Acerinox Stock

Good morning to you all, and welcome to the third quarter 2026 results presentation. Before we begin, we would like to thank everyone for the messages of concern following the train accident 2 days ago. While that route is commonly used by our staff traveling to the factory, fortunately, no Acerinox employees were injured. Our hearts go out to those affected and we extend our deepest condolences and support to the victims and the families. Q3 has been a strong quarter for Acerinox. As a group, we have demonstrated our strength in a complex market situation. And as we will explain during this call, we continue to prioritize our working capital and solid cash generation. During this call, we will hear from our Chief Corporate Officer, Miguel Ferrandis, and Esther Camós, our Chief Financial Officer; and Carlos Lora-Tamayo, our IR, Communication and Reporting Director, who will explain our Q3 results and provide an outlook for Q4. Before we start with this presentation, let me remind you that this conference is being broadcast on our website acerinox.com. And now I will hand you over to our Chief Corporate Officer, Miguel Ferrandis. Miguel, please go ahead.

Thank you, Borja. When preparing this results presentation, trying to find the word probably what comes more to my mind is the word of pride. -- we are presenting very remarkable figures in the current days with challenges all over the world and with a highly complex environment. We are not yet reaching the levels of consumption almost in every area of the recovered time. But what appears evident in these results achieved in the third quarter and in the 9 months, is that we are capitalizing opportunities where they are and when they come, and we are taking the best of that.

If you see the figures appearing in these highlights, you can realize that the figure of sales, EUR 1.6 billion for the third quarter is very similar to that 1 of the previous quarter. But having said that, we have improved our EBITDA reaching this figure of EUR 199 million. We like to be predictable when we forecast the outlook in the results presentation of the Q2, we announced that we shall be slightly above, and we shall be at 13%, 13% above the figure of the second quarter. But when we go to the 9 months figure, with this EUR 4.5 billion of sales, just 2% above the sales of the first 9 months of last year.

Our EBITDA has gone up to EUR 470 million, and this means a 46% increase in EBITDA with 2% increase in sales a 46% increase in EBITDA. This demonstrates what we are trying to explain today of how we are able to capitalize the opportunities when they come. And this is as a consequence of our consistent strategy and the evidence that, that strategy is fruitful. Our operating cash flow is slightly negative for the quarter, slightly positive for the 9 months. This is obviously driven by the working capital, our working capital is running normally in parallel of our performance and the strong improvement that we are having is obviously, at the end having the consequence of the increase in working capital in most of the year up to now in the 3 quarters. This normally shall be strongly reduced or neutralize as you normally now in the fourth quarter. But it's true that the figure of the working capital at September combined with the strong CapEx programs in which we are involved, combined with semiannual dividend payment that has been taking place during the quarter as taking our debt to the peak in the year of EUR 1.5 billion, that at the end, shall be reduced in the fourth quarter, mostly as a consequence as the expected working capital reduction.

So these are the main highlights for today's results presentation. In the following slide, we are showing the gradual improvement that we are realizing quarter after quarter. This is the reported EBITDA of the last 3 years. And at the end, what is clearly more easy to realize is the impressive track we are experiencing during year 2026.

An outsider -- outside of the company could consider that this is as a consequence of cycle several tailwinds that are benefiting us everywhere. And by far, this is not the case -- this is not that we are entering in a new [indiscernible] that in a new cycle that all the circumstances and all the markets are booming, not by far.

At the end, we still are seeing a low demand everywhere. Some specific sectors still are depressed. In addition, we are experiencing a strong increase in energy cost. There is huge uncertainties almost everywhere. But as we said before, the strategy, the diversification, the continuous improvement in efficiency are allowing us to experience this strong recovery reaching figures in the third quarter of almost EUR 200 million as a quarterly figure with a margin EBITDA of 12.5%. This is coming as I said before, taking the opportunities where they are mostly of taking the good momentum that the specific sectors are experiencing in the states. -- combined with turnaround that we are making in [indiscernible].

So at the end, this subsidiary that in our case, has been loss making for the last years. As you all know, we are gradually improving it. We have reached almost breakeven at EBITDA level. We mentioned it in June. We are still almost in breakeven. And obviously, the energy cost in the third quarter have improved, but we are reaching this almost EBITDA breakeven level in the depressed base prices that we are experiencing in Europe, and this is a great success.

So at the end, the gradual recovery is a combination of that higher contribution taking advantage of the proper niches in the American market and that the previous loss-making unit that was at [indiscernible] is turning around and reaching almost the breakeven. If we go to our main market, which is Obviously, North America, January to September, the States, North America is 56% of our sales. So clearly, it's our main market more than any other circumstance, we are North American. And the main burden that we can remark today about the American market is the stability. And at the end, this stability is obviously well supported by the American administration that is consistently supporting the local industry. And this is providing stability and that stability is good for every player in the market. So the prices in the stainless remains solid in America. But this is a circumstance that is favorable to the market. favorable to the customers, favorable to the distributors as also favorable to the producers.

So every player now [indiscernible] consequently, this allows us that even though the money is low, but players are facing the current circumstances in a, let's say, satisfactory way. The imports have been reducing reaching or representing now 21% of the total market. Still North America is a net important market. But the imports have been reducing more than 18% for reaching that level. So this is good sign for the coming months. Another good sign for the coming months is also that the inventories remain low. And at the end, what still we are waiting is that the is that the good momentum we are seeing in performing very strong. Obviously, as you all know, the aerospace sector is a sector that is now in a very good momentum. In addition, also the construction of data center is also driving increases in demand and in consumption of several of our products. And for example, in the -- all those related to the energy and juices as well as also the pipes and so on. So this is also experiencing a good momentum. Other sectors in which we historically have been active are also doing great. For example, the food and catering industry, this has already recovered. But still, we are missing sectors that for us are relevant. And one sector that for us is relevant and still remains negative, for example, is the domestic appliances. Another sector that still is to come is the transport in which especially in the heavy transport, we are active as well as in the trailer. So we are, at the end, as I say, taking the best from those sectors that are doing great. And for us, it's really exciting to imagine what could be our contribution and our profitability in America when the proper cycle comes and all these other sectors that still are relatively dormant incorporate again and follow the trend of the sectors that already have been reacted. So we are still satisfied and optimistic regarding the North American market and our performance in the North American market.

Okay. to the European market.This year, it's been a very challenging year, a very volatile year for Europe. The weak economy situation, the geopolitical uncertainties are affecting our demand that is in a very low point. Saying this, it's true also that in the first half of the year, we experienced a good demand, a strong demand coming from big distributors. This is probably driven by some lack of supply. The imports in the first half of the year went down significantly. mainly in the first 4 months of the year.

But at the end of the second quarter, imports started to increase. And this creates also some expense of stocks in the market that it's been delayed, the expected recovery for the third quarter after the implementation of the new trade measures. So consequently, we have an overbuying in the first half of the year and then a third quarter marked by the typical seasonality, the energy prices also that went up significantly, yes, both electricity and gas. and also a destocking process. The consequence of this is that the apparent demand went down 22%, a very big number quarter-on-quarter. Imports went down 50%, in this quarter and represents 16% of the total market.

Keep in mind that we were coming from an import penetration last year in the first 9 months of last year of 24%. So this is the good news that imports are with these new measures moving down. Okay. So saying this, the third quarter, a very challenging quarter, seasonality, excess of stocks in the market. But what we are fully confident is that the new European regulation is going to be a game changer for the European market.

Once we digest all these inventories that are in the market, local producers will benefit from this reduction on imports. And this new regulation will provide much more stability for the market, the same stability that we have in the U.S. So we are positive for the mid- long term, hopefully, the beginning of of the year, we can start to see this better environment. But it's true that this is -- this recovery. It's been delayed due to the excess of stock, the imports that came in advance of the implementation of the MR measures.

So now moving to High Performance Alloy -- the market environment of the high-performance alloy industry, same as securities in stainless is different depending on the region, but more specifically depending on the sector. Starting by U.S., okay? The stronger -- it is true that the stronger support of the U.S. administration to the industry is benefiting high-performance alloy through the of global tariff on input. As you know, the Section 232 does not include the high-performance alloy material. Demand in the U.S. continues very strong, improving the order entries and the backlog This, of course, is making that our lead times are extending, but our capacity utilization levels are also becoming a higher utilization. And we keep confident on the good momentum for 2027.

We have insisted that most of the orders on the aerospace were more for 2027 than 2026. And this is the result and the evidence on the increase on our backlog the strongest markets in the U.S. are those in which we are. So it's aerospace and gas turbines, gas turbines. The aerospace continues picking up and also space allocation are gaining some traction.

The strongest growth is in the industrial gas turbines, as I mentioned, both in traditional and emerging technology and driven by the power generation requirements for electrification. So good momentum and good expectations for 2027. And Moving to Europe, the demand remains subdued due to geopolitical uncertainties we are still waiting some investment projects, but the positive thing here is that we believe that the worst is over. The worst is over, and we have started seeing some signs of recovering, both in oil and gas and in chemical processes.

So -- this keeps us confident for 2027. Just as a note, for the first time the -- our order book in Europe is has become slightly higher than that for 25, okay? So this is why make us to believe that the worst is over. The going to some sectors, of course, the geopolitical situation is keeping demand low in oil and gas, but the reconstruction is still to come. And even it is expected that when it comes, it might create some supply problems due to the excess of demand. So we are confident for the future.

While those sectors recover. So while those sectors recover, what we are trying is to capitalize the best of the moment by moving to our production to other improving sectors like nuclear with a strong demand for small modular reactors or semiconductors with lower volumes but better margins, okay? So we are always trying to get the best of the moment. And our good news here is that we really think that we are seeing signs of recovery.

Going to the consolidated results of the group, okay? Again, I think that the operational performance of the third quarter demonstrate the strength of our strategy of diversification. In the third quarter, despite of the lower activity, mainly as a consequence of the seasonality in Europe and also despite of the Middle East conflict -- our EBITDA has amounted to almost EUR 200 million to EUR 199 million, being the best operating result in the last 13 quarters, okay? And also with margins growing. We are now in margins of 13%, mainly due to the higher activity in the U.S. in both divisions.

As mentioned, both divisions are performing better, okay, but with a stronger contribution of the stainless division. The activity -- the activity in the third quarter, if we compare, it's been low than the second quarter, but I think that is remarkable that if we compare it to the third quarter of last year, okay, we are growing 11%. And if we consider the 9 months, we are also growing by 5%, okay?

So I think that the activity is getting better. EBITDA, as mentioned, is EUR 199 million, mainly supported by the higher activity in the United States both in stainless and in HPA, but what is also important is also because of the turnaround of our plant in capes that Carlos will later mention, -- this EBITDA, well, is negatively impacted by the -- by the Middle East conflict.

So aside of the impact that it might have on our sales to the oil and gas definitely the increase of cost in energy and in transport has had an impact in this quarter of EUR 60 million and EUR 24 million if we look at the year figures. The result before tax, which I think is also remarkable is 3x with all these 3x better than that of 2025. Okay? So now we go to the operating cash flow. We will later explain in the capital allocation. But we have had a slight negative operating cash flow of EUR 60 million. This is mainly driven by the increase of working capital. I will explain this.

As a result of the good trend of results as Miguel explained, there has been a working capital, but I think that it is important to explain the reasons in the quarter, which is mainly led by 2 opposite factors. On 1 side, we have had a slight increase in inventories of EUR 71 million. Out of the EUR 152 million of increase of working capital, EUR 71 million is an increase of the inventories. And this increase on inventories is mainly explained by 3 reasons, okay? And we think these are temporary reasons. So we will be able to revert in the fourth quarter.

These reasons for the increase of the inventories is, first of all, the preparation in the U.S. for our program, annual shutdowns, maintenance set-downs that we are doing in Q4, both in the United States and NVIDIA. This has made us to build some stock to continue being able to serve our customers. Secondly, the higher order book in High Performance Alloy division, extending our lead times and increasing our capacity utilization is making also us to increase our working progress material. So as long as all these stabilizes, we won't have such an increase. And then there is also a third reason for that, which is the replacement of the external processing at VDM, the partial replacement of external processing by internal in-source, which give us also reduce our cost and improving efficiency is making us to have a longer route. So all of that is what has made it to increase the inventories. The second reason for the increase of working capital is a reduction of payables of EUR 91 million.

And this reduction of payables is mainly due by the reduction of purchases due to the lower activity that we expect for the fourth quarter, okay? So we are reducing purchases. But at the same time, we are paying those payables of the highest level of activities of the month of mainly June and some July, okay? So this is what is also making the working capital to increase, okay? So -- with all this, we definitely believe that we will be able to reduce the working capital in the fourth quarter.

We will have less activity, and we will generate cash. With all this, our net financial debt has ended in EUR 1.5 million but we are confident that we will reduce it for the fourth quarter.

The stales Steel division has experienced a very strong third quarter. In fact, it's the best quarter since the second quarter of 2023. This mainly marked by the solid performance in the U.S. by our -- by North American stainless that more than observed the seasonality in Europe and the energy prices increase, okay?

So this EUR 175 million of EBITDA -- it's 14% higher than the previous quarter and more than double the EBITDA of the third quarter '25 -- we are seeing a very progressive improvement during the year. In the first quarter, we achieved an EBITDA margin of 8%. In the second quarter, we achieved a double digit 12%. And in this third quarter, we achieved a remarkable EBITDA of 14%. Why not the situation not this year, it's clearly better than that of the last year. We think that this consistency and solid performance of the U.S. market is key. On 1 hand, we have higher volumes than the previous year. But also, as you may recall, we increased prices in the second half of '25, first for 1/3 of our order book. And since the very beginning of the year, we fully implement the price increase for the rest of our order book.

So this allow us, on 1 hand, to improve our profitability. But also the situation in [indiscernible] is improving. You know that we have the turnaround program, trying to focus more on margins on high added value product, trying to improve our product mix. And this allow us, as we are commenting today, and we explaining when we published the second quarter results. To achieve breakeven in the month of June, even with very low prices because prices are still in a very depressed situation, but we were able to achieve this even -- in the third quarter, it's true that with the increase in energy prices, this has been difficult to maintain.

But we are very close to the breakeven -- if we move to the 9-month figure, we achieved an EBITDA of EUR 411 million. compared to EUR 218 million of that of the same period of '25. This is almost 90% so higher than in '25. Also, the EBIT is at EUR 317 million, that is 145% higher than the previous year. Last, but not least, we would like to highlight the operating cash flow. As Esther mentioned before -- the working capital impacted this year significantly -- but even with an increase in working capital due to the higher activity of EUR 195 million, we were able to achieve in the Stainless Steel division an operating cash flow of EUR 73 million. Moving to the high-performance alloys. Also, we experienced a better quarter than the second one. We increased sales of 4% and the EBITDA in a 9%. It's true that these figures still are very well below the last year levels. Maybe to explain this, it's important to look at our main sectors of consumption. You know that aerospace and industrial gas turbine in the States -- and oil and gas and CPI in Europe. The -- those of the U.S. market are performing in a good situation and the ones in Europe below those of the U.S. So the aerospace and industrial gas through in, we have a very strong order book as we are commenting Important to mention that this strong order book is not yet reflected in the P&L.

This will be mainly next year. So we expect that this good momentum will continue, and we will improve our profitability in 2027. The oil and gas due to the Middle East conflict is in a weaker situation. But as Ester mentioned before, we think that with the once this conflict finish, we have a good opportunity not to improve our order book with the reconstruction in the area. So we have no doubt that this end market will improve moving forward. The chemical process industry, the CPI is the 1 that is in a weaker situation, we are switching a bit to more nuclear and semiconductors trying to improve our presence there. And we are improving a bit our order book -- this sector is a strategic sector for the European Union. So we hope that Europe is doing in other sectors. Can put the measures in order to defend the chemical industry in the European market. Maybe to finish with a positive news here. It is September was the first time in the last 12 months. That the order book increase in VDM not compared to last year. So hopefully, we are in an inflection point and the worst is behind us.

So let's explain now the cash out of the quarter. I will start by the remuneration to shareholders. Of course, half of the dividend of the year is paid in this quarter. Okay? We maintain our remuneration policy to our shareholders steady at $155 million for the year. And out of this EUR 77 million have been paid in this quarter. Okay? The -- regarding CapEx. So we continue, as we have been announcing in all our presentations with our investments. projects to execute the strategic plan.

Those investments are that we have been explaining are mainly focused on our most profitable markets -- we have finalized the investments of NAS EUR 244 million to increase the capacity. All of that we already explained and was executed in Q4. And over the next few months, just in North America and stainless, we will put in place the COGS that will allow NAS to produce the long products for [indiscernible]. At Haynes, we have started with the civil works of the new building for the new team and for the new port -- so total investments in the quarter, including also the maintenance has been of EUR 80 million and EUR 228 million for the year, in line with the investments that we have been announcing along the year.

Tax payments yes, we have made tax payments also this quarter of EUR 38 million as a result of the profitability of our -- of the U.S. okay? Just as a note, last year, for example, and to compare to be able to realize the good momentum of the U.S. market. Last year, we paid EUR 50 million in the same quarter -- and regarding working capital, yes, we have increased working capital. We are confident that we will be able to reduce the reasons for that have been already explained. The working capital in the year, as mentioned, is mainly driven by the increase of inventories and that increase of inventories have been also affected by higher raw material cost and higher production costs with the increase on the electricity that we mentioned compared to last year. All in for us, this third quarter is a temporary increase on the net financial debt of EUR 174 million. But we are confident that we will be able to reduce our debt for the fourth quarter.

And yes, for conclude, the main -- the main comments for remark what has been explained. First of all, we are proud of presenting today an EBITDA of EUR 199 million in the current circumstances with all the uncertainties and with all the challenges and low demand. So for us, this is a fact of price, no doubt.

We are taking the best for the solid performance of specific sectors in the States. Regarding Europe, still the recovery in demand that could have been taking place in the third quarter, it still is not coming, but there are some signs that maybe for '27, we could see a gradual recovery in the European demand. And at the end, the basis are there. The imports are being reducing the inventories also remain low. So we think that this may come. But still, we have not seen in the third quarter. But having said that, -- we have reached a new level of efficiency, and we are almost in breakeven in [indiscernible] Europe, even in the current days where prices -- base prices are in the range -- this could be unimaginable some years ago. In our long-term strategy at the end, it's obvious that the diversification in regions and in sectors allow us to take the best of the opportunities that are coming. And this is the driver of the high profitability we have been achieving in this quarter.

And then thinking from now to the future regarding the outlook on the short-term basis of the outlook -- for the Q4, we normally experienced in the Q4, the seasonal slowdown of our main market, which is the States. So on that basis, we just indicated that probably the -- probably not the EBITDA of the Q4 is going to be lower than the Q3, the Q3 is going to be the peak of this year, no doubt.

In the HPA, we take the best of the sectors that are doing good. And this is this has come, and this has come to remain. So all the evidence for the coming future in the aerospace and industrial gas turbine remains very robust. And fortunately, as we have said, probably the worst is over in the sectors of oil and gas and chemical process industry. The sector of oil and gas for us, especially through VDM is very relevant. We are world leaders in that sector. And at the end, it's a matter of time that this sector may come back. And probably what it come back, not only recovering all the projects and expansions that have been put on pause -- but in addition the reconstruction of all the damage infrastructure probably shall create an incredible momentum for the oil and gas in HPA. So this is a sector to be patient and remain. We have that clear. And in the sector of chemical process industries as has been as has been expressed, we are moving ourselves to those specific parts, for example, like the nuclear in which clearly also, the trend is positive, and we are growing there. And on that basis, also, we are confident that this drives part of these [indiscernible] that we are seeing.

So a general guidance, I repeat again, the Q4 shall be lower. It's a 2 months -- it's a quarter of 2 months in America, which is the great contributor to our profit. This is clear. But as a consequence, of that as a consequence of the reduction in working capital that we shall experience as a consequence of the more or less seasonal slowdown, but as a consequence of the programs that has been explained by Esther, the maintenance and so forth. This shall be reduced and consequently, the net financial debt obviously shall be also reduced for the third quarter. I remember now that the fourth quarter last year, the working capital reduction has been in our range of EUR 200 million. So -- so more or less, we understand that this year, depending on how is the visibility of the starting of the year, we are precise, but we are obviously, not only consistent, but focused on the strong reduction in working capital for achieving the fourth quarter. So thank you very much and now absolutely open to answer any question coming from your side.

Yes. Now we'll start with the Q&A session. And please, operator, go ahead.

[Operator Instructions]

First question comes from [indiscernible] from Bestinver Securities. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

I have 3 questions. The first 1 is if you could provide an update about the potential U.S. listing, I noticed that in your first half results, you integrated the account of [indiscernible] with NAS while BD was transferred at group level. Second, I would also like to have an update about Columbus situation, which bridged its covenants in the first half, affected by the delay of the implementation of the measures by the government. I'd like to know what has been the performance?

And what do you expect about this business unit and if you might consider a capital injection on it? And finally, the third question, I know that is going to ask a question, but how big should be the working capital reversal in Q4? -- just the EUR 150 million outflow of Q3 or more.

Let's start by the last one, okay, of the working capital reversal-- okay? It's difficult -- it's always difficult to predict because it very much depends on the raw material costs, but I think that Miguel also gave an indication of what happened for - in the fourth quarter of 2025 with constant raw materials in which we were able to reduce it by the EUR 200 million. So of course, it will depend on raw material costs. It will also depend on the order book. We think that because of the order book, we won't be raising much more inventories because it has already been done on the Q3. And on the side of trade receivables and payables, we think that we will that we will compensate these 2 effects. So it will mainly be driven by inventory reduction. And we think we -- it's difficult to predict because of the recliner material, but I think anything about the -- what we achieved last year could be achievable.

In regard to the potential U.S. listing, Well, I think this issue was well explained by our Chairman and our CEO in the shareholders' meeting, which is at the end, obviously, a consequence of our studying of all the possibilities that bring value and being prepared for as we are making in every sector, capitalizing opportunities. So as has been explained, for us, clearly understanding that we are North American most and every other region -- we are growing in America.

We are investing in America because it's obviously where we are obtaining more satisfactory and quick result. So as a consequence of that strategy of growing in North America, it takes sense to make the home work for being prepared if any time in the future appears convenient or the Board consider that it's valuable to obtain certain listing in the states. So what we are making internally is the homework for being prepared for a possible U.S. listing.

If the circumstances recommend that -- on that, exploring that possibility and that homework obviously means that we need to integrate the divisions that previously have been performing separately and even some of them have been recently acquired. So we are involved in that process.

We are involved in the integration of the different business units. -- but nothing new is coming since all this explanation was done at our shareholders' meeting. So we are keeping that homework for making the group be prepared for that. if this is decided anytime in the future. In regard to Columbus at the end, in the current challenging day for the markets everywhere -- we have mentioned that in America, the market is stable and steady and robust as a consequence of continuous support of the American administration since several years ago and in different administration periods.

This clearly benefits the market. Fortunately, Europe has been following the trend. Unfortunately, during 2026, several measures have been putting in place also for supporting the European industry. And this improvements shall be gradually appreciating in the coming years. But in South Africa, still is a market that has become an open highway for all the Asian exports that are now able to enter in Europe or entering in America, and those are being moved to South Africa. This is something that the local industry has been clearly working and also pushing for obtain equivalent measures to protect the local maritime in South Africa, but still that measures are not in place.

So this has been spoiling the local market. And at the end, the circumstance, obviously, on this basis for Columbus is that it's not easy in the current circumstance to have an active present overseas. And still, the local market is suffering this Sunami of the Asian imports that are not finding place in other markets. We remain now confident that maybe that mechanisms are more close to appear. In the last days, we have -- we have been reading that finally appears to be an agreement between AtrorMital and the South African government through the ITC. And this may be could make that, at the end, having sold all that negotiations for the acquisition of the arterial business by the government, maybe could have the consequence at the end finally the tariffs and the tariffs that the industry is claiming for are finally coming. But still, we have not seen that. We hope that this make up. And by far, this is absolutely critical for the industry to have that protection in place in line with the protections that other markets are experiencing. But still, this is not there.

We are not contemplating further capital injection in the in Columbus. At the end, our strategy is making the necessary investments where there is a visible return. And still, this is not the situation in South Africa. As I said before, some of the circumstances may change, and we are waiting on that. On the time being, we shall not make any further injection or capital injection in Columbus.

Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Tristan Gresser from BNP Paribas. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. .

The first 1 is on the Q3 performance that was really strong for stainless -- what drove the higher stainless margins? I think you mentioned production was down 7%. And Quarter-on-quarter sales were flat, our up to additional energy and logistic costs. So what drove really the performance? What am I missing? .

Thank you, Tristan, for your question. I think in this case, the Q3 performance strong is easy to explain. As you know, Q3 in Europe is mainly affected by seasonality, okay? So there is a less contribution in Europe and less activity, which is mainly focused in Europe, not in the United States. Our stronger market continues being positive and it has had better volumes than Q2, higher activity. And therefore, in the end, the contribution to the group is being higher because of the 2 effects. On 1 side, we have less contribution from Europe. And on the other side, we have higher contribution of the most profitable markets in this case. -- which is our stainless steel position in the United States, okay? So all in is what is making our best performance. And to with regards to HPA, we have been announcing also the increase on the order book that we are having, especially in sectors which are more profitable. like the aerospace. And therefore, you have seen that there is a slight better contribution also from HPA to the group. But to what regard to stainless is basically because of the good momentum of the United States. You have seen that there's been also an increase in the apparent consumption in the States in the quarter. It continues the reduction of the imports as well. And all this is making us to get these better margins.

Okay. So if I understand correctly, that's mainly higher shipments in the U.S. that drove the better performance and margins because my understanding was that base prices in the U.S. have been relatively steady since the pickup last year and the implementation of all those price hikes in the contracts in Q1.

So margins have been pretty steady and adjust higher shipment volumes in the U.S.

Correct. That is correct, is mainly -- these higher contribution and volumes in the United States and the momentum of the seasonality of Europe.

Okay. And just a quick follow-up on that. How big is consumer goods appliances for your U.S. business? And similarly, how big it is for your European operations? .

Similar are important sectors for us that are not in the best times and can be about 15%, 20% of the total order book.

Okay. That's clear. And a question -- last question on the Q4 guidance, how we should think about maybe HPA into Q4? You mentioned that you see some signs of fan sign of recovery, so might be more of a kind of a steady outlook. And usually, what kind of shipment decline that could be used as a proxy [indiscernible] the division you see quarter-on-quarter into Q4? And also, if you could comment on Europe. I don't think stainless steel prices are moving up. It feels it could be more energy cost pressure. I don't know, would you expect some stability from European operations or even heading lower into Q4? Any color on the Q4 will be greatly appreciated.

Well, for the HPA, the -- what we are having currently is, as has been explained, a very strong track America aerospace and industrial gas turbine. This is making us having a high capacity utilization now, our order book is full. But the evidence of this good momentum on the P&L shall come more for the '27. So we are benefiting, obviously, for the high capacity utilization and what that implies in the efficiency of our American business. but the main contribution of this sector in profits is to come in '27, still not in '26. And in addition, as occurs in -- -- in NAS our stainless business, the seasonal slowdown in America takes place in the fourth quarter. So this is mostly to be appreciated in the coming year.

As is the same in the European division for PDM. We are seeing green shots now, and this is -- this is clearly for us a fact of optimism, but the maturity of the process of the of the HPA creates that it takes substantial months until that is finally drop to the P&L in a strong recovery. So we understand that the worst is over.

In terms of the oil and gas still, we are as we are patient, as we have mentioned, but we have seen now some more interest on the ordering side as we are moving also more to the nuclear. But this is a gradual movement that, at the end, may come more for the next year. So -- we understand that the worst year for VDM is going to be the '26 shall be a gradual recovery in the '27. But it takes several months from when these green shots are appreciated to when it's materialized in the higher contribution. So this is more to come in the '27 and -- and as I said before, when we are used that in the stainless, the trends in the demand came followed by profit movements in 2, 3 months. In the case of the HPA, this takes at least 9, 10 months. So this is something to come more for the '27, highly visible and appreciated -- in the second half of 2027 and more evident probably for '28. So it's a recovery, but it's a slow recovery. Having said that, I repeat, the worst is over.

And just a quick follow. It's very clear on HPA. But the sequential decline you usually see in NAS shipment in Q4. Is that, what, 15% quarter-on-quarter or a bit lower, a bit higher just trying to calibrate a bit Q4 expectation. .

We cannot give to many precise details. But let's make a simple arithmetic. The great contributor to our profits is in North America. The fourth quarter is a quarter of 2 months. If you take -- if you bring that in your model, the deviation shall not be high.

Our next question comes from Maxime Kogge from BHF.

Third question is to push a little bit on the guidance. You're guiding for lower quarter-on-quarter EBITDA into Q4, but that's relatively and precise, if I may say, can we expect a similar amount as in Q2? I guess you will have lower seasonality in the U.S., that's true. But on the other hand, you will have better seasonality in Europe and slightly more supportive market conditions overall. So that would be my first question.

Okay. The second quarter of this year had -- I think that they had good volumes in the United States -- okay? What we are insisting and also Miguel explained is that the math 1 or the region that is going to be more affected as it is every year in the fourth quarter in United States, okay?

