Cavotec Group AB (CCC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

November 10, 2023

Nasdaq Stockholm SE Industrials earnings 52 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Operator

operator
#1

Welcome to Cavotec's Q3 Report 2023. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to CEO, David Pagels; and CFO, Joakim Wahlquist. Please go ahead.

David Pagels

executive
#2

Okay. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Cavotec's third quarter presentation. I am David Pagels, the CEO of Cavotec, and I'm here together with -- today with Joakim Wahlquist, Cavotec's CFO. Let me start with a short recap of Cavotec for those that are not familiar with us. Cavotec was founded over 40 years ago. And during these years, we have built a strong position as a leading clean tech company. We design and deliver solutions to electrify ports and vessels and other industrial applications like heavy-duty vehicles used in the mining industry. Our main products are Shorepower systems, motorized reels, crane electrification and automatic mooring systems. Those are sold to customers like ship owners and operators, potent terminal owners and leading OEMs in the mining and construction sectors. A key competitive advantage for us is our global service organization, which supports our customers 24/7 worldwide. When I joined Cavotec a little more than a year ago, I quickly realized that we had a lot of things to sort out internally in order to lay the foundation for a stronger capital going forward. We have, therefore, initiated several group-wide change programs covering 5 strategic areas. These 5 strategic areas are customer focus, always with the aim to create a win, win, win, win for us, win for our customers and win for their customers or end customers. Second, operational excellence in everything we do across the globe. Therefore, also the cost control goes without further explanation and even more actually in the inflationary economy that we face right now. Fourth, culture and values, one Cavotec across the company and towards our customers worldwide. And lastly, innovation. We are working on solving our customers' future needs and challenges. Let me give a few examples of the actions that we are taking. To improve the cost control throughout the group, we have introduced the cost optimization programs. We have appointed a Head of Operations, Jorgen Olsson, who has a solid experience in operation, but also in sourcing. So he will initially focus on the total review of our sourcing function with a goal to centralize and optimize our sourcing per commodity across the globe. This will impact our cost structure and will improve our operational excellence going forward. We have also reviewed the way we manage our customer relations to become more efficient, reach more customers and also to ensure that we better understand their needs now but also during the life cycle of our program. And this is the foundation for the value that we want to create going forward. I am confident about Cavotec's ability to grow with profitability. The reason for that is that we have a strong market position, a market that is driven by a combination of strong megatrends, but also regulations. Our strong market positions are based on the fact that we have leading technologies that are proven, reliable, efficient and safe to use. Our Shorepower solutions, motorized reels and automatic mooring are examples of our cutting-edge technology that helps our customers towards the net zero emissions and towards a better and safer product, which makes us a preferred supplier and partner for them. What makes our solution so attractive is the ability to electrify functions or machines currently driven by fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases. Thanks to our electricity solutions, our products are also lower than those levels in, for example, ports and mine solutions. The request for reduced greenhouse gas emissions and reduced noise levels do not only come from our customers, they're also driven by authorities all over the world. Presence in Europe, the American Transport will be included in the emissions for trading systems in many countries, they are increasingly strict requirements for reduced emissions of diesel imports, not least in the large cities with cruise ships very close to the city centers. A proof of our leading position and ability to innovate is our megawatt charging system for heavy-duty vehicles. This gigantic device, which is much bigger and heavier than chargers that we have for our electric cars, reduces the charging time and maximizes the uptime compared to the existing combined charging systems. We are proud to announce that the system is currently in commissioning by one of our customers in the mining sector as we speak. We have also received an order at close to EUR 7 million for PowerFit. It is a containerized solution for high-voltage connection of vessels to shore. The customer is one of the largest biggest shipping companies, and deliveries will take place between late 2023 and early 2025. With our PowerFit solution, our customers can reduce emissions significantly from its vessels. As I mentioned earlier, our service offering is a key competitive advantage to us, and we recently also signed a long-term service agreement with the big COSCO Group. As you remember in our last call, I announced that we have initiated the establishment of a new assembly unit in India. This assembly unit will give us additional capacity, but also surge the large Indian domestic market. Let me once again underline that opening of an assembly unit in India does not require big investment. We have already leased the building as well as the machinery they are in place, and we have recruited key personnel. The project is running perfectly according to plan and we expect the new unit to be up and ramping up gradually during 2024. So now I'll turn into some of the performance in the recent quarter. Our financial performance in the quarter shows that our change programs, as I mentioned before, and strategic projects are beginning to yield results. We report for the third consecutive quarter, a positive EBIT result. In the quarter, EBIT amounted to EUR 1.7 million, a significant improvement compared to last year's minus 0.4%. It is also an improvement from the previous quarter where we reported an EBIT of EUR 1.2 million. The EBIT margin also increased to 4.1% this quarter from 2.6% in the previous quarter. So we see clearly that we are gaining results on what we have initiated. The improvement is mainly reflected in reducing operating expenses. Of the financial costs and taxes, we reported a positive net profit this quarter of EUR 0.1 million. Thanks to the improved result from the operating activities, we also reported a positive cash flow this quarter of EUR 4.3 million. I'm really happy with these numbers. This has clearly demonstrate that we have achieved important progress in the transformation of Cavotec during the quarter. I will now hand over to Joakim to run a little bit more of the figures in detail.

