Imerys S.A. ($NK)

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Imerys First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions]. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to our first speaker today, Alessandro Dazza, CEO. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good evening to all of you. Thank you for joining us today to review Imerys Q1 2026 results. With me here, Pierre Lebreuil, our CFO. Let me start, as usual, by giving you some highlights of the first quarter '26. I'd say immediately a strong quarter for Imerys with organic growth, improved profitability at constant exchange rate in a market which was certainly challenging. Revenue at EUR 835 million was up 0.7% versus last year at constant FX, driven by volume growth and steady pricing. To be noted, the significant currency headwinds in Q1, representing approximately EUR 40 million or 5% of sales compared to last year when the dollar was still very strong. Pierre will show you in detail later on this specific effect. Adjusted EBITDA for the period amounted to EUR 118 million, up 4% at constant exchange rates, reflecting solid execution, volume increases and cost control. Short update on our strategic road map. Project Horizon, very important for this year, one of our priority has been launched across all main relevant countries. Social and legal processes are ongoing and in progress deployed, I would say, per plan, on time, on track to deliver the targeted savings. And I remind you, EUR 50 million to EUR 60 million minimum versus the 2025 cost base and as I said, on time. We announced on April 10, a binding agreement to buy -- to acquire Great Lakes Minerals, a processor of industrial minerals in the U.S.A. addressing typically refractory and abrasives, approximately $80 million sales at run rate. If you look at the following slides, it shows Imerys sales performance by geography in Q1 '26. We start by Asia, very strong, strong growth driven by good sales of conductive additives, but in general, good industrial activity, especially in China. Europe, still slightly negative, I would say, impacted by softness of the residential market, progressing, as we said, but still at a starting phase and low industrial activity. Good performance in consumer markets in Europe as well as everywhere else in the world. Europe, Middle East and Africa. So EMEA also includes the Gulf area. And we did -- we were impacted by the Gulf crisis. We estimate missed sales of approximately EUR 4 million, and I will go in a bit more detail in a couple of slides, only for the month of March. North America sales, subdued in Q1, confirming a bit the trends of Q4 of last year. Softness in the -- especially in the housing segment, poor weather condition in January, do not forget the very cold weather that costed us a few million euros in January. And the Q1 '25 with the strong dollar was, of course, a very strong starting base. I would say, business, however, in March showing significant rebound. So probably the worst even in America -- in North America behind us. South America was strong, solid, good consumer goods, a bit weaker in construction, but positive, especially including the FX exchange in the area. If we look on the next slide on end markets and their trends, largely reflecting what I already said on the previous slide. But if we talk more in general, I would say the year '26 started slow. January was low, a bit of the same trend in Q4 '25. It started improving in February, and we recorded a very solid month of March. Now the real question is what will be the impact or long-lasting impact of the Middle East crisis going forward. And frankly, I think nobody knows. But the trend is definitely pointing in the right direction. Looking specifically, I would say construction activity, subdued compared to expectation, especially in the U.S., positive trend in Europe, rebounding slowly, but certainly. Consumer goods, as I said, very solid in all geographies. Automotive, soft, basically everywhere in the world with the exception of electric vehicles -- sorry, electric vehicles, which continue to grow strongly, certainly in China and now also steadily and certainly in Europe. Finally, general industrial activity, it follows a little bit other -- or is a consequence of other industries. So rather soft in Western economies, but better in Asia and in China in general. So focus on our activities in the Gulf and our presence. I would like to start by saying we have a plant in the area in Bahrain, a greenfield project we established in 2014 with a local partner. The idea behind was a competitive cost base to produce locally and export to customers worldwide our fused minerals. We have around 103 employees, and I can tell you all of them are safe, which is the most important thing. Operations were stopped on the 28th of February, the night the war started. We did experience some explosion very close to the site, although the site has not been touched by any event. Middle of the month of March, we have gradually restarted operations, but we did not experience or we did not register any sales in the month of March because the commercial port is closed and to exit Bahrain, you have to go to the Strait of Hormuz. Therefore, exporting from this base is today still impossible. This unit normally has a turnover of approximately EUR 25 million per year. So you can estimate a normal month would be in the area of EUR 2.5 million, which have been missing in March of this first quarter. We are investigating alternative routes to ship containers to our customers. There are possibility to go through Saudi Arabia still under investigation, being tested at the moment, certainly expensive. On top of this local business that exports, we do sell as a group into the area, into the Gulf area, Emirates, Saudi, Qatar, Israel itself, approximately EUR 30 million per year. It was impacted in March, yes, especially everything going via container to the area for the very same reason. We estimate that about 1 million or slightly more the sales that have been canceled because of the war. I expect this nonrealized sales to continue as long as the strait remains closed. Summarized, EUR 4 million sales approximately lost in the month of March. altogether, a business of around EUR 55 million to EUR 60 million per year, so potentially up to EUR 5 million a month if the situation does not improve or alternative routes are found. On the next page, the last slide on my side to underline the good work done by the teams. On the left side, you can see the evolution of the full year adjusted -- sorry, of the first quarter adjusted EBITDA year-on-year. Compared to last year, a strong impact of the U.S. dollar, which in Q1 '26 is significantly lower. This effect should normally reduce eventually disappear as current FX level aligned to those of last year Q2 and certainly Q3, Q4. At constant exchange rates, adjusted EBITDA improved year-on-year by 4%, mainly thanks, as I said, to volumes, positive volume, steady pricing and good work on costs. On the right side, the balance price cost, which highlights the good and continuous work done by the group on cost reductions. Despite inflation because we do live in a world with inflation and despite higher volumes, as I said before, accumulating fixed cost, variable costs and overheads, we are in Q1 '26 below Q1 '25 in absolute terms. You see the minus 1 as the sum of the three. That's really our operational excellence programs, saving initiatives and also the first effects of our Project Horizon. All of these contributed to this good performance. Pricing, prudent, I would say, to adapt to competitive pressure, but also because we do -- we can afford to be more prudent this year. Pierre will now give you some more details or a more detailed analysis of our financial results. Pierre, over to you.