So we won't be having the similar volumes as we have had in the in terms of volumes was also higher in Europe. So definitely, the volumes will not be that. If you look -- and this is -- I think that this is the math that Miguel was trying to do. If you look at the fourth -- at the third quarter and you just think that the fourth quarter, instead of being 3 months is going to be -- 2 months because the higher contributor is going to have 2 months, I think that we are giving more or less an indication of what could be the range of results.

We don't think that the prices will continue being as it is. We don't think there's going to be an increase of prices. So the margins will be kept stable in all the markets. The only thing that will happen is that we will have this less activity. So it's a question of 1 month of activity. And if more or less the 3 months are keeping constant. This is more or less the best indication that we can give.

Okay. No, no, but that's clear. And second 1 is on utilization rates across divisions. Can you comment a little bit on those and specifically for NAS as far as the new cold rolling line is concerned, which has been ramping up since the beginning of this year. .

The capacity utilization in Europe in the year is about 70% Okay. In NAS, the ramp-up of the new core rolling is going progressively. You know that we don't use to put pressure in the market. We try to take care of the market in this sense -- without the new line, we can be at 90% and capacity utilization and with this new line a bit below 80-something percent, capacity utilization. And in Columbus, we can be at 60%, 65%. In any case, Maxime, keep in mind that -- we are switching a bit in our strategy. In general sense, we are not focusing volumes. We try to prelitize margin and product mix. .

So let's say that it's time the capacity utilization is less important. We can be at 70% or 75%, 80% capacity utilization with very high margins or we can be at full capacity with lower margins. So we will try to primitize margins in this sense rather than volumes.

Okay. No, that's clear. And first the last 1 is on the new player business here because this is I think the first time you're really highlighting this opportunity. How big is it for HPA? And is there any CapEx involved with breaking into this segment? Or homologation process to really make it significant.

We have been clearly working on that for several months and at the end more or less our focus clearly is in the case of the general sector of the chemical process, we cannot wait for a full recovery. There are basis for us to to be very confident on the oil and gas in order to be patient there. But in the CPI, which is a very wide spread sector at the end, there are some of the traditional customers that maybe now shall be more open to bring more commodities imported HPI. So what we want is to focus ourselves in the sectors more, let's say, complex, more sophisticated with more homologation request. And on that basis, we already were there for certain customers.

This sector is growing. And we are making, obviously, our best and approaching for additional customers. So we are in that process. It's is a sector that the prospects are very good, but it shall be obviously a gradual introduction. For us, is, as I said, it's a sector to be in, especially it's a sector that in Europe is a relevant sector to be in, but the effect shall be more gradual.

Our next question comes from Bastian Synagowitz from Deutsche Bank -- your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Just a couple of follow-ups from my interim. You talked about a maintenance shutdown in Q4. I guess that's probably just the regular, but can you please tell us where it is? And -- is there any meaningful cost item which you expect in the fourth quarter? And if so, could you please quantify that? That's my first one.

The maintenance set down that we mentioned is a regular abandonment shutdown. Okay? It is true that in the case of the U.S. in this year, we have an additional shutdown because of the start-up of the COGS that we mentioned on the long products, but it won't have an impact different to what we have seen in previous years as this maintenance is a regular thing that we are doing every single year. So the impact would be as mentioned -- as it is every year. And just considering that in Ben, it is 1 month in total less of activity with this maintenance and Thanksgiving between Thanksgiving and Christmas-- everything and the market normally is with low activity, and this is the time of the year that we use for these normal maintenance shutdowns.

Okay. Very clear. Then my second 1 is just on HPA. So I guess, looking at the strong performance of your U.S. peers, I suppose [indiscernible] must have been doing very well in the third quarter already. Can you please share with us is it still profitable actually? And then just to double check, from all of what you've been saying in the previous comments, I guess, the improving order book and also the cash out for the working capital you talked about.

I suppose that's pretty much all related to HAM still rather than VDM, even though is becoming -- starting to see the turning point, as you said, but I suppose not so much in the order book yet in terms of the actual euro numbers here, which you're seeing. Is that correct?

Well, the VDM is profitable. Its profitability in this year has been substantially reduced the most relevant sectors for VDM, as you know, is the oil and gas and the chemical process, obviously. Oil and gas has been the full year on comeback. The chemical process industry, most traditional end users, as has been explained, are absolutely dormant -- we are growing, and we are moving more and using our possibilities to grow more, as mentioned in the nuclear.

We are also growing in the other space. We still are in the electronic. We still are in the car industry. So there are -- there are some sectors that provide stability, compensating from the strong correction we have experienced in the other.

So VDM is profitable, remains being profitable, but it's under pressure. Regarding the working capital, some of the effects that are also taking place this year and mostly in VDM is as a consequence of a strategy -- and as the mentioned this previously, for gaining efficiency for doing our best for avoiding dependence from third players for reducing costs. We are trying to optimize as much as possible and process and having the possibilities that we have internally in Europe for processing HPA in [indiscernible], in -- also in Roldan in the long products. And then we are in a way for taking the best and the best synergies and and the more efficiency for processing that material. But this means, obviously, that you need working capital that instead of remaining in Germany working for German players -- now is sent to Spain, transform and send back again to Germany.

This obviously means increase in working capital, but it's something that at the end brings and has its consequence in a specific increase in work capital, then later on when it's normalized the volumes and the rhythm of that material that is processed in the south of Europe for sending back again to the North, shall be normalized. But on the time being, this working capital is increasing, but at the end, and as I mentioned, is obviously as a consequence of the improvements that are coming and the strategy of optimizing obtaining the most synergies from that.

We also -- in view of the green shots, we must be prepared whenever more or less, the market experienced a reaction, take the most of it. I said previously that VDM is the world leader in the oil and gas sector, no doubt. And by far, we shall be prepared not only for taking advantage, but also for drive the recuperation and take the best opportunity. So this is -- all these issues are circumstances to take in place.

Okay. Then lastly, can I follow up on Columbus, please. You got some trade protection on the carbon steel side and that's been an operation you constantly build out over the recent past. Do you see a benefit from this already and also the restart of some of the local chrome smelters? Maybe you can give us a quick update on that side. You talked about the trade protection in stainless, which hopefully is coming. But just a quick update on the red would be great.

Well, the -- it's true that the South African market is under strong pressure. And there is no doubt on that. mostly, obviously, the ones that we think are more critical to be quickly implemented as the barriers for avoiding certain imports. After several years in which more or less the value added in the transformation of all the mining sector has been moving out. And now we -- as you mentioned, we are seeing some real start of some smelters. But still, this is probably maybe not enough for us. And consequently, we still are not seeing good momentum. And in most of the sectors, we -- as you know, we have been transforming Columbus from a pure stainless plant to stainless plus carbon steel plus electrical steel. So we take the best from every steel sector doing.

But still, this is not enough. Still we are facing with very high energy costs. We are pushing and we are trying to obtain better tariffs and so on. And we are under negotiations and discussions for that. So still some of the support that these smelters have obtained from the government have not come to the steel industry and consequently to ourselves. We hope that this may come, but not yet.

Our next question comes from Tommaso Castello from Jefferies. Your line is now open.

I have a curiosity. There has been an increasing discussion around stainless steel slabs imports into Europe, particularly as they remain outside the new import quarters. I wanted to know whether you see it as a risk that higher slab imports become an alternative route for external materials into Europe and would partly dilute the benefit of tighter safeguard on finished products.

And then -- more specifically, how do you think about the economics of importing slab versus melting scrap domestically in Europe? Is there an electricity price level above which importing slabs become more attractive than domestic melting. I just wanted to have your view on that.

Well at the end of the day, we prefer to produce with the scrap is within the most efficient way to produce in our in our production process.

At the end of the day, this is labs that you mentioned are coming from Asia. In Asia -- they are mainly producing with MPI with nickel Piketon. And we do not see a big difference in terms of prices in [indiscernible] and scrap -- so consequently, we think that producing with the scrub at least for us, it's much more efficient. The producers that imported slabs, well, probably this is a question for them. They probably may have their benefits -- and well, they can be impacted also by the measures. So let's see how this develop moving forward?

In addition, our strategy, as Carlos mentioned, we find the best for melting stainless steel scrap or most competitive nickel is coming from melting stainless steel scrap. And every time we have just made trials for exploring every possibility. This always has been the preferred one.

In regarding of the effect of the energy cost in our case, keep in mind that the 1 which is hurting us more is the increase in gas. So consequently, this is not affecting the slabs that may come from outside because the higher cost increases is in transforming this slabs for the whole rolling operation. There is what is the concentration of higher energy costs and is more related to that part of the business. So on that basis, should not be a huge advantage. The electricity is high and has remained more high. But the most damaging fact for us in this year with the circumstances in the Middle East is mostly gas, and this shall not be solved bringing slabs from Indonesia or other places -- apart, obviously, that it's fully, as Carlos mentioned, is not aligned with our sustainable environment policy.

I just wonder like if gas price keeps going up and as labs are cheap enough, it would still make sense economically, even though it's against the sort of longer-term objective to import lab at a cheaper cost than producing and melting from scrap if the energy cost is incredibly high.

However, I just wanted to double check if we can expect into Q4 a similar impact from the Middle East conflict as you recorded into Q3. And if that gets baked into the bridge that you were providing for the expectations of the EBITDA into Q4. So roughly 2/3 of it.

Well, in terms of the impact that we expect of the gas and energy we must take into consideration that is mainly focusing in Europe, if we take the prices that we have had in September on electricity, and we compare it to last year, we have having an increase in prices of 74% -- and in gas, the price you can see in the market, the price of September has been also 100% higher than what it was the same as last year. And with all of this, we are talking about an increase of 74% in electricity and 100% in the price of the gases -- and all of that, we are evaluating an impact of EUR 16 million. What I want to say with that is that despite the huge increase in the end, the impact is limited, I would say.

Yes. Let me add also that we have in [indiscernible] some PPAs in order to cover from this very strong increase in energy prices. The PPAs more or less cover 40% -- between 40% to 50% of our necessities. So this, as Esther mentioned, limiting men the impact of the huge price hike.

Our next question comes from [indiscernible] from JPMorgan. Your line is now open .

I just have 1 quick follow-up on inventory build. So could you give us an idea of how much of the inventory build is actually related to the VDM shifting to internal processing? And then -- does it mean it could be structural higher inventory going forward? And if it's going to normalize, how long do you think it would take?

Thank you, Rosie. Okay. The inventory build of VDM, of course, is not the ones representing the higher of the inventory increase. okay? Mostly if you look at the volumes and the activity of the stainless is much more higher in this case than the HPA. So mostly the increase comes from the U.S., and it comes from both sides, okay?

One is on stainless steel -- in order to be able to continue serving the markets despite the closure on the maintenance shutdowns, okay? And the second is -- and the second main factor is, as we mentioned, on [indiscernible], because of the increase on the order book and the increase of the lead times and the higher capacity utilization.

All of that is making our work in progress to increase the build of VDM has also had an impact, but it's less than what we are talking and mainly because of the of the volumes that we are seeing this year which are still weak in the year, although for the order book is getting better, okay? So more or less, the main of the impact is not with medium, although it has had a slight impact as well.

The next question comes from [indiscernible] from Kepler Chevreux. Your line is now open.

I have Three questions. The first one, I'm going to ask you again on the outlook but on a different way, Miguel, I don't know how do you see consensus EBITDA of EUR 620 million in 2026. How do you see the net debt consensus as for for 2026, which I think is around EUR 1.2 billion. So this is the first question. The second one would be on Acerinox Europe, I think it's quite remarkable that you have been almost breakeven in Q3 with the summer with the energy cost, as Esther was mentioning.

So my question is, what can we expect in Q4 this year versus Q3. You see a lighter quarter in [indiscernible]. And then a final question on the following year 2027. I mean 2026 is going to be, I think, a good year, a good starting point with the company making this EBITDA of more than 600. I don't know how do you see 2027, which is expected valuable recovery of [indiscernible] with the U.S. also performing quite well with more new capacity coming in the U.S. with a slightly more positive outlook for special alloys and especially for -- so I don't know how do you see consensus or an EBITDA for 2027 closer to 800 million? I know it's too soon, but I appreciate your thoughts.

Let's go step by step. First, outlook. Well, the consensus EBITDA, I think, more or less we have explained what is the expected profitability of the fourth quarter. Keeping in mind that the driver of our profits is experiencing are reduced quarter. So it's going to be 2/3 of the normal contribution from America. So on that basis, we shall be not far from where is the consensus.

I think fortunately, the analysts and the active analysts that follow us are very accurate on the projection. So we live comfortably with that. Obviously, still there are uncertainties on place. So and this comes more also to the second question that you are today placing fourth quarter in Europe, we should have been in the third quarter even -- for us, being in breakeven, as I said before, in [indiscernible] base prices of EUR 500 per ton is a great success.

We have not been there just or we have been slightly below slightly below just because the neos. But the energy costs are expected to increase in the fourth quarter compared with the Esther mentioned. So consequently, -- it seems now that it's not going to be the time.

Keeping in mind that in addition, the recovery or the expected and seasonal recovery that normally takes in place after summer explain Europe after summer. This year has not been active. Still, the market is absorbing some of the inventories that were developed in the first semester in anticipation of the measures and so on. So at the end, the performance of the market in the second half of the year in Europe has not been good.

On that basis, by far, we are not contemplating price increases in the fourth quarter, compensating the high increases in cost. So we understand that the fourth quarter contribution for [indiscernible] should be worse nonrelevant but worse than that of the third quarter. And in case we are close to be on breakeven even at current prices. But probably for that, we need to wait.

The -- our commercial responsible for Europe are confident on the '27. And they start to see more interest on the buying side. So there are some signs that maybe for the starting of '27, we could experience some improvements in the European market. But more or less, this is the feeling still, we have not touched that. But in general, and this goes to the last question 2026 is going to be a good year, as you mentioned. '27 fortunately, I still have not the data. So I can talk openly about my impressions because I do not know the data.

Our budgeting team is expecting to receive the figures for all our business units for next week, and we shall start working on the budget for '27. But what we know from now is that the sectors that are doing good are going to remain good or even better. So as we have explained, for example, everything related that construction of data center still is healthy. Aerospace is going to remain very healthy. And that shall be the time in which we shall start appreciating in results, the good momentum of the aerospace. So what is doing now good is going to keep on or even improving. And the worst performer, as we said before, we were seeing green shots on VDM on the HPA in Europe, so this may come. And in [indiscernible] , we understand that this may come also. So our instant at this time of the year is that '27 is going to be better than '26, no doubt -- because we are not seeing any specific clouds. The recuperation of the oil and gas when it comes, shall be by far a great catalyzer for for VDM.

But as I said before, months before second half or maybe for '28. So it's going to be gradual. That recovery on the HPA in Europe, but at the end, it may come. So we think that there was. So consequently, at this part of the year, we are confident on the prospects for 2027, improving the remarkable figures of '26.

Our last question comes from Tristan Gresser from BNP Paribas -- your line is now open. Please go ahead. .

Just on your comment on -- I think -- and tell me if I'm wrong, I understood that you said that EUR 60 million of energy cost, is that for the year -- is that the figure we need to compare with the EUR 24 million that you had 9 months? Or it's more kind of annualized -- so I just wanted to confirm a bit the figure of EUR 60 million.

Not sorry, Tristan. It was not 60, but 16 is the impact of the energy cost in the third quarter. That is what I mentioned probably. I didn't pronounce it good, but it was 16 and 24 in the year.

Okay. No, yes, that happens all the time.

No, 24 is 9 months. Of course.

And second question, do you think the CBAM is -- I know the quarters are working and imports are down, but -- do you think the CBAM is working? There was a Eurofer position paper put out recently that mentioned some pretty significant loopholes. So I don't know, from your understanding of the European market is Yes, is the CBAM working?

With CBAM still there are big uncertainties I think that it works at the beginning of the year, the first time that the circa benefit us -- and all of this creates that the local players, the local -- sorry, the distributors by locally instead that buy from imports as we were commenting due this presentation, imports in Europe went down in the 42% in the first 9 months of the year. And partially, it's due to the CBAM.

We think that the real game changer is going to be the new trend message. But no doubt that the effect of the [indiscernible in the first half of the year also was important. Moving forward, we think that the that probably Asian players sooner or later, maybe 35 by by the companies that the EU assigned -- and this will dilute the effect of the CBAM. But in -- as I mentioned, in the meantime, I think that in the first half of the year, imports move down, and we benefit from this measure.

Okay. Thank you all for your questions. Thank you, Esther, Miguel and Carlos for the presentation, and we hope you have a wonderful end of the year. and enjoy spending time with your loved ones. Have a good day.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Acerinox Second Quarter Results Presentation. This quarter has been a very positive quarter for the group despite the continuing geopolitical uncertainties and regional conflict -- with an 85% quarter-on-quarter EBITDA increase, the strength of the stainless steel division in the U.S. has again proved to be the driver of our solid results. It is noteworthy to mention the strong order book in the aerospace and defense sectors as well as the recovery of Acerinox Europa within the European market.

The new trade measures have started the 1st of July, and we are optimistic with regard to the future of the European steel industry. For this presentation, we will hear from our CEO, Bernardo Velazquez; our Chief Corporate Officer, Miguel Ferrandis; and our CFO, Esther Camós. Before we start with the presentation, let me remind you that this conference call is being broadcast on our website, acerinox.com.

And now I hand you over to our CEO. Bernardo, please go ahead.

Thank you, Carlos. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Acerinox Q2 results presentation. You all know that we have a new normal environment that is with our tariffs, sanctions, geopolitical uncertainties, conflicts and so on. And in this environment, it is easy to focus only in the short term. But we at Acerinox, we drive with our high beams. We are focusing in the long term and sticking to our strategy, loyal to our strategy. I think this is the key of the success of these results in this macro scenario, with a strong position in the United States, improvements in Europe and focusing on efficiencies in our excellent program, developing synergies, we can say that we are proud of the set of results. Our EBITDA, EUR 176 million has been 85% higher than Q1.

And in the total semester, EUR 271 million is 27% higher than the same period last year. We have a stronger order book. We have higher prices. We have summer breakdowns ahead. So that is the reason why our financial debt has been -- has increased due to the working capital increase, basically stocks. But we are pretty confident that we will focus to go to a ratio EBITDA -- debt to EBITDA of around 2 at the end of the year. So this -- everything is in the control as we normally say, our focus is our strategy and control the controllables. And in this situation, we are delivering reliable results.

Steel consumption is low with all the situation with all these uncertainties. Steel consumption is low in all the regions. In the United States, apparent demand according to our estimations, has gone down 8% after 4 years of a low cycle. Imports also are being reduced basically because of the higher transport cost and a stable situation in the United States, but 2 points from 24% to 22%. And inventories, everybody is cautious. Inventories remain according to our estimations, 10% below the historical average. We have the Section 232, thank God, that is providing stability to the market. And I think it is helping to the target of the United States industrial policies, reshoring and reindustrialization.

We have seen several other examples before. We have spoke about the appliance developments, new factories and new assembling lines in the United States. Now we have read about General Motors as another example that coming back to United States, moving production centers to United States. So I think this is a reality, and we are enjoying this situation that as soon as we have more stability, more visibility, I think that we will see better consumption and better results from now. we don't see real good signs still for recovery. We can speak about data centers. This is true. We can see in the stainless steel business, we see a better performance for data centers in the heat exchanger sectors.

We have a stronger order book in rebars. So we see some investments in infrastructure. It's a little sign that the truck industry is starting to improve, where is a good sign in the United States, but still is not enough to speak about recovery. In Europe, the situation is changing. I think the new situation is what we call it a game changer. CBAM started 1st of January. And since that time, imports have gone down from 24% to 16%. This is important because the target with the new trade measures is to go to a level of 12%, 13%. So CBAM has already reached the level of import that was desired in the European Union plan.

And now with the new measures that have started in 1st of July, we can only expect consolidation, consolidation of this level and stability. Stability for us means low imports that is more local production, that is more volume and that is better cost and better margins for us. So we are very excited with this new situation in Europe. I think it's a situation with the steel in the center of the industrial policy of the European Union. But it's not only steel because we have to defend all our customers. And I think that finally, Europe has realized that we need the industry. We need industry to provide quality employment. We need industry for the strategic autonomy reason. So this is the new situation, the new situation in Europe, and we are very happy and very excited with this.

We have from the last meetings that we have, we have the new quotas. New quotas has been already been published and the European Union is penalizing the countries that are responsible of the world overcapacity. This is very important because the worst penalized countries has been Taiwan and China with a 69% of quota reduction and Vietnam with a 30% quota reduction. Now this is important because they are normally countries offering lower prices and adding more distortions to the market. And in the case of South Africa, as a responsible country with a responsible supplier that is our Columbus Stainless, the European Union has kept the same level of imports, the same level of quotas that we have been using during the last 3 years. This is also important for us.

If we move to the HPA market, you know our strategy has been driven by diversification, diversification by product, diversification by geography. It's a clear demonstration the success of this strategy of diversification when we analyze both performance of the market in America and in Europe. In America, the last 2 years have been driven, in our case, by what we call the AAA investment strategy, America, alloys and aerospace. The demand in America is very strong, driven by the industrial gas turbines, driven by the space exploration, driven by the aerospace in both civil aerospace as well as in defense. So this -- all these sectors now are booming are creating also prices going up.

We have experienced in the second quarter, the 2 highest order entries per month in Haynes. And then we are seeing that it's a much steeper ramp than the post-COVID effect. So in that regard, the momentum is excellent, probably the backlog shall reach historical maximums also at the end of July. So the timing is very good. We -- it was appreciated early in the aerospace, as was mentioned, the long product recovery. And then finally, it has been coming to the flat product where currently, we still are more based, but the prospects remain very good in regarding of the aerospace, for example, the construction, which obviously in volume is the most relevant. The construction in the narrow-body aircraft in Boeing, in Airbus according to their comments is growing more than 40%.

So what we have is currently for the coming years, more or less the appreciation that this is a sector which by far is going to have a spectacular performance. In addition, in the power generation, the industrial gas turbines, mostly driven by the data centers. The electricity necessities for the data centers are going to double in the coming years. So this unprecedented needed for dispatchable power generation. And in this regard, the large gas-fired combined cycle plants clearly are the solution. So obviously, we are there. So the momentum in alloys in America is brilliant. In regard to Europe, the situation is different. We still are waiting for investment projects.

The most relevant sector for VDM, as you know, is the oil and gas. It's obvious that the oil and gas is facing its challenges currently with the conflict in the Middle East. But having said that, it's also obvious that as soon as the solution comes there, as soon as the situation is clarified, not only for the necessary projects that may come, but also for the reconstruction, clearly, we shall have a relevant role on that sector. So for us, we are comfortable understanding that it's a matter of time, and we are patient because we shall take part of that recovery.

The situation is probably not so clear of the future or when it is coming the recovery in the chemical process industry. It's a sector that is in the lower part of the sector. The demand is dormant. In addition, we are seeing further complications with the 232, for example, section in the States, which is not allowed also for covering that market, combined also with the entry on the most commodity types of also new Asian players. So this is more or less keeping that the chemical process industry is keeping a low part of the cycle. It shall recover. But also let's assume that there are some parts of the chemical process industry that are having probably a good momentum for the coming future, as, for example, can be a clear case, the nuclear one.

When we go to the results of the semester, the CFO shall explain in detail per section, stainless and the high-performance alloys. But just a general comment, first of all, the gradual improvement during the year quarter-over-quarter, we have increased melting production more than 10%, reaching 540,000 tonnes in the second quarter. We have about 1 million tonnes in the first semester compared -- which is 2% above the figure of last year. What's remarkable is the effect on the margins and especially the contribution on EBITDA. We have had a quarterly EBITDA of EUR 176 million, which is 85% increase the previous one. At the end of the first quarter, we made certain adjustments, and we explained them.

So the quarterly EBITDA was EUR 95 million, but we explained that we have made some adjustments in the second quarter has not been necessary to make any adjustments. So more or less, it's not necessary to report any specific adjustments. We are in this figure of EUR 176 million, which makes a semester EBITDA figure of EUR 271 million. If we annualize this figure, we realized that in the current circumstances with a depressed market in terms of demand and all the circumstances and uncertainties are on place, we are able to reach this annualized figure, which should be above the EUR 500 million, which clearly is a demonstration of our efficiency, the improvements in our efficiency, especially in a time in which we are also suffering the effect on certain costs related to the Middle East conflict, which has been for the semester around EUR 9 million, could have been even worse, but also the diversification on our procurement has allowed us to minimize this effect.

But still, that effect is on place. At the end, we are clearly successful of the achievement. The operating cash flow, as has been mentioned, is driven by the increase in working capital, but that increase in working capital is needed to accompany the recovery of the market in both volumes as well as in the increase in the cost of the raw materials. So we are consequently not concerned regarding this net debt reported, even though the clear commitment as our CEO has mentioned, is to be in the range of 2x debt to EBITDA, which for us is in the current CapEx program in the current days of the market, we think it's a remarkable figure also.

So as we announced in our first quarter results presentation, we expected a year with a positive trend of results. And this is exactly what we are presenting in this second quarter. We are presenting better results, and we are presenting better results in all the KPIs, so like production, sales, EBITDA, EBIT. So all the results have been better than first quarter. I think that there are 2 main aspects to highlight in the stainless division. First of all is U.S., our good performance in the States with better results, higher margins, higher volumes quarter-over-quarter and benefiting, of course, from the alloy surcharge despite also of the higher raw material costs.

And the second is the improvement of the results in Europe, both in volumes and in margins as well. We have successfully start-up the P4 that was fired last quarter, and this has allowed us to get better volumes as well as the reduction in the imports that has been mentioned. Of course, all this increase in volumes means also higher contribution to fixed cost and therefore, higher margins.

In terms of EBITDA, we are -- the stainless steel division has achieved an 80% higher result than in the first quarter. okay? And the margin at 12%, we are returning to the two-digit margin, which is very successful. We haven't seen that much since 2023. And this is even with the weak demand momentum because the demand is not in the higher volumes, and we have -- and Bernardo has already mentioned the reduction both in Europe and in the States. In terms of operating cash flow, the operating cash flow for the second quarter has been better than for the first quarter despite also the increase in working capital and the strong tax payments that we will later explain.

And going to the half year results, I think we have the same positive results. We are presenting 66% higher EBITDA in EUR 236 million, and we are also growing in volumes, margins and all the different figures. Going to the HPA. HPA is also improving versus quarter 1, basically due to the better mix that Miguel already explained because of the stronger contribution of aerospace, this has allowed us to achieve better margins in this quarter. Other sectors, as Miguel already mentioned, like oil and gas and CPI remain weak, so remain weak. We expect to continue with this positive trend for the future quarter, especially because of the high order book that we are receiving.

We are in the highest levels ever achieved. And we will see that results for the aerospace due to the production lead times, mostly in the second part of the year, mostly in the more in the end of -- on the year. This again demonstrates the success of our strategy to diversify to different regions, but also to different sectors because at this moment, we are benefiting from the sectors better performing. In terms of EBITDA, we are presenting an EBITDA of EUR 22 million, which is 76% better than in Q2. In terms of operating cash flow, the operating cash flow has been negative this year due to the increase of working capital, which in HPA is more significant due to the production lead times, which makes us to purchase the raw material much in advance to be able to serve our order books.

And the last factor that we want to mention in high-performance alloys is the synergies. We have got cumulative synergies of EUR 16 million, which is 70% of the target that we had for this year. The target was EUR 23 million. So it's been also very successful. In terms of capital allocation, in the quarter, the EUR 176 million of EBITDA has been utilized. Of course, we have increased working capital, as we mentioned, due to the higher activity, but also to the higher prices of the raw material, especially in HPA. We have had a strong payment of taxes. There are 2 settlements, especially in the U.S. in this quarter, and that's the reason for the for the high amount of taxes paid. And the third expenditure -- higher expenditures is CapEx, okay? Due to the strength of our balance sheet, we are -- these allow us to invest even in the lowest part of the cycle.

As we mentioned, we are having -- we are on an expansion phase of our investments. And therefore, our CapEx has been strong also this quarter. If we go to the half of the year, more or less the figures are the same, so increasing working capital, taxes and CapEx. And finally, the debt has been increased by EUR 173 million. We are -- the net financial debt at the end of this quarter has been EUR 1.266 billion, so EUR 1.3 billion with a ratio debt-to-EBITDA of 2.5, if we make the calculation as of June, but we expect to reduce it at the end of the year.

Okay. If we go to our vision, the 3 chapters included in this page show an EBITDA upside contribution of EUR 500 million. We are working on that. First of all, the synergies, as has been mentioned, we have accumulated synergies up to now of EUR 16 million. We shall reach probably for the year around EUR 23 million in this year as committed in regarding of the integration of the HPA division, we developed almost 700 integration activities and 89% have been completed up to now.

So we are -- with good success on that. In regarding of the investments that shall provide us an EBITDA upside of EUR 300 million, well, the most relevant one for the future. because the others are more in place or very close to be, but the more relevant for the future is coming in the States, is coming for the HPA in both plants of Kokomo and in Kentucky of North American stainless also for the HPA possibilities. And then the progress is there. We are on track, and they shall be working for the year 2028. In the other expansion projects, most of the expansion project of NAS is currently working, the expansion that was decided 4 years ago. You remember that plan of EUR 250 million.