Joakim Wahlquist

executive
#3

Thank you. Thank you, David, and good morning to all of you listening. So let me start a bit with the order backlog and the top line development. So the order backlog decreased slightly from the previous quarter, and revenue was in line with the third quarter last year. I think very important here when you analyze Cavotec numbers is to keep in mind that Cavotec is very much a project business. And this means that invoicing of individual projects or acceptance of individual orders can very much affect the development between the quarters. So having said that also, we have continued to see a very strong interest in our cleantech solutions, and we have a very steady flow of customer inquiries. We're looking very positively on the future development. Having said that also, there is, however, some customers that are -- continue to keep carefully evaluating the macroeconomic environment, which we all understand. This is normal for many industrial companies. Like David mentioned, we have a positive EBIT in the quarter of EUR 1.7 million. It's the third quarter in a row where we're showing positive EBIT. I think it's very nice also to be able to turn a corner on, not only on EBIT, but on net profit level now with EUR 0.1 billion, even though these are small numbers. And we continue to see a very positive development also of the margin in our order book like we mentioned in previous quarterly calls. Looking at the cash flow, like mentioned earlier, this is a project business to some extent, which also reflects a bit in the cash flow here. But we had a positive cash flow of EUR 4.3 million in the quarter due to the improved operating activities. I think also we mentioned earlier, we have a very good relationship with our lenders. And I'm happy also to say that we have a very good progress on the leverage ratios and back now to compliance with underlying finance agreements were 2.68x versus 3.73x in Q2. Let me say a few words also on our 2 segments. We start with the biggest segment, which is Ports & Maritimes. And the Ports & Maritime segment delivers solutions on decarbonizing ports and vessels and also automating ports and demonstrated a growth of 4.1% in the quarter. The increase was driven by improved volumes and prices by 5.1%, while hit a bit by currency effects that had a negative impact of about 1%. Ports & Maritime has operational results and margins over the past 4 quarters, mainly as a result of lower operating expenses, but also positively impacted by higher prices. The order backlog decreased a bit in the quarter, which is reflecting the delay in acceptance of certain customer orders. Let me now say a few words on the Industry segment. So the Industry segment delivers solutions for a variety of different businesses, including mining, tunneling, construction, energy, forestry and industrial production. Here, mining and construction are the largest segments for the Industry division. The order backlog and revenue decreased in the quarter, which also here reflects delays in milestone invoicing and some customer acceptance of orders. We also see an impact to some extent from big customers, big OEMs that are carefully evaluating the macroeconomic environment. As a result of lower volumes, the EBITDA margin decreased, although we saw a slight improvement from the previous quarter. And with those words, I will hand back to David.

