Norsk Hydro ASA (NHY) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

November 27, 2025

OB NO Materials Metals and Mining investor_day 159 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Baard Erik Haugen

executive
#1

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Hydro's Investor Day 2025. My name is Baard Erik Haugen. And together with my colleagues, Martine Rambøl Hagen, Elitsa Blessi, Mathias Gautier, and Camilla Gihle, I'm responsible for Investor Relations in Hydro. We are very happy to see so many of you here in the room with us in London and also a warm welcome to everyone following on the webcast. The topic for this year's Investor Day is strategic discipline, securing long-term value creation. And this, together with our strategic direction towards 2030 will be the key topic for the day. Before we begin, I would like to direct your attention to the cautionary note on the screen. This relates to any forward-looking statements either in the presentation here today or in the published and printed materials. We will start the agenda with a presentation by CEO, Eivind Kallevik, who will give his insights and status on Hydro's 2030 strategic direction. Following Eivind, we will hear from EVP of Extrusions, Paul Warton. He will talk about how they are navigating the current market conditions. We will then have a short break before we get the financial update from CFO, Trond Olaf Christophersen. After Trond Olaf, we will get a summary from Eivind before we invite Eivind, Paul and Trond Olaf on stage for a short Q&A session. And please note that the Q&A will only be available for those of you physically in the room when it comes to asking questions. We will then break for lunch, which will be served right outside in the piano bar. And after lunch, for those of you who have signed up, we will have the roundtable in the Lancaster suite just across the hallway. So with that, I'm very happy to officially get started and to introduce President and CEO, Eivind Kallevik.