This is on place, the increase in capacity of 20% in the core North American stainless as well as the program in BDM, which is almost working, just except the part of the power optimizer that shall be on place first quarter next year. And in Columbus also starting this year, we shall have on place the development of the CapEx done for covering also the electrical steel in Columbus for keeping this position of the most diversified steel plant in the world covering electrical, carbon steel as well as stainless steel. So this is on track. In addition, we have the incremental EUR 120 million -- sorry, EUR 120 million that is coming from the Beyond Excellence Plan, which is our operational excellence. We were very ambitious on our program initially decided for EUR 100 million.

But as we clearly overperform, you know that we mentioned that we were increasing it to EUR 120 million for this year 2026. And we already have obtained up to now even EUR 29 million. So we have no doubt that we shall cover by far the plan in the remainder of the year in the second semester. So this shall be a strong contribution, and we already are appreciating its effect. So it has been mentioned in the current circumstances of the market with the prices that we still remain in Europe, the possibilities that this is giving us for being profitable and being efficient at this level of prices is a clear demonstration of the success of this policy.

So we are extremely proud about it and especially of the combined effect of these 3 chapters for the future of the group. Last but not least from my side is obviously the sustainability as core of our strategy. You know the plan on place is for the period '25 to the year '30, but the baseline is established according to the year '21. So in this just 1.5 years, we have obtained the targets of 44% in the carbon emissions. We have obtained 89% success on the waste utilization. We have already obtained the target that was designed for the year 2030 of 15% of women in staff. And consequently, we are now working on a further more ambitious target on this regard.

So it's -- in this regard, it is a success. The only area in which in this year we are not proud is in regarding the accident rate. We have reached extremely low level of accidentability on our plants. We have had an excellent track month per month, most of the semester, just except 1 month. And we have some incidents taking place in the month of April that has had its effect in the way that we have increased up to now obtained an increase in 10% compared with the very low levels achieved last year. But having said that, keeping on mind that the rest of the month, the track has been excellent, and we are reinforcing all the measures for avoid relaxation of personal behaviors, we understand that for the remainder of the year, we shall be on track for covering our target for the year.

Having said that, if we go to our recognition in this regard, we had -- obviously, we keep the gold medal of EcoVadis, which includes us in the 5 better performers in our industry. And also, we have been included this year in the Standard & Poor's Sustainability Yearbook, which means that we are in the top 15% on worldwide of every industries according to the Standard & Poor's Sustainability Yearbook member.

Conclusions, I think as we have explained is very, very simple. As I said, we are driving with the headwinds. We are focusing in the long term. This is very clear. We are very loyal to our strategy. And still in this case, we never forget and we have enough experience to manage the daily changes, not that we have to be very -- keep a very close eye to the daily changes because every day, we have a different situation. We have tariffs, we have freights, we have sanctions, we have many things. And we are -- I think we are managing this very well. Never -- we have never suffered disruption in our supply chain, which is important. But we are still focused on the short term.

And even in a low scenario, in a low cycle, as we have mentioned in this depressed or low demand scenario, we are reaching a very good set of results. We are proud of this. and things are changing and things are changing, especially in Europe because now steel is in, as I said, is in the X of the European industrial policy. So the situation can only be better. The CBAM has been very effective until now. And we think that with the trade measures that have been published, having started the 1st of July, that will consolidate the level of imports that will give us more volume, more stability in the market, less distortions and that will make a healthier European market. This is very good. We are in the low part of the cycle, as I mentioned, still stocks are low. Customers are not investing in new stocks. Normally end user markets are also in the low part of the cycle.

We are expecting a better reaction when we have more visibility. In HPA, we are in a very well diversified in all the sectors. And we are sure that sooner or later, the oil and gas market will come back for restructuring all the damages in this sector. CPI is very significant. Finally will come back. So the situation can only be better. So we are positive for our future. But in the short term, we have to be cautious because we are -- still, we haven't seen the improvements due to the trade measures in Europe. And we have this seasonality of this period, the breakdowns in the summer period. So we have to be cautious. But even in this case, with all these circumstances, we have announced that our Q3 EBITDA results will be slightly higher than Q2, but still considering all the situation, considering the low consumption and low production of this part of the year, I think it's very positive. Thank you.

Thank you, Bernardo and Miguel for the presentation. Let's move now to the Q&A session. Please, operator, go ahead.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question today comes from Adahna Ekoku with Morgan Stanley.

My first questions are on Europe. So on the improvement that you spoke about, can you speak a little bit about what your order book looks like for Q3 and Q4? And just related to that on the profitability levels, how does this look in Q2? And are you still on track for reaching breakeven in Europe by Q3?

Okay. Thank you, Adahna. Regarding the order book, order book has been improving through the year, but now we are facing the summer months. So now the situation is a bit weaker. And normally, we only have visibility for 2 to 3 months maximum. So our order book now is stable, considering that we are facing the summer months. According to the second question, we have been improving our results in Acerinox Europa since January, I mean consistently improving month by month. And we can say that we reached the positive EBITDA in June. So we have already reached positive results at the EBITDA level in June, but not in the accumulated numbers.

That's very clear. And maybe just on the HPA division. So again, on Haynes, you spoke about the strong order book. When can we expect this to start converting into a kind of stronger increase in shipments? And for the whole HPA division, you've spoken about a kind of EUR 30 million to EUR 40 million run rate per quarter in H2. Does that still stand?

Well, as we said before, the order book is very strong. The backlog also, this is more or less showing now obviously, the advantages of the increase in activity, but this is material that probably shall be supplied and showing its improvement in profitability for the end of the year or starting of next year. So the order books are there, but you know that the maturity in this sector is substantially higher than in the stainless one. So the momentum is brilliant. The contribution is increasing quarter-on-quarter, but this is -- shall have its more relevant effect in the P&L at the end of the year '26.

Our next question comes from Maxime Kogge with ODDO BHF.

So the first question is on valuation adjustments. So they distorted a lot of the picture in Q1. Can you confirm that there weren't any adjustments this time? I mean, I would have thought they might be positive given the impressive increase in EBITDA. And do you have any incorporated in the Q3 guidance as well? That's my first question.

Okay. Regarding the inventory adjustments, what we assume is that in this quarter, we have not -- it's been not necessary. Last quarter, we announced that we made adjustments for EUR 25 million. In this quarter, we have not -- it has not been necessary to do additional adjustments to this EUR 25 million. Of course, there are always figures in which we have some -- or inventories in which we have some adjustments, some on the side of the HPA, but the figure remains -- the adjustment has remained exactly in the same levels as for quarter 1.

All right. And the second question is on the pricing trends. So stainless steel prices have been more or less stable in both in Europe and in the U.S. recently. I mean, if we adjust for the alloy surcharges, the base prices were basically flattish. And in the U.S., we actually see a strong traction in carbon steel prices. They are at multiyear highs. how do you explain the fact that stainless steel prices are not that strong? Is it because you're ramping up your capacity on your new cold rolling mill, so you're bringing more volumes. So this is somehow preventing price increases?

And the same question for you Europe. Do you think that now on the back of the new trade regime system that has kicking in since the 1st of July, should we expect now prices to increase a bit like they're already doing in carbon steel? What's your view there? You're not the market leader in Europe, but interesting to have your view.

Thank you, Maxime. Do you know that speaking about prices is a very sensitive issue. So we cannot develop too much this answer. But we can tell you is that in the United States, we have the alloy surcharge system that is working perfectly. So we are covering the ups and downs of the raw material prices with the alloy surcharge. During this period, nickel price especially went up. And with the alloy surcharge, we increased the final prices due to the higher alloy surcharge. Now we have a correction after the new nickel price, but it's not going to be very, very sensitive. In the case of Europe, market is following the same trend.

It's not -- basically, we are working with effective prices in most of the cases. So we are trying to adapt our prices to the raw material prices. Still, we haven't gained with the margins. Still, we have enough competition in Europe. This is what we have been always saying that the European market has seen enough local suppliers. That means that we can cover the European demand. That means that with low imports, we don't have a lack of production in Europe. So we have competence. This is very healthy, very healthy for the market because we will be able to increase our volume.

We will be able to develop our production and our projects. And with a better market situation, we will reach better prices, what is normal. This is a healthy business. But you cannot expect that only because of trade measures , we are going to increase our prices.

Next in queue, we have Tommaso Castello with Jefferies.

It's good to hear Europe at a turning point. I would like to focus on volumes given the sharp decline in import penetration from roughly to around 16% of the market against the demand. So if you could help us quantify how much of this reduction has translated into incremental shipments for Acerinox and if you see it as sustainable?

And then also given your current roughly 10% market share, whether you see scope to gain market share from the lack of imports going forward? Or do you think like the volumes displaced by European domestic producers, you will take roughly the same market share that you currently hold?

I don't have the precise numbers here. What I can tell you is that in Q1, we couldn't enjoy the increase of volumes of the new import situation because we didn't have one of our hot-rolling and pickling lines, the P4 that suffered a fire in November '25. Now the line since April is now in operation. And since April, we are coming with the total capacity of the Algeciras factory. So we will increase our delivery by 20%. And that's why in quarter 3, we are reaching a better level of competitiveness, and we have reached the positive EBITDA. The market shares will depend on how our competitors are work and what is the performance of the rest of the market. It's something that we cannot speak about.

Maybe if I may, the last one. Just looking at consensus, I think it's at around EUR 600 million for fiscal year 2026. How confident are you to get around that level?

Miguel, you can answer. I don't want to make mistakes.

Well, I think we are giving -- in our sector, it's difficult to make predictions, but we are giving some messages. I give the messages that the annualized figure of EBITDA for the year should be EUR 540 million, keeping in mind that we are in an upward trend, has been a strong improvement in the Q2 compared with the Q1. The Q3, we are saying it is going to be slightly better. So I don't think it should be probably too ambitious consider that we should not be far away from the figure you mentioned.

Moving on to our next question from Bastian Synagowitz with Deutsche Bank.

First question is a quick follow-up on European volume situation. Bernardo, can I confirm, did you say that you expect European volumes to grow by 25% into Q3? And is this a delivery number? I guess your second quarter production number was really quite strong, I think up almost 100%, if I remember correctly. So I guess that would not have fully translated into the same equivalent shipment number, but if you can maybe give us some color there? And then maybe the same color on the U.S. side where production volumes were a little bit weaker. Do you still expect volumes to grow in North American stainless as well in the third quarter? These are my first 2 questions.

Bastian, thank you. The question is very simple. Apparent consumption went down by 2% during this period. So more or less with some high -- some restocking at the end of the period. So we can say that we that was more or less flat. So with the 31% of import reduction, we have 31% more for local deliveries. This is very clear. How much of this 31% of the market that were going to take that we will see. This is business. This is demand and production, and we have to compete in the market. We cannot say is true is that the local suppliers will be able to share this 31% more of the market.

And I was actually more asking on your own shipments specifically, I guess your production volumes in Q1 and Q2 were up about 100%, almost, I think, 98% or so. And I was wondering, given the strong production level and your current order book, where would you see shipments in Europe in the third quarter in the European business.

Basically, as I mentioned, we couldn't use part of our capacity during Q1 because of the fire we suffered in our hot-rolling and pickling line. So this line is in operation again. It started in April. So in Q2, we were able to use almost the total capacity. So that means that from Q1 to Q2, Q3, we are increasing by 20% of our deliveries.

So sorry, Q3 versus Q1 or Q3 versus Q2?

Q2, I'm speaking about capacity, no deliveries.

Yes, okay. And then any indication on shipment in Q3?

No, no. We never give indication of this, but you have to consider that we're in the summer period. So we will close the Cadiz plant for 2 weeks in August. this is for normal holidays. I don't know what our competitors are going to do. I don't know what the levels are. But normally, especially August is a very weak month. Let's see September. September is going to be the key.

Okay. And then my last question would be on your underlying performance. I guess when you look at the second quarter, nickel prices have gone up a lot. That usually is always a very strong tailwind, particularly in the U.S. where you still work with the dual pricing mechanism and alloy surcharge. So hence, rising metal prices would give you a temporary positive. I think that will swing into a temporary negative in the third quarter and that swing overall on your results obviously can be still probably quite meaningful.

And that means that if you guide for better numbers, your underlying performance has to improve a lot. So this improvement Q3 versus Q2, will this be pretty much driven across all core businesses, i.e., HPA as well as the different individual regional stainless businesses. Will each of them improve if you were to ignore the metal effect?

Too many questions in one. I think as I said, we have the alloy surcharge system in the United States. That means that normally when the raw materials are going up, normally the alloy surcharge mechanism let us increase prices a little bit faster than our raw material cost. And this is because we use the average cost system. Now in this case, of course, in the United States, we have been enjoying some of a tailwind that will not happen in quarter 3. In the case of Europe, we are not using the alloy surcharge mechanism. So more or less, we have been following the raw material trend. So we can -- we haven't enjoyed this tailwind in Europe. This is just the basic business.

Further questions from the call. Okay. We can move for some questions that we have from the website, the webcast. We have one coming from Inigo Egusquiza from Kepler Cheuvreux, and it's about the U.S. listing. It says could you please give an update on this potential project, calendar? And what is the planned a dual listing or IPO of the U.S. business?

No answer for this. We haven't taken any decision. So there's no news in the U.S. listing. As you perfectly know, we are considering and studying this possibility. We are preparing the group for a potential IPO, but we haven't taken any decision yet. We are still studying the market, studying the situation and as you know, many issues because this is not a simple decision.

Okay. And the last question is coming from Enrique Yaguez of Bestinver and it's regarding working capital and the expected evolution in the second half of the year.

Okay. As you know, we remain on our control of working capital. We have a very strict plan in the group to try to reduce working capital levels and days, and we continue with our program. Because of the seasonality in some of the markets, we would expect to reduce working capital for the third quarter. So the trend in terms of debt -- we had also the dividends in the third quarter, but we will compensate that with a bit of a reduction of working capital. It also much depends on the prices of the raw material. So it will depend also on the level of nickel. But according in terms of inventory tonnages and days, we are still with our control, and we expect to reduce it.

Okay. I think that we solved the problem from the call. So we can -- if there is any further question, please, operator, go ahead.

We'll take our next question from Francisco Riquel with Alantra.

So just one for me. Regarding the EBITDA that you have printed in Q2, I wonder if you can share with us what would have been the EBITDA without the losses in the European business. You mentioned that Europe is already breakeven. So just to want to assess to have a better sense of the underlying profitability now that Europe has turned the corner. And if you think that we are already close to EUR 200 million, if you can give an indication.

Well, in the previous results presentation, more or less, we explained that our target was that with the improvements in Acerinox Europa, anytime in the third quarter, we should reach the monthly positive EBITDA or above breakeven. This has been anticipated. As Bernardo mentioned, we have reached this level in June. So on a monthly basis, June, we have changed the trend. This is a very good indication for the future. So having said that, it's true that at the end, it's the first month in which has been achieved. So gradually, we shall obviously be following the track.

On the third quarter, even though the seasonal slowdown in Europe and combined with the fact, as we mentioned, that we are more or less stopping operations for half the month of August, the challenge should be that now what we are going to be neutralizing this effect of August is in position of reporting a positive contribution for the quarter. But this is going to be gradual. So with the current momentum that is facing the European market, let's see the evolution. It's difficult to predict. And as has been said before, it's a fact of weak demand and it's a fact of prices and let's see which is the evolution of the prices. Bernardo mentioned, we are in effective transaction prices. Up to now, the prices have been going up following the raw materials.

If we consolidate the level of prices with a lower nickel, this may be better margins, but still it is too soon to appreciate it. So we are moving to August. And you know that the European market gives signs in September. So still soon, but what's very good for us is that we are there. we already have seen the positive monthly figures. And clearly, we are in position for making it consistent.

Okay. And just last one for me is regarding the EBITDA upside that you see of EUR 500 million that you mentioned in the presentation. So if you can comment over what pace it is, if it is over '25 or '26 EBITDA and how much of this upside comes from external market conditions? Or do you think that is just due to your own internal levers?

When we calculated this number, it is based on technical analysis and considering the increases in efficiencies, increases in volumes and what the new CapEx will contribute to our numbers. Normally, we're basic in the average EBITDA. We call it through the cycle EBITDA, and this is something that we can consider with ups and downs. Of course, if prices are lower, we will be below EUR 500 million. If prices are better, we'll be above that. We consider the average situation.

We'll move to our next question from Dominic O'Kane with JPMorgan.

I know we've spoken about the revaluations, but I just want to come back to the question because I'm finding it quite confusing. So I think in the earlier comment, you mentioned that there was no requirement for a Q2 inventory revaluation. But again, can I just push you on whether that actually was an inventory revaluation because you don't disclose it in your adjusted EBITDA. Is that to say that you're not reporting it going forward? Or it's just that the value was 0?

And then in addition to that, if we're looking forward, I think there's some inconsistency as to which number we're looking at. So for Q1, the focus on the headline EBITDA was adjusted EBITDA. Can you just confirm to us as we move from quarter-to-quarter, what is the EBITDA number that you're going to be quoting? And will there be disclosure on an ongoing basis about what the revaluations are, please?

Thank you, Dominic. I will try to clarify this figure, okay? One thing is the inventory adjustments and devaluations that we normally report and makes us to report an adjusted EBITDA on the first quarter, okay? That, let's say, devaluation of inventories was of EUR 25 million, and this is the one that we have not changed for this quarter, okay? That's a different thing. The different thing is the inventory revaluation due to the higher prices of nickel, okay? And that is what Bernardo has already explained, which is in the United States due to the alloy surcharge that we apply in the sales, okay, we get benefited from the higher prices of nickel at some point.

And because of our valuation of inventories at an average, we get some time until achieving these values, and that is benefiting us. It is true that it has an effect in the short term in the states. But this effect because of the alloy surcharge mechanism in Europe does not -- is not working, we are not benefiting on that in Europe. In this quarter, in the states, we have had a tailwind because of this inventory revaluation, but that's a different thing from the adjustment that I was explaining, which we have not changed from last quarter.

So again, if I look at the adjusted EBITDA in the account, the value for Q2 is zero. So is that to say that the nickel and the alloy surcharge revaluations exactly canceled out the negative EUR 25 million from the first quarter? Or is it just that you're not going to be providing those revaluations on a go-forward basis?

We will only provide that number when it's a significant number that really it's impacting our EBITDA. But in this case, the EBITDA has not been impacted by that.

I'm sorry. So if I could just push on that one more. What constitutes a significant number? Are we talking a single-digit number or a double-digit number?

No, it's yes, when the nickel goes down and we have to make adjustment because our expectation for the next period is going to be a huge impact, then we have to do devaluation of our inventory. In this case, we are not doing any. So that's the reason why we are not reporting any more this figure. This is business as usual, okay? We, of course, are impacted by the trends of the raw materials. And when raw material is going down because of the accounting policies, we need to anticipate that losses, okay? And that is not the case for this quarter. We do not have any need to anticipate any losses because we are not in this situation right now.

Sorry, let me try.

And then sorry just on the ongoing basis, will we focus on EBITDA or adjusted EBITDA.

Let me try to clarify. We make inventory adjustments for adjusting the realizable value of our inventory, but we do not reevaluate the inventory. When the market goes up, when the nickel goes up, we experience a tailwind because at the end, clearly, this is having a quick effect when we realize our inventories, but we do not revaluate. What we normally do and we anticipate as a prudency issue is we are making adjustments to our inventory to net realizable value. This is what was done in the first quarter.

And this has its effect that consequently, our inventory was adjusted in the first quarter. And at the end, as a consequence of that, this material has been realized. At the end of the second quarter has not been necessary to make any inventory adjustment because our inventory is properly valued for a net realizable value. So consequently, has not been made any adjustment. The one that was done at the end of the fourth quarter has had its effect because that material has been sold out already.

And we'll move to our next question from Tristan Gresser with BNP Paribas.

Apologies if I repeat others, I joined a bit late. In Europe, you sound pretty constructive. What we saw in May, June and maybe July is that alloy surcharge in the region were moving up, but transaction prices were steady on paper, that would imply maybe some margin squeeze or some softness there, but your message is pretty positive. So on a spot basis, when you look at your order book in Europe, can you comment a bit on the margin contribution and the expectation for Q3 and Q4? That would be my first question.

Thank you, Tristan. Expectations for Q3 and Q4 is very difficult to predict. What I can tell you that in Europe, as you know, we have lost in most of the customers, the alloy surcharge mechanism, and we are working with effective prices. In some end users, we are still keeping the alloy surcharge mechanism. Now this is very comfortable because you apply immediately the ups and downs of raw material prices. In the case of the -- most of the other customers, including distribution, we are working with effective prices. This is something that we suffer for this Asian invasion of imports. And then you have to try to negotiate every single order trying to adapt the new situation on according to market conditions to the raw material prices.

I think that thanks to the good situation of imports, we have been able to pass all these increases of raw materials to our customers, including freight, including gas. So we are keeping a good level of margins that if improvement is not due to the difference between price and cost, it's due to our efficiencies and our higher volume. So this is something that you always have to remember. It's not only a question of alloy surcharge, nickel prices and the things, we have a lot of homework trying to reduce our costs and increase our efficiency, our metallic yields and everything. So this is the situation in Q3. Are we going to be able -- this is a question of market. I don't know. The demand is healthy. I am sure that we will accelerate our order entry. This is very important in our market.

As far as we extend our delivery times, then we are able to negotiate higher prices. until now, we are still working with a low visibility, especially now that we have the summer period ahead. So let's see what happened. We are pretty optimistic because we think that with this -- the lack of distortion because it's not only the level of imports, it's the level of distortion that most of these importers were applying to the market that many times when nickel prices or raw material prices were going up, the excess of production, especially in China, but also in Taiwan, in Vietnam, in India sometimes, this excess of production will go into Europe at very low prices and destroying totally the market structure.

This is very healthy because we don't -- we will not suffer this now. So from now on, we can expect a better behavior of the European market, more organized and structured European market following the ups and downs of raw material prices, but especially following the market conditions, following the demand and the level of production of the current players, the local players. This is very healthy. This is business as usual. I think this is nothing new. We are coming back to the period that we enjoyed, and we were very profitable, all the European players before the invasion of this import due to the overcapacity that was created in the Asian countries. So now we will be in a more healthy situation. Okay.

Okay. That's clear. And maybe just 2 quick follow-up on that. If I were to really simplify it, stainless steel prices in Europe went up in H1. So maybe in Q1, you saw that spread increase and in Q2, it kind of paused. Is that a fair assessment? And now you're working on efficiencies to drive EBITDA higher. Would that be a fair assessment? And then when it comes down to the CBAM, the quota structure, et cetera, the fact that the market is structurally going to be in a better footing. Do you have maybe a time line on when do you think you will be able to revert back to the old dual pricing system with base price and a lower surcharge?

I'm sorry, Tristan, but my compliance officer is following this conversation, and we cannot speak about prices.

Okay. My second question is just on the U.S. And sorry, again, maybe you touched on it, but you flagged some soft demand. And I'm sorry, about prices, but what would be required to move from maybe a steady margin outlook to something a bit more positive? Is it demand or even with the current outlook you're seeing into H2, you could see maybe some positive momentum there?

According to my experience in this market and especially in stainless steel, you can -- you need a better demand to increase your prices, but a good KPI for you to follow this possibility is looking at the order book. When we extend our delivery times because we have had a strong order book, then it's time to increase prices. This is the normal mechanism, but this is something that I can speak about because it's just experience has always been the same. If we are not filling our capacities, if we have a short order book, we need to feed the plants because we are very sensible to volumes.

All the competitors is the same. We have learned to manage our capacity. I think that now we are very flexible, more flexible than we were before, for sure. And -- but I think also our competitors have done the same homework. So if we need to feed our plants to a reasonable level that we can be competitive. But when we are extending our delivery times, it's time to -- normally when price increases are happening.

And I think in the release, you talked pretty positively about your order books. Would you be able to comment on those currently in the summer?

It's very difficult to increase your order book when you don't have customers because they are holidays. So I think we will have to wait until the end of the summer period to see how efficient all these new measures are being.

There is no further questions. So thank you very much for joining in this second quarter results presentation. Thank you for your questions and enjoy the summer break.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Acerinox First Quarter 2026 Results Presentation. As you well know, the global landscape is defined by numerous uncertainties, including regional conflicts and ongoing tariff wars. The results obtained in Q1 2026 confirmed that the situation is improving despite the continued uncertainty.

For this presentation, we have here with us, our Chief Corporate Officer, Miguel Ferrandis; our Chief Financial Officer, Esther Camos; and the IR Communication, Consolidation and Reporting Director, Carlos Lora-Tamayo, who will explain our Q1 results.

Before we start with our presentation, let me remind you that this conference call is being broadcast on our website, acerinox.com. And now I will hand you over to our Chief Corporate Officer, Miguel. Go ahead, please.

Thank you, Borja. Thank you all of you for attending this presentation. Just 10 weeks ago, we were presenting the year 2025 figures. We define year '25 as the year of uncertainty. And we were hoping that the year '26 should provide us a much more comfortable scenario. But having said that, the day after our results presentation started the conflict in Iran. So since that time, we are keeping the uncertainty. In addition, we have energy crisis and substantial higher volatility than the one we were experiencing at that time. So now the whole world is in tension. But having said that, we have been honoring our commitment, honoring our word, and we are bringing today an improvement in our quarter figures, improvement in sales of around 6%.

What's relevant is the improvement in the melting production that has been growing 22% quarter-on-quarter. And as a consequence of all of this also, improvement in the adjusted EBITDA growing to EUR 119 million, which is an 18% growth compared with that of the fourth quarter last year. The discipline that we are benefiting in the working capital allows us that even though this increase in volumes of 22%, the operating cash flow has been positive in this first quarter of the year because the working capital increase has been only EUR 47 million. So this area is also under control. And thanks to all of this, in this first quarter of higher volumes of dividend payment, as well as huge CapEx expenditures in the coming investments of EUR 73 million, but our net financial debt has only increased around EUR 100 million. So we are also satisfied about that.

It's not by coincidence that we have chosen today for the image, the Artemis II launching and leaving the ground. All the world has been excited following this in the last month of April. In our case, you know that we are growing and investing in the aerospace. Haynes has been present since the starting of the Apollo projects in every mission on NASA. And consequently, for us it is obviously part of our pride and part of our commitment, and also showing that we are in the process of taking off. So we are leaving the ground. The success, obviously, is not the launch of the rocket. The success is the completion of the mission, but we are on track, and this is the idea we want to give today. We are leaving the ground.

If we go market per market, let's start by the most relevant market for us and the best performer, which obviously is the stainless market in the States. The market remains solid and being solid, is a fact for being more than satisfied, keeping on mind that the demand year-on-year has going down 11%. So in the current environment, not a single customer now gets comforted in making investment decisions or expanding their activities and so on. So demand remains low. The demand is obviously affected by all these circumstances. But having said that, the market remains robust.

Fortunately, the effective American administration measures are in place. The Section 232 is protecting the local steel production. The tariffs remains at 50%. There are no quotas per country. There is no exclusion, and is being prioritized the melt and pour. So this is having its proper effect in the consistency in the market, which gives stability to customers, to producers, to distributors. And in addition of all of these, the imports are going down and the imports have get down in America 33% and currently represent a 21% of the total market. So the playing field is correct, even though the challenges and the uncertainties, but at least the playing field is correct in order that we can keep consistency performing in that market, which, as I said before, is a proper frame for all the stakeholders that participate in the stainless steel market industry.

When we go to Europe, the situation is improving, but still is different. The market sentiment now is better in Europe. The market, still the demand is down on a year-on-year basis, the demand is down at 7%, but there is a better market sentiment. At the end, after, after obviously all the commercial trade crisis that we are experiencing everywhere, finally, the European Union has taken effective measures. There are new more relevant measures coming on and shall be on place on the first of July with quotas per countries with increase of the duties from 25% to 50%, no country exclusions. And this shall finally provide probably more protection against unfair imports in the European market, and this shall be by far benefiting the industry. This is to be on place in the first of July.

Normally, the months prior to the entrance of these measures, are driven by the imports willing to land in Europe prior to the measures being implemented. But this, fortunately, is not taking place this year. Why? Because since the first of January, the CBAM is in place. And consequently, with the CBAM, we obtained the compensation for all the efforts in the carbonization that the European players are making. So with these measures on place since the very beginning of the year, we have obtained that the imports also have remained under control. And we have reached a current market share of the imports around 14%, which is still slightly above the level that the European Union want to establish for the imports, roughly speaking, around 13%.

So what at least we have is that with this more consistent and effective protection, we have also a proper playfield. Combined with the fact that the distributors or the stocks at the distributors are below the average. We have the proper playing field for whenever the demand reacts, we shall be in the better position for taking advantage of the market recovery. But still, this is to come because as we have seen before, still the demand in Europe is not reacting properly.

Although for a proper understanding of the differences between the market in Europe and America, we want to present this chart in which we are showing the effects in the prices of the stainless steel of the circumstance that we are mentioning. This is the summary of why we are trusting and investing more in the North American market than in European one. Historically, it's a consistent gap between prices in America and in Europe. Normally, prices in America are $300 to $400 above those prices that we experienced in the European market. But more relevant than that gap in final prices is the differences in the base price.

In the chart, you can realize how relevant is obviously, the extra alloy surcharge which is the green part of the chart, which is the pass-through of the nickel. This structure the of price divided in base price plus extra alloys is effectively working in the States, and is benefiting the market, but the situation in Europe is that after the rally of the imports in the last year reaching 30% or 35% of the European market. The pass-through has not been so effective. As a consequence of that, still certain part of our final products is more driven by effective transaction prices. So the extra alloy is not working so efficiently.