David Pagels

executive
#4

Thank you very much, Joakim, for this. Let me then quickly summarize before we open up for questions. We are the financial -- with the financial performance in the quarter, we have demonstrated that we are on the right track in the transformation of Cavotec. We drive this transformation through a clear strategic priorities and group-wide comprehensive change programs. What makes me confident about our ability to grow with profitability is Cavotec's strong market position and also the fact that our market is driven by the strong megatrends over the electrification and decarbonization. These strong underlying market trends are also reinforced by authorities across the world that is driving increased regulations regarding emissions and noise pollution. However, at the same time, we continue to see how our customers are careful evaluating the macroeconomic environment exactly like Joakim just said. With our combined strength and clear strategy, I am convinced Cavotec will be a key player in the transition for more sustainable and emission-free world. By this, we have ended our third quarter presentation, and I'm ready to take questions. You can either call in and ask us questions or write your questions here in the webcast. Operator, do we have any questions?

Operator

operator
#5

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Karl Bokvist from ABG Sundal Collier.

Karl Bokvist

analyst
#6

My first question is on the commentary regarding the normalization of the backlog. Could you expand upon that a little bit more in terms of what work you have been doing if it relates to just being much, much more selective on taking new orders while backlog declines because you deliver? Or if it has also been related to you or customers canceling orders and thereby lowering the backlog?

Joakim Wahlquist

executive
#7

Karl, when we're talking about the normalization of the backlog there, it's mainly the focus on making sure that we're taking profitable orders. So we have not seen any cancellation of orders.

Karl Bokvist

analyst
#8

And then also on -- just a bit on the order situation. This has been -- we've been seeing quite an extended period now of an inflationary environment. So based on your assessment today, how are you working with pricing and potentially indexation clauses and so on in order to avoid this kind of cost or price lag that we saw last year? And also a follow-up on that is that now that we head into the second half, is this kind of inflationary negative impact on margins fully done? I believe at the start of the year, you said this could have an effect during the first half but would diminish in the second half.

David Pagels

executive
#9

Okay. Thank you, Karl. What we have done is that we have increased price levels. And as you rightly say, we were a little bit late with that and those actions in the past. So therefore, we haven't seen the full effect in the quarters that we have behind us. Now I think we are much better aligned with the price increases. They are better in sync now. So I'm not expecting us to continue that journey. Now we need to work harder on making sure we drive down the cost and actually use the opportunities that also the little, if you would say, the slowdown in the economy open up opportunity for the sourcing opportunities and also sourcing effect to yield effect. So I don't expect us to continue that journey. We will, of course, follow it in line with the continuous inflation, but not -- but I'm more confident about our position now versus where we were before.

Joakim Wahlquist

executive
#10

And on top of that, also I can -- we continue to see which we described also in previous quarterly call, an improvement in the order book margin and with the full focus that we now have on the sourcing and procurement area. We believe that there is an opportunity both to work with the current order book and new orders to further increase those margins.

Karl Bokvist

analyst
#11

Then on demand, now during the presentation, you highlighted these long-term drivers. But what can you say about demand and order evaluations and customer inquiries related to kind of the next 12 months?

David Pagels

executive
#12

We don't really give detailed guidance on what we see in the order pipeline that we have ahead of us. What I can say though is that I see a continuous -- it's supported by the regulations by the megatrends, and continues a strong demand for our products. We are supporting -- and we're just surfing on the megatrends that we just mentioned before. And I just came back yesterday from visiting customers in Miami, where they have gone on the East Coast. West Coast was a little bit early, of course, for various reasons, you know that. But on the East Coast now for the cruising line, we are very determined on going into Shorepower, in order to -- and I was visiting Miami, where we have the Miami beautiful skyline with skyscraper but also with the cruising ships. And of course, they are in the city of Miami, and they want to and they will turn off so that you see the cruising ships, but -- you don't have any smoke coming out of the chimneys there while they are in operations. So it's something which is driven by regulations to some degree, but also driven by the fact that customers need to -- customers also driving this direction. So I'm not worried at all really that we -- for the trend going forward in the market. It's definitely there.

Karl Bokvist

analyst
#13

And on the cash flow, perhaps more related to you, Joakim. But year-to-date now, changes in working capital has been negative EUR 9 million, EUR 10 million, and it was around 0 in this quarter. So, based on receivable timing, advanced payments, et cetera, et cetera, working capital discipline, is there anything we should expect in towards the end of this year and into next year in terms of working capital improvements and just overall cash conversion?

