Good morning and afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to today's CNH Industrial 2022 Q1 results conference call and webcast. After the speaker's remarks, there will be the question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Noah Weiss, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Nadia. Good morning and good afternoon to everyone. We would like to welcome you to the webcast and conference call for CNH Industrial's first quarter results for the period ending March 31, 2022. This call is being broadcast live on our webcast on our website and is copyrighted by CNH Industrial. Any other use, recording, or transmission of any portion of this webcast without the express written consent of CNH Industrial is strictly prohibited. Hosting today's call are CNH Industrial CEO, Scott Wine, and CFO, Oddone Incisa. They will use the material available for download from the CNH Industrial website. Please note that any forward-looking statements we might be making during today's call are subject to the risks and uncertainties mentioned in the safe harbor statement included in the presentation material.
Additional information pertaining to factors that could cause actual results to differ materially is contained in the company's most recent Form 20-F and EU Annual Report, as well as other periodic reports and filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the equivalent authorities in the Netherlands and Italy. The company presentation may include certain non-GAAP financial measures. Additional information, including reconciliations to the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP financial measures is included in the presentation material. I will now turn the call over to Scott.
Thank you, Noah, and welcome to everyone joining our call. In our Q1 as a pure play agriculture and construction business, we delivered strong sales growth of 13% year-over-year. This demonstrated the tremendous execution of our team, who successfully navigated significant supply chain challenges, raw material cost inflation, and a volatile geopolitical environment. I'm incredibly proud of what they have accomplished and for their deep commitment to making CNH Industrial better every day for our customers. We are spending more than normal on expedited freight, and we continue to adjust production schedules to accommodate for part shortages. Unfinished machines in our factories and in-transit inventory between our overseas locations were notably above plan at end of quarter. April production improved, and we are confident that we will be able to deliver more for our customers in the Q2 .
Judging from conversations and other insights, our customers and dealers are managing fairly well in this difficult environment, as increased soft commodity prices help balance farm income, which has been hurt by rising input costs. For construction, we are seeing high demand in all of our regions. Overall, dealer inventories of both new and used machines are at historic lows, and service work and part sales are robust, providing reasonable support to our midterm outlook. In addition to positive progress with our Raven integration, we are also pleased to announce last week the successful divestiture of their engineered films division. While we no longer expect meaningful supply improvements in the second half and other external risks will likely endure, our original guidance included contingencies for such events.
We remain confident in our execution and expect our ag and construction end markets to have more incremental resiliency than the general economy, so our outlook for the year remains unchanged. As a reminder, our ag segment now represents 70% of CNH Industrial revenue and slightly more of our earnings. Derek Neilson and his team are deftly managing their business and brands through the storm, driving net sales up 13% on a constant currency basis, supported by favorable price realization and positive mix in North and South America. For the quarter, ag pricing was up 12%. Again, more than offsetting rising costs. Order books also remain strong, up 40% year-over-year for tractors and combines. This number will certainly be improved in the coming weeks when we open up our order books for model year 2023.
The war in Ukraine is a humanitarian tragedy, and its ramifications have global reach. The impact on food supplies is concerning, and we are closely watching the volatility in commodity prices and various farm input costs. However, it is the repercussions of energy inflation, especially escalating fuel costs, that is most concerning, as they may have an even more adverse effect. We have suspended all operations in Russia and are offering financial and housing assistance for our employees based in Ukraine. We are supporting our Ukrainian dealers and have been able to redirect shipments, minimizing the war's financial impact on our business. Precision ag take rates continue to increase with our combination of factory fit and aftermarket digital offerings up almost 15%.
With AFS and PLM Connect performing well and our overall precision offerings expanding rapidly with Raven, we are continuously developing better solutions for our customers. During the Q1 , we were excited to introduce the new New Holland T6 methane tractor in the U.S., reinforcing our commitment to advance sustainable farming practices. This incredible machine is the culmination of a multi-year development project to build a tractor that runs on sustainable fuel, naturally generated by farming operations. Construction equipment may be the smaller of our two divisions, but the successful turnaround that Stefano Pampalone and his team are delivering makes them a vital part of our future. Net sales in the quarter increased 23% on a constant currency basis to $803 million.