Thank you, Alessandro. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. So let me recap some of the key aspects of our financial performance, starting with revenue. Group sales amounted to EUR 835 million. This represents a 0.7% increase at constant exchange rates and perimeter compared to last year, especially driven by a 0.5% growth in volumes. Price increases were moderate to reflect improved costs and protect market shares. Currencies had a strong negative effect of EUR 42 million. So as a reminder, USD was at a strong USD 105 per euro level in the first quarter of 2025. Let's now look more in detail at our three business segments, starting with Performance Minerals. As a reminder, this business generated EUR 597 (sic) [ 497 ] million in Q1 2026. It represents 60% of Imerys group sales. Overall, the business remains very resilient given market circumstances, showing just a slightly negative organic growth with contrasted performances between America and Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. For Performance America, sales volume declined slightly by 1.1%, impacted by continued softness in the housing market and poor weather conditions in January. This was partly offset by a solid increase in sales to consumer goods, particularly filtration prices continue to hold well. In the Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific region, sales were solid in consumer goods, notably filtration and animal feed and in automotive, driven by market share gains. This was partly offset by slower sales to construction, notably in the ceramic business. Prices showed a positive trend. Now let's look at our solutions for Refectory, Abrasives & Construction business. Sales volume increased by 1.1%, supported by a dynamic momentum in the Asia Pacific region, offsetting the impact of the Middle East conflict, including disruption at our Bahrain plant as Alessandro was reporting and offsetting as well poor weather in the U.S. in January. Selling prices were slightly lowered by -- to reflect improved cost and protect market shares. The solutions for Refractory, Abrasive & Construction business delivered a third consecutive quarter of organic growth. Now let's complete the segment review with solutions for energy transition. Starting with Graphite & Carbon, which delivered a very good first quarter with a 10% revenue growth at constant exchange rate. Revenue is solid at EUR 65 million, fueled by 11% volume increase. This is due to strong sales of conductive additives for electric vehicles, energy storage systems and polymers and confirms the trend of previous quarters. To complete this segment review, let me now say a few words on TQC. As a reminder, TQC is our 50% joint venture in high purity quartz business. You may remember that we disclosed figures for this JV only on a half year basis. We can nevertheless report that business is normalizing in the context of markets which remain challenging in Asia. Now let's look at the group's profitability. For the first quarter, adjusted EBITDA reached EUR 118 million, corresponding to a 14.2% margin. Looking at Imerys direct operational performance highlighted in the box in gray color in this slide, you can see that adjusted EBITDA was very resilient with a 4% year-on-year growth, driven by positive sales volumes, disciplined pricing, good cost management and a slightly higher contribution from joint ventures. On a reported basis, EBITDA decreased 8% in comparison to first quarter of 2025 as a consequence of a massively unfavorable exchange rate effect of EUR 14 million. Let's now move to the bottom of the P&L. As expected, financial expenses are increasing as a consequence of the EUR 600 million bond issued last November. Other operating expenses are negative by EUR 20 million. Most of this EUR 20 million charge corresponds to restructuring costs related to Project Horizon and to the [indiscernible] of Imerys [indiscernible]. As a consequence, net income group share is marginally positive at EUR 1 million I will now hand back to Alessandro for the outlook.