Joakim Wahlquist

executive
#14

We are working very hard on working capital in all areas from payables to collections, but not the least, the inventory management. So we feel that we're getting -- we're making good progress here, and we can see some of that result in our numbers. We have more work to do, but we feel positive about the development.

Karl Bokvist

analyst
#15

And my final one is just, I believe you partly answered this, David, but on just future margin expansion, where your cost efforts lowering cost, et cetera, now that the backlog has come down from kind of with normalization efforts, et cetera. But just how much more do you think you can improve profitability if, let's say, the top line doesn't really pick up materially just to understand the cost side of it?

David Pagels

executive
#16

I will not guide on exact figures there. What I can say is that the sourcing side and also the global operations where we have now. Jorgen also, as I mentioned, coming in, and we are setting up a sourcing structure. I'm confident that we will substantially be able to improve. It's a little bit of an untouched territory, unfortunately, which we now are stepping up and increasing our efforts on. So I'm confident that we will see positive results of that, which will lead to -- because quite a lot of the order book that we have has some long time horizon in it. And therefore, if we do those efforts now, they will pay off over the years to come as well. So I'm confident it's going to pay off. I'm not really going to give you an exact figure there, of course.

Operator

operator
#17

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Karl Bokvist from ABG Sundal Collier.

Karl Bokvist

analyst
#18

Again, just one follow-up on Services. Is it possible to give any kind of color on how that part of the business is performing and what kind of share of the group Services account for now?

Joakim Wahlquist

executive
#19

Yes. We don't report the Service separately. But what we can say about the Service business is that it's going very strong within Cavotec. And we continue to focus on this area. It's a very important area for us, both from a profitability perspective but also from a competitive advantage.

David Pagels

executive
#20

As a side note there, Karl, I can take because I also had some questions here coming up in the flow for written questions. It's also then a question around our ability to do in the service contracts that we have. What we see also, which is very positive for us is that you see a trend of not only delivering goods to our customers, but also then delivering service to our customers, service in terms of we operating our machines for our customers. We have done that for several years on our MoorMaster solutions. We're also signing new things with MoorMaster solutions where we are -- we're actually going to do the job for our customers by handling our equipment. We're also discussing that with another customer for Shorepower, where we're going to do the plug-in and plug-out of the cruising ships which again is something, of course, it gives us a good stable revenue flow. But more importantly, it also gives us the opportunity to actually operate our machines and make sure they perform exactly as they should or even better. So I'm really positive with the trend that our customers don't see just as a product supplier, but also as a service provider who is maintaining and standing by our progress during the life cycle of the progress and their investment.

Joakim Wahlquist

executive
#21

Okay. We also have a number of questions here in the chat. So we will try to take them one by one here and see if we can give you any good answers. David, which one is the first one here?

David Pagels

executive
#22

We can take one, and there's a question here, if we have an noteworthy innovations in the pipeline from our innovation center in Rotterdam. And yes, we have. I think 2023 has been a year where we have quite a lot of focus on the charging solutions, which we are just commissioning as we speak as we've told you about before. We also have another series of innovation programs happen, and programs. So what we will do more and put more efforts into in 2024 is to really clearly prioritize and put more efforts into R&D to make sure that we maintain or even gain position in the product portfolio and innovations in order to better serve our customers going forward.

Joakim Wahlquist

executive
#23

Yes. And I think the question there was also about our innovation center in Rotterdam, but we also -- we have a global R&D organizations that we have engineers working on new innovative solutions in more places than in Rotterdam. So we have a good portfolio of innovations that we are working on here in Cavotec.