And then what's also more relevant is the effect in the [ base ] price. And in that regard, you can appreciate the difference in the stable frame we have in America, in which more or less is obviously with its ups and downs, but the situation is healthy by all the stakeholders, customers, distributors, producers. Combined with the rolling caster that we have in Europe in the year '23, in 4 months, we passed from the highest base prices ever achieved in Europe, to the lowest prices ever achieved in Europe also. It's very difficult to keep a consistent performance and positive profit margins in the market with these ups and downs. And still, 2 or 3 years later of that crisis, we have not recovered the average of the prices that has been the driver of this period of the last 10 years. So still, we are substantially below the average prices.

Consequently, it's not simple to become being yet optimistic regarding the prices with measures in place, we shall be able to increase prices in Europe, but for being substantially profitable, clearly, we also need a reactivation of demand.

Having said that, the differences between the American and the European are so obvious. And this is the reason why we are clearly expanding in North America in the first quarter of this year '26. We have put in place all the investment program in North American Stainless of EUR 249 million. And with this, we are growing our cold rolled capacities in America in terms of 20%. This is the reason why we are trusting and investing more in America than in Europe.

If we move to the high-performance alloys market, for us is also, the time to restress again that our main virtue and our main strategy is the diversification. For getting less exposed to a single market, we diversified in the stainless between America and in Europe, but also for not getting only exposed to the stainless, we have been in the last 5 years growing and investing more in the high-performance alloys. We start investing in the high-performance alloys, which also is a cyclical market but it's a complementary market to the traditional stainless one. But once we invested in growing in the HPA through VDM, mostly for having a relevant presence in sectors such as oil and gas or chemical process, we decide also to invest in America and especially investing in the aerospace.

How are now the cycles for the HPA? First of all, the recovery that we are seeing in the stainless, and we are seeing a lot of recovery, as mentioned, still is not there in the HPA. Probably, the valley of the cycle that we were commenting we pass through in the fourth quarter for the stainless, the tough part of the market in the HPA probably is the one in which we are currently involved, mostly the first quarter 2026. So the valley of the HPA is the one that has been taking place in this year because we have a combination of facts.

If we start by our European HPA, what we are seeing is that in the low part of the cycle of the oil and gas or of the chemical process industries. In addition, now we have the energy crisis and all the uncertainties that the tensions in Iran and the tensions are still not solved in Ukraine with additional tensions around Venezuela and so on. Always the tensions are taking place, and the hotspots now are in the markets more energy-related, which are all of this. And this is creating that there is now a single new decision of investing there taking place. So we have the low part of the cycle, combined with no signs yet of recovery because of the war on place and the tensions taking place there.

We are confident that any time in the future, whenever the situation is stabilized, there shall be more necessities to investing in the construction of all the facilities that have been damaged, but this still is not coming. This probably shall provide a better scope for our presence in the oil and gas industry for the coming 2 years, but this is going to be difficult to experience in this year. This is the main driver why the contribution of the HPA in Europe is being low at this part of the cycle.

But with the diversification, we also, as explained before, having willing to expand not only in other countries, mostly in America, but also in other sectors, such as the aerospace and the industrial gas turbine. The industrial gas turbine is doing fabulous performance. They're driven mostly by the data centers, but the lead times in -- for the industrial gas turbines have moved from 26 weeks to a level of 60 weeks. So this is a sector in which we have a guarantee for a proper performing in the future.

And then in the aerospace sector, where we are investing more for growing and especially for growing more in the long products, you know that Haynes is more focused on the flat products, and we are also with the new investments, with a rotary forge, with the VIM furnace, we are growing also in the long products. The recovery started earlier in the long products.

At the end for the aircraft engines construction, the first part is the rotating part, which is mostly covered by the long product players directly through the mill orders. And the shortage in the supply chain on that sector created there has been an anticipation of orders for warranty or taking warranty of all those components. So because of that, the recovery started some months ago. And finally, the recovery has come to the flat product, which is the second part in the construction of the aircraft engines, which is the case -- the engine cases. And this now is coming. We are -- at this regard, highly satisfied by the strong increase in the order book that came in the month of March.

And in the month of April, Haynes has experienced its best order book entries ever in its history. So this is a clear demonstration of the improvements in this sector. This is something due to the lead times that should materialize in higher profitability for the second part of the year because at the end, we are obviously contemplating lead times of 6 to 8 months. So the recovery is there. Our order book is full. The production figures are growing, and this shall materialize in better profits in the second semester.

Okay. Now let's move to the effects of the Iran conflict has on our business and also in the market. We think that the most important thing that we should highlight is that we haven't had any disruption in our supply chains. Thanks to our geographical situation, we are able to buy the raw material locally, both in the United States, in Europe and also in South Africa. Also, we diversified the origins of our consumables. And with this successful strategy, we haven't had any break in the supply chains. So we think that this is another demonstration of Acerinox operational resilience in such a difficult environment.

Saying this, no doubt that we have some direct impact mainly in the logistics and in our cost base. We quantify this impact in EUR 2 million for the first quarter, mainly related to increase in the gas price in Spain, and also in a less extent, due to the increase in the freight cost for the whole group.

On the other hand, we have some indirect impact in the market, mainly related to the behavior of our customers. At the end of the day, this conflict is creating more uncertainty in the market and delay the recovery in the demand. So we are seeing our customers still in a wait-and-see position.

Maybe the positive note is in the import situation. This logistics and cost impact that we are having also -- this is affecting the importers. At the end of the day, with longer delivery times with increasing the freight cost, all of this is putting more pressure to these imports. And as Miguel mentioned, also joined this with CBAM, imports are moving down in Europe and also in the U.S.

And now I'll give you the floor back to Miguel.

Well, the quarter evolution is a proper explanation of all the things we are mentioning. So we could just explain the huge improvement in the EBITDA figure, EUR 32 million fourth quarter to EUR 95 million. So multiplying per 3x, 200% increase. But what -- this should give us an unfair probably and also untransparent explanation of things that are taking place.

And probably for understanding better, the current situation, let's go to the adjustments in place. At the end of the last year due to the circumstances we mentioned, the valley on the stainless steel market, we make a strong adjustments at the year-end. And we made adjustments reaching the figure of EUR 60 million in inventory write-down.

The range of the adjustments have been substantially reduced. Still, there is necessity of some but substantially reduced. The situation are by far improving compared with that time. But still, we consider convenient to provide some adjustments. Why? We have mentioned it. We have some areas mostly the HPA in Europe in which still the situation is tough and that the demand is very tough and still that market is to recovery and is exposed, obviously, to the current oil and gas.

So the contribution and the margins in the HPA in this first half of the year is not high. So this justifies to make some correction in inventory. And also still the situation in Europe, even though prices are moving up, but still needs certain adjustments because prices are moving up. We have seen some increase in prices during the quarter of around EUR 200 to EUR 300 which is positive. But in the same time, in which also the nickel has been experiencing its rally as a consequence of the volatility in the current days. So nickel has been going up reaching levels of around $19,000 per ton at the London Metal Exchange.

As I said before, it's not so simple yet that the pass-through of the nickel is operative in Europe. Still there are certain orders which are under effective transaction prices or orders previously committed. And as a consequence of that, we also made some adjustments for covering the European sales -- on regarding the inventories that we are having in place for the European sales. The range of the adjustments is substantially below the one we made for the year-end. This is a good demonstration of the recovery of the market, still is necessary some part of it. We hope that gradually, this shall be disappearing. And we hope that we shall be in position in presenting the semester figures for not going to -- not experiencing the necessity of making any adjustments. We are in the track, but let's see what happens from now to the month of July when we shall release the second quarter figures.

So we are now just -- we are presenting our results for the consolidated group. As you have seen, we have presented and we present a higher EBITDA in this quarter despite the uncertainties and the difficult situations. What is true is that despite these geopolitical tensions, the uncertainties and the low demand, what we have been seeing during the quarter is an improvement month by month, and we even see better signs for the second quarter. These better signs are materialized in different factors.

First, there has been a strong reduction of imports, both in the U.S. market and in the European market. The new measures in place, CBAM started first of January. We expect new measures -- new protection measures also in Europe, which will positively -- we expect they positively impact our markets. We have seen an increase in the order books. The alloy surcharge is increasing, and this has a positive effect, especially in our main market, the United States. And we are seeing also some higher prices in Europe and in the United States.

Consequently, our margins have been increasing, and we expect it to increase further in the second quarter. We are also seeing some pockets of recovery in certain sectors, especially gas turbines and aerospace. And with all these, the adjusted EBITDA for this first quarter is EUR 119 million, and the margin in this adjusted EBITDA has increased to 9%. We have also achieved positive and better results in terms of operating result and also the result before taxes.

And one of the things we are more proud about is our operating cash flow. We continue being focused on cash generation. Despite the increase of activity, as you see, our melting production has increased by 22% despite that -- and despite the higher prices of the raw material, our operating cash flow remains positive. And this reflects our strong compromise in keeping the working capital under control. The net financial debt has increased by EUR 100 million, but this is after payment of dividends and the CapEx, as we will also explain later.

Going by divisions and going to the stainless, definitely, stainless has been the profit driver this quarter. The diversification of our business between stainless and high-performance alloys allows us to balance the cycles between these 2 divisions, and thereby achieving a more stable business model.

Production volumes have increased by 22% despite our production has been limited in Europe due to the fire that we have in one of our pickling lines. Now this is completely fixed, and we have again started production in April. The adjusted EBITDA has been of EUR 97 million. And with this adjusted EBITDA, we are returning to the 2 digits margin. We are proud of our operating cash flow positive in both divisions also in stainless and in high-performance alloys as we will see later, due to the strong control of our working capital.

And going to high-performance alloys. Again, we can see that the strategy of diversification in regions and in products within the high-performance alloy divisions has allowed us to compensate the contraction in demand in certain sectors like oil and gas or chemicals, which are most exposed to high investment projects. Two other sectors like aerospace or gas turbines, which are being in a better shape. As Miguel mentioned, the recovery in aerospace in those, in the flat products has been slower than long products, but we can say now that this has stabilized. The supply chain for the flat products has stabilized, and we are seeing a significant increase in the order book. And therefore, we expect this will materialize mostly in the second half of the year, but we will see also some recovery in the second quarter.

Both melting production and sales are higher in the fourth quarter, but fourth quarter is always affected by the seasonality and the adjusted EBITDA has been in this division of EUR 23 million and a reported of EUR 13 million, which has been affected by EUR 10 million of stock adjustment in this division due to the -- mainly in Europe, due to the difficult situation of certain sectors and the lack of demand. And again, I insist on the operating cash flow because this is one of the things we are more proud about, and we have a very strong focus on working capital control.

Let's give you now a bit of color on the cash generation. As we mentioned during this presentation, we are very proud of our operating cash flow. We achieved EUR 34 million of operating cash flow in Q1. Look, with increase in volumes of 22% quarter-on-quarter and with raw material prices going up, we think that is very remarkable that the operating working capital only increased in EUR 47 million. So this demonstrates that we have a very strict control of our working capital. As you may know, we have a 2 years plan, trying to reduce working capital. Last year, we released about EUR 400 million. And as we mentioned, this EUR 47 million of build in Q1 is another demonstration that we are doing things correctly in this sense.

We continue with our CapEx with our expansion programs. You know that we are investing intensively in the U.S., in Haynes, in NAS, and also in Europe in VDM and in a lesser extent in Acerinox Europa and Columbus. So we spent in this quarter EUR 73 million. Now it's not big differences with the previous quarters. And also in January, we paid EUR 77 million on dividends. With all of this, we only increased the net financial debt in EUR 106 million and the net debt started at EUR 1.3 billion.

Okay. And just for conclude the most relevant parts. First of all, we have honored our commitment, and we have demonstrated improvements in our results in a scenario with lack of demand and with high uncertainties and even with energy crisis. So we are proud of that. We are able to deliver our strategy, which each time gets more evident and justified. We have the financial strength. We are long-term runners, and we are able to keep our long-term strategic plan. We are seeing the advantages of bringing new capacity in the North American stainless market, and we are seeing also the evidences and relevance of growing more in the aerospace industry in America and especially in the long product sector.

In addition, we have our unique position. Our diversification of all our facilities all over the Western world allows us to have a strategic autonomy, not so be affected by the current difficulties in the market, especially, for example, by the energy crisis. So we are solving in some areas, the shortages that we are experiencing in the others, and this is obviously justified. And in addition of this, each time the program in place, the Beyond Excellence makes more sense. We are obtaining strong savings on that. And as has been -- as you remember, we explained in the last quarter presentation has been so successful that we have increased to EUR 120 million, the experience savings for the period '25 and '26.

For the next quarter, the outlook still is not so clear. The uncertainties are there. Still some of the conflicts have not been solved, but we can commit ourselves that we shall present better figures in the coming year. The sustained stable prices in America, combined with the gradual recovery in the European market shall allow us to present proper figures. And we consider that keeping this track shall not be necessary to provide relevant adjustments for the second quarter results.

So as a conclusion, we understand that the adjusted EBITDA for the coming quarter should be higher than the one we are presenting today. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Now we can start the Q&A session. Operator, please go ahead.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Francisco Riquel from Alantra.

I have two. My first is on capacity utilization. If you can update on the progression since the beginning of the year, and into this Q2. In Europe, in particular, you mentioned that imports are down 42% year-on-year. I understand safeguard measures will reduce quota volumes by 55%. So how we can uplift in capacity utilization shall we expect from Q2 levels before demand improves? And then my second question is on your comments this week about -- that you are considering a U.S. listing. So you can comment on this when and how?

I take the first question, Paco. Well, the capacity utilization is going up in the different plants of the group. In Spain, in the Spanish plan, keep in mind that what we mentioned during the call, that is our fire in one of our lines in the P4 that this will allow us to increase for the second quarter, the capacity utilization. In the first quarter, we were in the level of 70%, roughly speaking. And we expect to improve this capacity utilization for the second quarter.

In the states, we are in levels of about 80% without taking into account the new line that is already working. And in South Africa, that is where we are now below the rest of the plants. We are in levels of 60%, 65% capacity utilization.

Well, in regard of the U.S. listing, this has been taking place in all the press releases in this week as comments coming from our shareholders' meeting. This is mostly something that appear to be obvious, and this has been commented in the last years. We -- our best performance, obviously, is in the North American market. We are probably leaders of markets in which we have strong relevance. It's clearly the driver of our profitability. It's clearly the driver of our sales. More than 50% of our sales is coming in North America -- and is the market in which clearly the investors high appreciate the steel industry.

This is something that we always have in looking, let's say, jealous for being a European listed company, looking how our American peers are highly valued by the investment community in the States. So there is a consistent gap between the valuation metrics for the steel players in America compared with lower valuation multiples that the European companies are getting listed. So as a consequence of that, getting well better follow valued and understood where the market values more our sector niche is absolutely logical movement.

And as a consequence of that, what we are is obviously making all the analysis for how could it be. And in that basis, it's considered to be studying or starting all the preparation for what could be a potential listing of the American platform of the business. In this regard, when and how? Well, the one is difficult to precise. Obviously, there is a lot of issues involved. But thinking on the way of clearly preparing and combining our different companies for being in position of presenting an American platform to access the American stock market, it's something that has all the rationale, and we are working on that direction.

So this should mean mostly the possibility of making any time in the future, an IPO or partial of that part of the business, but more focused mostly on an IPO for business and obviously keeping and remaining keeping the majority participation of it, whenever it's come. But it's not decided yet when and on the process. Obviously, keep in mind that there is a certain integration of different companies to be done. So this is not something that is going to occur in the short term. But we are in the way of starting the work analysis, the preparation for deciding in a later stage, the convenience and the most convenient time for that.

Our next question comes from Tristan Gresser from BNP Paribas.

Yes. I have a couple. My first one is, can you explain very simplistically the inventory adjustment of EUR 25 million you made in Q1, how you calculate it and if it has a cash impact? I start there, but I have other questions.

Thank you, Tristan. Okay. The way we calculate the inventory is just by comparing the final inventories at the end of the quarter. We compare the cost versus the net realizable value, okay? So this adjustment that we are doing is for inventories that are in our stocks and not yet sold, and that are valued at a higher cost than what we can realize from those inventories. So obviously, there are always some obsoletes and some materials that can be spending.

The important thing there is it's been reduced a lot compared to the fourth quarter, but still, there are markets in which it is necessary to make this kind of adjustment. Of course, it's not a cash -- it doesn't impact the cash because it's only for material that has not been sold. Currently, the EUR 25 million of inventory adjustments that we have is divided between the high-performance alloy division and the stainless division more or less half and half, and is more focused in Europe. Of course, in Europe, as we have explained, the high performance alloy division is lacking of orders in the -- is more exposed to sectors like oil and gas and chemicals in which there is a lack of orders, and therefore, the prices are not in the best moment. So that's why we have needed to make an adjustment there.

And the other part of the adjustment is in the stainless, but as said, it's much less than what it was in the fourth quarter. It doesn't have any cash impact, and it is only to reflect the difference between the sale price and the cost price. The increase on the raw material has also an impact there, but it's much less than what it was.

Okay. That's clear. In the past, if I look like 2022, 2023, I mean, those inventory adjustments that were including in the EBITDA. And I think last year, you started to make them excluding of the EBITDA, but only at Q4. Now you're doing it in Q1. So what change in the reporting? And just trying to really understand what it is, if why is it treated as exceptional? If your cost of raw material increased more than your selling price, that's normally more source of margin squeeze and that's operational. So yes, I'm trying to understand what I'm missing there.

No, nothing is missed. The fact is providing us as much as transparency as possible. The current circumstances are not normal. The effects that are taking place in the market are also not normal. We are facing challenges in different markets as a consequence of 3 years of consecutive negative demand. This is a situation unique. What we tried is that it's better understood, more or less the performance of the market and the metrics of our business.

Consequently, for comparing figures -- for comparing figures quarter 1 with fourth quarter last year. If we were just presenting a 200% increase in EBITDA, we shall probably be creating confusion because the situation has not improved by 200%. The situation has improved around 19% and 20%. And because of that, we are giving some color, the HPA market in Europe for the oil and gas and for the CPI is in bad shape. And consequently, we are having low capacity utilization at our German plants. So obviously, this is having its effect on cost. Relevant sectors for the company are not doing well, and we are conveying the product mix to other sectors, which are not so profitable. And consequently, this also has its impact in margins.

So what we are presenting is more or less this issue as well as what we are presenting is the situation in Europe, which currently, as we explained before, the pass-through of the nickel is not properly working. And in the current situations that we are having in Europe, but still, there are some sectors driven by transaction prices in which the current nickel rally is not so easily to place. We also consider that this is an adjustment that justifies that we report it separately.

So what we want to give is more transparency on Europe, how is the evolution of the business, but also which is the part that we are adjusting in inventories on a quarterly basis. We hope, as I said before, that this should be not needed in the second quarter results presentation because the momentum should be better and the prices also should be moving up. But on the current -- at the current month of March, April, it appeared that this still was convenient. So it's not that change in the policy. It's just to providing you some color of what's taking place in each of our areas and in the market basis.

Okay. All right. Maybe if I can ask a last question on the outlook. I think we were expecting maybe better ASP, so sales divided by melt shop production. I think you mentioned in your prepared remarks, you expect higher ASP in the U.S., but then in the press release, it's stable. So how should we think about the price appreciation in both Europe and the U.S.? And what's the implication then in terms of margins as well into Q2, given you have some cost element there?

We think that we are confident on keeping a stable best price in America. So this is out of question. So the sustained business in America shall remain healthy. We gradually are considering that the situation should be improving on Europe. In addition, we are now solving the fire that we experienced in the European plant last year. So the annealing and pickling line #4 now is on place. So this shall also provide more stability. We had to took over that at certain level, bringing material from South Africa, but this created obviously some overdues and so on. So now the situation is getting normalized.

As I said before, we are seeing improvement in the volumes. And this is more or less the most clear fact that we have for the coming future. The volumes are improving. We are being able in markets driven by the uncertainty and the low demand for taking market share from the imports because now the imports are under control. So this gives to the industry and the local industry possibilities of increasing volumes. That increase in volume should give logical effect on certain increases on prices. But for having an effective increase in prices and trying to get close of the normalized level of prices, what we need is a reactivation of demand. But just with the increase in volumes, the situation should be improved.

So it's going to be improved, but not yet radical. For a radical improve, we need reactivation of demand. After 3 years of contraction, the playing field is well prepared for whenever the demand reactivates, we shall have a quick effect and a proper rally. But still, the demand is not there.

Our next question comes from Bastian Synagowitz from Deutsche Bank.

My first one is also coming back on the inventory impact. And sorry to come back to that. But Miguel, from what you said, there were transaction prices, which had been committed earlier as metal prices went up, which suggests you are barely running with open metal price exposure. Can you confirm that we understood that correctly? And if so, have you now hedged this exposure to manage the risk?

And then also maybe related again to the inventory effect, now again, when we look at the market, a large part of the products you're selling, they have increased significantly in price. Austenitic [indiscernible] 304 has been up as much as 20%. In the normal environment, that's actually been a positive on your inventories and the valuations and some of your peers have also confirmed that they had similar positive effects, which is what you would expect. So can you confirm is the EUR 25 million impact the net impact, which you have incurred? Those are my first questions. So I have 2 more, please. But maybe I'll stop there.

Yes. For the business in Europe, as I said, we have been experiencing certain overdues. We are in the way of reducing our orders which are taking on term basis and this was taking on effective transaction prices. And gradually, we consider that the scope should allow us to be less dependent on effective transaction prices and more focused on more or less the -- going back to the normal formula of the base price plus extra alloys.

But still in the material that actually we are still pending to supply in the second quarter. That still are -- were certain orders that were covered on effective transaction prices that was that one that at the end of last year, more or less were the basis that were to be discussed with the customers. As far as the situation is improving, as far as the volumes are growing, there is obviously better sentiment that we explained that there is in the market, this shall be gradually reduced.

And of course, what you are saying, Bastian about the effect of the increase of the raw materials and in prices, it's a fact in the States, okay? The pass-through in the States is working perfectly and of course, it's bringing us some benefits, but it is not really the same in Europe. This EUR 25 million that we are talking -- that we have been talking about is in Europe, and is it -- and this is the total adjustment that we have done to the inventories that we are holding in stock. As said, this is not really a cash effect. And it is the total of the adjustments that we are doing to the inventories, both in HPA and in Stainless, but it's all focused in Europe.

Okay. Understood. And then just briefly also in Europe, maybe zooming in a little bit on the performance of that business. You obviously had the fire but I guess looking at your production numbers, it does suggest that things are obviously improving here and you confirm that. So any color on when you think you'll be back to breakeven? Do you think maybe breakeven is possible in the course of the second quarter, maybe not for the full quarter, but in the course of it, possibly?

And then also just on your outlook, and you're obviously guiding for a better second quarter, and you said volumes will be improving. Clearly, European prices should be improving. I guess, maybe from what I understood, some improvements in the mix in the U.S. as well. So putting all of this together, do you at least feel broadly comfortable with market expectations, which are around, say, around EUR 150 million EBITDA for the second quarter?

Well, the situation in Europe, as you say, is improving. We remain confident that we shall be reaching breakeven in the year '26. I don't think it's something that is going to probably take place in the second quarter because the prices are going up. But mostly is the final prices, those that were going up. We -- it's good that the nickel increase as much as possible has been passed through the customers when possible. There are some part in which, as we mentioned, has not been so simple. But having said that, still, if you look at the base prices, still, we are seeing base prices of EUR 450, EUR 500 base price. So this level is ridiculous.

We are able to reach the breakeven substantially below the level of base prices that we have before for getting breakeven, but still this is not there. So consequently, I don't think we are going to reach that level in the second quarter, but we think that we may reach it in the third quarter. So gradually, just with the volumes increasing with the measures on place, we are getting closer to it. Maybe we are able to match it maybe for the third quarter, but I don't think it's coming in the second quarter. So I think we probably need to wait a bit more.

And on your guidance?

Yes. Well, the guidance is -- for us, in the levels we are -- I think we give a clear color that we are going to be better performing in the second quarter. What is good demonstration of comfort with all the issues taking place. So in the energy crisis we are in with all the uncertainties that are all over the market, cyclical company, giving indications of improvement. We think it's a good sign of trust on our recovery. I am not uncomfortable with this level you are giving. We may be there, let's see what happens, let's see when the situation is solved, but now we are seeing all the contingency plans that all the industries, all the countries are having with absolute uncertainties of how it's going to be the energy situation. So it's difficult to be more precise in giving an exact number, but we are comfortable with the improvement.

If the field where we are now is the EUR 120 million, I have no problems on you keeping that figure, but I cannot be more precise, but purely because still a lot of issues are in place and who knows what may come in, but I'm not uncomfortable with that figure.

Our next question comes from Dominic O'Kane from JPMorgan.

I have three short questions. So just maybe on the commentary around the pricing structure for Europe and the base plus transaction. Could you maybe just clarify what percentage of your order book currently is on a base plus transaction basis. And as you said, your comments are that you're looking to change the structure so that it's more skewed back towards base. Just if you could just help us think about the structure of your order book currently?

Yes. In a market where the imports having reduced at levels of 14% is much more simple now that in the new negotiation for future deliveries, the European structure of the base price plus extra is respected. So the point is clear in the orders that we're taking in the second half of last year when everything was tough and still the imports order that was much more difficult nowadays it's more simple. So gradually, we understand that we are going to be reached there.

So this is something that clearly is improving because as we have said before, the feeling, the sensation is positive in the market. And with the new volumes in place with the reduce of competition from imports, this is much more simple now.

Okay. I mean if I estimate, is it less than 30%? Or is it around 30%? Is it possible to quantify it?

I don't have the figures. I don't think we have the figures currently. We are on that mood. So let's say that we are there, but we cannot quantify yet.

So I just have 2 other questions. You made the comment around that the Middle East impact at EUR 2 million in March, arguably, the backdrop has maybe improved since March, given low gas prices. Is that the same type of number we should maybe expect for April and May?

Yes. Well, yes, we think that for your numbers, you can estimate between mid-single-digit to high single digit for the whole quarter.

Excellent. And then final question on -- just on the outlook, specifically digging into high-performance alloys. So the Q1 EUR 13 million headline EBITDA was maybe a little bit weak. As we think about the outlook for Q2 and for the remainder of 2026, do we think we can return to the same level of reported performance of maybe Q4 or Q1 2025. So in the range of EUR 30 million to EUR 40 million. Should we think about that being kind of a realistic run rate for the next couple of quarters?

Gradually, yes, maybe for the second half of the year, yes, in transitioning for the second quarter. So the contribution in HPA in the last year was highly covered by the European HPA, lower contribution from the American one. This year is going to be just a contrary. So the European more exposed to the oil and gas is contributing less. And gradually, the American contribution is going to be higher. So it's going to improve.

As we said, the top of the cycle probably has been the first quarter. It shall be improvement in the second quarter and reaching equivalent figures to the ones you are mentioning for the second semester.

Our next question comes from Maxime Kogge from ODDO BHF.

Two questions on my side. The first about the Middle East conflict and its implication on the oil and gas end market within HPA. Since the conflict is driving higher oil and gas prices, it will also trigger reconstruction needs in the Middle East. So do you expect HPA to potentially benefit from that? And when if that's the case?

Okay. Well, I would say the Middle East contract -- conflict is very uncertain. So it's very uncertain when it will end. And still, these are -- all these projects on oil and gas are long-term projects. We are not yet really seeing a recovery on the oil and gas, all with regards to investments, I think it's in a wait and see, okay? Of course, when it comes the end of the conflict and all of these needs to restore we expect the benefit from that, but we cannot say now that we are yet seeing it. Of course, it will come, but not at this moment.

Okay. That's clear. And just a second and last one is on CapEx. So I think the Q1 numbers still included a big last payment for the NAS expansion line. So from now on, should we expect CapEx to step down from Q2 onwards given that this big project is now behind?

Well, really, the CapEx because of all the CapEx that we have in place right now with the combination also of Haynes starting the buildings and constructions, more or less the figure that we expect for the second quarter will be more or less similar. We -- as we said, we are in a strong phase of CapEx. Last year, we did EUR 311 million. This year, we will be maybe a little bit lower than the EUR 300 million, but that's more or less stable. And we will be moving some of the CapEx that now has been focused on NAS and is finishing in NAS. We will be moving to our high investments that we have in Haynes with the starting of the buildings and structures. So we don't expect the CapEx to reduce a lot for the second quarter.

I would now like to hand back to Borja for any written questions.

Thank you very much. Most of the questions coming from the website were answered during the presentation and the Q&A session. So with all this, I just want to thank all of you for coming and joining us on this call. And as a final note, also taking into account that our Q2 results presentation will be on July 24. Have a good day, and thank you very much.

Thank you.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, on behalf of the Board of Directors, which I have the honor of chairing and on my own behalf, I'd like to thank you for your attendance, both to those of you who are physically present in this room and also to those that are joining us remotely. I would like to welcome you to this Ordinary General Shareholders' Meeting -- the meeting will be available on the company's website for a period of 1 month following the General Shareholders' Meeting.