Encouragingly, this was the segment's most profitable Q1 in over a decade. Delivering $32 million in Adjusted EBIT at a 4% margin. Pricing was up high single digits construction, which contributed to their improving profitability without deterring market share gains across various product categories in North America and promising results in Europe. Our improving CE performance is fundamentally sound with a strong focus on product quality and design and expanding our market reach through the Sampierana acquisition. Commensurate with this progress, order books continue to build up year-over-year for both light and heavy equipment across all regions. In North America, we are practically sold out for our 2022 production slots. As CASE Construction Equipment celebrates its 180th anniversary, we're even more convinced that there is a profitable future ahead, both for it and our New Holland Construction brand.
Precision technology is an ambitious journey of transformation and growth, and it is exciting to see the highly capable team Parag Garg is assembling to accelerate our progress. We are partnering with customers to further enhance how our technology is used in the field, unlocking value with each software upgrade and expanding the number of our of connected vehicles in our new product launches. We're also optimizing auto guidance performance and releasing more tillage prescription features to increase farm productivity and reduce fuel and other input consumption. Raven is catalyzing further progress, supplying more robust architecture that satisfies the rigorous requirements for future ag features while enabling much faster progress for our advanced autonomy and automation developments. During the Q1 , we opened a new advanced engineering center in Scottsdale, Arizona, focused on artificial intelligence and data science for our autonomous vehicle platforms and precision agriculture applications.
Along with our new technology center in India, we are positioned to efficiently code to cab on an almost 24-hour basis. These and other initiatives have expanded and accelerated our software development capability and set the stage for future progress, and we look forward to seeing our customers reap the rewards. In February, we laid out five strategic priorities that will be critical to our long-term success. Much of our current energy goes towards solving ongoing supply chain challenges, but we also invest heavily to ensure we are making consistent strategic progress. Each quarter, I plan to provide highlights from a subset of these initiatives. Customer-inspired innovation informs all that we do. I was able to spend quality time with some of our largest customers and best dealers during March.
Of course, product availability is top of mind for them right now, but with input costs rapidly rising, their comments centered on how we can enhance their productivity. Not long after those discussions, our board of directors and I visited Sioux Falls to see the advanced autonomous vehicles in operation, which was timely and rewarding. Field testing with customers will validate our technology and provide assurance their expectations will be met. Our dealers are as eager as we are to serve customers and earn new ones, and our CRM enhancements are making that easier. While the topic of brand governance is not exciting, it is important to our dealers and the improved profitability and progress it is driving is noted and appreciated. Operational excellence is about accelerating productivity, enhancing quality, and keeping our employees safe.
Tom Verbaeten and our supply chain team did that in the Q1 , while also executing creatively and often miraculously to ensure material was available to our factories and finished goods were shipped to our dealers. They've really delivered on our ambition to be the best for our customers. Executing on these priorities will continue to make us better for our customers, dealers, investors, and employees, translating into market share gains and higher profitability. I will now turn the call over to Oddone to take you through some of our key financials.
Thank you, Scott, and good morning, good afternoon, everyone. Q1 net sales of industrial activities of $4.2 billion were up 13%, mainly due to favorable price realization, despite the FX headwinds of around 1.5%. Gross profit margin was 22.2%, up 60 basis points versus last year, primarily thanks to mix and pricing. Our ag segment delivered 24.1% gross margin, 80 basis points better than the Q1 of 2021. As better mix and price realization, mainly in the Americas, were stronger than the increase in product costs from raw materials inflation and expedited freight. CE gross profit margin was 13.3%, down 1% from the Q1 of 2021, but higher than any of the last three quarters.