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#2

Thanks, Baard Erik, and a warm welcome, and good morning also from my side. So before we go into the numbers, I really want to start with what we always start with in Hydro, and that is with people. Our value and the way we create value is really from thousands of colleagues coming into our plants and our operations every day. They often come in, in challenging environments, but they do so with professionalism and taking care of each other. And for me, the health and safety is not just a priority. It is really the foundation that allows everything to happen for our people, for their families and for Hydro as a whole. Because when people feel safe, when work is carried out consistently and predictably, that is when an industrial company perform at its best. So now we see that both total recordables as well as high-risk incidents are at the lowest levels that we've ever realized in our company. Now the primary objective is, of course, to keep our people safe but that also has a good impact on our operations because it gives us fewer disruptions, fewer unplanned stoppages and fewer hours spent on following up incidents. So safety for us is not something that we do out of routine. It is really fundamental to which company we want to be because value creation and our ability to deliver on our strategic agenda hangs together on this topic. Now if we look at the world around us, we are now closing a year which has been full of unpredictability. In the United States, tariffs and trade tensions have created an unpredictable investment climate with ripple effects across many major markets, including ours, aluminium. Now at the same time, climate change continues to be present around us, even if it received somewhat less attention than what it would have done 12 or 24 months ago. We've really seen another year of extreme weather events and the physical impacts of this are here, and the policy discussions do continue. But also importantly, and I will come back to this also later is that our customers' commitment to decarbonizing their value chains and their supply chains also persist despite the political volatility that we see around this topic at the moment. So momentum is still there, even as we are operating against the backdrop of increased geopolitical conflict. The war in Ukraine now well into its fourth year and the situation in the Middle East influence energy markets, trade flows and customer decisions in very real ways. And that's really where our focus is because we cannot control global events, but we can control how we run our operations, how we manage our costs and how we execute our strategy. So let's have a look at what we've accomplished during 2025. First of all, financial discipline has really been on top of the agenda. And I'm pleased to report that return on capital employed over the cycle looks again to come above target this year. Our improvement program is running ahead of plan. And by year-end, we expect to have delivered NOK 1.2 billion in improvement, which is double the target that we set out for 2025. The main portion of the strategic workforce reduction is now finalized and that will result in an annualized saving of roughly NOK 1 billion for the year 2026. And finally, we have adjusted our CapEx guiding by NOK 1.5 billion in recent quarter that really reflects the slower market and the need to adapt the pace of growth to the market realities that we see around us. And that is really the backdrop of how we execute our strategic priorities. The direction stays firm but the pace and the scale really needs to reflect the reality of the world that we see around us. And in this environment, discipline comes first. On strategy, we've had a solid progress across our key priorities. We continue to ramp up and execute on the investments we have decided on in recycling and extrusions. And in recycling, we have now reached an installed post-consumer scrap capacity of 860,000 tonnes, which meets already the lower end of our 2030 target at the end of 2025. Following a weaker market, the EBITDA targets for 2025, as you will have seen, were not reached. And given that outlook, we have postponed some of the 2030 targets. And that, again, is fully aligned with the logic of our strategy. We will pursue profitable growth opportunities in recycling and extrusions when the time is right. In energy, we have refocused our portfolio, returning our priorities to the core activities within renewable power generation. We have now successfully phased out both Hydro and Northvolt and the battery initiatives that we had. And just 2 weeks ago, we made the final investment decision for the Illvatn pumped-power project in Norway. We continue to deliver ahead of plan when it comes to the decarbonization agenda. And we expect to realize roughly 50% -- 15% reduction in CO2 this year against the target of 10%, placing us well on track to reach the 30% target in 2030. And then on the back of these achievements, we continue to shape the market for greener aluminium together with our customers and partners. In April of this year, we entered into a long-term offtake agreement with cable producer, NKT, covering an estimated 274,000 tonnes of Hydro REDUXA volumes through 2033. In the U.S., the introduction of CIRCAL is now gaining traction. We have delivered the first volumes to a company called Vode Lighting which are now marketing this in the U.S. We have also established the first supply contract for Hydro CIRCAL with a U.S. automotive customer. And the exciting point for me in all of this is that despite all the turmoil that we see around us, sales of greener products in 2025 in terms of value will be 50% higher than what we saw year-to-date 2024. Now if we turn to Bauxite & Alumina for a minute. The overall picture, the way we see this is one of a balanced market, but there is some concentration risk when you look at it from the bauxite side. We expect alumina demand to continue its steady growth towards 2030. And most of this growth is expected to be met by new capacity in Asia. India is planning roughly 5 million tonnes of new alumina capacity by 2030. Likewise, we see Indonesia continuing to expand capacity, but the pace there, we believe, is slightly more uncertain. We also expect China to add some capacity in this period. But overall, on the alumina side, the markets are expected to remain reasonably balanced towards 2030. Where we see more of a concentration risk is really around bauxite. Just around 1/3 of global bauxite is mined in Africa. And of that, roughly 95% is coming out of Guinea. And for me, this illustrates an industry wider risk. As global supply is really diversified when you look at it on paper, but it's also very, very concentrated when you look behind the numbers and the sources of where the bauxite is coming from. And in a world of increasing geopolitical unpredictability, disruption in one single region can really disrupt the entire market, pushing prices upwards if that were to happen. At the same time, the cost curve also shows that marginal refineries are under pressure at the current alumina prices as we see it. Prices now are just below the 80th percentile on the global cost curve. And that really means that high cost or higher cost refineries are really struggling to stay profitable, leaving them vulnerable for price hikes following disruptions or material cost increases. For aluminium towards 2030, the fundamentals remain strong. They remain strong across regions and sectors. And we continue to see steady growth in semis demand driven by the same long-term trend that we have seen in the market for years. The energy transition alone is a major driver. We expect global investments in power grids to grow by around 30% between '25 and 2030. And that represents roughly $600 billion of annual investments. More electrification, more renewables, more transmission lines, all translate directly into higher aluminium intensity and demand. Now despite EV growth forecast is -- forecast having come down lately, there's still an expectation that the global fleet of battery electric vehicles is expected to double between '25 and 2030. EVs requires significantly more aluminium than the conventional car and that, again, will continue to drive the demand increases in automotive as we look forward. Defense and security, also very much back on top of the agenda. NATO has defined aluminium as a critical raw material. In fact, it's defined aluminium as the most critical raw material in 8 out of 9 defense categories. Dominant countries, or NATO members have decided to increase defense spending from 2% to around 5% of GDP by 2035. Again, there's a shift that will drive aluminium demand in a positive direction. Infrastructure is a part of this, but also on its own represents another major source of growth. Europe alone faces an investment backlog that will require more than a doubling of annual governmental spending towards 2040. In buildings, new EU efficiency requirements are expected to push higher use of circular materials and low carbon materials towards 2030. And then HVAC&R, so heat, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration, we see a potential or continued potential for increased copper substitution with an anticipated market share growth of 4% towards 2030. On top of this, there is regulatory support, large public spending programs aimed at competitiveness and security are currently being rolled out in Europe. And as we all know, in Germany alone, they have allocated EUR 500 billion for infrastructure over the next decade. So when we bring all of this together, the outlook for aluminium as a critical raw material