, the margin is smaller due to the big volume. That's natural. The answer is quite obvious, in my opinion. Will the segment or is the segment planning on introducing some new products? How can they contribute to revenues in the perspective of 2, 3 years? We're working on new products on an ongoing basis. We've got 40 constructors who implement about 500, 600 new components on a yearly basis.
It's very difficult to talk about details during such a brief conference as today's conference. These are not breakthrough products that will turn our sales upside down. The basic product will be doors and windows, obviously, but the number of solutions, the increase in quality, will definitely improve our situation significantly in the coming years. We need to think about the whole European market, about changes related to the implementation of certain European directives. We need to adapt to what the European market expects in two, three years' time. Let me remind you, these will have to be zero energy structures and buildings. Therefore, the development and work of our designers are heading in this way. We're preparing new products for the new export markets that we find valuable.
As you can think, like Vietnamese product market requires a totally different product than American market. We don't only distribute our forces to improve our project, but also to adapt them to particular export markets. Now, a question to Mr. to CEO Mańko about the strategy. Update, changes, is the company working on it? When will the company update it, announce the update? Obviously, we are working on it, of course. We keep analyzing the market and growth opportunities. We're in three segments. That's where we work on it. It's important to implement the strategy that we assumed, but for sure, mid-next year, we owe you a new strategy. We owe a new strategy to us as well because we need to set the directions of development.
I can already tell you today that this will be a kind of growth, that Grupa Kęty will become a much more recognizable, not only in Poland, but in this part of Europe, seriously recognizable. Our ambition is that Grupa Kęty is clearly visible through Aluprof or shapes from the extruded product segments or packaging. They are exported a lot. They're important, an important player in all companies that require flexible packaging. As for those two segments related to aluminum, we would like to be a strong aluminum force in Europe. We need to build a strategy, we will share some details sometime mid-next year. Could returning to the structure of a building a fourth leg could be part of the strategy? Well, we're not excluding it.
We had questions: "Why do you take this organic growth, you don't acquire new entities?" Well, as I said, as long as in our core business, we had some ideas, like investment in BOPP, in presses, in development of logistics, and the growth of our machinery stock and the segment of aluminum systems, they generated satisfactory return on investment. We did not look for anything outside, but the scale of the company is large enough that probably we will have to think about some acquisition. If in the area of our operation, it has no perspectives, we don't see any benefits for our shareholders, we're not considering a fourth pillar or leg in our new strategy, if this is our conclusion. We're not close to any solution. We want the group to grow and to be stronger and stronger.
For now, personally, to me and to the management board, it's more natural to do what we know how to do, that where we have the know-how. We don't want to close the option of a fourth leg. Okay, thank you. This is the end of the list of questions that we received. Thank you very much for participating in our conference. Thank you for answering all the questions. Extensive answers, more or less exhaustive. We, due to the fact that we're a public company, we cannot share all the details. Feel welcome to join us to at the conference after Q3. Thank you very much and see you then. Thank you. Goodbye!