Adjusted EBIT of $429 million, up $36 million from Q1 2021, with an adjusted EBIT margin of 10.3%, down 30 basis points versus Q1 last year on the back of higher sales and higher R&D expenses. Free cash flow from industrial activities was -$1.1 billion. This is higher than usual seasonal working capital cash absorption in the Q1 of the year. Late delivery from our plants and higher manufacturing inventories of raw material and partially finished goods led to higher than anticipated increase in overall inventories. Q1 adjusted net income was $378 million or $0.28 adjusted diluted EPS, up two cents from 26 cents in Q1 of last year. Reported net income $336 million reflects a one-off adjustment of Russian assets for $71 million net of taxes.
This is the immediate impact of our CNH Industrial suspending activities in Russia. Industrial activities net debt ended at EUR 2.1 billion, an increase of EUR 960 million from December 31st 2021, largely due to working capital absorption. At the end of 2021, our available liquidity stood at EUR 9.4 billion, down EUR 1.1 billion from December 31st 2021. Turning to slide nine, let's look in more detail at the performance for the quarter with the usual walk of the industrial activities Adjusted EBIT by driver and by segment. We see that volume and mix was positive for both segments, while increased production costs were more than offset by positive pricing. As G&A variance reflects increased activity levels and R&D expenses increased as we are investing more on our precision ag portfolio.
Agricultural adjusted EBIT increased $27 million, with a margin of 12.6%, driven by favorable mix and price realization, with positive contribution from the Americas, partially offset by higher raw material and freight costs and growing R&D expenses. Adjusted gross margin was 24.1%, up 80 basis points from the same quarter last year. Higher volumes in construction equipment led to adjusted EBIT of $32 million, with a margin of 4%, thanks to favorable volume and mix and positive price realization, partially offset by higher production costs. Gross margin for construction was 13.3%, down 1%, primarily due to raw materials and partially offset by better mix and favorable price realization in all regions.
For our financial service businesses, here on slide 10, net income was $82 million, up $4 million compared to the Q1 last year, mainly as a result of higher recoveries on used equipment sales in North America and a higher average portfolio in South America and EMEA. These were partially offset by additional risk costs in Eastern Europe, mainly because of the Ukrainian conflict and $15 million of one-off charges of Russian receivables, which is adjusted for net income when looking at the consolidated figures. For the quarter, retail originations were $2.1 billion, and the managed portfolio, including JVs at the end of the period, was $20.8 billion. Delinquencies were again down year-over-year to 1.3% and remain at historically low levels.
Next, on slide 11, we have the free cash flow and net financial position performance of our industrial activities. Free cash flow with industrial activities was negative $1.1 million, largely due to seasonal working capital cash absorption. In the Q1 , we typically overproduce retail. While this happened also this year, due to the known supply chain disruption, we produced less than planned and later within the quarter. This created a situation of higher inventory of finished goods, maybe many of which are in transit on March 31. Dealer inventories were, in fact, lower than the already low levels of Q1 2021 in tractors and construction equipment and only marginally higher in combines. In addition, we had again a large fleet of semi-finished equipment waiting for parts before being shipped from numerous plants.
Based on current visibility of our production schedule, we expect to sell through a large portion of this inventory in the Q2 . Total debt was EUR 21.3 billion on March 31, and industrial activities net debt position was EUR 2.1 billion. Liquidity remains strong at EUR 9.4 billion, although slightly down from a year ago, as we have funded working capital with available liquidity. During the quarter, we made progress on many of our capital allocation priorities outlined during the Capital Markets Day two months ago. Organic growth accelerated in the quarter with CapEx of EUR 53 million, up 47% year-over-year, and R&D up 39% for the same period as we increase our digital technology spend. In February, Moody's Investors Service upgraded the company's senior and secured rating from Baa3 to Baa2 with stable outlook.
This follows the Fitch upgrade of our long-term rating by 2 notches to BBB+ in early January. Additionally, during the quarter, the company repurchased 1.5 million shares for a total cost of approximately $18.4 million. The shareholders have authorized the additional purchase of up to 10% of the company common shares and extended the period for an additional 18 months, while we have a standing program in place to opportunistically buy up to $100 million in shares. At the annual meeting in April, shareholders approved the proposed dividend of EUR 0.28 per outstanding share for a combined return of EUR 380 million, which will be paid on May 4 to shareholders of record on April 20, 2022.