for the green transition and for European competitiveness remains strong. On the supply side, we do expect low carbon aluminium to remain a scarce resource towards 2030. We will see new primary capacity coming into the market over the next couple of years, but that is expected to be largely high carbon material. Indonesia is based on rapidly expanding based on coal. China, of course, is shifting some of their capacity into renewable regions. The net effect of this is still that the most of the new capacity coming on stream will carry a very high carbon footprint. On the customer side, we see continued persistence when it comes to decarbonizing their supply chains. We see leading companies across sectors, including our strategic partners, Mercedes, Siemens, VELUX, NKT have all reconfirmed their climate targets. And many of them also explicitly stated that aluminium is the way to reduce their Scope 3 targets. Demand signal, which all supports continued investments in decarbonization. The supply of low carbon aluminium on the other hand, is not expected to grow in line with anticipated demand. Aluminium produced below 4 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of aluminium will grow only marginally towards 2030. While production above that threshold will grow with several million tonnes. In other words, the part of the market where Hydro competes, low carbon, primary and recycle remains limited in supply and with demand going towards 2030. Now if we look at 2025 as a whole, it's been a year of significant policy shifts, all pointing in the same direction. And what we see is that security of supply is becoming a major concern for governments as well as companies. In the United States, tariffs are now at historically high levels. While we still have to see the longer-term impacts on economic development and consumer confidence, it is clear that within defense, production will be favored going forward. In Europe, we also see strong political momentum to support industrial competitiveness. We see policies aimed at strengthening critical raw material supply chains as well as discussions on scrap export limitations, all point towards a regional approach. CBAM, of course, will also be another important element. The export mechanism and discussions on closing remaining loopholes are progressing well. We also see that sanctions are shaping the landscape with military conflicts and geopolitical tensions limiting sourcing options. One example is, of course, the quota on Russian aluminium entering Europe will be reduced to 50,000 tonnes, February '26, down from 275,000 tonnes today. At the same time, we also see supply constraints outside Europe becoming clearer. China's capacity cap is expected to hold and potential smelter closures around us outside Europe may also affect the material flows into the European continent. So in sum, these developments create a more complex environment, but they also increase the value of regional, reliable supply chains. And that is an area where Hydro holds a strong position. So if you turn to CBAM, we are now just a few weeks away from the mechanism to go live. Where we see this, this is already largely priced in by the market as uncertainty regarding implementation is diminishing and has diminished during the fall. Longer term, CRU expects CBAM to lift European premiums by around 40%, and that aligns pretty well with our own internal analysis and the emerging consensus that we see from our peers in our market. However, it's still crucial that some of the loopholes still needs to be closed to ensure the level playing field for domestic producers competing with players outside the EU or outside the EEA. So we do expect the commission to present proposals by the end of this year, covering the anti-circumvention measures and export solution and updates to the product scope and granularity. And for Hydro, there are really 2 issues that stands out. First of all, the scrap loophole needs to be closed. Without that, there is a clear risk of circumvention and an uneven playing field between European recyclers and competitors outside the EU, EEA. Secondly, the scope needs to be extended to downstream goods to ensure that we don't get carbon leakage simply by shifting into finished products. Unfortunately, these things -- these processes take time and the earliest realistic inclusion of these elements, as we do expect, is 2028. CBAM, the way we see this has the potential to level CO2 costs, putting Hydro in a favorable position. Because with fair CO2 pricing, at the border, producing low carbon in Europe becomes even more of an advantage. But as always, the devil will be in the details, and we are following these developments closely. And the final elements of the mechanism are rolled out from Brussels. We also continue to see large volumes of low-grade and mixed scrap leaving both Europe as well as the United States, and they are primarily flowing into Asia. China and India now are major net importers. And Asia, as a whole, imports now close to 3 million tonnes of scrap from Western markets every year. Europe is now clearly NATO exporter to China, India and the rest of Asia. In the U.S., we see a similar trend with most low-grade scrap and mixed scrap ending up either in India or in China. If you speak to scrap yards during 2025, they also report that scrap generation is down some 30% to 40% during the year. So the combination of lower generation and continued exports keeps a tight supply situation for European recyclers and U.S. recyclers, giving us a margin squeeze as we've seen in the financial figures for the year. Fortunately, this dilemma and this challenge is now also acknowledged by policymakers in the U.S. and the European Union. And just last week, the commission communicated that their intention is now to introduce either a tariff or another mechanism to address this challenge. And then, of course, it's something that we will continue to monitor and discuss with the commission as the time goes on. So in this challenging landscape, one of Hydro's strongest advantages is continue to be our integrated value chain. Very few, if any, companies in our industry can match the control and traceability that we have from mine to metal. We produce large amounts of our own renewable power. We mine our own bauxite. We find it into alumina. We make primary metal, we recycle scrap and we extrude profiles and solutions for our customers. And being present at every stage gives us something that matters, more and more to our customers. Low carbon and recycled aluminium on the one hand, but we can also give them transparency and traceability from mine to final product, which very few other companies can do. And in the world of increasing scrutiny on embedded emissions, value chain responsibility and environmental performance, providing that assurance, creates trust, which translates into value and customer commitments. With that in mind, another layer which is proving its worth is the magnitude of the geographic diversification, which gives us also strategic flexibility. We have high-quality bauxite and alumina production in Brazil. We have smelters in Norway, Qatar, Slovakia, Brazil, Canada and in Australia. We are one of the largest recycling footprints in Europe and in the United States, and we are the world's largest extruder with operations across all major markets. And in particular, downstream, this footprint allows us to adapt quickly where the market and business environment shifts, whether it's tariff, energy markets, geopolitical disruptions or changes in demand. It also allows us to capture opportunities when they arise because when one region softens and other strengthens, we can rebalance flows, adjust volumes and maintain customer supply without overextending the system. And importantly, it gives us resilience. We can take down capacity when needed without losing market presence because the system as a whole can continue to deliver to our customers. So when we bring this together, the integrated value chain and the global footprint really translate into a very clear value proposition for our customers. We offer the full range of aluminium products from extrusion ingot, sheet ingot, foundry alloys to precision parts, alloying systems or alloyed material, building systems and advanced alloys to our customers. And behind these products stands world-class R&D and close collaboration with customers and partners. And we are among the lowest in the world when it comes to carbon intensity. That matters because our customers are tightening their Scope 3 ambitions and because regulators are placing more emphasis on embedded emissions in the products that are to be used in the different regions. But part of our value proposition and part of our differentiation also goes beyond carbon because our customers also want confidence, not only in the carbon footprint, but in the integrity of the value chain and the transparency of the entire value chain, which we can offer. And on that note, let me turn briefly to the business areas where the world -- where the words in the strategy that we deliver are converted into action day by day. And that is really the reason why we are delivering all the proof points that we do. Now if we start with Bauxite & Alumina, so we operate an integrated world-scale and long-term long-life assets in Brazil, supported by renewable and competitive energy supply, giving us very much a strong first quartile cost position for the activities in Brazil. These assets are really the foundation and the starting point of the low carbon position that we have in the value chain. In energy, the Hydro Power assets that we own remain a strategic strength for