Next, and in accordance with the provisions of the Acerinox General Meetings regulations, it is necessary first to verify compliance with the legal and statutory requirements for the valid convening of the meeting. To that end, I give the floor to the Secretary of the Board of Directors.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good day, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. As the Chairman has stated, it is necessary to verify that the legal and statutory requirements for the valid convening of the meeting have been met. This general meeting is being held on second call as an ordinary meeting as established in Article 15 of the bylaws and Article 10 of the general meeting regulations. This meeting is chaired by the Chairman of the company's Board of Directors, Mr. Carlos Ortega Arias-Paz, assisted by the Secretary of the Board of Directors, who is speaking to you now. And in addition, we have the Chairman and the Secretary, the Presiding Committee and the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Bernardo Velazquez Herreros and the following directors: Ms. Rosa María García Piñeiro, Mr. Francisco Javier García Sanz, Mr. Tomás Hevia Armengol, Ms. Leticia Iglesias Herraiz, Ms. Marta Martínez Alonso, Ms. Ana María García Fau, Mr. Santos Martínez-Conde Gutiérrez-Barquín and Mr. Pedro Sainz de Baranda Riva. The mentioned Board members are attending this general meeting and are present in the room.

The call for this General Shareholders' Meeting was approved by the Board of Directors at the meeting held on March 25, 2026. And the notice of the meeting was published on March 27, 2026, on the website of the Spanish Securities Markets Commission, the CNMV, under other relevant information in the official gazette of the Mercantile Registry #60 and the newspaper Expansión and on the company's website. The agenda for this meeting is included in the notice of the meeting. And given that it is extensive and known to all of you, it is deemed to have been read unless anyone wishes to manifest our opinion against it. The recommendation relating to this general meeting has been available to the shareholders at the company's registered office and on the company's website without interruption since the publication of the notice of the meeting in accordance with the provision of Article 518 of the Capital Companies Act and Article 5 of the General Meeting regulations.

Likewise, shareholders have been able to request that the documentation be sent to them free of charge under the terms provided by the law. It is hereby noted that no supplements to the notice of this Ordinary General Meeting nor any alternative resolutions to those approved by the Board of Directors regarding the items of the agenda have been submitted by the shareholders. Therefore, the Board of Directors in accordance with the provisions of Article 203 of the Capital Companies Act and Article 10.3c of the General Meeting regulations has agreed to request the presence of Ms. Ana López-Monís Gallego, a notary public of the National Notarial Association, who is present in the room to draw up the minutes of the general meeting. Next, on behalf of the Chairman, I will report on the provisional attendance figures for the purpose of verifying the valid constitution of this general meeting. Pending the counting of all attendance cards, we have a provisional quorum that is sufficient to commence this general shareholders' meeting.

I will now read the data to Scott. We have in this meeting connected online and physically in the room, 583 shareholders, holders of 68,146,342 shares that amount to 27.3% of the share capital and represented 1,546 shareholders that hold 88,207,803 shares that equal 35.3% of the share capital. In accordance with the above-mentioned data, the share capital represented with voting rights is [ 39,855,225 ], representing [ 156,000 ] shares, more than 156,000 shares representing 70% of the share capital. Therefore, we are compliant with the requirements of Article 198 of the Capital Companies Act for the valid convening of the General Shareholders' Meeting on second call. Nonetheless, we will provide the final attendance figures for the general meeting before proceeding to read the proposed resolutions related to the agenda, which will subsequently be put to vote.

Thank you, Mr. Chair -- Mr. Secretary. In view of the fact that based on the data presented by the Secretary, there is sufficient representation of the share capital present, I hereby declare this general meeting convened on second call to be validly constituted to deliberate and resolve on all items of the agenda that are put to a vote. In compliance with the provisions of the commercial registry regulations, now the notary will ask the meeting whether there are any reservations or objections regarding the statements concerning the number of attending shareholders and the capital present. In compliance with the provisions of Article 101 of the Commercial Registry regulations and Article 11.3 of the general meeting regulations, I hereby state that I have been called to attend the General Shareholders' Meeting and to draw the minutes of the meeting. I have assessed the capacity of their request and verify that the meeting has been convened in accordance with the legal and statutory requirements.

It is my duty to ask whether any shareholders who wishes to raise any reservations or objections regarding the statements concerning the number of shareholders present and the share capital represented. Should there be any shareholder representative that wishes to record any reservation or objection regarding the valid constitution of the meeting or the overall data and the attendance list, please state so in the case of attendees present in this room or in the case of attendees participating online via the link available on the remote attendance platform on the website in order to submit their reservation or objection in writing, thereby having it included in the minutes.

Thank you, Ms. Notary. I will now give the floor to the Secretary.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In accordance with the provisions of the general meeting regulations, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders or the representatives attending online who wish to speak where applicable, request information or clarification regarding any items on the agenda or the publicly available information that the company has provided to the CNMV since the last general meeting and the auditor's report or simply to submit proposals in cases permitted by law, they were able to do so today via the remote participation platform available on the website from the time of their connection and until 11:45 a.m. today. Likewise, if there are any shareholders or representatives present in the room who wish to speak, they may request to do so from this moment until the Q&A session begins by proceeding to the right side of the theater from the entrance where the lectern is located.

To ensure that their statements are recorded in the minutes, please present your national identity card to the staff managing the speaking order indicating the number of shares that you hold and whether you are the shareholder or acting as a representative. Further to that, if any of the shareholders or representatives present in the room wish for the remarks to be recorded literally verbatim in the minutes of the meeting, they may submit them in writing at the time of requesting their turn so that they may be verified when the shareholder speaks. Please be advised that all statements made will be answered either verbally during this general meeting or in writing within 7 days following the meeting in compliance with Article 197.2 of the Capital Companies Act.

Furthermore, please note that since the proposed resolutions submitted by the Board of Directors have been made available to you and published on the company's website, online attendees wishing to cast their vote on any of the resolutions pertaining to the items on the agenda may continue to do so via the link to the remote attendance platform provided for this purpose on the corporate website until following the reading of the summary of the proposed resolutions, the Chairman declares the conclusion of the voting period for the proposed resolutions as stated in the notice of the meeting. In turn, any shareholders or representatives present in the room who wish to vote against or abstain from any voting on any of the proposals on the agenda may do so at this time by notifying the notary's desk, providing proper identification and indicating their status as a shareholder or representative for inclusion in the minutes. Next, we will give the floor to Mr. Carlos Ortega Arias-Paz, who will be delivering his remarks in his capacity as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Thank you, Secretary. Dear shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, it is an honor to address you at this 2026 General Shareholders' Meeting. Thank you for joining us today, whether in person or remotely. Your continued trust and commitment to Acerinox are once again the best endorsement of our strategy and long-term industrial project. I am here today to report on the fiscal year 2025, a year that once again tested the strength of our business model and the company's ability to adapt. It was undoubtedly a demanding year, but it also confirms that Acerinox is a stronger and more resilient company today, better prepared to face the future. The international context in which we operated in 2025 was marked by high geopolitical and macroeconomic volatility. The conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, in addition to the human tragedy they represent have continued to affect trade flows, supply chains and energy markets.

These issues have been exacerbated by new international tensions and a shift in political landscape on both sides of the Atlantic. These developments have reinforced long anticipated trends, increased regionalization of trade, the pursuit of strategic autonomy by major economies and heightened regulatory sensitivity to supply chain security and sustainability. In this new global framework, the stainless steel and high-performance alloys industry plays an essential role once again. Against this backdrop, Acerinox has acted with foresight and strategic vision, relying on a strategy that combines geographic diversification, financial discipline and a clear focus on higher value-added products. This strategy enables us to navigate economic cycles with greater resilience and transform structural changes in the environment into growth opportunities.

Today, we can confidently say that Acerinox is aligned with major industrial trends and poised to capture more value when economic activity returns to normal. The United States has solidified its role as the primary driver of growth and value creation for our group. It has a dynamic economy with a solid industrial base and policies that favor local production and long-term investment. The country protects itself, its producers by increasing import taxes on steel. Our long-standing commitment to producing in the United States through North American stainless, NAS, provides us with a competitive advantage that is difficult to replicate. Adding to the strength is the full integration of Haynes International, which experienced its first full year within the group in 2025. The incorporation of Haynes has elevated our industrial profile. It has decisively strengthened our global leadership in high-performance alloys and enabled us to expand our presence in strategic high-growth sectors such as aerospace, energy and advanced chemicals. Beyond operational and commercial synergies, this operation has transformed the group's DNA and protected our future growth.

Today, the combination of NAS, Haynes and VDM's assets in the country makes us an industry benchmark in North America, offering a unique product portfolio. In Europe, the 2025 financial year was marked by contained demand, still, and the need for more decisive regulatory progress. In this regard, positive signs are beginning to emerge. In January of this year, the carbon border adjustment mechanism, the CBAM, took effect and further measures are anticipated in July. These measures are expected to limit steel inputs to half of current levels, imposing tariffs of 50% on excess import. All this represents a significant step toward a fair and more balanced environment for European producers. These measures are essential for correcting distortions caused by imports that do not adhere to the same environmental and social standards. Acerinox anticipated this scenario by establishing a robust industrial model in Europe and the United States.

This balanced implementation will enable us to maximize returns and improve profitability as industrial demand rebounds. In this challenging context, the group has shown remarkable adaptability. We closed the 2025 financial year with revenues of EUR 5.8 billion, a 7% increase year-on-year. Also an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 422 million, reflecting our ability to maintain profitability despite pricing and demand pressures. I would especially like to highlight the strength of our operating cash flow generation. Throughout the year, we managed working capital very carefully, improving it by EUR 406 million and achieving a historic reduction in inventories in stocks. This cash generation strengthens our finances and provides us with the flexibility to continue investing and creating value. Acerinox's share performance in 2025 reflects the strengthening of the group -- after several years of moving within a limited range between approximately EUR 9 and EUR 11 per share, the share price closed the year at EUR 12.66 per share with an annual revaluation of 34%.

This positive trend continued in 2026, demonstrating an enhancement of our strategic strengths. The market seems to be recognizing our leadership in the United States and our unique position in high-performance alloys more clearly as well as the prospects for regulatory improvement in Europe. Currently, 78% of analysts' recommendations are to buy our stock, revealing the confidence in the group's ability to generate recurring long-term value. As you may recall, at this time last year, I told you that we were trading at around EUR 10 per share, a price that did not reflect our intrinsic strengths. Yesterday, the share price closed at the maximum compared to the last 10 years. But I consider that still the market price has a long way to go before fully reflecting our value. The group's strong financial performance is supported by a solid and demanding corporate governance framework.

As you may recall, several amendments to the company's Articles of Association were approved at the 2025 General Shareholders' Meeting as well as the corresponding updates to the regulations of the General Shareholders' Meeting and the regulations of the Board. If I were to highlight 2 of those approved modifications, I would mention the reduction of the directors' terms of office to 2 years in accordance with the best international corporate governance practices and the reorganization of the Board committees to improve operational efficiency and transparency. The suggestions of the CNMV's technical guidelines have also been included, in particular, those pertaining to the Audit Committee.

I would also like to mention that Acerinox did not wait for the publication of the Equal Representation Act in order to have a balanced and legally compliant gender representation on the Board. The Board has also approved a new wording for the code of conduct and the corporate policy of the whistleblowing channel. All this has helped us to improve our internal governance with the standards expected by the market and our shareholders. These reforms allow us to align fully with the international best practices, strengthening diversity, transparency and oversight of financial and nonfinancial risks. Acerinox already operates under the new European frameworks for cybersecurity, due diligence and artificial intelligence. The Board directly oversees climate and sustainability risks. In 2026, the Board has also launched a review process for some corporate policies as well as the preparation of new ones, especially in the fields of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.

The Board is expected to begin updating the internal rules of conduct for the securities markets in the coming months. We will report on all these developments at next year's meeting. Our sustainability road map continues to make steady progress. We continue to apply ESG criteria to the compensation of our management team and our CEO. We continue to promote an industrial model based on decarbonization, circular economy and operational excellence. Our historic presence at the prestigious Stainless Steel Industry Award 2025 was indeed historic and demonstrates our leadership capacity in all business areas and in our various factories. We obtained gold, silver and bronze medals in innovation and market, cutting-edge technology, sustainability and operational safety. As a testament to our commitment to sustainability, I am honored to announce that Acerinox has been included in the S&P's Global Sustainability Yearbook 2026.

After being evaluated under their rigorous standards, we can proudly say today that we are among the elite of the world's steel industry. Out of over 9,000 companies analyzed, Acerinox stood out for its integrity and operational excellence, achieving the historic milestone of receiving the highest score in transparency and reporting. This result reflects our unwavering commitment to flawless accountability and long-term value creation. Creating shareholder value remains an ongoing priority for Acerinox. In 2025, we distributed EUR 155 million in dividends, equivalent to EUR 0.62 per share. Our dividend policy is a tangible demonstration of the group's financial strength and commitment to sustainable shareholder returns.

Acerinox is a stronger, more diversified and better prepared company today than ever before. We have a unique industrial platform, clear leadership in the United States, global leadership in high-performance alloys and more favorable regulatory outlook in Europe and a strong focus on high value-added products. I would like to end by thanking everyone who makes this project possible, our employees for their commitment and professionalism. Thank you. Our customers and suppliers for the trust, thank you. And most especially you, our shareholders, for your constant support. Many thanks. We have the right strategy to take full advantage of the upcoming industrial recovery. Let us continue to move forward with determination, responsibility and confidence in the future. Thank you very much.

Next, Mr. Bernardo Velazquez Herreros will deliver his remarks in his capacity as Chief Executive Officer of the company.

Shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. It is an honor to have the opportunity once again to address you and report on Acerinox activities and results in 2025 as well as to explain how the international conflict has affected our operations. In describing the past year, one must use terms as turbulent, volatile and uncertain. Not only have the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza continued, but major repercussions have arisen from other conflicts such as the intervention of American forces in Venezuela and the tensions that led to the confrontation between Israel and Iran supported by the United States and which has already led to more tensions in 2026. Considering that almost all of these conflicts involved energy producing countries, the impact on the economy has been and continues to be significant, affecting businesses closely linked to the cycle, such as those in the stainless steel and high-performance alloys industries.

Additionally, the U.S. administration's decision to impose new tariffs in April 2025, the reciprocal tariffs sparked a global response in the form of other tariffs further exacerbating trade unions. These tensions remain unresolved and are subject to continuous negotiation and review between countries and within the United States. The circumstances that I have attempted to summarize here have only added to the uncertainty and volatility of the market, preventing the stability and positive outlook necessary to promote investments and stimulate industrial production and hindering the expected recovery. In our sector, apparent stainless steel consumption in the United States and Europe has remained flat for 3 consecutive years, well below pre-pandemic levels.

Apparent consumption in the United States in 2025 was 0.7% lower than in 2024 and 18% lower than in 2019, the year before the pandemic. Consumption in Europe was 2.8% higher than in 2024, but yet still 13% lower than in 2019. In an increasingly turbulent world with unstable relations between traditional partner countries and a clear loss of influence by international organizations, the fragility of constantly reformulated supply chain is evident. It is meant to diversify and shorten supply chains. We cannot rely solely on suppliers far away, even it means sailing around Southern Africa. In the circumstances, we must reflect on the importance of strategic autonomy and the need for a domestic industry, which is key to reduce dependence.

During the pandemic, we saw how masks were in short supply, how European industry dependent on Ukraine cables and how the lack of Russian oil affected it. Conflicts, sanctions and other circumstances have complicated the lives of companies committed overly to globalization. It's important to note that, like steel -- stainless steel like steel in general, stainless steel has been identified as a strategic material in both the United States and Europe. Not only have the tariff on steel imports under Section 232 been challenged in the United States, but the current administration during Trump second term has also doubled the tariffs to 50%, eliminating country and production exemptions and extending it to downstream products made of steel where steel constitutes a significant portion of the costs.

In Europe, the response is slower, but just as forceful as these works are [indiscernible] new trade measures affecting steel imports have been approved and the European Commission's proposal is expected to be implemented on July 1. First, the objective is to limit imports to half of current levels and to impose 50% tariffs on surplus imports. Additionally, the carbon border adjustment mechanism has been enforced since January 1, 2026, which is essential for decarbonization and compensates European manufacturers for their efforts to reduce CO2 emissions. We hope this awareness among governments and societies on the urgent need for strategic autonomy will show the importance of local industry and ensuring these strategic supplies and generating wealth and quality employment. At least, this is the direction in which Europe seems to be moving, having been sensitized by the Letta report and the European Commission's publication of the report entitled Steel and Metals Action Plan, which aligns with the claims of our sector.

We also hope that this new flow will promote industrial activity spreading downstream to other sectors and favoring greater consumption of our products. This will limit the unfair competition that we have suffered for too long. As I mentioned before, due to a lack of visibility, all stainless steel consumers were placed on hold in 2025 and remain so until the situation becomes clearer. They are only buying the strictly necessary volumes and new industrial projects are being postponed with the exemption of the aerospace and defense industries and energy investments to power data centers. Under these circumstances, our melting shops have not been able to operate at full capacity. In 2025, melting shop production was 1.9 million metric tons, was 6% higher than the previous year, but well below the 2.6 million metric tons achieved in 2021. Broken down by markets where consumption behavior is similar, the United States have maintained stable prices, thanks to the tariffs.

However, Europe, the world's largest steel market has suffered from 25% increase in imports within the safeguard measure quotas, which have largely proven ineffective. Consequently, the prices of our products have remained low, reducing our profits in the region. The performance of the high performance alloy sector has been mixed. Our German factories have reduced activity due to lower purchases in the chemical and fossil fuel sectors. In contrast, our U.S. factories have improved due to the better situation in the aerospace and power generation turbine sectors. In any case, this demonstrates the wisdom of our diversification strategy in terms of both geography and product. And we evolved towards more sophisticated higher-value materials. It is also important to note that we have adapted our supplies of raw materials and consumables to changing circumstances with agility, ensuring that our supply chains have not been disrupted.

Sales in 2025 were EUR 5.8 billion, a 7% increase from the previous year. This increase was partly due to the contribution of Haynes International, which joined our accounts for the first full year adjusted EBITDA was EUR 422 million, a 5% decrease from 2024. The Stainless Steel division adjusted EBITDA was EUR 276 million, which is 13% lower than in 2024. Meanwhile, the high Performance Alloys division adjusted EBITDA was EUR 146 million, which is 15% higher. We reduced working capital by EUR 406 million, primarily through inventory reduction, which kept net financial debt at EUR 1.2 billion, only 6% higher than at the end of 2024 despite our ambitious investment plan for which we allocated EUR 311 million in the year. Over the years, we have learned to generate cash during low points in the cycle to ensure our financial strength. In 2025, our operating cash flow was EUR 455 million, 55% higher than the previous year.

It is also relevant to mention that we have returned to normal operations at Acerinox Europe's Campo de Gibraltar factory, where a strike lasting almost 5 months due to the negotiation of the collective bargaining agreement occurred in 2024. We are recovering the confidence of our clients in spite of the fire that affected our hot material pickling and pre-clean lines at the end of 2025. It is important to talk about the flexibility of this factory that allows us to adapt to the market, but also to melt our steel in low-cost energy periods. The markets require agility and speed in adapting our businesses to rapidly changing cycles and situations. For these reasons, we have sought to become more flexible in an industry traditionally characterized by great inertia and to diversify our products ranging from carbon steel to the most sophisticated nickel alloys.

What distinguishes us within the sector is our clearly defined long-term strategy, which we updated at the end of 2025, insisting on our 4 pillars: operational excellence, production of high value-added materials, commitment to sustainability and financial strength. In this regard, we continue to pursue our organic growth strategy. Investments in our stainless steel factory in the United States, North American stainless amounting up to EUR 249 million have already started in early 2026 and will allow us to increase our output by 20%. This increase is due to greater productivity in the melting shop and hot rolling using digital techniques as well as a new cold rolling mill, which is currently undergoing testing.

This project aims to maintain our leadership in the North American market, provide the best quality service to our customers and promote growth and greater autonomy in this region. Our investment in Haynes International, a company with a long-standing presence in the U.S. high-performance alloys market and our focus on manufacturing alloys for the aerospace sector and turbines for electric power generations also aligns with this goal. After the first year of integration, we have achieved synergies of USD 12 million, in line with initial estimates. Additionally, we are investing in a new rotary retort, a vacuum furnace and finishing lines to expand our production capacity and access the volume market of long products made of high-performance alloys through the combination of Haynes and NAS equipment.

The investment amounts up to EUR 154 million. The other major projects worth EUR 67 million in equipment for the German factories will increase VDM's supply capacity by 15%. It's already the world leader in high-performance alloy production. Some of the equipment is already operational and the rest is progressing according to schedule. Finally, we remain committed to the Acerinox Europa factory in Campo de Gibraltar, in which we have EUR 22 million investments underway to support our strategic plans. We also are investing EUR 13 million in the Columbus stainless factory in South Africa, mainly in a coating line that will allow us to access the electrical steel market. This will make us the only company in Africa capable of producing stainless steel and electrical steel factory will undoubtedly be the most versatile in the world. These projects will provide the group with around EUR 300 million in EBITDA growth potential per year.

We are also continuing to work on another one of our pillars, operational excellence, our Beyond Excellence project has enabled us in the first 2 years to achieve recurrent savings of EUR 83 million out of the planned EUR 100 million with 1 year of implementation still to go. This has encouraged us to increase our savings target to EUR 120 million by the end of 2026. Almost all projects in this initiative focus on improving productivity and efficiency often through greater process control using data and digital tools. These projects of organic growth, taking advantage of synergies and operational excellence provide a total growth potential of EUR 500 million at the EBITDA level.

This guarantees Acerinox future success, especially in the new international framework with the search for strategic autonomy, bringing supply chains close together and the renewed commitment to industry and local manufacturing. We, of course, remain committed to sustainability with a very pragmatic approach, focusing on process efficiency and the use of recycled materials. Our investments provide a reasonable returns, and we aspire to valorize our waste.

We are committed to becoming the paradigm of the circular economy by manufacturing recyclable raw materials, minimizing emissions throughout the product life cycle. In our annual report, you have a lot of metrics related to our progress in this area. But as an example, we have reduced our Scope 1 and 2 emissions intensity by 13% compared to 2024. In addition, we have successfully developed our premium EcoAcerinox steel for which we guarantee as certified by an independent accredited body that it is produced using more than 90% recycled material, renewable energy and with CO2 emissions that are 50% lower than those of the [indiscernible] production. We collaborate with customers to ensure their products are recognized as examples of responsible low-emission production, thanks in large part to our EcoAcerinox as evidenced in the stainless steel chimneys on the Jeremias Group, a leading company in this sector.

We have also reduced the rate of lost time accidents by 15%, while maintaining the target of 0 accidents as the only acceptable goal. In 2025, we hired 901 people, 314 of whom were in Spain. Of those, 424 were under 30 years of age, 141 of whom were in Spain. Additionally, 172 were women, 62 of whom were in Spain. In other words, we generate employment for young people in the regions in which we operate. Little by little, we are also attracting a greater number of women to our industry, which has traditionally been off limits or unattractive to them. We provide appropriate training for our business and encourage more women to join our group, which is a significant challenge, but we are trying to collaborate with universities and vocational training centers.

I am delighted to say that the Acerinox Foundation founded to help companies play a more relevant role in society chose us to represent the industry in our pilot program. The program will verify our social work, find metrics to quantify our efforts and serve as a guide for other companies that wish to participate. Finally, I would like to thank you all once again for this opportunity to address you, our shareholders. I would like to thank you for your continued support, and we promise you will not be disappointed. I want to thank all our customers and suppliers for trusting our project and the Acerinox personnel, more than 9,000 people who work in this group for their daily energy and enthusiasm in our thriving sector. It is an honor to work with you. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Bernardo. The period for requesting the floor is now closed, and we will now open the floor to the shareholders. To that end, I give the floor to the Secretary.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We haven't received any remote comments online. Therefore, we will now give the floor to any shareholders who would like to take the floor here in the room. Shareholders or representatives who wish to make statements should approach the podium located on the right side of the theater as you enter. Preparing these remarks takes some time. We invite you to watch the company's new corporate video in the meantime.

Imagine a world that is possibly evolving a world in which every step forward is worthwhile evolution and the capacity to go further. This is a story that Acerinox has built for more than half a century. It's not just about manufacturing stainless steel and high-performance alloys. We transform raw materials into solutions that push industries forward that connect people and build infrastructures that last from the pioneering ideas of our founders to the advanced plants that are today designing the future. Our trajectory is defined by commitment, excellence and the capacity to anticipate challenges that come with the times. Our stainless steels and high-performance alloys -- they reinvent themselves in a planet that demands that we become increasingly more responsible. We manufacture materials that because of their very nature, they stand out as lasting and 100% recyclable materials, materials of the future because for Acerinox, sustainability is not a bonus, but rather the heart of our identity. It's our DNA. We were the pioneers in circular economy way before it became a trend.

We recycle, we optimize and we reinvent every single process, not because of obligations, but rather because we fully believe that every decision that we make today will have an impact tomorrow. And from this commitment arises EcoAcerinox, our even more sustainable stainless steel, a milestone that makes our efforts make sense and that shows that true sustainability stems from every action that we implement today will result in a better future. It's present in the quality of your cooking, in the elevator that takes you to your home and bridges that unite pathways, stainless steel and our alloys are way more than materials. They are trust, security and lasting durability designed to endure the passing of generations. We don't just produce. We design.

We create added value solutions that push strategic industries from the engines that help us travel to enjoy new experiences, the power that lights up our homes and even the rockets that help us explore further. We work to respond to the needs of today, and we innovate to anticipate the demands of tomorrow. Our story is written in every single corner of the world with factories in 3 continents and presence in more than 80 countries. We are a global company with a local vision.

This network allows us to be closer to be more agile and to respond more efficiently to the demands of the different markets and of each customer. We're connected to the heartbeat of the industry anywhere in the world. Innovation is an essential part of our culture. We invest in R&D, technology and digitization in order to elevate quality to reinforce security and improve every process. Now we introduce AI to improve control, efficiency and decision-making because why stop when there's so much to do. We innovate not just to make progress, but also to transform and to open the door to new possibilities. We keep an eye on the future with a clear ambition. We want to lead an industry that grows smarter, more efficiently -- and more efficient and sustainable because at Acerinox, we go beyond materials. We build a more resistant connected world prepared for tomorrow's challenges, Acerinox, supporting a more resistant, efficient and sustainable future.

Chairman, I have been told that no requests to speak from the shareholders and representatives have been placed by those present in the room. I would like to, therefore, report on the attendance -- the final attendance data. They are as follows: we have 650 shareholders present in the room, representing [indiscernible] of the share capital represented in the General Shareholders' Meeting, we have 1,586 shareholders amounting to 35.45% of the share capital. And therefore, the quorum amounts to 66.96% of the share capital. Figures that are very similar to the ones that we shared in the beginning of this meeting. So we can therefore -- sorry, apologies. Next, the Secretary will inform you of the voting procedure for the proposed resolutions submitted for your approval.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We hereby inform you that the tallying of votes on the resolutions proposed by the Board of Directors regarding the items on the agenda will be conducted using a negative deduction system. For this purpose, votes in favor will be considered to be those corresponding to all shares present and represented at this meeting minus the votes corresponding to shares whose holders or representatives indicate that they are voting against the resolution or abstaining. Votes corresponding to shares whose holders have voted against or have stated their abstention prior to this meeting through the remote communication means made available to shareholders and votes corresponding to shares whose holders or representatives have left the meeting prior to the vote on the proposed resolution in question and that have made their expressed intention to leave the meeting known either through the link on the telematic attendance platform provided for this purpose on the website or in the case of shareholders present in this room before the notary public and the staff assisting her.

Likewise, it is hereby noted that the conflicts of interest involving certain directors in relation to some of the items on the agenda that have been taken into account in accordance with the provisions of the Capital Companies Act. Given that the proposed resolutions submitted to this meeting are known to all and in view of their length in accordance with the provisions of Article 11.5 of the general meeting regulations, I dispense with a full reading and proceed to a summary reading of their essential elements. You may recall that under the first item on the agenda, the approval of the annual financial statements of management report for Acerinox S.A. and its consolidated group, all corresponding to fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, is submitted to the meeting. Under the second item on the agenda, the Board is asked to approve the consolidated nonfinancial information statement of sustainability information for the fiscal year ended on December 31, 2025.

Under the third item on the agenda, the meeting is asked to approve the proposed appropriation of earnings of Acerinox S.A. for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025. And the net income for the fiscal year was EUR 202,307,452. For dividend distribution, we have EUR 154,587,930 and to voluntary reserves of EUR 47,719,522. The proposal includes the payment of supplementary dividend for the 2025 fiscal year in the amount of EUR 0.31 gross per share to be paid on July 17, 2026. Under Item 4 of the agenda, the Board's management for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2025, is submitted to the meeting for approval. Under Item 5 of the agenda, the meeting is asked to approve the reelection of the auditors for both Acerinox S.A. and its consolidated group for the 2026 fiscal year.

Under Item 6 of the agenda, the reelection of the auditors for both Acerinox S.A. and its consolidated group for the fiscal year 2027, 2028 and 2029 is submitted to the meeting for approval. Under Item 7 of the agenda, we will summarize this. The meeting is asked to approve the authorization to increase the share capital through cash contributions of 60% and the current capital and with delegation to the Board of Directors of the power to exclude the right of refusal if the company's interest require with respect to a maximum of 10% of the company's share capital. And this authorization, by the way, supersedes the delegation granted in the previous Ordinary General Shareholders Meeting.