In terms of inorganic growth, as Scott mentioned at the outset of the call and announced last Friday, we have divested the Raven Engineered Films business for $350 million and have interested parties for the second Raven business we want to divest. I will now turn the call back to Scott.
Thanks, Simone. We expect global ag industry demand to remain resilient due to lower soft commodity reserves, geopolitical pressures, and the impact of recent adverse weather in parts of North and South America. While it remains generally positive, farmer sentiment has decreased during the first part of the year, largely due to price volatility and strained availability of fertilizer and equipment. High input costs are a challenge, but do prompt upgrades to more efficient and sustainable methods of farming and working, which is reflected in our technology adoption rates. Elevated commodity prices will continue to bolster farm incomes and encourage those who can to expand row crop planting. Comparing this 2022 ag industry demand estimate with the one we issued at the beginning of the year, the only substantive change is lower volumes in Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey.
For construction equipment, our industry estimates are largely unchanged, excepting South America, where we see some upside to demand in an election year. With solid recent print of the ABI and demand for customers ahead of projects related to the U.S. infrastructure bill, there could be also potential upside to our North American market estimate. Our visibility and too often lack of parts availability continues to be challenged by the conflict in Ukraine, ongoing supply chain lumpiness and the effects of the pandemic, which are still a significant factor in some geographies. Despite risks, we are confirming our previous 2022 guidance for industrial activities. Full year net sales are expected to grow between 10% and 14%, including currency translation. We will continue to invest to improve our business, but expect to keep SG&A at or below 7.5% of net sales.
Free cash flow for industrial activities is expected to exceed $1 billion. R&D and CapEx will be approximately $1.4 billion combined spend for the year. Although supply chain challenges now appear to be a headwind throughout the year, we do expect production and retail sales to increase in Q2 and beyond. Of course, this may be quite volatile depending on the cadence of supplier shipments and the duration of fighting in Ukraine. From a broader economic perspective, I am less pessimistic, less optimistic. The negative GDP print in the U.S. last week was a surprise, but we are anticipating weak reports from Europe. Interest rates are rising, inflation is rampant, and China is largely locked down. We will not be surprised if there is a global economic slowdown in 2023.
Nonetheless, as our current outlook indicates, we think that global food demand and associated productivity needs will support our industry better than others. While supply pressures persist, we will maintain our focus on managing them and minimizing any associated inventory buildup. As many of you have likely seen, our contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers for our plants in Racine, Wisconsin, and Burlington, Iowa, hit a roadblock yesterday. Our previous contract expired on Sunday, May first, and on Monday morning, we were advised by the union of their decision to call the represented employees out on a strike. The union's decision to strike was disappointing. We had several weeks of constructive dialogue, but when the contract expired, we remained very far apart on some important issues. The very nature and purpose of a strike is to disrupt our business and create concern amongst our customers.
Despite that intent, CNH Industrial is committed to reaching an agreement with United Auto Workers. We have made ourselves available to meet at the bargaining table at any time. We are determined to satisfy our commitments to our customers, the communities we serve, and our other employees. It is our intent to continue operations, and to that end, we are prepared with a contingency plan that should minimize impact to our operations. Our dealers and customers certainly need us to. Dealer views on the AG and CE economies generally remain robust and positive, which is validated by our order books. We endeavor to get them the products they need to support our customers and will be judicious in managing their inventory as we do. Elevated CapEx and R&D spending will continue as we invest in new vehicles, precision technology solutions, and alternative propulsion.
Additionally, we are increasing the number of Raven products flowing through our global distribution channels. We are creating a constructive path to lower CO2 emissions and improve our product offerings as part of our Science Based Targets initiative commitments. Between the new Patriot sprayer, the New Holland T7 tractor, and many other introductions, our model year 2023 products are exciting, as is the tremendous engagement and execution of our global team, who are truly breaking new ground. That concludes our prepared remarks, and we'll now open the line for questions. Nadia, please go ahead.
Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. The first question comes from the line of Kristen Owen from Oppenheimer & Co. Please ask your question.
Great. Thank you so much. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the pricing and currency assumptions that are now baked into the full year guidance versus what you initially guided a couple of months ago. It just seems like a lot has moved around in those assumptions and wondering if you can help us understand the puts and takes there. Thank you.
Yeah. I think we can say we have some more pricing as also we have some more cost on the other side. Currency is now a bit more negative on our overall sales since the dollar is strengthening.
Okay. Thank you. You called out market share gains in the prepared remarks. You talked, at the Capital Markets Day, about 200 basis points aspirational market share gain. Can you just give us a sense of the success that you had in the quarter? What's driving that, and how sustainable do you feel like that can be? Thank you.
Well, while our ambition is certainly to have sustainable market share improvement over the plan period, the current environment really dictates that availability is the sole driver of market share movement. So I'm not reading much into what's happening right now because it's literally who has products in dealerships and get that out. Our team's doing a really good job with supply chain, but certainly, you know, in some of our products and some of our product lines, we're really not as good as we could or should be. So, you know, while we did gain market share in some regions, in some product lines, it really is strictly around availability right now. I don't think that's a sustainable way for us to look at it.
It's really the investments in new product offerings, and the value that we can create with our precision offerings that I think is gonna be the long-term contributors to market share. That wasn't the case in the Q1 .
Excuse me, Kristen, have you finished with your questions? Yes, I'm all set. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you very much. The next question comes from the line of Tami Zakaria from J.P. Morgan. Please ask your question.
Hi, good morning, everyone. This is Thomas Simonitsch on behalf of Tammy.
Hi, Tom.
Hi. Last quarter, I think you commented that 30%-40% of your backlog is backed by a retail order. Can you update us on the retail versus wholesale mix of your orders year-to-date?
Yeah. That has actually increased in most of our markets, as we certainly shipped a bit less than we expected to, and I think there is anxiety amongst most retail customers to be able to put their hands on iron, you know, when it does hit the dealership. You know, we've seen that number move up almost double from what it was at the end of the Q1 , more in the 70%-80% range.
Thanks. Just a clarification. I think you said that you're expecting your production levels to increase from the Q2 onwards. Can you confirm if that is contingent on a strike resolution?
No, I will not confirm that it's contingent on the strike resolution. The strike is very unfortunate, but we knew it was a possibility and, you know, it's very unfortunate. We certainly wanna get our team in Racine and Burlington back as quickly as we can. You know, we built our plan so that we can operate, and really it's two of our 38 plants, and it's, you know, overall, I think, you know, well below 10% of our global production and, you know, we are continuing to operate the plants. You know, I don't think it would. I would not say the forecast we just provided was contingent upon any aspect there. We planned for higher labor costs.
We knew there was labor risk, and we've planned for those contingencies, and we'll continue to work as quickly as we can towards a negotiated settlement that's to the benefit of all parties.
That's very helpful. Thank you. I'll pass it on.
Thank you. The next question comes to the line of Ross Gillardi from Bank of America. Please ask your question.
Good morning, guys.
Hi, Ross.
You guys, sorry. You reached 11% revenue growth in ag in the quarter with essentially no volume growth and now production's improving. Should we expect ag revenue growth to accelerate through the year? In terms of the normal seasonal pickup that you see in ag revenue, you know, I mean, if we go back to most years for the last seven or eight years, excluding, you know, 2020 with COVID and I think 2015, which was a difficult time in the cycle, I mean, ag revenue normally goes up, you know, close to 30% in the Q2 versus the Q1 .
Just given what you're seeing, do you expect it, you know, return to that, you know, realistic expected return to that type of growth trajectory Q1 to Q2? Thanks.