us. They are reservoir-based located in high-value power markets, providing Hydro with predictable renewable power for our smelter system as well as for B&A. We also have attractive growth options in the existing portfolio and in our joint venture with Hydro Rein. We have a centralized commercial organization that ensures that we optimize our power portfolio and secure sourcing needs for the entire system in Hydro. In aluminium metal, our primary smelters operate with competitive cost positions and access to this renewable power. That gives us a leading low carbon and recycled products area that offer further key potential in markets where metal are in structural deficit. We continue to see good opportunities in this area for further investments, supported by the strategic partnerships that we've entered into in high-growth segments. And finally, in Extrusions, Hydro Extrusion is the world leader in its field, delivering fast lead times, complex and certified profiles and solutions to tailor-made customer needs. So this business really combines technology leadership with modular investments that offer short payback and high returns. So it remains a strong performer relative to its peers and a key part of our low-carbon offering. So across all our business areas, we do have competitive assets. We have leading technology. We have a strong sustainability position and a portfolio that enables us to execute decisively on the strategy. And that is really the basis when we look at the strategic positioning that we have towards 2030. Using these competitive advantages to position Hydro as the uncontested leader in what we continue to see as a high promise market for low-carbon aluminium solutions towards 2030 and beyond. But despite headwinds in the macro environment and volatility in the short term, we still firmly believe in the prospects for our material and Hydro's ability to differentiate early. That will give us the opportunity to capture market share as the world moves in a greener direction. So our direction stays firm, but we will adapt the pace and the scope of execution to market realities. So we will continue to drive profitable growth, both in recycle and in extrusions, and that we will do to support the competitiveness and the low carbon position, we will also scale the renewable power generation. We will continue to execute on our decarbonization and technology road map and also contribute to nature positive as well as a just transition in the areas where we operate. And finally, we will intensify our efforts to shape the market for low-carbon aluminium through strategic partnerships and long-term commercial agreements for offtake. And going forward, these will be key to support the continued investments in decarbonization when we do it. So let's then take a look at how we're doing and what adjustments we will make to reflect the realities in the market. So there's no doubt that the extrusion market has taken a bit of a hit over the last 2 years. And yesterday, we did communicate decisive actions to consolidate our European operations as a result of this. And Paul will walk you through more of the details on this project later on today. Because the reality that we face is that demand has been softer than what we expected. Recycling margins have been under pressure, and we have seen cost inflation in several parts of the system. That has been clearly visible in the numbers. And that is really why we have refocused our project pipeline towards productivity, automation and cost discipline. We will continue with press upgrades, automation initiatives and targeted capability investments, which will give us a clear line of sight for improved performance. These measures will strengthen our competitiveness. They will reduce FTE costs. They will improve ergonomics. They will improve safety in non-commoditized markets as the markets pick up. So while near-term earnings are not where we want them to be, the underlying levers for return to good profitability are there. The commercial program -- the improvement program, the commercial uplift and the growth projects together give us a solid pathway back to healthy margins as we travel towards 2030. If we turn to recycling, where profitability has also been challenged in the short term. Margins are still weak in Europe, while in the U.S. at the moment, they are pretty healthy, largely due to lower scrap prices compared to the premiums that we sell our products for. In any case, the principle remains the same. We focus on the levers that we control. Improvements has to be a constant focus. The Alumetal integration is starting to yield results. We expect to deliver EUR 9 million of the synergies of the EUR 10 million to EUR 15 million synergy potential as we have identified when we did the acquisition already in 2025. In addition, we are delivering hot metal cost improvements, as we talked about before, of roughly $5 per tonne across the entire portfolio. Also here, we are continuing our portfolio optimization. We are curtailing underperforming plants and increasing utilization of the top performing assets. In the U.S., our newest recycler in Cassopolis is continuing its ramp-up journey towards the final capacity of 120,000 tonnes, and we expect to be at the 90% speed out of 2026 for that ramp-up. Likewise, at Cressona, the largest and most profitable extrusion plant we have, we are currently increasing PCS capacity by some 30,000 tonnes annually with ramp-up continuing during '26. Supporting this, continued investments in sorting technology enables us to dive deeper into the scrap pile, utilizing more complex scrap types. In the U.S., the Padnos joint venture is up and running and it runs well. And we're also ramping up our investments in Poland in the Nowa Sól HySort sorting line. And finally, with existing capacity and improved growth projects that we have already reached the lower end of the 2030 target of 850,000 tonnes to 1 million tonnes of PCS capacity across the portfolio. So with that backdrop, let's look at how this translates into earnings and an updated ambition level for our recycling operations. These recycling targets are then fully aligned with the requested or adjusted capital allocation. The revised ambitions reflect capital discipline and assumption that market dynamics, particularly in Europe, will normalize over time. Now if we start on the left, the past 12 months delivered an EBITDA of NOK 0.7 billion, NOK 700 million. That really reflects the weak downstream environment that we've just walked through. But at the same time, there are some bright spots in this. If we update the last 12 months results using current spot prices, we see U.S. profitability coming in stronger than what we would assume for a normalized market, while Europe still remains a significant recovery need to return to normal margins. It is, of course, important to note that spot sensitivities cannot be taken as a guiding for 2026 because scrap prices are volatile. There are some volumes that are locked into longer-term contracts that doesn't reflect the current scrap prices, but it nevertheless gives an indication as to where we are. From there, the adjusted road map shows the pathway back to a normalized run rate. installed capacity improvement initiatives and the improved creep and growth projects bring us to confirmed EBITDA potential of around NOK 5 billion in 2030. That, combined with lower CapEx in the near term, we have adjusted the range from NOK 5 billion to NOK 8 billion to NOK 5 billion to NOK 6 billion. If we turn to energy and have a look at the operational and commercial improvements, we are now delivering a combined uplift of roughly NOK 550 million. Of that, NOK 350 million come from operational improvements and roughly NOK 200 million from commercial improvements. Most of this is then enabled by the phaseout of our batteries and hydrogen business units, which has allowed us to sharpen our focus on core activities that we have within renewable energy. And just weeks ago, we approved Hydro's largest Hydropower investment in more than 2 decades, the Illvatn pump storage project in Luster in Norway. It's a NOK 2.5 billion investment, adding 48 megawatts of capacity and delivering 107 gigawatts of renewable power annually. Construction is commencing as we speak, and we will have targeted completion by 2030. But also important to note that through Norway's cash flow scheme for hydropower investments, the net investment after tax across the portfolio is estimated to NOK 1.2 billion. Thirdly, on Hydro Rein, it remains a growth vehicle for us and which potentially then will be able to source attractive renewable power to our Norwegian assets. And together with Macquarie Asset Management, we have a strong alignment on our core objectives and structure that will enable value creation for both parties over time. But to adapt to the rapidly changing market, Rein has also commenced a downsizing process, aiming to rightsize the organization and continue its path towards profitable growth. The key focus areas remains the same, strengthening their presence in the Nordics while maintaining a solid sourcing and production profile in Brazil, the 2 key regions for Hydro's long-term energy needs. Speaking about energy needs, energy, of course, remains one of the strongest drivers for competitiveness within aluminium. Hydro strengthened its long-term power portfolio this year by advancing several key renewable power agreements, including new long-term agreements with Hafslund and NTE totaling around 4.16 terawatt hours. In parallel, our joint venture smelter Alouette in Canada has now reached an agreement in principle with the government of Québec on Hydro-Québec