Under Item 8 of the agenda, the meeting is asked to approve the authorization for a period of 2 years of the company's Board of Directors to acquire treasury shares up to 10% of those issued. And once again, this authorization supersedes the one granted under Item 10 in the previous General Shareholders' Meeting. Under Item 9 of the agenda, the meeting is asked to approve the delegation to the company's Board of Directors for a period of 5 years of the authority to issue securities convertible and exchangeable into shares of the company as well as warrants or other similar securities that may entitle the holder directly or indirectly until up to a total of EUR 1 billion as well as the authority to increase the share capital by the amount necessary.

And by the way, this delegation does not include the authority of the Board of Directors to exclude the right of first refusal. Under Item -- of the agenda, the meeting is asked to approve a multiyear compensation plan. And this is broken down into 10 points. 10 points, first has the fourth -- 653,943 shares intended for the payment of the second multiyear compensation plan or long-term incentive plan for executive personnel of the Acerinox Group for the period 2024 to 2028. Under item -- we submit to the vote the annual report on the remuneration of the directors of Acerinox S.A. for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025. Under Item 12 of the agenda, the meeting is asked to approve the delegation of authority to the Board of Directors for the implementation, rectification and formalization of the resolutions adopted at the Ordinary General Shareholders Meeting. Having read and believe me in summary the proposed resolutions, I hereby declare the voting period on the proposals relating to the items on the agenda closed. And now I give the floor back to the Secretary.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Given that the meeting has been validly convened on second call with a quorum of attendance exceeding by far the percentage of subscribed share capital with voting rights required by law. For the items on the agenda is sufficient for the proposed resolutions put to a vote to be approved by a simple majority of the votes, except for the proposed resolutions relating to items 7 and 9 of the agenda, which are taken into account. Given that the quorum exceeds 50% of the capital present or represented exceeds 50%, the absolute majority is required for their approval. After counting the different votes cast in relation to each of the proposed resolutions regarding the items on the agenda taken into account for this purpose.

The votes cast prior to this meeting via remote communication means those cast by attendees present in the room as well as the votes cast via the telematic attendance platform as recorded by the Board of this meeting in accordance with the votes cast and tallied, the shareholders are hereby informed that the required number of affirmative votes has been reached for the approval of each and every one of the proposed resolutions regarding the various agenda items put to a vote at this general meeting.

The foregoing also applies to the 11th item on the agenda, but as mentioned before, this is a consultative point. In accordance with the data on record with the Board of the meeting, I hereby declare all resolutions put to a vote to be validly approved. As I mentioned, I didn't read in full the different items. Nonetheless, detailed information regarding the specific number of votes in favor, against and abstentions cast in relation to each of the resolutions put to vote at this Ordinary General Meeting in accordance with Article 525 of the Capital Companies Act.

These results will be published on the corporate website within the next 5 days and will be included in the minutes drawn up by the notary, which shall be deemed the minutes of the meetings and the resolutions contained therein and may be implemented as of the date of their closing And this will be made public on the company's website within the next 5 days. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, on behalf of the Board of Directors and on my own behalf, I would like to conclude by once again thanking all of you for attending this general meeting and for your commitment to the company. And I hereby formally declare the session closed. Thank you very much.

Hello. Good morning, good morning, everyone, and welcome to Acerinox Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2025 Results Presentation. As you well know, '25 has been a challenging year marked by a complex macroeconomic environment, low global demand and ongoing tariff tensions. However, despite these headwinds, the group has maintained a solid financial situation, demonstrating the strength of our diversified business model and a strategic position in the United States, Europe and South Africa.

In many ways, '25 has been the year for setting the foundations for industrial reactivation in both the U.S. and Europe with the improvement of Section 232 in the U.S. and the Steel and Metals Action plan in the European Union. Looking ahead and although final demand remains low, we maintain a positive outlook for 2026 based on a solid strategy and supported by the different trade defense measures.

Acerinox, thanks to its geographical diversification, is best positioned to benefit from this new environment. During this call, we will hear from our Chairman, Carlos Ortega; our CEO, Bernardo Velazquez; our Chief Corporate Officer, Miguel Ferrandis; and our CFO, Esther Camos. They will explain our full year results, our corporate strategy, and they will also provide us with an outlook of the upcoming year.

Before we start the presentation, let me remind you that this conference call is being broadcast on our website, acerinox.com, where you can also find all of our year-end documentation, including the annual accounts and the management report. And now I'll hand you over to our Chairman, Carlos. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Carlos. Good morning, everyone. As Carlos said, this has been a very challenging environment, very difficult year, full of geopolitical tension, macro issues, low demand in all the markets that we have. But having said that, we believe in our strategy, and we believe we have done well within our strategy. And what we see is a very bright future in the medium term for Acerinox in particular.

With that in mind, for '25, we have recorded an increase in net sales of 7%, EUR 5.78 billion, which incorporates Haynes, the acquisition we had last year. And in the level of EBITDA -- adjusted EBITDA, we are 5% below last year at EUR 420 million. But one of the key aspects of the results this year has been the generation -- the cash flow generation. The operating cash flow you see is EUR 455 million, which is more than 50% higher than last year. This has allowed us to follow up with our very significant CapEx program, investment program at the low part of the cycle, over EUR 300 million invested.

We have paid taxes, almost EUR 100 million in taxes. And we allowed us also to pay our stable dividend policy with EUR 155 million this year paid as well. With all of that, plus, unfortunately, foreign exchange impact, the depreciation of the dollar versus euro, that has impacted our net debt has increased our net debt by EUR 68 million to EUR 1.189 billion net debt. Again, that increase -- slight increase in net debt is based on the investments we've made, the dividends and the FX differences. We have -- we stick to our strategy, as you saw the 4 pillars of our strategy, the excellence in our operations, in particular, Beyond Excellence program that is doing far better than expected.

As you know, we had earmarked EUR 100 million savings in 3 years by 2026. We're doing better than expected, and we have increased our target to EUR 120 million because we believe we can do better. We are investing in the low part of the cycle, EUR 311 million this year. That adds to our increasing value added in the industry and in our strategy, as you know, is HPA is a very important part.

We incorporated Haynes into our perimeter, and we believe we are going to higher value products for our customers. Sustainability continues to be a key part of our strategy. As you may know, we have been included in the S&P Sustainability report for 2026, which is the first time and the only stainless steel, the only steel producer in the industry that has that recognition. All of this allows us to continue with our financial strength, and that provides us the ability to continue with our stable dividend policy which is, again, EUR 155 million this year, EUR 0.62 that we continue, we want to keep doing for the years to come. So all in all, we believe it's a good year despite the headwinds that we have suffered in Europe, in particular, with the low prices, in the U.S. with low demand. But with all of that, we have generated a lot of -- a significant amount of cash flow that allow us to continue with our investments and dividend policy. With that in mind, I leave you to Bernardo, our CEO.

Thank you, Carlos. Good morning, everyone. Yes, our Chairman said, 2025 has been a challenging year. And if there is a word that can define the market situation is uncertainty. Everybody is speaking about uncertainty. So how can you make a budget if you don't know if you're going to have tariffs in your markets or tariff in the export markets? And how can you define what's going to be your competitors? If you don't know anything about tariffs and you have all these geopolitical tensions.

So the word that we are using in all the market with other customers is uncertainty, what can happen. And this is the third consecutive year under this situation. We have -- we are showing in the stainless steel business in the left part of this slide, the parallelism between Europe and United States because the general situation is more or less the same. PME has been below 50 in both markets for 10 months of the year. So this is very representative of the sentiment, the market sentiment. Apparent consumption has been flat.

It's minus 1.5% in the United States, plus 2.8% in Europe. So that is flat for the third consecutive year. Inventories in both markets are below the historical average. So the situation is more or less the same. And what makes the difference. In United States, we have a very effective Section 232 that, by the way, nobody is questioning.

Nobody is questioning even if there was some rumors about the end of this tariff, but nobody is questioning and the Vice President of the United States said that it was a fake news. So no problem with this. But with this effective tariffs, imports have decreased by 17%, and we keep very healthy market conditions with stable and reasonable prices.

In the case of Europe, it is very clear as we are demanding year-by-year that the saver measures are not effective are not effective and imports are increasing. Imports increased 25%, the opposite than in the United States. And under this situation with a flat market, a depressed market plus increase of imports of 25%, that means that especially if these imports are coming from countries with -- that are not playing this game with the same rules than we are, prices are going down.

And we are in a critical situation of prices in Europe, probably the lowest in the history. Fortunately, we have a very clear strategy, and we are following this, and this help us with -- to compensate the good places, the bad places. We are in the United States, but you're in Europe, but we are also in high-performance alloys. And this is a different market, and this diversification is giving us more stability. I think that our volatility through the cycles is being reduced, thanks to this diversification.

In the case of Europe, HPA is also affected because that's not because there are no projects or projects have been canceled. It's because under this uncertainty, many companies are postponing this investment. So this is why oil and gas sector and chemical industry is going down and that is affecting VDM. But on the other side, we have Haynes in the United States. And Haynes is more focused in aerospace and focus in turbines for the industrial gas power stations. And this is also booming now in the United States, especially because of the data centers and these data centers need a lot of electricity, so they need to build more power plants and they are using turbine gas and that turbines are made with our nickel alloys in Haynes.

So in a challenging situation, in a difficult environment, we are demonstrating that we are -- we have the right strategy that we are resilient and that we are ready for what can happen in the future that we think will be better.

Now if we go to the figures, today, we are not only presenting our year-end results, we have also published in our web page, the consolidated management report audited by PYC. We are well recognized for the transparency and the detailed financial statements. I strongly recommend you to go through it. Most of the questions or the basis for understanding the year 2025 are perfectly explained in our financial statements. Having said that, let's -- I want just to give 3, 4 ideas. You have the figures in the chart.

Let's start by the EBITDA. The EBITDA of the year has been EUR 354 million. By itself, it could be considered it's not a remarkable amount, but we need to put the context of what's taking place in the market. First of all, it's probably the worst market condition ever achieved. The demand collapsed 20% in America and in Europe, in the Western world 3 years ago and still have remained flat. So we are playing in that environment for putting it on place, you can realize that more or less every time our distance from our competitors is getting bigger.

So no one is getting even close to the figures we are reporting. So EUR 350 million in this environment is really relevant, but especially keeping in mind what has been taking place mostly at the year-end with that strong adjustment we have done for EUR 69 million. We have made 2 very relevant adjustments. One is taking place the rejuvenation plan in Acerinox Europa by EUR 9 million, but the most relevant is the EUR 60 million inventory adjustment. Why? What's taking place there?

There are 2 issues, both very relevant in 2025. During the year, we have been experiencing a price decline, mostly in Europe, also in South Africa, but especially worse in the fourth quarter. It could be considered that the prices could not deteriorate more. But what in Europe took place in the fourth quarter is a clear reduction of prices as a consequence also for increase in imports in Europe, anticipating the new measures in place for the year 2026.

So this has its effect. So consequently, at the year-end, we have made a huge analysis of the realizable value of our inventories, keeping also in mind that at the starting of the year, the nickel has been moving up. But in the actual market conditions, mostly in Europe, it's not so simple to believe that it's going to be a pass-through of the nickel cost.

So as a consequence of that, in a very prudent exercise, we have preferred to make a strong inventory adjustments by this side. And in the other, in the huge strategic exercise of working capital reduction, we have also analyzed which material we were keeping enhance in our inventories and plants that in the current market conditions is not easy to sell and has not been rotated and material that for more than 1 year, we have keep it in our books and it's not so easy to consider that we are going to probably sell it in the short term in the current market conditions.

We have preferred to scrap that. This shall be obviously benefiting our raw material purchases expenses in the beginning of the year because we shall use our own generated scrap. It's not going to be taking place a reversal on higher profits because of that, but we have just adjusted that to put it according to the scrap prices. So these 2 effects at the end has this EUR 69 million.

We prefer for not making during the year. We never talk about adjusted and so on. We normally take about EBITDA at the year-end when there are some relevant issues taking place, we normally mention EBITDA and adjusted. For example, last year, the adjusted corrected the EBITDA we were reporting because it appeared the sale of value, which obviously was not a recurring part of the business.

This year, the effect of the adjustment has been in the contrary because at the end, what has been taking place is this fact. It should not have been by this fact, the fourth quarter EBITDA should have been, as appears in the chart, EUR 101 million and EUR 422 million adjusted EBITDA for the tough environment experienced in the year 2025.

We are proud about the figure that we have achieved. If we analyze also the bottom of the chart, we see the net financial debt. Net financial debt, EUR 1.2 billion is also, again, a consequence of our financial strength. It's a consequence that we have enough financial strength for making strategic acquisitions in the low part of the cycle, for moving forward, for making an aggressive expansion plan.

And this is showing this figure. Keep in mind that just in the last year, the acquisition of Haynes, the AAA investment decision, America Alloys and Aerospace increase our net debt almost EUR 900 million. In addition, that 4 years ago also in our strategy of moving forward to the HPA, we also acquired VDM.

So at the end, if not were for our strategy moving to the HPA by acquisitions and integration, we should be in a cash position only by our stainless business. So for us, it's relevant that our financial strength allows us to invest in every part of the cycle, even in such difficult times as today on. But we are not getting just comforted with that. In any case, what we are concentrating is also in generating cash and trying to compensate this increase of debt by a strong cash flow generation, which has been also remarkable in the way of EUR 455 million.

We are keeping our strategy programs. We are keeping our investments. But we are generating cash also for minimizing the effects in our debt. Even though that, I always -- as I always remember, keep in mind that we have now a single covenant in our debt since the year 2009 related to results of EBITDA.

So for us, it's an indicator, it's a KPI that's an internal indicator for us. But none of our leverage contracts is related to any specific debt-to-EBITDA ratio. And then having said that, I also want to remark one issue. 2, 3 years ago, we explained in our Investor Day presentations, our through the cycle, and we were more or less explaining. We consider currently after the big investments done in the past, we are in a through-the-cycle EBITDA of about EUR 700 million.

If we analyze what has taken place after the COVID, we have 2 magnificent years and then 2 years of strong correction. And this year, which has been the worst. If we consider this to be a cycle because the valley and the bottom clearly has been achieved in the year '25, what appears is the average EBITDA of this period has been EUR 764 million, the average. But the average operating cash flow has been EUR 432 million.

So we are generating cash in every part of the cycle. And the range from these horrible years to the remarkable year has been a range from EUR 294 million to EUR 544 million. Some years, the cash flow generation is driven by the profits. Some years, the cash flow generation is driven by the strong exercise of reducing working capital, and we are able to face every water in this condition.

So 2025 has been the valley. We consider that we have reached the bottom. Any case, let me make some quotes. My favorite piece of music is from Handels, every valley shall be exalted. Exhaled in 2025 means we have generated EUR 455 million. We have reduced inventories in EUR 400 million. We have overperformed in sustainability. We have overperformed in the Beyond Excellence plan.

We are keeping a strong organic growth plan at the same time that we are keeping a strong inorganic growth plan. All of these issues should appear in Esther's presentation now for all the financial details. But keep in mind that this year 2025, this valley shall be exalted.

Okay. Thank you, Miguel. Let me now explain you the results by divisions, okay? And I will start by stainless. And let me summarize the main drivers of the quarter. Most of them has been mentioned either by Bernardo or Miguel, but I will centralize what's been the main drivers of the quarter.

First of all, the quarter has been marked by the weak demand, weak demand in both markets, both Europe and the United States. Secondly, the seasonality, especially in our main markets, United States with a decrease in the quarter of around 10% in volumes.

There's been a consolidation price increase in the United States as we announced, and we have the opposite side in Europe. In Europe, Europe has been affected this quarter by the higher volumes prior to the approval of the CBAM. I think this was one of the reasons why fourth quarter was affected by higher inputs and consequently, a higher price pressure, which has led us to lower prices in Europe.

And with all this, we have had extraordinary adjustments in this quarter that Miguel has already mentioned. In the case of stainless, the extraordinary adjustments have been the restructuring provision of EUR 9 million for Acerinox Europa and also an inventory adjustment of EUR 48 million in the case of this division. Out of this EUR 48 million, EUR 21 million is what's been the scrapping materials that Miguel has already explained.

With all of this, our adjusted EBITDA in this division in the quarter has been of EUR 58 million, which compares to the EUR 56 million that we had last year. We are very proud of our successful working capital reduction plan. This has been launched throughout all the group divisions, and this has allowed us to generate EUR 104 million in the stainless division in this quarter.

If I move to the year, and if I -- if we compare to 2024, we have grown 7% in productions in volumes, okay? That's not only affected by the strike that we had last year in Europe, but we have also grown in the United States. In the United States, we have grown around 6%, mostly not because of the demand, but mostly because of the reduction of the imports in that market.

In the opposite side, we have Europe. Europe has been affected by the higher imports this year and consequently, the lower prices. And also to mention in the year is the negative impact in our results of the devaluation of the U.S. dollar. As you know, we consolidate in Europe. We have a lot of results in U.S. dollars. And this has -- this devaluation in the year has impacted more or less around EUR 20 million.

With this, the adjusted EBITDA for the year in the stainless division has been EUR 226 and proud of our cash flow generation, mainly driven by the working capital plan. We have generated in this division EUR 269 million, which is more or less the figure of EBITDA that we are reporting in the year.

Going to HPA, okay? If we go to HPA, I think the strategy of diversification that has been followed by the group, not only in diversifying in high value-added products with high-performance alloy, but also diversifying in the regions where we are really having higher profitability in this time. We have achieved in this division 40% of the EBITDA of the year, okay, with EUR 146 million adjusted EBITDA.

The situation in HPA has been different on one side. We have had a gradual recovery of the aerospace sector, okay? And on the other side -- well, on the other side, sectors like oil and gas or chemicals have been progressively going down due to the uncertainties that Bernardo mentioned, okay, that is postponing investments, especially in big projects. That's what we have -- and even in this situation, thanks to our strategy, we have been able to balance these 2 different positions.

In comparison, year-over-year, it was to mention also that last year, as we mentioned also, we had positive impacts of the nickel. We have tailwinds on nickel of around EUR 30 million. We are not having this year, okay? And the inventory adjustment, we also are releasing an adjusted inventory.

The inventory adjustments in this division have been of EUR 12 million at year-end. The cash generation has been constant in both divisions, both stainless and high-performance alloys and mainly driven by working capital reduction. And this working capital reduction has been especially focused on reduction on inventories. The cash generation in this division in the year has been EUR 186 million.

And if we go to the cash flow, and we start by the fourth quarter, again, the strategy, and you can see there, even the strategy of reducing working capital has allowed us in this quarter to reduce the net financial debt in EUR 55 million despite the high payment of taxes and the high investments in this quarter. The high payments of taxes was already announced. There was an extension in United States because of the floods in the state of Kentucky, and most of the payments of the year have been concentrated in this quarter, okay?

That's the reason for the EUR 97 million. And out of the EUR 240 million reduction of working capital that we have had in the quarter, EUR 200 million is coming from inventories, okay? So really, it's been a high success of the working capital reduction, especially on inventories. And then moving to the year, as Miguel mentioned, we generate cash even in the lower part of the cycle and even increasing activity, okay?

We have generated in the year the same cash flow as in year 2023 when we earn double EBITDA, okay? So even in the low moments of the cycle and even increasing the activity, we have been controlling our debt and generating cash of EUR 455 million, I think you are seeing, and now you have there the year. We are generating EUR 455 million of operating cash flow, almost, again, the reduction coming from reduction of inventories and working capital reduction.

We pay a lot of taxes. Yes, we pay a lot of taxes, mainly in the United States because of our profitability in that market. But this year also, we are paying taxes in Germany and the taxes that we are paid in Germany come from 2023 from the results we had in 2023, which was the best result of VDM in that year, the most highly profitable.

In the side of the interest payments, you see that even with a debt of USD 1.2 billion, we are paying $47 million of interest, which shows the competitive cost of our debt. Under the others, which we have EUR 64 million, it's true that we have also a conversion difference because of the devaluation of the U.S. dollar and part of this conversion difference affect also the -- has had an impact on the reduction of the working capital.

The strong CapEx. We are having a CapEx of EUR 311 million, which is EUR 100 million higher than last year. All the projects that we have for generating higher EBITDA are also invested in the -- in our CapEx, okay? And we maintain a consistent return to shareholders of EUR 155 million.

And with all this, we have increased a bit of our debt, but we have also an impact because of the devaluation and the conversion of the U.S. dollar. okay, the conversion of the U.S. dollar exchange rate has been applied to our cash in U.S. dollar and has -- and this has had an impact in the conversion of EUR 126 million, negative impact of EUR 126 million, which has made our debt to slightly increase from last year. But we are controlling our debt even in moments when we are doing investment and having lower EBITDA, which I think is a great success of the year and the thing that we can be more proud of is this cash generation.

So the main driver for the operating cash flow has been the strong working capital reduction. We made a very ambitious program for years '25 and '26 of working capital reduction. We have, by far, overperformed.

What is also relevant to remark is that it has been done through the whole organization. So this working capital reduction of EUR 406 million for your understanding, EUR 202 million has been taking place in stainless and EUR 204 million in HPA. So it's almost equal, keeping in mind any case that HPA is very few tonnage compared with those of stainless, but in its value is substantially higher and also the maturity of the process is substantially longer.

But it has been done through the whole organization, half on stainless and half on HPA. And also what's relevant is that this is not window dressing. So we have not been focusing on making factoring contracts regarding customers, reverse factoring for suppliers. We have mostly focused on inventories, and we have been extremely active and aggressive in our inventories in hand.

The driver from this EUR 406 million is the EUR 383 million in inventories. And again, I insist half in stainless, half in HPA, EUR 194 million in stainless and EUR 189 million. So it's a global program, and the whole group is absolutely focused and committed on this basis. So this is -- for us, is some of the most remarkable issues we must be proud in this by year of 2025.

As our Chairman mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, we have a very clear strategy. I think it's something that is remarkable and most of our analysts, most of the people that are following realize they have the clearest strategy in the sector. And this is very important for us, and we are keeping since 2020, more or less the same basis, we adapting the strategy we have released this year, a new plan '26 2030, but following the same 4 pillars that we always speak about.

Excellence because we are a commodity maker. We are focusing in making new stainless steel grades, new HPA, but we cannot forget that stainless steel is a commodity. In a commodity, you have to be very competitive and to be competitive today is not enough being good. You have to be excellent. And this is why we are focusing in this. This is productivity. This is efficiency, and this is the way of doing things aligned and through all the organization. We are focusing in added value. we call added value to the HPA, nickel alloys and also the special stainless steel grades that we are developing, and we have been successful in this is trying to fill the pyramid of material that we have presented several years that -- so we are making the base of the pyramid that is stainless steel commodity and then tailor-made grades for our customers and users.

Then we have the top of the pyramid with HPA, very special materials, but we are filling the gap in between with very special stainless steel and grades that are developed tailor-made for our customers. Not it's just a standard grade, but adapted to the necessities to the machinery of our customers. So this is very important, and we can say today that we have the widest portfolio of products in our industry.

And some of our competitors are following this strategy, but they are late. We can before, and we are playing with the best components of this market. Sustainability and speaking about sustainability, always from, of course, social, environment point of view, but very related with our efficiency and with our social action. I mean, efficiency, we are speaking about reducing the emissions of CO2.

This is very important, but it's important because we are more clean than before, but it's also important because we are consuming less gas and less electricity than before. And this is cost. This is efficiency and this is excellence as well. And this is what we are doing, focusing in efficiency, reducing water consumption, reducing electricity, reducing natural gas in our furnaces and trying to put in value what we are doing in our communities because as you know, we have big plants that are normally out of the big cities.

We are in rural areas and other areas where we have to develop the community. We have developed the skills of the people that they don't have when we arrive to these places. And we are cooperating with diversity, with women and minorities inclusion. We are cooperating with developing dual colleges and universities, and we are very proud of this.

So this is why this is not, as Miguel mentioned, for other reasons, but it's not window. This is not greenwashing. This is reality. we are sustainable. And our financial strength that we have spoken a lot about this, but this is the base of all this strategy. So this is what we are doing, delivering through the cycle value creation. And this is the base of our strategy.

If we move to sustainability, at the end, you know because it's public that we have very ambitious targets for 2030, mostly with a continuous effort on reducing 10% the accident rate, but also a 45% reduction on carbon emission for 2030 and -- as much as 90% of recycled waste utilization.

When we analyze the parameters of the 2025, it has been a great success. First of all, by its relevance, we have reduced the lost time injury frequency rate at 15.2%. In addition, we have reduced the carbon emissions, Scope 1 plus 2, almost more than 13%, 13.4% and in recycled waste utilization of more than 79%. So we clearly are on the track.

We are confident that we are more than fulfilling all these ambitious targets. But also what is more relevant as far as I also mentioned that we are well recognized by the quality of our financial statements. We are also well recognized every day more in the sustainability ratings. Apart of the -- all those that we normally mentioned, only in last week, we received 3 new awards. We can only explain today too, by some licenses issues and so on.

But last week, we have been awarded in 2 extraordinary relevant sustainability ratings. One is the Clean 200. So analyzing the largest publicly traded companies in the world of every sector, analyzing 8,300 companies. We are in the list of the 200. We are in the 122 position by the more sustainable revenues.

And then this is revenue sustainable due to our products and our solution. This is absolutely remarkable. And in addition, last week also, we were notified that the Standard & Poor includes in the Sustainability Yearbook of 2026 because of an achievement in 2025. This is an analysis of every sector in all the world of the listed traded companies of 9,200 companies and they are only selecting less than 9%, 850 companies, we are there.

We have obtained the maximum qualification, 100 over 100 in transparency and reporting. And we are above 90% in business ethics, in product management and in health and safety. So also now all the rating agencies are realizing and putting on value and certifying all the works we are doing in this area.

In addition, if we move to the efficiency plan, we are doing on continuous and recurring savings. We launched last year the Beyond Excellence plan for creating EUR 100 million in savings in 3 years. At the conclusion of the second year, we have overperformed and now we have achieved EUR 83 million. So this and the more knowledge we have been developing through all our internal benchmarking on the group and the participation of all our teams, we have realized that we can be again more ambitious and reaching for the coming year '26, the new target of the EUR 120 million. You have the split of which is more or less including in that by order of importance or relevance in this split.

Obviously, the first chapter is customer-centric. This obviously means quality. We are talking mostly about predictive quality, big achievements over there. Big achievements also in efficiency and efficiency in our sector is critical, mostly efficiency in raw materials as well as in variable costs.

We are also overperforming there as well as in research and development. And obviously, in this regard, once again, we need to mention the nodes. We are launching and with great success the EAO, which is produced with 100% renewable energy, which is produced with 90% of recycled material and with a 50% reduction in emissions. So in all these areas, we are clearly overperforming.

Sorry, in regard of the synergies that we are obtaining in the integration of our high-performance alloys in the group, we have achieved the targets, slightly above the target for year 2025. We have obtained in the first year, $12 million. We are confident that we are reaching in 2026, at least the $23 million. Obviously, this year is more concentrating in cost synergies. Gradually also the revenue synergies shall appear as a consequence of cross-selling and so on. And the biggest contribution is coming from now and mostly in the year '28 and '29 when in addition, we shall be running the new equipments in place.

And if we go now to the projects actually in place, the organic growth, you can realize that the end currently in the current years, in this period, we have organic growth investments. If we aggregate all the CapExes appear here, we reached EUR 505 million. Clearly, we are prioritizing for CapEx, the areas where we are -- where there is more warranty return.

Obviously, the first in this warranty return is no other than North American stainless. You know the big expansion we are accomplishing there since year 2023. Actually, it's coming on place in 2026. The crane was installed last year. We announced it as well as the cold roll that has started its trials in 2026 as well as the AP2, the skin pass now shall be starting on the month of April.

So this is mostly now coming during the year 2026. In addition, in Haynes, a part of the acquisition, we are also investing for taking advantage of the excellent momentum coming, not only in aerospace, but also in the gas turbine, we are growing also in VDM in Europe with EUR 63 million. And in those companies where still there is no such a warranty return, but we are doing our best for improve and transform the business.

We are diversifying even more Columbus with the introduction of electrical steel. So now Columbus is able to cover the necessities of the South African and the African market. as well as sporting, but mostly having the most diversified portfolio, which is stainless, it's carbon steel, it's electric. It's allowed also to transform HPA. And in the case of Acerinox Europa, we're also involved in the turning around and also is a relevant part of our programs actually in place. With this, we are clearly in position for the coming years to increase our EBITDA more than EUR 300 million.

So this is a beautiful summary of what Miguel has been mentioning. We started in 2020 with this strategy. We have been not even with the bad years, we suffered COVID, we suffered all the tensions, geopolitical tensions, the disruptions of the supply chain and all the geopolitical situation that we are facing, the tariffs, whatever uncertainty, everything, but we are going ahead with our strategy.

We are going ahead, and we are revising the strategy, but insisting in the same simple and beautiful. You can put the starting point whatever you want in the average through the cycle EBITDA last year, whatever, but we have a potential upside potential of EUR 500 million EBITDA with the organic growth that Miguel has been explaining.