Yeah, Ross, appreciate the history lesson, and that's exactly how we're looking at it. You know, obviously, as we said about 16 times on the call, a lot of it depends on the supply chain, but the team's doing a really nice job of dealing with it. Dealer inventories are extremely low, so we would certainly expect that trend that you laid out to be what we're aspiring to deliver.
Okay. Thanks, Scott. Just, you know, your latest thoughts on your agriculture, you know, margins specifically. I mean, do you get back to a 20%-25% incremental margin for the full year, you know, given, you know, what you did in the Q1 and just, you know, what you're seeing right now? What about gross margin? I mean, your gross margin was up 60 basis points year-over-year and pretty much the toughest of all environments with all the production challenges and raw material cost pressure. I mean, is there any reason why our gross margin wouldn't be up at least 60 basis points for the full year? Thanks.
No, I mean, that's certainly how we're expecting. You know, Derek and Stefano have really done a nice job with keeping price ahead of cost, and we expect to continue to be able to do with that. You know, there are some incremental costs coming in, but I think the team's demonstrated a nice job of working through those. We do have a number of new product introductions that will be helpful to margins as well. You know, we do feel reasonably good about it, but don't underestimate how difficult the environment is. It's a battle and, you know, I'm proud of the way the team's handling through it.
Okay, thanks. Just, you know, one last one, Scott. I mean, just overall on the ag cycle, I mean, how has your thought process evolved on the longevity of the cycle since the Investor Day and, you know, Russia's invasion? Does the flattish, you know, planning assumption in 2023 to 2024 just seem more or less appropriate to you? Just any subtle, you know, changes in thought more on the longevity of the cycle?
Yeah. Well, I mean, it was not exactly helpful that the invasion happened the day of our Capital Markets Day. I mean, it's so unfortunate for those that are impacted by it, so I shouldn't make light of it. Nonetheless, you know, what we are seeing, and I said it in my prepared remarks, that the global economy doesn't appear very good to me, but I'm probably more positive on the ag cycle than I was just because, you know, soft commodity prices are up so much, and really wheat specifically availability is down considerably. You know, late planting in the U.S., it's just, it's really shaping up to be to keep the commodity prices, soft commodity prices high, which is offsetting some of the hard, you know, input costs.
I do think the ag cycle's probably got a little bit more legs to it than I would've suggested, you know, several months ago.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Martino De Ambroggi from Equita SIM. Please ask your question.
Good afternoon, everybody. The first question is on the guidance. Your underlying assumption on 1.15, you already had a question on this. May I ask you what is the sensitivity rule of thumb of the dollar-euro rate on sales adjusted EBIT and free cash flow and debt?
Martino De Ambrogi, the rule of thumb for revenues is, I would say 1% lower revenues by every $0.05 of dollar appreciation, something like that. We have positive reais US dollar right now, so there's some positive in there. EBIT is not affected too much by our exchange rate as we have a good chunk of our cost in Europe.
The free cash flow or debt, as you prefer?
There may be some tailwinds on the debt conversion because of the euro, some of the euro-based debt.
Okay. This is not the main reason for the change in the free cash flow guidance?
No, it's not.
Okay.
We haven't changed the guidance for the free cash flow. We kept the same, just above $1 billion.
Okay. The second question is on the operating leverage of the two divisions standalone because under the new macroeconomic environment probably something is changing. I don't know.
We still forecast revenue growth in both, and so I wouldn't see an enormous operating leverage change from historical performance.
Okay. The prices for the full year in your assumption for this operating leverage, it was 11-12% in the first quarter. Should we expect a similar or even higher effect for the full year?
I will go for a similar rather than a higher.
Okay. Very, very last one.
I will go for the same.
Sorry.
I will go for a similar rather than a higher. Stay to the same level that we have until now.
Okay. Very last on prices, after the renegotiation of the labor contract, would you be able to also set this through price increase because typically are for production costs, raw materials and so on, but should we expect the ability to cover it?
I think it's probably better to assume that we anticipated higher wage inflation and have put that into our pricing already.
Okay. I cannot ask you how much of the
Good try.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from line of Daniela Costa from Goldman Sachs. Please ask your question.