Thank you, Pierre. So let me conclude with a few words on the current situation and what to potentially expect going forward. The Middle East crisis had a limited impact in the first quarter, as we saw, costing us approximately EUR 4 million in missed sales, but limited cost increases. It becomes now evident that energy prices go up and will stay high for longer. Therefore, we expect energy, raw materials and logistic costs to rise over the remainder of the year. Am I worried? No. As in the past, the group will react. Actually, it has already started to react and started implementing price increases to cover such higher costs. And the group will continue to take appropriate actions to protect our profitability and cash generation. And I think the inflation phase of 2021, 2022 has shown that we deliver on our commitments. What we cannot estimate now are the indirect effects of a prolonged conflict and how this could adversely or not, we don't know, affect the global macroeconomic environment and consumer sentiment. That's the big question for the nearby future. Thank you very much for your attention, and I now hand over to you for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] And the first question comes from the line of Sven Edelfelt from ODDO BHF.

Congratulations for this publication. I would have a few questions. If I look at your hedging and how current spot evolve, is it fair to assume that the energy bill would be up maybe 10% to 20% in H2? And how confident are you to cover with the price increase? Can you perhaps quantify the price increase that you have already announced? Second question would be on the asbestos. I think you were, Alessandro, mentioning maybe something positive end of March. We are end of April. So can you maybe update us on what's going on? Why is it taking so long? And the last one would be on the volume. I think I was expecting a volume way lower than that. So it's a bit better. Can you explain maybe what's in between? And is there any prebuy effect from your customers because potentially you have announced some price increase for April, and therefore, they have bought some material in advance.