to secure more renewable power for the 2030 to 2045 period, again providing Alouette with stable and competitive energy in a tightening market. At our joint venture, Tomago in Australia, the owners have now started the consultation process on the future of the smelter after failing to find an economically viable energy solution, again, highlighting the importance of competitively long-term power contracts. Since 2020, we have signed more than around 20 PPAs across hydropower and wind power, different risk profiles, different durations, including medium-term PPAs. And these agreements then support the smelter system with long-term renewable power, strengthening our position as an attractive counterpart in the PPA market. So all together, this is an active disciplined sourcing agenda that we have designed to secure renewable power at competitive prices. As mentioned in the beginning, we have strong execution on the decarbonization road map also this year. By the end of 2025, we expect to surpass the '25 target by around 5 percentage points. Again, that puts us well on track to meet the 2030 target of 30%. Several milestones are already behind us. Fuel switch of Alunorte is completed and it's fully ramped up. We've installed 3 electrical boilers, and we are assessing the potential for an additional 4 boilers to be installed in addition to converting some of the coal usage we have to biomass by 2030. And when completed and if completed and if we find the market business cases for it, Alunorte will have reduced its CO2 footprint by 70%, 7-0. So across the value chain, we are pushing both large and small opportunities, always balancing the cost and the effect. Now when we look forward, also some of the more complicated tonnes of CO2 remain. This is where our efforts shift more towards long-term technology changes. We are continuing to work with carbon capture to preserve the value of our existing smelters. HalZero is the solution for future greenfields. And then just in a couple of weeks, we will commence operations at our Stage 2 facility in Porsgrunn, the technology center for this development. That, of course, follows the successful lab test we had a couple of years ago. And as we speak, we are starting the planning and the engineering for the next phase of an industrial pilot, which is set to start operation and -- or construction around 2030. Decarbonization of the casting operations, we are also exploring several pilot scale technologies. At Sunndal, we are testing and using biomethane for casting and direct electrification plasma technology for emission-free remelting will also be tested in 2026 also at Sunndal. At Høyanger the green hydrogen pilots will be ready for operation in the second quarter of 2026. So seen from our perspective, there is not one single silver bullet. We have to pursue different technologies, that will give us the optionality to apply it where it's best suited from a cost perspective and from a technology perspective site-by-site. So let me then briefly turn to nature. As screener is a lot more than just low carbon. At Hydro Paragominas, we are strengthening our long-term nature strategy with a clear ambition to reach no net loss of biodiversity over the lifetime of the mine. We have now completed a preliminary baseline, and that really gives us a solid overview of the different habitat types and their condition. And it allows us to understand what it will require to reach the no net loss status at mine closure. The baseline will be refined over the coming years and as we integrate new field data and additional biodiversity studies. To ensure quality and credibility, we do, of course, work also closely with external research institutions to review and to improve the restoration practices that we have. That includes assessing positive effects from areas already under rehabilitation, where we see strong indications that recovering is moving in the right direction. Today, we have more than 3,400 hectares on the rehabilitation. More than 400 species of fauna have been identified now in these areas as the mine continues to deliver also its one-to-one rehabilitation within 2 hydrological cycles for all available mined areas. So the direction for us is clear, a disciplined science-based approach to nature in line with international standards and embedded long-term partnerships with the communities around us. Our social impact agenda is also, of course, an ambition. And the ambition is to improve the lives and the livelihood where we do operate. We structured this around the just transition framework with 3 key priorities: leave no one behind, strengthen local communities and build skills for the future. First of all, you need to ensure that all the fundamentals are in place. That, of course, includes mandatory human rights due diligence across all our operations and value chain in line with OECD and UN standards as well as a strong focus on health and safety training in all the projects that we do. Above these 3 requirements, we won a broad portfolio of local initiatives. Today, it's more than 150 ongoing projects. One of the recent examples that we have is the new partnerships with Red Cross in Norway, combining financial support with employee volunteering for the work that they do. We also contribute to long-term community development where our presence is significant. Last year, we launched what we call the corridor program in Para. A co-designed initiative with local communities, focused on economic and social development alongside biodiversity conservation. But also notably and importantly, this is the first time we see customers showing interest in engaging directly in development efforts linked to their supply chain. And of course, all of this, the direction is still the same. A responsible community anchored, long-term approach to social impact that supports both our operations and a just transition in the regions where we operate. As I mentioned, we continue to see strong demand in the market for our long carbon products. Sales of Hydro CIRCAL and Hydro REDUXA are from a value perspective, up more than 50% year-to-date despite the weaker markets that we see overall in Europe and in North America. And that really tells us 2 things. One, the commercial teams that we have are executing well, and structural demand for certified low carbon remains strong. For 2025, we expect Hydro CIRCAL sales to reach some 58,000 tonnes and Hydro REDUXA to increase to 461,000 tonnes. And these are improvements, important proof points as we progress towards the NOK 2 billion green earnings uplift potential or ambition that we've set to 2030. To position ourselves for future growth, we are also investing in new capacity including the new wire rod casthouse at Karmøy supporting a long-term offtake agreement with NKT of EUR 1 billion. CIRCAL is gaining traction in the U.S. with the first automotive project secured earlier this year. And this year, we also launched a CIRCAL-based foundry alloy from Alumetal, expanding the recycled content offering to the European automotive segment. So we continue to move where the market is moving, developing the capacity and the capabilities to serve a growing market for low carbon and recycled materials. So the success factor for us are quite clear: increasing volumes, strong customer engagement and that with a portfolio that is increasingly differentiated well above low carbon by itself. So the last years, we have worked deliberately to identify, develop and deepen the partnerships with the most ambitious players in our customer base. That helps us create a real market for greener aluminium, and that does not happen by itself. It requires customers who move early, commit commercially and co-develop their solutions with us. Starting with VELUX, one of the first to join us on the partnership on low carbon and circular materials. In 2023, we entered into our partnership with Mercedes-Benz. The following year, we delivered the first batches of REDUXA 3.0, using some post-consumer scrap, developed through close technical collaboration between our teams. Since then, we have expanded the model. With Porsche, we have an industry-first offtake agreement, including capacity reservations and green premium structures, a methodology that really supports predictable demand, and we continue to work together on this joint roadmap. And with Brompton bikes, which everybody in London should know what is. CIRCAL-based wheel rims are now rolling off the line, and that's CIRCAL 100R based on 100% post-consumer scrap. With Volvo Group, we partnered with one of the most ambitious players in heavy transports. A milestone in a sector where aluminium demand will continue to grow. We also broadened our reach beyond automotive and construction, engaging more actively in public infrastructure. Together with Siemens Mobility, we are developing a closed loop solution that turns aluminium from decommissioned trains into new high-speed rail in Germany. And in power transmission, the partnership with NKT is important. Long-term REDUXA offtake agreement will be supplied from the new Karmøy casthouse for major cable projects across Europe, 274,000 tonnes of aluminium. So these partnerships demonstrate the proven model, focused customers, deep technical collaboration and long-term commercial commitments that create a real market for low carbon and recycled aluminium. And as we advance on the decarbonization road map, future investments will increasingly depend on concrete offtake agreements like these, providing certainty for Hydro and for our customers' transition plans. So with that, I will leave the stage for Paul Warton to take us through some of the details on Extrusions.