Hi. Good morning. Thank you. Just two questions from me. I wanted to follow up on the demand commentary. There are some categories that you mentioned industry demand in the release has been down in the quarter. I think some categories of combined, for example. Shall we see those as more basic comps that influence those and they are more like one-offs and you still see overall a strong environment? I guess sort of trying to think about farmer sentiment versus consumer sentiment versus low dealer inventories, if we should read anything in from looking at those categories that are down. The second question, just related thing to your backlog and the stickiness of that backlog.
Can you comment a little bit on the type or level of advances that farmers need to put when they order equipment and the things that we should look into to have confidence that all the backlog will be delivered and there's no cancellations if the more bearish macro scenario materializes? Thank you.
Well, first, on the demand question, I will tell you that I said it as it relates to retail performance and market share gains, but it also is true for the overall demand. Where we saw down markets, and I you know, looked at what's happening in the industry as well as what's happening for us, it's solely related to product availability. You know, as we ended the quarter with much larger fleet inventory, that means product wasn't available for the dealers and therefore they couldn't take it. It really was not related to anything. I mean, we are seeing you know, we talked about farmer sentiment being, you know, decreasing. It's still above the historical norm, but it is coming down with specifically the higher input cost and then lack of availability of, you know, both fertilizer and equipment.
We're not seeing that in any demand impact at all at this point. You know, we're watching for it, but nothing is suggesting that anything other than availability is impacting demand at this point. As far as the second question was related to, I'm sorry, was-
Backlog stickiness in terms of.
Oh, backlog stickiness.
What's the level of advances? Yep.
Yeah. You know, I don't think even our best dealers are getting significant down payments on backlog. We know that it could be canceled. I will tell you what's happened, because of low availability of used farm equipment, there's a lot of times people, they really need to take it because they don't have something. They've sold something, so they need to get it in. I think that's probably better than any down payment we could get. You know, what we're aware that some of these orders, you know, may fall out, but it's better to have a retail order at the end than just having it go into dealer inventory. On balance, I think we're in reasonably good shape.
Got it. Very clear. Thank you.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Courtney Yakavonis from Morgan Stanley. Please ask your question.
Hi, good morning, guys. I'm wondering if you can just, you know, share a little bit of insight into the supply chain, you know, what you're seeing in Europe versus North America, and if, you know, there's any sourcing issues out of out of China right now. You know, just where are the biggest pain points? Then, you know, I know that you are not providing a margin guidance, but can you just talk at all about how your expectations for improvement? I think last quarter you had told us, you know, you were expecting, you know, semiconductors to be very similar this quarter as they were last quarter. Just any differences to how you're thinking about the supply chain at this point relative to last quarter.
I think the big difference from last quarter is that we are not expecting the overall supply chain situation, including semiconductors, to get better throughout the year. It is, at this point, you know, we believe gonna be a battle throughout 2022 and potentially longer than that. Again, I'm extremely proud of the way the team has figured out how to navigate some of these challenges. Semiconductors is one that especially, you know, it's a brutal situation, but we've managed for five or six quarters now to handle it pretty well, and I think we'll continue to be able to do that. The overall, I mean, the situation with supply chain, obviously the lockdown in parts of China has not helped, the war hasn't helped.
You know, we're dealing with 300-400 suppliers that we're expediting. You know, that's an unprecedented number, but it's kind of consistent with what we've been doing for, you know, the past few quarters. The team's kind of built some muscle and capability to do it. I'm not seeing. Again, you asked the question specifically around Europe. You know, early on, you know, foundries when I say early on, early on in the war in terms. You know, the foundries were potentially shutting down because of higher electricity costs, and we were able to navigate around that. We're getting through most of those issues. We are expecting there's additional hiccups that could come, you know, out of the Russia-Ukraine region.
You know, pig iron is one that we watch really closely. Generally speaking, I hate to say it, Europe's no worse than North America. I mean, the supply chain is difficult and it's a battle. Again, I think, you know, I'm quite pleased and impressed with the way the team's managing through it.