Sven, I will start, let's say, from question #2, and I will let then Pierre comment on our hedging policy on our hedging levels today and going forward. And I don't know if he's able so rapidly to assess how much it could cost us overall for the year, the current levels to simplify around $100 per barrel oil and maybe around EUR 45 per megawatt hour to EUR 50 per megawatt hour gas. What it would cost us for the rest of the year? He will give you more and more expectation. What I can tell you, I start there is we are very confident that we will cover these extra costs via price increases. I remind you that when the conflict started, everybody, frankly, thought it's going to be quick and therefore, nobody moved. So in the month of March, very little happened, very little cost increases, no price increases on our side. The first one to move were, as usual, freight suppliers, truck drivers, containers because it's immediate. The moment that oil price goes up, you have immediately in your bill and they tend to implement immediately. The easiest one because freight is a pass-through. We buy freight for our customers. We put it in the invoice. If it moves, we just change and adjust. So it goes fast, but it's passed through very fast. What takes a bit longer is the impact of energy, so oil, gas, electricity partially. And when you buy raw materials that are impacted, your supplier will send you a letter, will explain, we do understand and we do exactly the same towards our customers. So in March, I would say no price increases. First half of April, very limited. I would say probably we started implementing with April 15. And I would say with the month of May, we should be largely implemented with all adjustments. So a slight delay, but not significant compared to the cost increases. What is the price increase? It changes a lot. If you sell a product that is aligned with gas, it might be significant. If you are in the U.S., limited, gas in the U.S. did not move much. So to give you a rough number is difficult because it can really change from one product to the other, from one country to the other, depending on the on the impact really specifically in the country or in the geography and on the product. Then on volumes, as I said, the year started a little bit in line with Q4 last year, so slow or soft. It kept improving through February, it improved in March. March was a very solid month in all businesses, in all geographies fundamentally. Prebuy, I don't think so for two reasons. First, it was too early. I mean the world was the first days of March. First, you realize there is a war. You don't think of the long-term consequences. And if you call Imerys on the 15th of March and you want more material, I can guarantee to you, we cannot supply it in 10 days. So prebuy for me is excluded. I think, as we said, the economy is turning. Construction in Europe is turning in the right direction. The U.S. has been more resilient than expected. Yes, construction is still soft, but overall activity with less uncertainty after all the chaos caused by tariffs is okay. China is remaining -- is remaining dynamic, a lot of exports, fine. So overall, I think the year started well. I can tell you, feeling is looking at my order intake that April is on a good trend. The question is really what is the consequence of this war mid, long term. are we ahead of a higher inflation and therefore, again, consumers stopping investing -- or sorry, spending, companies stopping investing, people don't buy new cars, not renovating the house because inflation is up. Will interest rates move up again, stopping the recovery of the construction industry. These are all the questions that we cannot answer today. But I think as predicted, I think the economy has turned the corner, had reached the bottom, was going up. And therefore, the volume increase for me is good news, but not totally surprising. Last comment on asbestos or on the Chapter 11 case, we do have regular interaction with the judge. The judge is writing her ruling intensively. We were hoping to have sometimes end of March, beginning of April and announce, of course, immediately the outcome. It has not come. For me, it should not be interpreted in any way, simply a very precise judge that wants to write the most solid judgment plus a very busy judge because she has many cases. I did check the last rulings and specifically the very last one was on the Boy Scouts of America. It was 250 pages. So I do understand that I don't know if hours will be that long, but I think it's really a matter of timing in drafting the document. Good, solid, clear trustworthy judgment is in the interest of everybody because it will really give validity and solidity to the judgment. So we patiently wait, and we do not interpret in any form. And I hope any day, including tonight, if we are likely to give you the good news that the ruling is out, and I remain confident we will be positive. But really, it could come any day. Pierre, on hedging?

Hedging at energy, so a few facts and figures. First probably worth remembering you that energy globally represents roughly 10% of our sales at Imerys plus or minus out of which, 50% electricity, 25% gas and 25% for other energy. So this is the first point. Then in terms of impact that this was your question, you might consider that going forward, the impact might be around, say, 10% to 20% of our energy bill. Obviously, as Alessandro was mentioning, this will be offset by price increases and will be smooth especially in the first month by the impact of our hedging. We are quite well hedged especially in Q2, Q3 might consider that we are hedged around [ 50%-60% ].

And if I can complete, if you say around 10% on a full year basis, we are talking about EUR 35 million, which is roughly our estimation of what the cost could be of a barrel at $100 and gas at EUR 50 per megawatt hour between now and the end of the year. So with sales of around EUR 3.5 billion, we are talking about potentially a 1% price increase needed to cover. Of course, this is all theoretical because it's on a full year basis, and we are in March, April and hedging. But to give you the feeling, we are way, way far from '21, '22 when we were talking about 8%, 9%, 10%, 11%, 15%. So it's a limited effort that we need to ask our customers. And again, it might be 3%, 4% if you're an energy-intensive European product or if you are a low energy in the U.S. gas based where there is basically no move. But that's the ballpark, something absolutely reasonable. Sven. I think we addressed all your questions.

Now we're going to take our next question. And the question comes from the line of Ebrahim Homani from CIC.

I have three, if I may. The first one is about the plan -- the cost reduction plan. Could you give us an update on how does it at which level you are at this time? My second question is about the Quartz business. You said that it's -- the situation is stabilizing now. So maybe what should we expect for the next quarter stabilization or maybe an improvement of the situation? And my last question is about the acquisition you made, Great Lake Minerals, maybe more numbers in terms of scope effect and the multiple or price you will pay on this acquisition?