Paul Warton

executive
#3

Very good. Thank you, Eivind. Good to see some of my customers up there on the screen. But now it's my turn to put some flesh on the bones with Hydro Extrusions and how we fit in and how we've navigated these extremely challenging markets across the globe is fair to say. So more of that later. But I don't want to lose sight of the fact it's been tough for 3 years now, but we still see opportunities for our business globally to follow strong markets, strong customers as they develop their business. But as usual -- usually we talk about safety first. Now here, this is Hydro Extrusions, safety performance. You saw the group numbers there from Eivind and here, Hydro Extrusions with our 20,000 employees across the globe. In many plants, in many countries, we've contributed to this improvement. So on the recordable cases there, you see that's improved some 40% on the 12-month rolling average. And on the high-risk incidents, these are often injury-free. These incidents in plant that's improved some 80%. And then, of course, there's the other metrics that safety, environment protecting our people, protecting our business. And one example there is waste to landfill. Target is zero, of course, but you see we made some good improvement trends there. And of course, we've got many other environmental metrics. We've got wastewater, we've got energy efficiency, and these are all trending in a good direction. And as Eivind said, this is, of course, about safety of our people and the predictable performance of our plants. But there's also many benefits. You manage safety in your business, you manage efficiency, productivity, compliance, quality, everything comes from this basic fundamental discipline. So I'm very pleased with the team's performance in this area. Now then, our challenging headwinds in the market. If I think back to what we talked about 1 year ago, you're very aware of these oscillations in -- especially our Extrusions Europe and Extrusions North America market. This is a via movements of demand up and down. And if you remember, the numbers in the middle. We talked about forecast for the market, 2025, 3% in Europe and 5% in the U.S. And you see where we are today with what we see today. Far, far away from those projections. The good news is we've managed those headwinds in the way we run our business, the way we manage our costs, the way we work with our customers and the way we protect our margin. And that's very important going forward. Markets are tough, but you still have to maintain your margins and your profitability. Of course, we take actions on our capital expenditure. We have to be a cash positive business even in these tough times. But it's been a challenge. But overall, I'm happy with the performance, and I don't lose sleep over the markets. They will come back for sure in Europe and North America and rest of the world. But of course, in Europe, we're now 3 years into this very tough environment in Europe, 3 years, 36 months. That's the longest slowdown in Extrusions we've ever seen -- mostly likely I've ever seen. If you look back COVID, COVID is like 10 months of downturn than recovery. If you look back to 2009, this was maybe 12 or 14 months, 36 months of a downturn. And we're still in that downturn today in Q4. So of course, our utilizations go down in our business, in our plants, in our extrusion presses and in our casthouses. There's the additional margin pressure from what was described earlier about scrap outflows from Europe. So scrap has become expensive, even in a soft market in Europe. And the pressure on the billet premiums through our recycling business has not been enough to make a decent return in our recycling businesses. So we have to cut the cloth, and this is a big decision. This, of course, is a very sad decision to have to make, but necessary. Our utilization is too low. The profitability is too low. These plants here, these are loss-making plants on extrusions. So this tough action sadly was necessary announced yesterday and the consultation process, of course, begins with our representatives to find a solution and then hopefully come to this conclusion. So we will lose 5 plants. We will lose 8 presses and casthouse capacity in 3 locations but necessary actions. And this, of course, will affect subject to the conclusion of the consultation 730 FTE positions. So this is quite an adjustment in the European landscape. So this is tough. What does it mean for us in terms of getting through this process in terms of lost capacity in extrusions and recycling. There you see the numbers, 11% reduction in extrusions and more like a 29% reduction in casthouse capacity. This is significant, but you shouldn't worry about. Does that impact our ability to take advantage when markets turn. We still have enough installed capacity in our business in Europe through the casthouses to extrusions to follow the demand as it improves. And what's the benefit of this? The financial benefit is the run rate improvements there of some EUR 45 million a year. We will exit 2026 at a run rate that's delivering those numbers. So that's in there for full year 2027. And of course, there's CapEx avoidance involved as well. So the money we invest in this restructuring, the payback is good. The IRR is good, and it's what we need to do to adjust our capacity in our market. So that's the action on Europe. If I then look at the global picture for us on extrusions and also still convince you that this is a good market to be in. If you look at the numbers in the middle there, these are substantially down from 1 year ago, but still 3.8% and 3.1% growth in our core markets, Europe, North America, this is quite respectable growth rate to work on. And of course, we're working on subsegments within those markets to ensure we're capturing even upside opportunities in those markets. So you see the curves move to the right, unfortunately, third year running. And the biggest impact in terms of our markets is the BEV slowdown in Europe, but especially in North America. But we're still selling battery electric vehicles, and we're on these platforms in Europe and North America. So yes, it's less than we thought, but this is still good business for aluminium extrusions and aluminium generally. And what does it mean? In Europe, this reduction, this means only 40% of vehicles in Europe will be BEV in 2030. It was 50%. In North America, it's something like it was 40%. It's now going to be 19%. So yes, it's down, but the trend is still coming. Peak ICE was achieved 8 years ago. So it's a slower trend than we would like to see with the aluminium intensity on these vehicles, but the trend is coming and it's irreversible trend. It's even coming in North America with everything you hear and see in North America. One of the reasons for the downturn, of course, has been the incentives. A lot of the incentives disappeared in Europe with some of the member states. These are slowly coming back. My own country, U.K., I've heard recently, there's incentive now you buy BEV, you get some GBP 3,700 discount on the vehicle. In Germany now with the money that's made available in Germany, there's also a scheme to give similar like 10% reduction savings on BEVs in Germany. So I think the regulators are seeing they need still to incentivize this transition. So the transition will come. It is a little bit dependent on some of the incentives that go with it, but it's still coming. And this is good for our Extrusion business. There is many of our products in these markets. So then overall, looking at the different segments we operate in. We share here where we are as Hydro Extrusions globally with where the markets are. And this really illustrates we're very well represented in the markets that we'll go in extrusions, in fabricated components for extrusions. The big adjustment there is North America automotive, that number you see 2% to 3% last year, that was something like 9%. So that is a big adjustment in Europe -- in North America unless we deal with. So yes, it's less than we were expecting, but don't forget when we invest to make parts for our OEM customers, this is modular investment. So we only invest enough corresponding to the business that we do in those markets. So we're still deploying that action on modular investments to support these markets. There's other ones there like commercial transport. This is very soft in North America, and that's an important market for us, where we have a big share and a growing share in North America. And of course, with tariffs, nobody wants to be the person buying Midwest transaction premium and then being stuck with the stock, the inventory, the products even when there's an adjustment. And still people believe there will be an adjustment. It's hard to predict when, where, why. Maybe it will never come, but there's still a belief it will come. So everyone is super, super tough on purchasing aluminium extrusions. So the supply chain from consumers to us is absolutely empty, especially as we go into a financial year-end close. But CT, you have to eventually replace truck trailers. So they're running on extended leases now. They are, of course, challenged on maintaining repair and so the time will come, they need to be replaced. And just to give you an idea on a trailer. We visited a customer with the Board directors only a few months ago. Trailers are selling for, let's say, $1,500. Midwest transaction premium, this is maybe another $300, $400 premium on top of that. And when our customers order trailers, they order 150, 200. So this is a big delta for them to be nervous that I don't want to be the one over-procuring when there's suddenly an adjustment on the tariffs in the U.S. So this is stressed in the supply chain. Everyone is on short lead time. So this is manageable, but it does mean when these markets turn, there will initially be restocking to the supply chain as well as the consumption coming at the end. So this will recover but it's a bit tough at the moment. And where we're less represented is in B&C. This is important for us, and this is extrusions to B&C customers. This is not our Hydro building systems company. That's a different story. But B&C does tend to be more the commodity end of the business, and there, we do less. So Hydro Extrusions is very well positioned globally to capitalize on these opportunities