David Pagels

executive
#24

We have another question here coming in from -- can you elaborate a bit of a service agreement with the COSCO Group? And yes, sure, I can. What we have with COSCO Group, COSCO has been a good customer, and we've been dealing with them for a long time, really good relationship with them. They have a big portion of our equipment installed on their vessels around the world. What they now asked us to do is to go on board on the ships and do a checkup of the stages of the system. So they are paying us to do this report service, reports on the vehicles, and that's the agreement we have signed with them. In line with that, of course, we will change out certain spare parts and wear parts. But in addition to that one, it just also gives us a good opportunity of looking at, get some feedback from our equipment, but at the same time also be able to then propose solutions in order to extend the life of the products that we have there and make sure they work properly as they should going forward. So I'm really, really positive around the entire cooperation we have with the COSCO Group. Okay. We have another question here regarding if we can develop a little bit more about our observations on how the industry sector is developing. Generally, activity levels in mining seems to be okay -- she is moving the questions. So in the mining sector, you could say that we are currently focusing the mining sector on the -- for our most like cable reels underground mining. We also have big applications for surface mining, but primarily on the underground mining where we have 2 big Swedish multinational companies that are very strong in that sector. The electrification happening in underground because, of course, the obvious that you can't run diesel engines on the ground. But also, what we see there now is also a strong push for also electrifying overground mining equipment, drilling rigs, et cetera, that's overground, not really for the purpose of that you cannot really use it, but it's the drive from customers and from their own customers to actually also electrify overground drilling rigs, et cetera. And that is where we have that cooperation with our customers in order to step that up. So I'm optimistic about the mining sector. The tunneling sector is a little bit -- it's less our core business. But definitely, the mining sector where we are, and I see a good development going forward there for the customers that we have there. Flipping through more of the questions here, Joakim, do you have anyone else here? We have a question here regarding the time horizons in our order book. Is it 1 year or several? It is a mix. You could say that in the Industry sector, it's a little bit more shorter time horizon in the order book. It's more flow business as we call it. In the Ports & Maritime, it's big investments. It's a lot of things. It has a much, much longer horizon than the planning phase, but also in the delivery phase. The year, it's, in many cases, more than a year, several years. But of course, a little bit shorter. And the Service business is a combination. It's some service level agreements with a long horizon and running over several years, as is also the spare part business which, of course, by its nature, is more -- has a shorter horizon.

Joakim Wahlquist

executive
#25

I think we have one question here also about the workforce effectiveness apart from the sourcing improvements and what we're doing there. And I think what David said earlier is that our programs are company-wide. And that a lot of our efficiencies is, of course, we're working function by function and making sure that we are performing our best. But a lot of the focus from David and I here right now is also to make sure that we have a good flow in between the functions, because that's where the efficiency gains really are. So really a flow focus throughout the company. That's what we can say about that.

David Pagels

executive
#26

Yes. I think clearly, and this is also a little bit what we clustering one Cavotec that we need to be better across the functions inside the company and also across the sites that we are, that we need to be better at working as one company.

Joakim Wahlquist

executive
#27

We have one question here also, after the quarter you signed a Shorepower order to a leading shipping line. Can you tell us more about that order? And how is the market demand for Ports & Maritime segment? I think that's one for you, David.

David Pagels

executive
#28

Yes, we can mention there. What we have there, we have Shorepower solutions when they are mounting on the vessels in 2 different product types. One is when we build new build ships, then you build in what we call AMPReel which is a permanent installed AMPReel that you have on the side of the ship that actually dropped down to the port and actually connect to the Shorepower. That is when we're building new ships. But we also have a big, big fleet of existing container ships and cargo ships that needs to be retrofitted with Shorepower. And in that case, you then implement our product, we install a product called PowerFit, which is a containerized solution where we have the AMPReels attached or sitting inside and some power electronics. Then they are sitting permanently on the container ships, but it's easier for them to just add an extra container, which they will not then remove obviously. It's their permanent installed ownership, but it's easy to do that on the container ships in order to make sure that also the existing fleets get Shorepower and can connect to that and also reducing their -- go as green as they ever can within the shipping line. However, the recent order we have here with the customer is then someone who ordered ship some time ago, they were not able to design in the AMPReels initially, and therefore, they have then added PowerFit containers on new build ships. So that is the order we're talking about, which is close to EUR 7 million, which is now containerized solutions for new build ship, which is a little bit of a hybrid between existing fleets in there because it was ordered a long time ago and therefore, they haven't got time to put in Shorepower yet then the trend is so strong for them to install the Shorepower, and the drive for the shipping lines versus -- and also push for the ports to be able to provide with Shorepower, in order to connect the ships is really, really strong.