Ebrahim, I start with Quartz. I think business, as we saw around the second part of '25, the business is definitely becoming more normal, more constant, more predictable and slightly recovering. As I said in the last messages, inventories, again, it's largely a Chinese business, largely solar, less limited visibility and not fully reliable information. But what we see is the inventory is coming to more -- down to a more normal level, and therefore, activity is slowly but progressingly picking up. What is still for me remain the key is as long as this industry as a whole does not become rationalized, meaning excess capacities are taken out, so that producers make money, producers run their plants well, efficiently and full, then the need for high-quality products will remain a little bit behind. And that's what we see. We are starting, but they are trying to optimize the cost position because they have empty plants. Still, I would say Q1 this year is definitely ahead of Q1 last year. So overall, the trends could continue to be in the positive direction. So that's overall even with the market installation of solar panels this year that should be growing less or even some estimation are stable because China has removed a lot of subsidies. The rest of the world is still pushing, but China will buy a bit less this year or will install a bit less this year. So a good way, not yet not yet fully rebounding as we wish. On the acquisition, it's a private transaction. So what you see disclosed is what we can disclose. The only thing I may say is the business is doing good or has a good level of profitability in line with the group. And I believe we were able to agree on a price or on a multiple that is absolutely reasonable for current market conditions. And I would say it's -- it would be relutive to the group, probably below our current trading multiple. So good acquisition for the group. We do expect some synergies. It is in a very dynamic market, the U.S., as we know very well, they go down, but they rebound fast and rapidly and serving abrasive refractory, so basically the general industry and steel production, aluminum production, we do expect midterm to see good business based on the reshoring of industrial activities to the U.S. that the President is pushing and all these tariffs should normally support. So I think a good time to purchase. And we do look forward to close as soon as possible. No regulatory -- significant regulatory hurdles. So it should be done very fast. And I'll let Pierre comment on a few numbers on the Horizon.

Few numbers on Horizon [ in detail ], Alessandro. So first thing to confirm that the project has been launched in the main relevant countries with social legal processes currently ongoing. So the program is being deployed and is fully on track to deliver the EUR 50 million to EUR 60 million savings versus 2025 cost base that has been announced communicated before. The group expects as well to meet the projected time line, meaning that at least 50% of expected savings will already impact our profitability in 2026 and then the full run rate will impact our accounts from 2027 onwards. It's worth mentioning that in terms of cost, we are quite well in the picture of what we have communicated so far, so cost around, corresponding to around 1 year of savings. And just as a proof and as a sign of the impact of those savings, if you just look at the EBITDA waterfall that we presented a few minutes ago, you can see that the fixed cost overhead effect is negative minus -- minus EUR 1 million, excuse me, considering that in a given month, our -- in a given quarter, excuse me, fixed cost plus overheads represent roughly EUR 500 million. If you just apply inflation, probably inflation in our fixed cost overhead was EUR 8 million to EUR 10 million. So this means that this is showing already -- this has already offset in our financial, by the first effect of Horizon plan. This is already visible.

Yes. Some countries go faster, Ebrahim, U.S., for instance, I think they have already implemented a large part of our program. Other countries, and I take France as an example, the procedures are extremely long. So announcements and discussions have been done are ongoing. But the impact, you will see it probably around the end of the year because you know well that the time line of such a program is given by law and it's long. Then there are a lot of countries in between, and they will come on stream as implemented. Absolutely.

And the question comes from the line of Sebastian Bray from Berenberg.

My first one is on the absence of a quantitative '26 guidance statement and extent of seasonality because we're at a stage of the year where Imerys probably knows roughly what's happened in the first 4 months. Let's see what has happened in April. And what speaks against just providing a wide range at this stage? Are there any signs that trading has changed materially in April versus March across the group? And my second question is more around the -- the performance of the new energy part of the group. So this seems to have done quite nicely. It maybe even picked up some market share. Is Imerys at its current level of CapEx capable of growing 10% per year indefinitely within the new energy part of the portfolio?