when the markets recover. We talk a lot about automotive, and that's one that since I've been here, we've really invested a lot of time, effort, money in developing our position in this market. And before, I've talked about the nominations where we get awarded lifetime contracts with OEMs, we've shifted the business very much away from being a Tier 2 or Tier 1 supplier to be an OEM supplier and OEM supply of the components, the likes of which you see on the right-hand side. So these are finished complex components that is heavy in BEVs, but also in hybrids or ICEs and this is where we've committed some capital and we have projects. And now these are coming to the market. So you see we shaded the green bar chart there to show what's been up and running in production. It's only a small percent of these nominations that we've been given because it takes a couple of years before you're in serial production on these [ SRP ] automotive parts. And then as we go up there in 2026, some of the launches in '25 were delayed. They're coming in 2026. So this business is coming. Some of it is less than what we anticipated. But like I said, we do modular CapEx to fit the demand as it comes. So it's slower than we would like, but it's coming for sure. And we still quite on a lot of new business now for similar components with OEMs globally. And that's why I put the point in the middle there. It's become more relevant that we're a global player in OEM automotive components. And we now develop with even Chinese OEMs in China where some of the OEMs in the West do partnerships now, develop business in China and even ship components from China into plants in Europe. And we do that. One example is Leapmotor which is JV with Stellantis. So we'll develop a program [indiscernible] program in China. We'll supply in China, the complete unit will come to Europe and be built to cars in Spain. But eventually, especially if European Commission wakes up and insists on local content to get a discount or a subsidy on a BEV sale in Europe, that's the way it should work. Then we transfer the business that we've developed in China into our plants in Europe and supply often the same Chinese OEMs now operating construction plants in Europe. So that's very important. We now get nominations with OEMs and these are global nominations in 3 continents producing the same part. And you see the way they manage their build depending on geopolitics or tariffs or customers, and we're able -- we're one of the only companies that can follow that trend. So this is slower, but it's still good. So moving on to some of our smaller business units within Hydro Extrusions. This is the Precision Tubing and also the Hydro Building System. So starting with Precision Tubing. This is the BU that's involved in the copper substitution in HVAC&R and also copper substitution in high-voltage cables for BEVs. And this trend continues. In fact, it accelerates because, of course, the delta now between copper prices and aluminium prices is far, far above the 3.5 ratio. So we have a lot of opportunities, especially in North America, where these copper substitutions are coming. And once it's done, it's done. It's not going to go back to copper. And these HVAC&R customers are changing lines. It's quite a tough process for them to go through as well, as well as us supplying them. But once they change, they change. And there we've got HVAC&R customers in North America that planning to change all their lines from copper to aluminium substitution. So this is a good growth rate, double-digit but then the aluminium penetration to copper within that growing market is also good for us in Precision Tubing. And then there's the Hydro Building Systems, operation. Some of you joined us in [ Talus ] recently to have a good look around the core plant in Europe for Hydro Building Systems, and they have the same headwinds in Europe, but it's a global offer, and we're very present in the Middle East with a strong reputation and history there for many decades. And this business, and if you visit Middle East recently, this business in the Middle East is really booming. And this is good for our business. We've not just followed the trend, but we've grown our market share in Hydro Building Systems Middle East. I was there only this week, a couple of days in Dubai. And we're nominating a lot of the iconic projects. The one you see there, very flash building by Binghatti Developers, and that's the Bugatti Residences in Middle East. It's all pretty much sold out. It's been built at the moment. It's about halfway built. And Hydro Building Systems, they are the nominated supplier on that as well as many other huge projects in the Middle East. And it seems that, that momentum is there to continue. So well done, Hydro Building Systems for growing their business in that environment. And then the other one is Europe at the moment, but this is the wall-to-wall recycling that we've talked about before. And this is where the construction products regulations in Europe on renovation is demanding lower carbon products as they replace windows, doors, facades, buildings. And here, we take away end-of-life windows. We do the recycling of -- we do the aluminium recycling, but also the glass and the gaskets is also recycled and the clients are demanding this high recycled content, CIRCAL 100R or 50R various recycled content delivery to come back with low carbon onto the project. And here, we do the multiples. So we take the aluminium comes back into our system. We cast, we extrude, we send the systems back for the client. So this is increasing in Europe, and I also like this because this keeps scrap in Europe because we take control of the end-of-life aluminium. So that's in the market. Like I said, there's plenty of reasons, it's tough at the moment, but there's plenty of areas where this will grow in the future. But then what do we do ourselves to control cost efficiencies in our business. And you know about the improvement programs. This is our commitment within Hydro Extrusions. We've also overdelivered on that in 2025 and these numbers we're committed to going forward to 2030, and there's a whole range there of different activities that you should be familiar with. And we use the Extrusion business system, which is typical Toyota lean waste elimination across all these improvement activities to deliver on these ambitious savings targets. So I thought I'd just give a couple of examples. This one is on automation, the next one on procurement, on the sort of things we do. I mean the message should be clear now on growth CapEx for additional capacity in cast and extrusions Europe and North America. This is off the agenda. Then you'll see from Trond Olaf's presentation, we reduced significantly our CapEx in Hydro Extrusions. So where do we spend our CapEx? We will still spend where we've got opportunities to get good projects, good IRRs, quick paybacks, helping our business to be more efficient, safer, but more profit into the company. And this example, I think we've used this before. This is where we still have some old presses in the system, especially in the U.S., and this one is like a Cressona example. So these are very good payback projects where we multiple -- closed 2 presses, very old presses, some 80, 85 years old. We put in a new modern press. And this, if anyone is looking at the numbers, 35,000 tonne of 1 press, this is not a normal direct 8-inch press. These are bigger presses, often indirect presses, very specialized for the markets within North America, but this is big savings on manning, big savings on uptime and recovery. And then you can imagine the payback is very convincing. So if we can squeeze that into our reduced CapEx numbers, that's the sort of project we go for now. So that's not really to generate more capacity in the market. That's just to make us super efficient on the installed capacity we have today. And then, of course, there's the automation of either fabrication sales, on the customer components or different elements of our business, upstream, downstream, just to invest on clever projects, demanding same benefits with a good return. So then on procurement, procurement, we've done a lot of work on this, just to take it a little bit away from local plant procurement, make it much more a central category management upgrading, if you like, of our procurement processes. And this has been extremely successful for us over the last years by adopting a very analytical detailed approach in this example. This is about logistics in the U.S. and you think you're good at logistics, but if you do a real clean sheet approach on how you're working with suppliers, how you're working internally on your own processes, a lot of change management in this, but you end up with significant benefits every project we do we make savings on the procurement -- the unit prices, consolidating suppliers. We waste, eliminate a lot of the process and we change packing materials and then we get improvements in internal productivity. So these are convincing. That's one on logistics. There's another one just to share on packaging, same methodology, same results. It happens to be the same EBITDA saving, USD 3.7 million. So we had numerous projects like this running around the globe with very well-defined procurement tools to deliver these savings. So we're very confident on the 2 middle numbers there. The improvement programs coming from internal actions, the commercial ambitions from what we do in the market to build our share in our core segments. The unknown is a bit on the left, the gray one, where we still have to see normalized remelt margins, especially in Europe. And our current action in Europe will help that process. And it's a lower number now going forward to 2030 than it was 1 year ago. It was 30%. North America, it's now 20%. Europe is a similar number, 20% to 25%. So we do need that recovery in the market to give us a step up. And then on the right-hand side, we've reduced CapEx significantly this year and next year. And like I said, there's no growth CapEx until the markets turn. And there, of course, that's impacting our number. So the [ 10 to 12 ] you know about is now [ 8 to 10 ] with what we see to date. So I'm just about out of time, and that's the end. So we're ready for a break, and I'm here on stage later with my colleagues to take questions.