That is including also the possibility that is exciting. It's a fantastic project that we are going with the new investments in Haynes with the new forks and the new furnace. We will have an excess of production of that we will be able to process in North American stainless to make long products. Haynes is focused in flat products. And as we have both flats and long.

So we will start making HPA long products in North American stainless. So making a very boutique project in a commodity factory. That's going to be a game changer. Synergies, EUR 68 million, with the next year, EUR 120 million in total. We believe that we have a potential of EUR 500 million EBITDA in our future. So our future can only be better than our present. And we have a new environment, and this is the thing that is going to change. That's why we think that we have already touched the lowest part of the cycle.

We have a new environment, and we are actively participating in the creation of this new environment. We are actively participating in Washington in Brussels to explain and demonstrate the administrations that the industry is totally essential for our future that we need industry and we need basic industry and we need stainless steel.

We are defining this landscape and prioritizing strategic autonomy. You have seen how the European Commission is changing the wording now. Until a few years ago, it was impossible to speak in these terms. Now strategic autonomy is very common and everybody knows what it is, and everybody knows what are we referring to. But in the last weeks, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the Commission is strengthening this message.

It's not speaking about the strategic autonomy. It's speaking about independency, the need of independency for Europe, for the European industry. And something unbelievable before that the commissioner of the European community is speaking about a by European program that we need to local purchases, especially for public purchasing called responsible purchases, but also for products or projects that are subsidized or receive any kind of help from the European Commission. This is very important.

Europe is waking up and Europe is realizing that there's no future without industry. And this is the picture that we have here. We have United States, already a protected market with this Section 232 that nobody is questioning. This is applying to every country. It's with a 50% tariff that is not under consideration with no exclusions per country, with no exclusions per product and also extended to downstream product that is very important.

So our best customers are also protected by this Section 232 because tube makers, since makers, screws, all these kind of things that are -- where stainless steel is a big portion of the cost of the product are also included here. So our customers are also included. And of course, the that is avoiding the possibility to do convention between countries to avoid the tariffs.

The other tariffs, who knows? This is today's uncertainty. We have the reciprocal tariffs that has been canceled by the Supreme Court in the United States. Now they are applying Section 122, that is 10% duty and it's a general duty for every country, every product except what is included in Section 232. Let's see it can be increased to 15% because still there's nothing published officially.

And we know that the administration and we are cooperating with that is looking for new tools or new tariffs or reviewing the American law and the American constitution to find out where they can put this protection that in some cases, we can complain because it's a political -- are using tariffs as a political instrument, but in other products or in other terms are necessary to keep a healthy industrial production in the country.

In the case of Europe, we have CBAM that is already in place since 1st of January. There is not a tax. This is not a protection. This is something that to compensate the efforts that we, the European industry are making in decarbonization. What we can say until today is that there's a lot of uncertainties yet. This is -- importers are applying the default values to calculate CBAM. This is very high today. It's going up to EUR 600 per tonne for several countries. The average is around EUR 400 per tonne.

So it's a lot -- in the future, these exporters will have to calculate their own values, and they have to evaluate these values and somebody will have to certify that these values are right. And this is part of the uncertainty that we have. But what is true is that already in January, imports have been low, have been decreased a lot. And in February, it looks like it's going to be more or less the same. So we hope that CBAM is going to compensate the effort that we are doing and will be a kind of filter for unfair or nonsustainable steel coming from other places.

In the case of the new trade measures that we are working hard on this. We have seen and we have during these years that the measures have not been effective, and we need something stronger. We need a strong support and demonstration of the European administration that we need the industry.

What I can say is that in the case of Spain, the Spanish administration is cooperating with us and is helping us a lot and is supporting all these activities in Europe. Of course, the industrialized countries in Europe are supporting our initiatives, but Europe is a complex mechanism. And there are some other countries with other interest. But today, it's clear that we will defend the industry.

With the new system, the target is reduce imports at the level of 15% market share. That means in the case of stainless steel that imports will have to reduce by 15%. So very helpful. If we have a market where imports are only 15%, of course, we will compete because we have enough capacity between the European producers.

But having more stability, having no dumping imports at the end, we'll have a more stable market and we'll have a healthier prices that will help us to generate EBITDA in Europe that will help us to keep on investing and paying dividends to our shareholders that is necessary to keep the industry alive.

Now the situation is improving, as I mentioned at the beginning, we have lower stocks in all the market. And what is positive, the PMI in the biggest economies are turning around. United States from December to January, the PMI went from 47.9% to 52.6%. This is a big change in the European Union from December to February, it moved from 48.8% to 50.8%. So we are -- in both areas, we are in the positive side now.

So we have a future with measures, a future with more industrial activity and a future in which we have developed a very strong and reliable strategy. So that takes us to the end of the presentation. So we consider that we have a good result in 2025, a very good EBITDA in the lowest point of the cycle.

But we are delivering our strategy and nobody is confusing us. So we are following the way that we have defined for Acerinox. And we have a clear strategy that is already in place and is being developed and it's going to be the base for our future success.

We have a better environment. We have a more positive environment for our future. So at the end, it can only be better. So we will start gradually recovering through the year. We will start gradually increasing our EBITDA through the year. And that take us to the -- especially in the second half of the year with the new commercial measures in Europe that will help us. And gradually, we will be increasing, and that's why we said prudently that our outlook for this first quarter 2026 that the adjusted EBITDA is going to be slightly higher than fourth quarter. That's all from the presentation.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much, Bernardo, and all the presenters. Let's start now with the Q&A session. We will start first here in the room and then we will move to the conference call. [Operator Instructions]

Congrats on the free cash flow. Just one. You have shown us today your long-term vision, but what should be the levers in terms of regional volumes and pricing that would lead to reach the EUR 500 million figure for EBITDA improve?

So when we calculate the potential of these new investments, all this strategy normally is calculated at historical average of the reasonable price. But still, we have to develop this CapEx program. We have to develop the new equipment. We have to do the ramp-up, and we'll have to, of course, to increase our production with this investment. But it's reasonable because it have been calculated with the actual prices.

Francisco Riquel from Alantra. I have two. The first one is on the U.S., which is your core market. I want to assess how NAS is holding up in the current environment, whether the short-term weakness in the group earnings is also applies to the NAS or it is also mainly related to Europe.

So if you can comment on volume and margin dynamics in the U.S. And also on the EUR 60 million of inventory write-downs, you mentioned EUR 12 million allocated to HPAs. So anything also for the U.S. or if that is mainly the rest to Europe? And my second question is about Europe. CBAM is already effective. So I wonder if you can update on what you are observing in the market since the beginning of the year in terms of import flows, your order book and utilization rates and pricing dynamics or whether you are still dealing with excess inventories in the system?

This is a short question that this is a very long answer. But thank you, Paco. United States, the situation is, as we mentioned, speaking about apparent consumption is still low. It's around 20% below what was normal because it was accumulated close to 30% reduction since 2022.

And the situation of NAS is very healthy. N, you have visited is a great factory. It's the best plant in the world, but at least in the Western world and is looking more or less at 85% of capacity utilization today, improving because our order book is increasing now in the beginning of the year, partly because of the seasonality of our business, but also because we see a very slight recovery.

Too soon to say that. We are finishing February, still we don't have too much information for this. But NAS is performing very well, making money with stable prices and stable costs and stable production at this level that I have mentioned. In the case of CBAM, there's nothing that we can say yet. January imports have been low, but we cannot conclude that that's going to happen for the rest of the year. Let's see how how it works in February, it looks that it's going to be similar than January, and let's see.

I think that I read in the magazine in one of our sector that prices were increasing in Europe because of CBAM. I don't think so. I think that prices are growing in Europe a little bit because nickel price is going up because the market is better and is accepting these price increases and CBAM maybe is giving this support to these activities. But we hope it will work well. But this is an experiment. There's no experience for this. To speak about inventories, Miguel, do you want to.

Yes. As we said before, inventory reduction has been taking place everywhere. The adjustment and the write-off has been done mostly in Europe.

Any other questions here in the room? So we can start now with the questions coming from the conference call. Please, operator, go ahead.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Dominic O'Kane with JPMorgan.

I have 2 questions. So the -- if I think about the outlook for 2026 and the guidance you've given us for Q1 on EBITDA to be slightly higher. Could you maybe just help us with the bridge about how we think about the cadence of the EBITDA growth coming through in 2026? Is it in your expectation, skewed to the second half? And is that going to be driven by price? Or can you talk to us maybe about specific volumes in the second half of the year that will drive significant improvement in the EBITDA? That's my first question.

Well, the -- sorry, for the year 2026, I think it should be a gradual recovery. More or less, we understand the situation. As Bernardo mentioned, we are in stable -- much more stable environment in America, even though, obviously, there is uncertainty. The uncertainty was the main driver for year '25, but still there is uncertainty on the starting of the 2026.

And we have seen more or less what has been taking place everywhere in the last 2 months. So still even for our customers, the situation is a bit unclear. And our customers are not in position of taking any strategy approach of grow or how to grow because still the rules of the game are not going to be clear.

We see now, for example, in the agreement, Europe and America and so on. So all of you know what we are facing. So it's not so simple. Having said that, when we say that gradually it's going to be moving up, the basis of our performance on the North American market is in stainless are very solid.

We think that the gradual recovery expected in Europe, mostly for the second semester, one since the 1st of July, the new measures taken by the European Union are on place, and this at least should allow us to improve the situation in Europe.

The situation in Europe, first of all, the new rules of the game appear to be favoring the industry and especially from the second semester. In our case, in the plan that we are putting on place and the turnaround plan in Acerinox Europa, we're also preparing everything for taking advantage in the coming future.

We have done the adjustments that we have done for preparing and having everything well prepared, but still what's not clear is when it's coming the reactivation of demand. It's unique. The situation we are experiencing in the last 2 years, it must come. But with the uncertainty, the demand still is a bit dormant. And this is the point which makes difficult to make predictions for the second half of the year. We are doing our best. We understand that gradually, we're going to improve.

We understand that we shall be in position for bringing gradually Europe breakeven maybe for the second half of the year because still at this level of prices in Europe, it's impossible to be profitable for the industry in general. So this is something that must change.

But we have better rules. We are in better condition, but still the demand in Europe has not been reactivated. In the case of the HPA, we are at the end, benefited by our diversification. So now it's coming a proper tailwind for -- especially for the aerospace and the gas turbine generation. This should be clearly benefiting Haynes. But VDM, which is more concentrated in the oil and gas, still that sector appears to be facing a tough challenging year for 2026.

So our strategy always has been diversification for trying to play the cycles and sometimes there are regional prices, sometimes there are by sector. Fortunately, we can grow in HPA, but the growth is going to be driven gradually from the aerospace that is more or less recovering and also the recovering is coming to the flat products and Haynes shall be there as well as to the gas turbine. These are going to be very relevant drivers for the HPA in America in the coming years. So we understand that we are probably moving up gradually during the year, but still there is uncertainties on place. So we cannot have a much more clear vision.

Our next question is from Adahna Ekoku from Morgan Stanley.

First, on Europe, is there any kind of indicative guidance you could give in terms of what uplift from the safeguard measures and CBAM that we've discussed on your profitability? Could we assume that at full run rate in maybe 2027, you could reach normalized volumes of around 600 kt and the normalized EBITDA, which I think sits at EUR 100 million to EUR 150 million? And then just second, on the NAS expansion, what proportion of the 200 kt volumes should we expect to see in 2026?

Thank you for your question. For the first one, there's not much that we can say. CBAM is already in place. And with the actual situation that the Parliament and the European Board plus has accepted what the European Commission proposed. Now they have to meet between the 3 parties. It's called the, and they are starting meetings. They started 23rd of February with the first meeting, and they are supposed to finish by first part of May.

So that means that even trying to push and go fast will be in place 1st of July. How is it going to affect the market and prices, but will depend on the situation when we start having these measures. But still it's difficult to predict. We don't have the crystal ball for this. So I think that the analysts have to make the calculations.

It's something that we cannot speak about prices. For the next expansion, we are already started. First coil was called roll last week. Now when you do the first coil, you have to fix many, many things and do the fine-tuning of the equipment and then we'll start with the ramp-up. So probably this new equipment will be in full production by June.

That means that in this year, we are going to contribute to the EBITDA of us. And of course, it will depend also in the market condition. Today, we are working at 85% of capacity utilization. If we increase our capacity utilization, then the new equipment will bring the 20% so the potential of 20% production increase that we are planning for this equipment.

Our next question is from Bastian Synagowitz from Deutsche Bank.

I've got 2. So my first one is just coming back on the European business. I think you mentioned that with current prices, it's impossible to be profitable in the current market. yet I think, I guess some of the European peers have been profitable in Q4. I guess, generally see some uptick in Q1. So I just wanted to just get back to that point. So is your view basically that you will not be able to get the business back to breakeven just stand-alone with the current market conditions you're seeing, I guess, given that prices have started to trend up a little, probably also taking currently a little bit of market share back from imports?

And do you really need the TDI to turn the business around? And then also, is there actually an earnings level and a return target for the European operations, which you basically have set to yourselves to keep allocating capital to the European operations? That is my first question.

I don't know what our competitors are doing, what our sector are doing in general in Europe. So we are all complaining that under this situation, even if you are a little bit profitable, this is not sustainable because of the level of prices in carbon steel and stainless steel.

We are more or less all in the same situation. Some of us are better or worse than others, but the situation is the same for everybody. We don't disclose results per unit. So we cannot speak about this. Of course, market share, we will increase our market share coming from imports. If we reduce import level from 24% that is today to a level of -- a target of 15%.

So that means there will be 9 points of market share that will be distributed between the European players. We can have from 10% to 15% of that market. So this is more or less what we will increase in our production if finally we have these measures and finally, these measures work as we believe.

Of course, the volumes are very important for our business. So with these new volumes, we think that we'll be able to be above breakeven point. This is the target with all the plans that we have, with the investments that we have, how we're improving with a small little CapEx in digitalization and things to debottleneck things and upgrade our lines, update with the electronics and best technology.

So the factory with these measures, I think, will be in a better position and able to contribute to the profits of the group. We're allocating CapEx to all the plants. This is compulsory. I mean, if you don't invest in a factory like ours, you have to close the factories very, very soon because you always need some investments in maintenance and trying to keep the equipment updated with the new technologies.

And in this case, we are not facing a big CapEx program in the place because even in a company like Acerinox, even being a Spanish company, we don't have an unlimited amount of money to invest. So we have to -- with -- according to our strategic plans, according to our budgets and predictions for the future.

So we have a certain amount of money that we dedicate to CapEx. Fortunately, we have a lot of ideas, and we have more ideas than money. So that means that we have to limit our CapEx program and to limit this CapEx program, we have to give priority to the places where the return is faster. The payback is faster. That especially investing in United States in Hayes and us and second in VDM in HPA in Europe. But we never stop investing because we have to.

If I may add to that, with the expectations in Europe, with the new trade measure, CBAM, it would be remiss will be -- I believe we'll have a problem if we were not to invest a bit on our EPM plants because the future is there. I believe the European plant will -- with these new measures, with the lowering of imports, demand, who knows.

But just with that, prices should go up a bit. And with that, we should be able to capture some of the profitability coming from the European side. As Bernardo said, we are investing heavily in the U.S. as we keep doing because that's where we believe the demand is there. The already protection measures work well and they are improved. So we believe the future is there, but also will be a problem if we were not to capitalize on the return on the turnaround of European business, thanks to these new tariffs that hopefully will be put in place in July.

The next question is from Maxime Kogge from ODDO BHF.

So 2 questions on my side, too. So the first is on CBAM. What's your initial takeaway of CBAM that has been now in place for 2 months? It seems to be driving a little bit of price uptick. Some default values have also been revised upwards. So it seems to be more efficient than it was originally meant to be.

So yes, any view on that would be helpful. And what are the remaining loopholes that you see need to be addressed for it to be fully effective? And the second question is on South Africa because basically, I mean, we've seen some measures taken in countries like Brazil or Mexico where your competitors operate. Could we hope for similar tariffs to be introduced in South Africa and thus address the risk of defection of Chinese imports, which cannot make their way now into the U.S. and soon into Europe?

Thank you, Maxime, for the first question. As I mentioned before, CBAM is very early yet to speak about the -- how it's going to affect our market, what I said. I don't think that prices are going up because of CBAM. Prices are going up because we have more activity in the market and because these raw materials are normally linked with this more activity.

And so -- and we have been able. But at the end, if we have been able to increase our prices to pass some of these raw material prices to the customers is because the market is in better conditions. Otherwise, we will not be able to do it. But I don't think that we can say that CBAM is provoking this price increase. I don't think so, but we will support the better market conditions for sure.

In the case of South Africa, -- you know that we are -- for South Africa, for Columbus, the second market is Europe. And still, we have -- we are exporting to Europe, and we have a lot of clients in Europe that need the South African material, especially ferrochrome. Columbus, as you know, so we have -- South Africa is a big producer of ferrochrome. We have a very competitive ferrochrome price in South Africa. And that means that we can be very competitive in ferritic grades, and we are exporting to some of the European customers, especially in the auto sector.

Having said this, we think that in the future, all these measures are going to be tougher for importers. We are trying to anticipate this in Columbus and trying to diversify in products through the flexibility of the plant.

We think that we have a very strong position in the African market. We have close to 50% market share in the whole continent. And most of that is in South Africa, but in some other countries. And what we're doing is trying to develop the African market because sooner or later, it is true that we have been saying this for many, many years, but sooner or later, Africa will have to wake up and we have that strong position there.

We are making stainless steel in South Africa. We are making carbon steel. We are already making electrical steel and with this new line that we are implementing, so we'll be able to coat this electrical steel to be able to send it to the market. This is the only electrical steel plant in Africa, the same that we have the only stainless steel plant in Africa. So situation is there. South African market is also depressed, but we are also working with the local administration with the South African government to increase tariffs. We had a 5% tariff in South Africa that we have incremented to 10%. And now we are negotiating a tariff increase to 50. That is the magic number that everybody is applying today. So South Africa is the best plant in Africa. It's the only plant there, and it's a very good position, but our market is smaller than Brazil or Mexico. It's not comparable. So that's why we are focusing in the whole continent.

The next question comes from Inigo Egusquiza from Kepler.

The first one is just a clarification on the regulation, Bernardo. On the U.S., you mentioned that nobody is questioning the new tariffs approved by the U.S. administration back in summer 2025, but there were some press comments that the U.S. was thinking on the possibility of changing this new system.

Can you confirm with the information that you have that this is not going to be the case? So this is the first question on the U.S. regulation. On Europe regulation from what you mentioned, Bernardo, the impression is that we are not going to see an anticipation on the new system, new tariffs ahead of July when the existing system expires. So this is the first question on regulation. And the second question is just on CapEx. Probably Miguel, a question for you. What is going to be the CapEx for 2026 going to be similar to the EUR 311 million invested in 2025?

Thank you, Inigo. For the first question, regulation, I don't know, sometimes you are surprised with what you read in the newspapers, but we are -- so we are not being informed of the regulation.

We are actively participating in this regulation. So we have firsthand news about this. And I can tell you that nobody is questioning the Section 232 in the United States. And even when there was that fake news, it was in a very serious media, there was Financial Times, but there was this fake news. So we -- the American steel industry, we call to the government for -- to clarify or not and very, very soon, the Vice President of the United States made declaration saying that was fake news, but there's nothing there.

So Section 232 nobody is questioning it. In case of Europe, yes, you're right. Everything goes slow in Europe, but at least it's moving. And we were optimism, thinking that maybe measures will be in place in around May of this. But with the new information saying that the final conclusion will be taken in by mid-May, it's going to be very difficult because after -- it is only that if they take the decision mid-May, they have to publish the -- they have to publish the law. Once it is published, they have to be translated to the 27 languages of the European Union. So it's going to be difficult to start before 1st of July.

Regarding the CapEx for 2026, the figure should not be far away from the figure of 2025. So probably slightly below as a combination of the starting up final payments on the expansion in NAS taking place at the same time that we are moving, and we have already made the adjudication of the equipments for the expansion also taking place in in Haynes and so on. The aggregated amount of all these figures shall be slightly below that of 2025.

We have no further questions in the queue. So I'll hand back to the management team to wrap up the call.

Okay. That concludes today's conference call. Thank you very much once again for joining us and for your continued support. Thank you very much.

Good morning to you all, and welcome to Acerinox Third Quarter 2025 Results Presentation. As you well know, the geopolitical uncertainties, regional conflicts and tariff wars continue to affect world markets. Consequently, the third quarter has been another challenging quarter. However, as a group, we have demonstrated our resilience in the light of the difficult market situation. As we will explain in this presentation, we continue to focus on working capital reduction and solid cash generation.

During this call, we will hear from our CEO, Bernardo Velazquez; our Chief Corporate Officer, Miguel Ferrandis; and also Esther Camos, our CFO, who will explain our third quarter results and provide outlook for Q4.

Before we start the presentation, let me remind you that this conference call is being broadcast on our website acerinox.com.

And now, I hand you over to our CEO. Bernardo, please go ahead.

Thank you, Carlos. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for attending this presentation. We have released the set of results in the lowest part of a long cycle that is basically defined by the geopolitical conflicts, tariffs, tariffs negotiations and uncertainty. If something can define this part of the cycle is uncertainty and confusion. As how can you prepare a budget for next year? How can you organize your commercial strategy? We don't know whether you will have tariffs with several countries or not, you will be able to export or not. And then everybody is just working in daily basis, is what we call from hand to mouth.

From hand to mouth means that our customers are only buying when it's strictly necessary for them to replace materials. So in this situation, logically, the consumption is quiet and everything has been postponed. The recovery that we expected has been postponed. We have no doubt that this recovery finally will come and that the new trade measures will help the even a stronger recovery of Acerinox.

We have new trade measures in EU or expected to have very soon new trade measures in the EU. We have the Section 232 and other tariffs in the United States, and we are also negotiating some tariffs in South Africa. But in the meanwhile, we need to concentrate our efforts in the short term, and that means that we need to concentrate in cost cutting and cash generation.

With uncertainty with the current situation, everybody preparing the end of the year. Quarter 4 cannot be much better, will be more or less the same reason than Q3, but with a shorter period because the seasonality is very strong in United States and in Germany, and finally, December is half a month. So this is what we are releasing this outlook that we expect Q4 to be lower than Q3, and it's basically because of seasonality. Miguel?

The market -- the main market highlights for 2025 clearly are driven by the uncertainty, as has been mentioned. We are a cyclical company working in a cyclical business. We are in the low of the cycle. And most of the specialists are considering that probably we have reached the bottom, but we still are in the bottom of a cycle. So we must accept that.

The demand has not recovered and is in the third consecutive year in the Western world of not recovery after such a strong correction that was experienced in the year 2023, in which both America and North America and Europe corrected more than 20%. Still we have not recovered that level. So still we are waiting, and the uncertainty is creating these unique circumstances that never in life 3 years -- 3 consecutive years with not recovery in the market.

And as a consequence of that, obviously, there is a clear effect in prices, mostly in Europe as well as in Asia. And consequently, this is having also its effect with a slowdown in some of the Asian countries for moving more production on to Europe, which clearly is not contributing.

Our main advantage is clearly the diversification. Because of that -- we try to explain it in a simple way. In this slide just showing where there are green shoots. We are in advantage clearly to take the most of these green shoots when appearing. So we are sailing in trouble waters, this is clear, but we are taking advantage for the green shoots appearing, for example, in the -- our main relevant market, which is the North American Stainless Steel.

You can appreciate in these traffic lights that where there are more green shoots is in America. The inventories are below historical levels. The imports have been going down. This is as a consequence of the probably commitment to the industry that is a driver of the American market. The administration -- the American administration always has been committed to the industry. The buy American also is a clear characteristic that differentiates the American customers. We are taking advantage of that.

The imports have been going down. In addition, we have new measures. The new -- the increases of the Section 232 obviously has been having its effect. And as a consequence, the prices in the States are having a positive evolution. So this is clearly the market where we have appreciated a sooner improvement.

In the high-performance alloys, this is a bitter sweet. It's bitter because at the end also we are experiencing in this sector the absence of investment that is characterized by the uncertainties. So all the relevant projects are being delayed. So especially the chemical process industry is actually facing that as well as the oil and gas, in which these more or less relevant projects have been delayed.

So as a consequence of that, our European produced high-performance alloys are experiencing -- the order book now is getting slower. But the strategy of diversification and moving to other sectors, which made our decision to invest in the States, invest in Haynes, and especially moving also to the aerospace, creates that now we are in position of taking advantage of the better momentum that is coming from the aerospace industry.

So as a consequence of this, the recovery is coming. We have appreciated already the recovery in the long product nickel base. We are more based in the flat products, and this is now coming and start coming because the supply chain is a bit different. But it looks that for the 2026, clearly, this is a sector which is going to drive the profitability mostly of Haynes. So this is the sweet part.

And then other sectors like the industrial gas turbine also is taking a good momentum, especially now driven by all the investment in data center for –- in artificial intelligence as well as the more or less all the necessary uses for all the hydrogen transition. So this is the part that is positive and probably shall have a better momentum in the coming months and mostly in the '26.

Where we are not seeing yet relevant green shoots is in the European stainless steel market, not in the conditions we have been experiencing up to now. Later on, Bernardo shall explain the new reality. But up to now -- it could be considered that the increase in the apparent demand of 10% is healthy, but clearly, it's not the case when it's coming as a consequence of an increase in imports of 36%.

So the main effect of this, as I told before, still the Asian players are putting material in Europe, especially anticipating what could be the more commitment of the union to the industry. So this is driving this increase in imports. 36% in the current market condition is huge. And as a consequence of this, the inventories are growing. And the final effect is that still we have seen significant price pressures that has been characterizing the third quarter.

So this is more or less the global scape of what has been the situation up to now. Let's analyze now what's coming.

Well, for those of you following Acerinox for many years, you will realize that it's not new to listen to me speaking about trade measures. But this time, finally, we can speak in a positive way. We are not claiming that we don't have measures. We can say -- and it's the first time that we have the opportunity to disclose this to you, to explain this to you that we are very close to have the protection that we were dreaming and asking for many years.

In March, after the tariffs or the new Section 232 in the United States, the European Commission released what was called the Steel and Metals Action plan, in which we identified that most of our petitions were considered. And finally, in 7th of October, the European Commission released these new trade measures, still pending to be approved, but very, very positive.

Just to -- I will read you some quotes just to see the importance of our industry. "A strong decarbonized steel sector is vital for the European Union's competitiveness, economic security and strategic autonomy." That was said by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. "And a strong future for Europe is impossible without a vibrant and resilient steel industry." That was said by Sejourne, Executive Vice President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy.

So we have to be happy and we have to be positive, because at the end, the European Union is moving. You know that it is a slow movement, but finally, they have accepted all our petitions and we are moving in the right direction. These new measures will bring a more competitive and a healthier steel industry in Europe with a drastic reduction of quotas. In the case of stainless steel, can be at the level of 55% reduction in import market share, in steel, in general, is 47%.

Materials above the quotas will have a 50% tariff, double than what we have today. Every anti-dumping, anti-subsidy or anti-circumvention case will be added on top of these tariffs and will apply country by country without exemptions, and the quotas will not be -- will not have a carryover to the next quarter. And what is also important is melted and poured will be considered. Melted and poured, that is the origin of the material will be the place where it has been melted and poured.

This is very important because we are suffering circumvention, very rapid changes in country of transforming the slabs or black coil coming from Indonesia or China. And we are -- we have been invaded by materials rerolled in Taiwan, in Vietnam, in Turkey, in other countries. And this new situation will stop this unfair competition.

What is important now is that at EU we have to implement these measures as soon as possible. Still we have to -- we need the approval of the European Parliament. But we think that we will succeed because there's a strong support to these measures. And after that, the European Council will have to approve it. But generally, it's very good news for the industry. It's very good news not for the next quarter, but it's very good news because that will give us a level playing field. We will compete with fair rules, with fair competition, and then we are sure that the situation in Europe will improve.

In top of this, we have to add what can happen with the CBAM, Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, that will start being implemented in 1st of January, still with a lot of uncertainties, a lot of unclear rules, but will also prevent the lack of competitiveness of the European industry based on CO2 emissions, ambition reduction and some other measures.

So in general, I think that we have a better future. We are willing to receive the good news of having these new measures implemented. The safeguard measure will expire in summer '26. We are pushing or trying to accelerate the process as much as we can. Maybe it can be 1st of April or as soon as possible because it's urgent for the European industry to have this kind of measure in place.

So this is good news for our future. This is what we have been claiming for many, many years. You perfectly know that we have been always trying to ask and speaking with the European Commission to develop these kind of measures. And finally, they listened to us and we have succeeded, and we are happy to announce that, that will be very good for the European stainless steel industry.

If we move to the results, both of the third quarter as well as accumulated. In these circumstances and in these days of uncertainty, we are proud to be well understood, we are proud to be reliable as well as predictable. When we presented the second quarter results, we made an outlook for the third quarter that should be in line with that of the second quarter. We have been in line with that of the second quarter, slightly below.

But obviously, when you put it in the equation the depreciation of the dollar, which obviously is our most relevant currency, as well as the situation and the evolution of the prices in Europe, you understand that the results on this third quarter are clearly consistent. And especially, when you put them in the context of the results that other players in the industry are in these days presenting, it clearly demonstrates the success of the diversification and the strategy that we are facing in the last years.