Joakim Wahlquist

executive
#29

We have one question here also that you showed positive net profit in the quarter. What is behind this good development? And like David answered a bit the questions about the order book and that we have pretty long order books usually, this is the work that have been started more than a year ago now with making sure that we take in profitable business and that we focus on profitable growth, and that's what we're seeing. On top of that, we are working very hard on operating expenses, optimization across the group. So it's a combination of factors. We're leaving no stone unturned here.

David Pagels

executive
#30

And then we have a question here from [ Johan Eberlev ]. Revenue rose impressive 25.9% in the 9-month period. Can you develop if the [ county ] order is coming in during the year or a focus on working down the early less profitable orders, which should perhaps imply that the margin trends could continue to improve in 2024? You have a good conclusion there, Johan. The amount of orders with less attractive margin is shrinking. The more we deliver out, the more they will disappear. We are more restricted when we're taking on orders now. We need to make sure that we don't have an order book for the sake of it. We didn't want to have unprofitable order book. And your conclusion or your -- what your saying there is correct. We should be able to conclude that the margin should increase going forward. That is definitely what we -- on top of that, of course, we are working, as I mentioned before, we initiated cost down. So the combination of that makes us comfortable of the future.

Joakim Wahlquist

executive
#31

Okay. Did we manage to get all the questions here?

David Pagels

executive
#32

We have one question here. Are we also working on solutions for hydrogen power vessels and vehicles? We are not, but it's a new technology, and there is a lot of opportunities and a lot of things happening now. And I think that the shipping lines are exploring all kind of different ways of reducing the emissions. One is hydropower. Yes, another is, of course, LNG and instead of diesel instead and oil. So there's a lot of -- and many of those ships has a combination of various systems in order to -- as a propulsion system and generating the power. So it's not necessarily that they have only one, they have a multiple. But I think it's -- we're on board and everything, but we're not necessarily on board on exactly the hydrogen-powered vessels. But of course, hydrogen needs power. And therefore, in that case, yes, we are supplying the power in those and the Shorepower, yes. We have a question here from [ Joshua ]. Could you discuss revenue and profitability from the automated mooring solutions? I understand you see the investment program and focus more on Shorepower products. That's not necessarily correct. We delivered, and we actually -- it was good publicity around the MoorMaster that was just commissioned and installed during the third quarter in Capella, the first in Sweden actually. So that is also happening. And we have a big interest. Right now, we are installing -- we have just installed in the quarter, a big portion of our program for in Morocco. And for MoorMaster we also delivering and commissioning now a MoorMaster solution for port in South America. The reason why those container terminals are interested in MoorMaster is a double. First of all, safety. Safety, of course, because you don't need mooring lines and mooring lines is also link to a lot of injuries and accidents. But also the fact that you can hold the ship more steady and therefore, you could be able to load and unload containers more efficient and quicker. But also then an important factor in some of those ports is that they have some severe weather conditions and some also then tides, et cetera, which can create big problem for them. By installing our MoorMaster solution in addition to the mooring lines makes them being able to open the ports then for 1, 2, 3 weeks more than they normally could do because they normally lock down the ports when they have severe weather conditions. Now they can keep them open and therefore, efficiency increases. And therefore, we see a strong drive within the MoorMaster also going forward. Worth mentioning on the MoorMaster though, is that this is a big step for the ports to take, not necessarily huge investments, but it's more or less a big step for them to take. It's a conservative business in certain degrees. So it takes time to convince the customer to let them -- to really for them to see the benefits of our automated mooring system and to convince them, but the more -- and we have now 50-plus installations of MoorMaster around the world, and we see the trend and the increased interest from many ports around the world to continue. So I think the Morocco one is an important milestone. At the same time, also the one in South America, and I'm optimistic we will see more orders for the MoorMaster in our book because we have a lot of interest in moor projects in the pipeline.