Sebastian, on guidance, I know you started recently to follow Imerys, but it is our practice to give guidance only at midyear where we have a bit more visibility on what's going on. So that's why in Q1, there is no guidance. And on top, frankly, giving guidance today with the actual world, I would feel very uncomfortable as it can go in all directions. So I'm glad we -- we stick to our principles. What I can for sure tell you is if I look at my April trading, as I said before, for the time being, it's rather in line with March. So I see no crisis, no significant drop of activities at all. I do see my sales in the area or going out of the area missing, as I saw in March, but it remains a small number. For the rest, activity is okay. It's okay. It's absolutely okay. So no reason to panic or the contrary. Second question around new energies, especially graphite and carbon that has posted a 10% volume growth. Indefinitely, no. I wish, but no, we cannot indefinitely grow at 10%, but we can grow at this level for a few years. We invested heavily in this business in the years '22 to '25. We have built a Line 3 in Belgium, a Line 4 in Belgium that we just commissioned at the end of last year. So we do have adequate capacity to follow, I would say, at least the next 3 years. We've invested in Switzerland, again, with new lines that even probably a bit longer than that. So we are ready to accompany our customers without any significant CapEx at least for the next 3 years. Then as you well know, when you build new lines, the next step is optimizing these lines and debottlenecking. So we do consider already now how we could squeeze more out of existing lines. So we might have here and there a few millions to debottleneck. And that should give us, again, a little bit of time before considering the next serious investment. One day, I believe we will get there because this market is growing strongly. I think electrification, and I'm not talking only on vehicles. I think electrification of vehicles will continue. China will move to 100% electric. They are only at 55% new sales. Europe is around 20%, will continue to grow. It doesn't matter what the U.S. do. They are irrelevant to today's numbers in EVs. But not only that, a big, big market that is growing very strongly is energy storage, so static batteries. that you put next to data centers, next to wind turbines, next to solar parks or solar farms to compensate the peaks and the lows in production. And grids are starting to do the same because it's cheaper to have a battery rather than starting up a power generation plant to cover 1 or 2 hours where you have a low. So there is a whole new market that is just at the beginning that could guarantee long-term further growth of this business.

And the next question comes from the line of Jason Fairclough from Bank of America.

A couple of quick ones for me. And then I'm going to sort of go all over the place here. First of all, in terms of the plant in Bahrain, do you continue to incur costs there even while the sales are being impacted? And I guess, is there opportunity to produce product and sell product from other plants to make up for the fact that you can't deliver from this plant? Second one was just on BESS. So thanks for the background on that, the battery energy storage systems. I wanted to understand here whether you feel like you're geared to China enough because it seems to me that a lot of the hardware for the battery energy storage systems is ultimately coming out of China. Are you in a position where you can actually supply to people in China? Or is your business more geared to Western battery producers? And then third one, I guess, Alessandro, would just be about the nature of the recovery. I think it was about 12 months ago, we were talking about some green shoots and maybe we'd start to really see a pickup in activity and then nothing has happened, right? And if I look at some of the revenue numbers, sort of low single-digit changes doesn't really feel like a V-shaped recovery. So I'm just wondering how you're thinking about the nature of the recovery that we're seeing here or not seeing.