In addition, as a consequence of these weaknesses on the prices that we are announcing, we have made an inventory adjustment at the end of the Q3 for EUR 31 million, preparing ourselves clearly for the more or less realization of our stock mostly in the fourth quarter and especially in Europe. So on this basis, we are proud that at the end if we analyze this EUR 108 million EBITDA or the EUR 321 million EBITDA of the 9 months, at the end, we are in the bottom of the cycle. We are clearly obtaining the average profits and contribution that we're experiencing all during the whole last decade. So it clearly demonstrates that how we – we are now more resilient and we are able to keep this level of profitability.

Also, in these days, it's extremely relevant to put on value the cash flow generation. We have obtained an operating cash flow in the quarter of EUR 152 million, which is almost EUR 300 million, EUR 299 million up to September. And this is also one of the drivers. It's clear that in the current circumstances, it's difficult to increase profitability, but we are able to generate cash and cover our CapExs and our dividends with the cash that we are generating. This is also one of the main values and principles of the company and we are clearly following that.

And then in addition what we have is this level of net financial debt at the end of the quarter of EUR 1.2 billion. When we compare, as appears in the chart, with that of the third quarter in 2024, it was EUR 453 million. So this brings, again, more or less what always has been our strategy, and we feel proud that we are able to invest in any part of the cycle and keep our strategy plan or even develop a strategic plan in any part of the cycle. Our financial strength allows us to do that.

So in these circumstances, in the current circumstances, we make such a relevant investment as the acquisition of Haynes. This is the main comparison with the net debt that we experienced 1 year ago, which fully takes sense. Clearly, our strategy goes there. And at the end, this financial strength allows us that not only we are facing that, we are not experiencing any troubles regarding our leverage. As you know, our -- all our debt is covenant free from every covenant related to profitability. So this is -- for us, it's obviously some KPI that follows our policy, but has no relevance in our debt.

And in addition, we have a -- as always, we have had a high competitive debt that allows us that the finance charges are not killing in these days. The KPI of the debt-to-EBITDA this year obviously appears to be high, but this is something that clearly as a consequence of the possibility of being able to make relevant investments even in the low part of the cycle. So low EBITDA and a relevant acquisition has this effect, but it shall be diluted gradually and especially with a consistent and committed continuous cash flow generation.

Going to the Stainless division. I think there are several factors that are characterizing this quarter. Some of them has been presented along the presentation. First of all is seasonality in Europe, okay? According to the collective bargaining agreement that we signed last year, we have closed production in Europe for 15 days in August. Second factor, I would say, is the weak demand, okay? Weak demand has affected both Europe and United States, but more significantly Europe. The third factor, I would say, it's the import pressure, okay, which has caused the prices to reduce even more in Europe. We are selling in this quarter at the lowest prices in the year.

And in the positive side, we have United States, which are much better situation of prices despite of the weak demand. Also positive is the cash generation of EUR 82 million in the quarter and EUR 165 million, which is a demonstration of our projects of working capital reduction that we have been mentioning along the year.

Going to the figures, the figures reflect exactly the factors that I'm mentioning. On one side, we have a 10% reduction comparing quarter-over-quarter in production. We have also an 8% reduction quarter-over-quarter in sales, which is lower than production because of the higher prices in the United States. The EBITDA is lower by EUR 2 million, but EUR 2 million is exactly the effect that we have because of the depreciation of the U.S. dollar in this quarter. This is the effect that we have in the EBITDA.

And a positive -- and in the positive side, we have the increase of the margins. We are increasing margins in this third quarter despite the lower sales, and margin is 8% instead of the 7% that we have in second quarter.

Going to HPA. In the HPA, due to our diversification to different sectors, we are being able to compensate the negative impacts experienced in sectors like oil and gas or chemicals, which is -- which our factory -- which our group VDM is more exposed to. We are compensating this with a gradual recovery of the aerospace, that affects mostly Haynes.

The EBITDA is lower by EUR 2 million. We are achieving an EBITDA of EUR 32 million and EUR 103 million in the 9 months, okay, which is true that 9 months is also -- has contributed with Haynes this year. And again, the cash generation, okay? We have an operating working cash flow of EUR 70 million in the quarter, which is much better than the second quarter. Most of it is coming by the reduction of inventories, and it's EUR 134 million going to the 9 months.

And capital allocation. We continue generating cash through our working capital reduction plans, which are resulting to be very successful and we are proud of it. In the quarter, we are reducing our working capital by EUR 85 million. And we have been able to generate an operating cash flow of EUR 152 million.

We have had stronger CapEx this quarter of EUR 88 million, as we already announced. We already announced that we were making down payments in this quarter of some of the investments for Haynes. The free cash flow is EUR 64 million. And we have paid -- we have made the payment of dividends to our shareholders of EUR 77 million, which, in the end, has made us to increase that only by EUR 21 million. So we are maintaining the debt despite of the stronger CapEx and also despite the payment of dividends.

Going to the 9 months, which is also very significant the cash generation through working capital. It is true that in the 9 months it's partially impacted by the U.S. dollar depreciation, okay, which is -- which you can -- you see also reflected in the bridge. Then it allows us to -- the operating cash flow in these 9 months has been of EUR 299 million.

We have had CapEx of EUR 212 million. And the figure that I like the most is the free cash flow. Free cash flow achieved in these 9 months has been EUR 155 million, which is exactly the amount of dividends that we are paying, which means that our debt would have remained flat in these circumstances if it wouldn't have been by the depreciation of the U.S. dollar and the effect that it has in our cash in U.S. dollar. In this case, we have increased our debt in EUR 123 million, which is exactly the effect that we had in the conversion to euros of our cash in U.S. dollars.

In this regard, we are able to keep on focus on our clear strategy. As you know well, our clear strategy, if we start from the top to the bottom, we are clearly making relevant investments on growth, especially where we have a warranty return. This means, clearly, in the case of North American Stainless, as you know, we are increasing our capacity at 20%. The new equipment shall be on place from the next year.

This is an investment that we are taking place for the last 3 years. In addition also, as we have a warranty return, we are increasing -- investing in increasing also production and efficiency in VDM by 15%. In those areas, we actually are more exposed to the current circumstances of the market, which is Acerinox Europa and Columbus. We are also making a huge effort not with so relevant investments, but at the end, we are making virtually out of necessity for transforming the business for being prepared for the current circumstances and especially for taking advantage of the market recovery when it comes, but with not relevant investment because still this return is not so warranted and it is not only depending from ourselves but also from market conditions.

But in any case, we transformed the business model of Acerinox Europa. This is already prepared and working. As well as Columbus has demonstrated its ability to become the most diversified steel plant in the world, making not only stainless steel, as well as carbon steel, as well as now moving to the electrical steel, and, in addition, is obviously prepared for processing HPA. So this is more or less what we have been doing most in these 2 areas.

In addition, going to the bottom, we are not only successfully integrating Haynes, our strategy of moving to this AAA investment. We always mention America Alloys Aerospace. The integration is successfully more or less being done and accomplished. And in addition, we have already precised the additional investments to take place in Haynes for the coming future. It has been mentioned. So this is already -- has also been fixed. And as a global consequence, but also keeping our driver of absolute control of the working capital as well as continuous cash generation.

Okay. So everything has been said. In the short term, we are living in this uncertain market, uncertain scenario, where the demand is still weak, has been weak for 3 consecutive years. And this is happening with stainless steel. It's also happening with projects in oil and gas and in the chemical processing industry because this lack of visibility moves to postpone investment, as have been mentioned. So in the short term, it will be still weak. We'll have a fourth quarter basically in the same rhythm like Q3, but with seasonality that we mentioned.

I'm very optimistic in the future, very optimistic, because all the situation of the group with the diversification in different countries and the different materials, the position that we have and all the projects that we are now facing will put us in a very good position to take advantage of the level playing field that is being created in Europe, United States and maybe, why not, in South Africa as well. So very optimistic for the future. Thank you very much.

Thank you for the presentation. Now we can start with the Q&A session. So please, operator, go ahead.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Tristan Gresser at BNP Paribas.

I have 2. The first one is on the U.S. market. If you can comment a little bit on the weakness you're seeing. We're seeing that cold-rolled production for the group is down 5% year-on-year. Does that reflect the demand decline you're witnessing in the U.S.? And any differences between flats and longs? And if I'm not mistaken, you should see in Q4 a greater positive pricing impact. Will that be enough to offset the lower volumes?

The situation in the United States is more or less the same than in Europe, of course, with a better price level, but the situation in the market is more or less the same. In '22, the demand went down by 5%, in '23 it was minus 20%, still is flat in '24 and will be flat in '25. So the situation is more or less the same in both long and flat. We expect a recovery once the situation is more clear.

Normally, in consumer goods materials, in the case of flat products. But we are also waiting for the reactivation of oil and gas that can help the long products, bars for drilling, and also can help all the infrastructure programs in the United States with our stainless steel rebars for bridges. And the situation is more or less the same, flat demand, but with a better level of prices and waiting for the recovery.

In Q4, prices have been what we –- was the consequence of what we announced in Q -- at the end of the second quarter results, we announced a price increase. We have been negotiating with our customers a price increase. And that has been -- we have been able to get this price increase in the customers in which we don't have a longer-term agreement. In some cases, we have 6 months contracts, so we have quarterly contracts. So we have been postponing these negotiations until the contract is finished. So Q3 has been the result of this price increase. Q4 will be more or less the same level. We expect a further recovery, a further increase in Q1 '26.

No, that's very clear. Then if -- you have that pretty severe seasonality into Q4. If I look at group EBITDA for Q4, does it mean it could be lower on a year-on-year basis?

Well, the -- each time we are obviously more American driven. It's North American Stainless, it's Haynes. Also, in the HPA in Europe, normally, December is the slowdown. So as a consequence of that, we announced it's going to be lower. Basically, from the seasonality in America from Thanksgiving to Christmas, it's very low activity. So at the end -- the fourth quarter is not a quarter of 3 months normally in the States. It's substantially 3, 4 weeks shorter. And this is more or less what shall appear in our figures.

This is -- obviously, it still is too soon. We need to see more or less the evolution of the market. We need to see how effective and successful is our working capital reduction as planned, which shall be the effects, obviously, on this, on the inventory adjustment. So we feel comfortable stating that the Q4 shall be lower, and we feel comfortable saying that mostly due to seasonal slowdown. Then I invite you to take your conclusions on your model.

Yes. No. Yes, it's a bit early. And maybe just one last question, if I may. On the -- obviously, you talked positively about the import situation, well, not now, but the measures have been implemented in Europe. But in Europe, we've also seen a surge in stainless semi-finished products, and those are not being covered by the quotas. So do you believe that semi should be included, could be included? And how big is it of a risk if you have CBAM, if you have the quotas on CRC, HRC, but then all these slabs -- all those slabs are coming through. So we would love to have your view there.

Yes. No, for sure that we are asking for semi-finished products to be -- sorry, it's not semi-finished products. Semifinished products will not come to Europe because it will be affected by all the trade measures. What we expect is the measures to be extended also to product where stainless steel has a lot of influence in the cost, means tubes, sinks or this kind of products. But semifinished will be included, will be covered by the quotas. And also CBAM will help to avoid circumvention.

Our next question is from Adana Ekoku from Morgan Stanley.

I've got 2. So first, just to follow up on the U.S. prices. Could you give us a sense of how the contract negotiations are going for 2026, just given the kind of continued weak demand as well as the new volumes coming to market. And you mentioned you expect this to be higher kind of heading into Q1.

Apologies. The line is very unclear, Adana, so we weren't able to get your question. If you could kindly try dialing back in and then we can move on to you again.

In that case, we'll take the next question from Tom Zhang at Barclays.

Yes. Can you guys hear my line? Is that okay?

No, no, no. If I could understand, it's something about in the previous call. It's speaking about U.S. contract negotiations for '26. And we are busy in these negotiations today. There's nothing that we can add. Normally, these negotiations happen earlier, normally start happening in July. And many years in October, we have already finished the negotiations. With the uncertainty and lack of visibility, everything is being postponed. And we are now negotiating. And we expect that in November, December, we will close all these contracts.

It's difficult for our customers to predict volumes. So in most of the cases -- in this previous forecast, we are speaking about repeating volumes in '26. But no idea. That can change in months when the recovery start or once the rules will be more clear.

And sorry for the interruption. So we'll now move on to Tom Zhang at Barclays.

Great. First one for me, just -- you mentioned in the presentation sort of inventories growing now in Europe, and I guess maybe that's a little bit of prestocking ahead of measures. How much further do you think inventories can keep going in Europe? I guess I'm just trying to figure out how much more import prebuying we could see in the next couple of quarters before measures come in and the market normalizes a little bit? That's the first one.

But this is very difficult to predict. As Miguel mentioned, some of the importers can think that it's better to import now because next year will be more difficult, we have more protection or will be -- but it's going to be difficult to predict, which is going to be the effect of CBAM in 1st of January and if the new trade measures are going to be applied in April or in May or when the safeguard measures expire at the end of June. So it is difficult to predict what's going to happen.

If I were an importer, if I were a distributor, of course, I would keep my stocks in reasonable levels, not high because everything can change. The volatility is very high. And we don't think -- I don't think personally that it's a good time to increase your stock. But this is a -- I cannot answer your question.

Okay. Fair enough. And then could you just remind us about the kind of volumes that you send from South Africa? I think historically that was a very export-driven plant. I know you brought the export volumes down a lot in the last few years. I think the last we heard was it was about 50-50 between domestic and export shipments. I'm just wondering does that flow get affected at all by the European trade measures if you send any material from South Africa into Europe?

This is something that we predicted. And we have been working in South Africa in Columbus Stainless to change the situation, because we always thought that the future will be more regional and Columbus will not have the possibility to export big volumes to Europe or to any other region of the world. So that's why we are starting making mild steel in South Africa, and we are also prepared now to produce also electrical steel. So we are concentrating Columbus in the local market.

In the past, it was -- at the beginning, it was 70% export, 30% local. Now we are targeting to have more or less 60% local, 40% export. And in that case, all the volumes exported to the European Union will be into the quota. So we will not have to pay any extra tariff there because the material that will come to Europe will be included in the quota.

Okay. So sort of no change in terms of volumes going from South Africa into Europe. It's already well below the new quota level. And then maybe just a final one for me around NAS volumes, I guess, with the capacity expansion. I think you guys previously talked about first coil meant to come out by the end of the year. Do you have any visibility on that? And maybe any early targets on how long the ramp-up period will be, if any, for the sort of NAS expansion?

The NAS expansion is going very well. So we already installed the crane in the melting shop. But still, we don't have this capacity increase because we are repairing or revamping one of the other existing cranes. But everything is ready. Hot rolling mill is also ready. We will produce the first coil in the cold rolling mill at the end of January. The ramp-up will depend basically in the revamping of our AP #2, that is the annealing and pickling line that we are modifying to absorb the increase of capacity. But that will be ready also 1st of January or early January, and the ramp-up can take 3 or 4 months. So we will be ready for the recovery of the American market.

Our next question is from Bastian Synagowitz at Deutsche Bank.

Hopefully, the line is okay here. Maybe firstly, on Americas. Can I briefly ask, is the softness in the U.S. which you're seeing here in the fourth quarter any more than the usual seasonality, i.e., is this really very much in line with what you're usually seeing? Or is there anything more in it? That's my first question.

No, no, it's more or less -- as I mentioned before, it's the same, more or less the same consumption rhythm that we have had in second quarter and quarter 3. It's more or less the same. There's not additional weakness in the market. No, no, it's just seasonality.

Okay. Then maybe moving over to the HPA business. And I guess third quarter was actually pretty stable, but you still obviously seem to see a lot of softness in energy and also chemicals, as you're saying, I guess, mostly in the former VDM business. So do you think that we have already seen the trough here in HPA? And the contribution, i.e., should we -- sort of would you be comfortable to say that we'll be -- that we'll stay pretty close to these levels and then rebound from here? Is there any color you could give us, any conviction?

And then I guess, secondly, on your investment strategy here, where you have a reasonably big pipeline for investments. Are you confident that these investments still all make sense? Or have you taken at least any action to pace those down and maybe adjust for the current market also in the context of your net debt to EBITDA probably hitting around 3x. I guess you clearly have a lot of comfort on that and I think you express it, but are you still pacing on the CapEx side here? That's my question.

In regarding of the HPA, I think it's differentiated obviously by the areas. As we told before, the weakness of the chemical products industry, obviously, the maturity and the lead times for this sector as well as on the oil and gas are also driving lower order book than normal in the current days. So we clearly assume that the best semester of next year for these sectors are not going to be relevant.

So more or less what we also consider now. And this is – obviously, the consequence of our strategy is that the improvement in the aerospace could compensate. And obviously, when we talk about the aerospace, it shall be more reflected in the States through Haynes, should compensate this weakness that we are going to experience in the chemical process mostly and in the oil and gas.

In the oil and gas, there are some volumes more related to maintenance, but not for new projects. This is obviously for Haynes as well as for NAS, for example, for all the drilling. This end use still is not there. In maintenance, there are some issues. But still clearly, we must take in mind that VDM is mostly covering 2/3 of its production, covering these both areas. The other areas, the automotive shows certain improvement, the electronics remains there.

In the case of Haynes, we shall experience the growth and the clear recovery of the aerospace industry. And the gas generation also, as was expressed, is also doing well. So our understanding is on the global picture for next year, we think that probably shall be more or less compensated the correction or the effect in a global year of this weakness with the other strength. But probably in the first semester, especially for oil and gas and CPI, we do not see now any recovery. So if it comes, it should be more in the second semester.

In regarding of the investments, we are long-term driven. This sector is huge in investments and it's not for thinking on a short-term basis. The investment plan in Haynes and especially the areas where it's focused as well as also what we are investing in North American Stainless for process, HPA takes full sense. It's a growing sector. And also the main driver of the synergies and the future synergies is coming from that. So it's not more or less any type of questioning of the timing of the investments. As also the same circumstances takes place in VDM.

There are investments for increasing not only volume, but it's mostly for increasing efficiency as well as for avoiding dependence from 3 players and having the possibility of make the whole process as much as possible internally. And this is clearly -- the efficient also is coming through that. So it takes sense. So we -- as I said, we are obviously following our debt carefully and making the best in cash generation, but we should not reconsider these investments as they are because of the current level of debt.

As I told before, we are clearly investing on growth where we have a warranted return. And in these cases, it's evident.

Our next question is from Maxime Kogge at ODDO.

So first question is a follow-up on Tristan's one on semis. I think actually you are yourself sourcing some semis on the market, and that's quite recent, especially from Indonesia. So what has led you actually to adopt this strategy recently? And could you go further in that direction? And would there be a case for Europe actually to really focus on the hot rolling or even just cold rolling mill and source its slabs externally given that Europe's production is bound to remain quite uncompetitive compared to some other regions in the world at least in the hot side?

As we mentioned before, we are suffering of unfair competition, especially for materials that have been melted in Indonesia and roll in other countries and entering in Europe with other origins than Indonesian. So that's making -- not only in stainless steel, also in carbon steel, it's making our industry unsustainable. So we cannot live in these conditions. The European steel industry is in real danger, and that's why the Commission is now placing these set of measures that are going to be very important for us.

But still we don't have these measures. We have to do something. So that's why many players started to bring slabs from Indonesia. So we have to do things. So we defend the European industry, or then we close our melting shops and we start bringing material from Indonesia. In this case -- in our case, we only have made one trial. It's not a significant volume.

Okay. That's clear. And second and last question is on South Africa, because there, historically, you had a big competitive advantage because you had access to quite cheap ferrochrome. But now the industry, the local industry is in disarray, and there could be a future when the whole industry will have disappeared. So how do you see the situation there? How does it impact Columbus? What's your view potentially on the export tax on chrome as well that is being envisaged? That would be helpful, yes.

You know that very recently the production of ferrochrome in South Africa was suspended because of the high electricity price, basically because of high electricity price. And the ferrochrome producers were asking for better conditions, because otherwise, they are exporting, instead of producing in the country, they are exporting the chrome ore to China. And China with South African chrome ore has become the biggest ferrochrome producer in the world. They have around 56% or 60% of the world production. And that is why, because South Africa in the last years has lost competitiveness.

Now the situation is better in terms of availability of electricity. There are some negotiations between the ferrochrome producers -- we are included in these negotiations -- and the government asking for better electricity price for the electro-intensive industries as well as an export tax or export duty for the exports of chrome ore that are damaging the competitiveness of the country.

Having said this, we still have access to cheap chrome compared with the rest of the world. We can use it, as we have mentioned many times, in liquid, liquid form. We can use liquid ferrochrome because we have ferrochrome smelter as an enabler company less than 1 kilometer away from our plant. And this is a significant advantage because we don't need electricity to melt this ferrochrome because it's already liquid. And we also save a lot of money in refractories and in electrodes. So still very competitive. And basically, most of the materials that we are exporting to Europe from South Africa are ferritic, because it's our specialty and because we are more competitive.

Our next question is from Inigo Egusquiza from Kepler.

So I have 4 questions, if I may. And the first one would be on the European Union safe measures. If Bernardo, you can share with us what are your expectation in terms of calendaring implementation? I think you have mentioned April, May, but maybe we have to wait until June. If you can share with us what could be potential calendar. I know it's tough. This is the first question.

The second question would be on Haynes International integration. If you can also elaborate and share with us how is the integration going? How are the synergies, the number that you increased? How are things going on this front?

The third one would be on stainless steel. If you can also elaborate a bit how is the profitability of the U.S. versus Europe? I guess Europe is again making losses, but I don't know if they are bigger or smaller than a year ago. And what could be the implications of the new European Union's safe measures for the European business profitability? Can we expect this facility to reach breakeven if the new safe measures are implemented to reach breakeven by 2026?

And the final one, I'm sorry for being long, on the U.S. base prices that you have mentioned. If you can quantify a bit how large has been the base price increase that you implemented during the summer of 2025?

I cannot answer the first question because it's not in our hands. The existing safe measure will expire the 30th of June. So partly we are moving fast in this sense is because we need to finish the process. You know all the European process are long, safe, but long, and have to be ready for -- at the end of June. Of course, everybody is aware of the emergency that we have of these measures, and everybody, including the European Commission is making the best to accelerate the process. So this is -- nothing that I can add. And I have read that could be 1st of April. But we don't have any information on this. We cannot control this process.

Regarding the Haynes integration, we are there, we are satisfied. There has been a huge effort. The integration at the end is more or less with participation of relevant people, not only at VDM, also at NAS, also at Acerinox headquarters. So it's a global team who is accelerating the process of the integration. We are really satisfied of how the things are moving on.

Regarding the synergies, the estimation of the synergies, obviously, the -- we are in the year of the start of the process. The synergies fixed for this first year were EUR 11 million, and we are there. So we have accomplished what has been the analysis for the first stage, assuming that the synergies should gradually be increasing year after year. But those for the first year already we are there, and we are very comfortable with that.

Regarding stainless and the contribution of Europe, okay? We are following our strategy in Europe, which is resulting to be positive. All the KPIs that we are measuring, comparing, going higher value-added, going end customers versus distributors and so on, everything is making us to trust on that strategy that we are following. The problem in Europe is being, as said, is, first of all, demand, and second, import pressure in prices, okay? So this low level in prices, I think, is affecting all the industry.

So we are positive in the future. We are positive with the measures because we think that those measures -- we cannot predict what is going to happen with the prices, but we expect that with these measures in place, the market will be able to increase prices, and that definitely will help in our strategy. The contribution compared to last year is being better, okay? So it's a reflection of that. All our measures are going on the good directions, but still suffering from these price levels and demand.

Inigo, when we are speaking about prices, normally, we are speaking about the prices that are published in several magazines because we cannot speak about prices. We are very sensitive to this. So as Esther mentioned, everybody is speaking that prices in Europe today are very low, around EUR 100 per ton below the average of this cycle and probably below -- EUR 300 per ton below the average of the previous cycle. But we are not speaking about our prices. And in the case of United States, it's exactly the same.

So we are negotiating customer by customer, product by product. Everybody has a different price. And this is something that we cannot disclose. We have -- we announced that we are increasing prices, but this is not an official tariff. We are not publishing official tariffs and say this product will have this price for every customer or whatever. This is negotiations and will depend on everything, situation of the customer, situation of our plant, the need to have more or less orders in several products. So that depends very much. We cannot disclose our pricing situation very much.

Our next question is from Tommaso Castello at Jefferies.

Is the line clear? Can you hear me?

Yes, we hear you perfectly.

Okay. Yes. Sorry. Okay, fine. I was just checking. I have one last question. So you have highlighted cutting costs and cash generation through the management of working capital as key priorities for year-end. So given the ongoing market uncertainty, do you anticipate further opportunities to release working capital in Q4? And if you could remind us of your cost-cutting initiatives to date and if there is any target number and date there?

Well, we are pushing hard in terms of making the best of the working capital in the Q4, and this is a clear guideline that every division of the business is actually focusing. So this has been recurrently restated from the headquarters, and all the group is committed. So in this regard, we understand that this is going to be a strong and relevant effect coming in the Q4. You also can see that one of the Q3, for example, was substantially higher than the Q2. So in this regard, we are clearly focused.

Esther introduced it previously. With the cash generated up to now, we have covered the relevant CapExs up to now, but also the dividend for the whole year. There is no cash-out coming for dividend payment in the fourth quarter. But it's a strong tax cash-out that also is going to take part. So on that basis, we consider that we shall reduce probably the net debt. But a lot of the cash generated through the reduction of working capital also shall be for paying taxes.

So on that basis, it's not going to be -- even though we make our best and we are successful in the discipline of reduced working capital, we are not going to make or experience a huge reduction in net debt because of that, because the tax has to be paid in the fourth quarter according to the circumstances on the areas where we are profitable are clearly there.

In regarding of the other plan, we have now a clear public number of the cost reduction plan that we are involved, but also the plan remain on place. And we are healthy there. But obviously, as much as productivity is higher, as much as they are better appreciated. So sometimes even though we make a huge effort for reduced cost that can increase our profitability, in the current level of prices, not always it's so appreciated in the final P&L, because at the end, as has been previously stated, the magazines are reporting base prices now in these days of around EUR 450.

I remember in the old days, we considered that it was not possible for the industry to be profitable below EUR 900 or EUR 950. Then we developed for being profitable levels of EUR 700. Now we see this level of prices. So still the cost savings that we can obtain that are significant in our business and for our controls and benchmarks, but has less visibility when the market is so poor.

But anyway, remember that -- sometimes we have mentioned that with the volatility of the cycles in the last decade, we have learned to run our plants like the cars. We have the eco mode and we have the export mode. When we are full of orders, we go to export and we try to focus on productivity. When we are in the low part of the cycle, we are not fully at full capacity and then we go to the eco way, I mean, trying to focus on cost.

And this is what we are doing now, trying to be effective and very efficient in all the production, trying to save in everything, in electricity, trying to save in refractories, all the consumables. Trying not to make extra hours. Trying to take holidays when it is possible. And also focusing in our excellent program, our Beyond Excellence plan. That is seen. We published the numbers in quarter 2 for the first half of the year, and it's moving very well. So we are focused in all these projects that will help us to improve our profit and loss account.

Tomasso, regarding this Beyond Excellence plan, as Bernardo mentioned, we published twice a year in H1 and full year results. And in H1 -- well, the target for the year is EUR 45 million. And in H1, we achieved EUR 23 million. So it's -- we are going on track and we expect to be close -- very close to this target by the year-end.

Our next question is from Dominic O'Kane, JPMorgan.

Just one quick question. I just wanted to double check with the Q4 guidance for lower EBITDA quarter-on-quarter. Does that also include any assumption for an inventory revaluation?

No, no, no, the guidance is only including what can be considered adjusted EBITDA.

At this time, we currently have no further questions in the queue.

We have 2 questions from the webcast. The first one is coming from Adahna from Morgan Stanley, and it's as follows.

On HPA, conditions for VDM continue to be weak, which is getting partly offset by Haynes. Can you help us with a split of how these 2 businesses are doing? Or maybe how much lower VDM is tracking relative to its normalized EBITDA, which I think you previously said is around EUR 120 million?

Well, I think we already have explained that. Obviously, still it is a bit early. It shall depend on circumstances, and it still is too early for considering what may take place in the '26. We already have indicated that the order book appeared to be weak for the first half, but let's see what comes later. And on the other side, the recovery in the aerospace industry is coming. So this -- we understand that this shall compensate, but still it's too early to make any commitment in what shall be the profit contribution for that division. So we shall have more visibility probably at the year or when we make the year-end results presentation in February. It still it is too soon.

Thank you, Miguel. And the last question is coming from Marisa Hernandez from Times Square.

What are your expectations for CBAM impact on stainless prices in Europe?

Very difficult question. We still don't know what are the rules of steel. And we know the rules, but we still miss some information that is going to be necessary for this because still we don't know what is going to be the benchmark for the industry. So then we cannot compare prices or different CO2 emissions between importers and this benchmark. And still there's some uncertainties in the formula. So there's nothing that I can add here.

And I also cannot give you information from consultant companies or whatever because the range is so big that some people are speaking about EUR 100, some people are speaking about EUR 500. But this is not the price increase. It could be the effect for importers. So there's no visibility on this. I cannot help you.

Okay. Thank you. That concludes today's conference call. So thank you very much for all your questions and for joining us today. Have a good day.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.