Okay, great. Thanks. You know, you mentioned a couple times, you know, on the call that, you know, sales is really a function of availability at this point. On your industry outlook, I do think you reduced some outlooks, especially on the construction side in Europe, and slightly in rest of world. Is there anything that you're seeing that's impacting that industry outlook from a demand perspective, or is that also just a reflection of availability at this point?
I think that's probably related to Turkey, Russia, and Ukraine, which, you know, we're down there for sure. Our construction business in Europe specifically has had a rough decade or so. The team's done a nice job of getting footing there. With Sampierana coming on, we are gonna see construction growth and actually profitability for the first time in a long time in Europe. If there was negative numbers, I'm pretty sure it's related to the region affected by the war.
Okay, great. Thanks.
Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from the line of Francois Robillard from Intermonte. Please ask your question.
Hi, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. Just a quick one to understand the new guidance. Was the previous guidance including all three divisions on sales, I mean? Was the previous sales guidance including all three divisions of Raven? Does the recent sale of the EFD division is it reflected in your-
No, François Robillard, we treated the EFD and the other division as held for sale.
We haven't included in any of the numbers.
Even in the previous guidance?
Not in the previous guidance, not in the Q1 .
Oh, okay. Not in both, if I understood correctly.
Correct.
Okay. On precision ag, you mentioned that Raven penetration is increasing. Can you give us some more color on that and how you manage to navigate it, notwithstanding the tough supply chain situation in the Q1 ?
Yeah, I think you know, one of the benefits of making the acquisition is instead of Raven trying to get into our dealers, you know, we have all of our sales people also helping to pull Raven through our channels. I think that's what's driving the extra penetration. You know what ultimately is the main benefit and profitability driver is integrating Raven into our vehicles and, you know, equipment. Right now, we've got a great opportunity in the aftermarket, and that's what we're seeing us take advantage of.
Okay. Any chance you can give us some estimate of an impact on your first quarter sales from this integration?
Don is shaking his head, so that means no.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes on the line of Steven Fisher from UBS. Please ask your question.
I think I heard you say something improved in April. Did I hear that correctly? If so, what exactly improved and why?
It must have been a misstatement. I know, I'm kidding, Stephen. No, we did see production improve in the quarter. You know, we talked about, you know, we ended with a much heavier inventory level. We were able to work through some of that in the quarter, but also see the plants be more productive. It was a benefit of both.
Okay. You know, with supply chain not expecting to get better, should we expect retail sales to year-over-year kind of align with your own sales? Because I'm still a little unclear as to why your sales volume seem to be ahead of retail sales for Q1. It seems like it should basically just be if there's, you know, farmers are kind of clamoring to get whatever machines are available, it seems like it should just be a fairly seamless pass through.
No, I would agree with you. I would love to be able to get inventory in our dealers up a little bit throughout the year, but that's not in our plan.
Okay. Then maybe lastly here, you know, not sure what you can say about this, but it seems like there's a playbook for resolution of the labor situation. Maybe you can just help us with anything that's different about your labor situation versus, kind of that of your competitor and how that was resolved late last year?
Yeah. I think the big difference is the number of their. They had a much larger percent of their hourly employees leveraged by the union. I mean, it's multiple factors higher than our 20%. That's the big difference. You know, also, you know, we've got so many other factories where we can produce and we've got the ability to bring in. We have our salaried workforce and contingent labor, you know, helping us serve our customers, which is our primary goal. You know, we're committed to reaching an agreement. We you know, again, we had several weeks of good dialogue with UAW and we believe we made a very fair offer. We're continuing to be willing to negotiate.
You know, we're optimistic that we can resolve this, and that's what we need to do for our employees and for our customers. We can't look at the Deere situation and make a, "That's the playbook we're gonna follow," because it's apples and oranges, really.
Okay, thanks a lot.
Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. There are no further questions. That will conclude the question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Noah Weiss for any closing or additional remarks. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you very much, Nadia. Thank you to everybody for joining.