Jason, Bahrain? First of all, we are at the very beginning or early on in this crisis. So I think things might change. I have to admit that the government, the local government has supported us when we shut down the plant immediately in the early days of the conflict. And people were home. The government gave us a kind of economic support for employees -- for the cost of the employees. You have no other costs. You don't have commitments to power consumption and so on. So it's really mostly relating to labor cost, 103 employees, a little bit similar to what happened in COVID times in Western countries, the government jump in and help. So -- so we lost sales, we lost profitability on these sales, but we did not fully incur in all the costs. So good news. Future, I don't know. I don't know what the new decision. It was rapid, and we will see. We have restarted production. We run around probably 30%, 40% of capacity. So we are back in production. We are -- as I said, we are trying to reroute sales via Saudi Arabia going to the Red Sea and exiting the area from the other side. We are not the only one with these good ideas. So prices for containers out of Jeddah are expensive. So we are testing, and we will see if it's viable mid, long term. And Jedda itself as a port has to ramp up to the new challenge. It could be a solution long term, but still in experimenting phase at the moment. And yes, we were caught by surprise ourselves. But yes, we are now trying to supply our customers from other locations in the world. We do have other locations in the world in China as well as in Europe, producing the same product. So we are ramping up other locations to try to keep our customers going and keep them loyal to Imerys going forward. But it's really transition. So it will work. But today, it's still -- let's say, the lost sales are really lost. Now we're trying to recover them either directly from Bahrain or via supplier from other countries. So I am quite confident that midterm, the impact will not be as bad as the month of March where we were really caught by surprise. Energy storage, ESS or energy storage systems, we are absolutely exposed to China totally. And thankfully so because if we were supposed to supply Western producers, we would probably be starving. So all our main customers are in China, in Korea, in Japan, then followed by Italy, Germany and so on, U.S. So definitely strong exposure to China. That's where batteries are made. That's where the biggest producers are. Technology is similar to an EV and therefore, producers are fundamentally the same as for EVs with some new people coming up dedicated specifically to energy storage, but we are present, our products are really a bit the reference in the lithium-ion world. And therefore, very present. Last on the recovery, 1 year ago, we were very positive, not in Q1, but in February when we announced our full year results and then Liberation Day came, and there was a mess. Uncertainty followed and the economy slowed down, construction slowed down, interest rates, especially in the U.S. did not drop, and we have lived a very soft 2025. I said around the end of last year, prudence, but I see a change in trend. Is it a V-shape? I doubt it. I would say, a slow progressive recovery, construction, automotive probably has turned the corner. And all of this will carry industrial activity in general. Iron and steel in Europe should be supported by tariffs that will apply from July. So I don't see a V-shape, but I do see maybe a U or a flat U, going forward. And again, with a question mark on the impact of this war on -- really on a macroeconomic level. I think the U.S. are more protected, more independent. Europe is fully exposed and some parts of area of Asia are also exposed. So question mark on the continuation and/or acceleration of this recovery.

Alessandro -- could I maybe just do a follow-up question, if you don't mind. I mean the other thing, I sit right next to the guys in our office who cover chemicals. And what they've seen over the past 4 years or 5 years is that Chinese companies have emerged as major, major aggressive competitors in the chemical space. And I'm just wondering if you're seeing any of that in your verticals?

Yes, to a very small extent. Otherwise, the answer is no. Why? What is the big barrier to entry in our business? What is the big, big advantage in diversifying element in Imerys. We have a mine, Jason. We mine our products to 80%, 85%. Nobody can copy. Nobody can copy cheaper. If you don't have access to the resources, you will never be able to do a product in competition to Imerys. Yes, there are competitors in America, in South America, in Europe, very little in China. So fundamentally, the exposure to this fierce competition that you say and we follow very much in the chemical industry cannot and will not happen on Imerys because we are naturally protected. We need the market, the underlying market to be solid to grow, and it will not be a market share gain. Then I said almost entirely no, we do have a small part of the business. I quantify it in around 15%, maybe 20%, which is synthetically made. And that's exactly where we do feel the competition of China. Typically, in Europe, when you do it synthetically, you need a lot of energy to create synthetically a mineral. And when you produce in Europe, you are extremely exposed to high energy costs, and that's where one of our businesses, specifically the Fused Minerals within the RAC business unit suffered in '23 with a big inflation, '24 and '25. That's why we took an impairment on this business. I think competition has done its part. I think market shares have settled. This business has posted three quarters of organic growth because I think we have lost what we unfortunately needed to lose competition, typically Asian, not to say China. Now it's more stable. We fight on quality on service. We have specialty products, a bit of health through antidumping measures imposed in Europe or introduced in Europe. So even this part of the business, I would say, and numbers prove it. Q1, again, organic growth. So that should have at least stabilized, if not started to progress in the proper direction. So you cannot apply the rule of the chemical industry, fortunately, because it's really tough for the European chemical industry, it doesn't apply for Imerys.

[Operator Instructions]

No more questions? Thank you.

Yes. There are no further questions. And I would like now to hand the conference over to Alessandro Dazza for any closing remarks.

Thank you very much, and thanks to all participants for dedicating this hour to Imerys. We complete a good quarter. We're prudent on the future because of what's happening in the Middle East. But I think the trend is positive, and I do look forward to a good 2026. Thank you all, and have a good evening.

Have a good evening. Bye.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.