Joakim Wahlquist

executive
#33

I think you answered a lot of that question there, David. I also want to say that developing -- we now have our new generation MoorMaster's out there and developing a new generation is not something you're doing every year, just like I'm coming from the commercial vehicle industry, you don't develop a new truck generation every year. It's big investments. Having said that, it's a key solution for us, and we continue to develop this product. So this one will continue to be in our product portfolio. Any more questions there? Let's see I think we have ticked off…

David Pagels

executive
#34

I got a question here from [ Elin ] from Stockholm School of Economics regarding the megatrends and regulations you mentioned in favor of green technology. Are they equally as strong in all geographical markets or are there some regions that are weaker and stronger? It's a very good question. I see a strong trend right now in Europe. There are a combination of regulations, as we mentioned, but also drive from customers because their customers and it's down to all of us, when we are going on board on cruising ships, et cetera, we want to be doing something good. And therefore, there is that also -- so therefore, I'm talking about the megatrends, and I'm also talking about the trend from customers who want to do this, and therefore, we are very positive towards how this goes. Europe is happening now, primarily on the cruising ships, quite a lot of the ships. Quite a lot of ports will be installing Shorepower in Europe. They have a plan over the next 5 years to do. 85% of the ports in Europe is the aim that they want to achieve. But also then as U.S. is happening now, the East Coast with Miami was brave, will be the first one, but also the other ports on the West Coast, Canaveral, Everglades, et cetera, are now clearly following that trend. And I was, as I mentioned, visiting customers on the East Coast this week, and they are just as we speak, ready to launch the projects and then now the funding is already available. And one starts and the rest want to follow because no one wants to be left behind. Having that said, but also the Shorepower in Asia is also then going strong. So I think we have -- we are a little bit in different phases, but I think the overall trend is equal around the globe. Everyone wants to move away from fossil fuels and into green electrical and Shorepower solutions. We have one question here. How do you view the aftermarket? How long lifetime value of our products? You could say that the technical design life, and we have the technical design life of a vessel is 30-plus years. And of course, if you are very close of scrapping a vessel, you don't really invest in this, if you are close to a couple of years away from scrapping then you wait and hold off. But at the same time, we have equipment on board, which is there in order to serve the entire lifetime of the vessels. But of course, then as we just explained before on the COSCO, they want us to be in board in order to make sure and engage us to make sure that the equipment last. It is harsh environment out there, saltwater, rough conditions when they're sailing over the oceans. That's clear. So it's a tough environment for our product. And therefore, it's really important that they maintain it properly. And therefore, I'm glad that they're also using us as their partners to make sure that this product works properly over the technical design life of the vessels. Anything we have missed here, Joakim?

Joakim Wahlquist

executive
#35

I think we have ticked off all the questions here now.

David Pagels

executive
#36

We have one here. I think we mentioned it a little bit. We talked about India. As I said, we will gradually ramp up India during 2024. However, we have the -- I was out there looking at the facility a couple of 3, 4 weeks ago, also hired a couple of key guys that's going to be in charge of running that facility. And we will start -- we will ramp it up as we said before, but we will start producing units in our facility already in Q1. That is going to happen. But it will be a ramp-up. It's not a big bang where we open a facility and all of a sudden we switch on the tap. It's more gradually ramping it up as we go there. But the Indian market is also very much interested in going as green as they can. And therefore, they're also in the forefront on the Shorepower solutions and also modernizing the ports. India is, as we all know, a very rapid growing economy. And therefore, they want to do it in an efficient way as possible. I think we have answered the questions now, which we have there. So if you don't have any further verbal questions there, I would like to take the opportunity to thank you all for your good questions and your interest in Cavotec as a company now forward. And I'm also glad that you are as excited as we are, Joakim and me, for sure, but also the rest of Cavotec. We are playing a vital role in this sustainable trends around the world, and we have good product for it. And therefore, I'm very optimistic now that we are starting to get Cavotec into shape. It should be, and we'll be able to gain on those megatrends that we have there. So in that case, I'm looking forward to finish off the fourth quarter here at the end of the year. And then I'm looking forward to have your questions and also be able to present the Q4 results somewhere during February. So thank you very much for your attention and interest.

For developers and AI pipelines

Programmatic access to Cavotec Group AB earnings transcripts and 32,000+ others is available through the EarningsCalls.dev REST API. Plans from $24.99/month — full transcripts, speaker segments, full-text search, and the recently-added /api/v1/transcripts/recent polling endpoint for ETL pipelines.