Baard Erik Haugen

executive
#4

Thank you, Paul. As Paul said, we are now past the halfway point. So we will break for 15 minutes, and we'll be back here for the financial presentation by Trond Olaf. [Break]

Trond Christophersen

executive
#5

Good morning also from my side, and welcome back, and great to see all of you here today. So my aim today is to translate all of what Eivind and Paul has been explaining earlier today into the numbers, for Hydro, for next year and also towards 2030. And then first, I'll start and looking at the past 12 months. And Hydro has delivered very solid results, driven by strong performance upstream and positive revenue development. Meanwhile, the pressure on our downstream businesses, as we have discussed before, continue from last year with both extrusions and recycling facing significant challenges to meet expectations. But as a result, Hydro has delivered RoaCE for the past 12 months of 10.9%, above our 10% target. Over the 5-year period, the RoaCE stands at a solid 13.5%, demonstrating our commitment to generating returns both the cost of capital above -- through the cycle. And over the same 12-month period, Hydro has delivered an adjusted EBITDA of NOK 31 billion, benefiting again from strong upstream performance partly offset by the weak European and North American markets for our downstream segments. And looking at a recent history of Hydro, this adjusted EBITDA level for the past 12 months as of Q3 is at a very healthy level compared to the history. Given the headwinds in our downstream segments and with uncertainties around global politics and trade, we have taken steps to safeguard cash flow. And the capital allocation has been revised down and operating capital is continuous focus area. And as a result, I'm pleased to report free cash flow over the past 12 months above NOK 10 billion. And this is both a clear improvement over the last couple of years and also very strong in a historical perspective. Turning then to the outlook. And then I would first like to remind you about our financial framework, which is designed to drive long-term shareholder value. We operate in industries where we see pronounced cycles and periods of volatility. So having a resilient financial framework is, therefore, crucial to staying on course and executing our strategy consistently regardless of market conditions. Our framework is anchored in 4 pillars. Firstly, Hydro has sustained a solid financial position underpinned by disciplined debt management, prudent capital allocation and clearly prioritized investments. This disciplined approach has enabled us to navigate another year of uncertainty while preserving the capacity to pursue opportunities with strong long-term value creation potential. Our investment grade credit rating continues to validate the robustness of our financial profile and ensures access to competitive financing over time. Moreover, Hydro's average adjusted net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio has remained well below the targeted maximum of 2x over the cycle. And this conservative leverage -- level, strengthen our financial resilience and provides the flexibility needed to manage market volatility while maintaining our commitment to strategic investments. Secondly, our profitability road maps continue to serve as essential guides for driving the company forward. The cornerstone remains our improvement program targeting NOK 6.5 billion towards 2030. And this year, we have also introduced additional measures to strengthen performance. This includes the restructuring of Extrusion in Europe, as Paul has further described that we also announced yesterday and also the white collar FTE adjustment program we announced this summer to further manage our costs. And we are now fully benefiting from the energy savings in Brazil and continued progress on smelter ramp-ups and capacity agreement. And together, these actions reinforce our focus on operational excellence and long-term competitiveness. The third pillar in the financial framework is that we maintain a firm commitment to clear and disciplined capital allocation. In line with our more focused strategic direction, we expect that approximately 60% of our growth and return-seeking CapEx for the period 2026 to 2029 will be directed towards the defined strategic growth areas. This prioritization ensures that our investments are concentrated where Hydro can generate the strongest long-term returns while supporting the transformation of our portfolio. And the fourth pillar in the financial framework is linked to strategic investments where we continue to uphold a robust and predictable approach to shareholder returns. Since 2021, Hydro has distributed a total of NOK 41 billion through dividends and share buybacks, consistent with our NOK 25 billion net debt target. As demonstrated in our 2024 capital allocation, we remain committed to this balanced framework, supporting strategic growth while delivering stable and reliable cash return to our shareholders. And with the financial foundation in place, I will then move on to the first year of delivery under the new improvement program. Improvement programs have been, for many years, a key component of our strategy for resilience and for value creation. And in last year, we launched a new improvement program towards 2030, which aims to reinforce strong focus on performance and directly support the successful execution of our strategy. After 1 year, execution is ahead of plan with NOK 1.2 billion in improvements expected in 2025, well above the previously communicated NOK 600 million target. And the full NOK 6.5 billion is on track for delivery by 2030. As part of the 2025 achievement, we have some areas that have delivered better than expected. Commercial improvements in the Bauxite & Alumina business area has been stronger this year as well as the procurement program, which also have delivered above target. At the same time, we have been behind plan in some of the areas. And to mention a few, the operational improvement program in aluminium metal has been somewhat behind due to temporary issues with anodes quality, which has now been sorted out. In addition, the commercial performance in Extrusions has also not lived up to the potential and expectation this year. But then to provide some more transparency on some of the key drivers behind the results in the operational improvement program, I will highlight some of the examples on the next page. So despite a challenging market environment for recycling, then recycling operations, they have still delivered a positive hot metal cost reduction of around NOK 30 million in 2025. Part of the challenge this year has been that at times, the use of standard ingot has been more profitable than the use of scrap due to the relatively high scrap prices. And then it's been more difficult to capture the full value of our scrap capabilities. So against this backdrop, we are happy with the performance in the recycling operations and see this as a solid achievement. The next 2 improvements initiatives have been delivered by Bauxite & Alumina. And through targeted efforts to optimize mining transportation efficiency, the team has achieved a 13% reduction in fuel consumption per tonne kilometer. And this improvement translates into cost savings of approximately NOK 15 million, reflecting a meaningful step forward in operational performance and resource efficiency. The team has also successfully improved bottlenecks in Alunorte, raising overall refinery flow by around 1%. And while this may appear quite modest, even a 1% increase at this scale in the refinery delivers meaningful value, contributing around an estimated NOK 85 million in operational improvements in 2025. Automation and technology are other examples and implementation remain vital enabler for long-term competitiveness. They allow us to streamline operations, improve reliability on HSE and also cost reductions. And the following examples from Aluminium Metal and Hydro Extrusions and also our global business service organization showcase some of those technology and automation opportunities. In Extrusions, automation initiatives have enabled a reduction of approximately 150 FTEs, translating into cost improvements of around NOK 60 million. And much of the automation in extrusion is implemented with in-house competence, making robotization both cost effective and also agile. In Aluminium Metal, the rollout of smart breakers in the pots in the Årdal and Sunndal smelter is also delivering a further NOK 30 million in efficiency by improving electrolysis performance and enabling more stable production. And finally, the global business service organization have through process optimization and license consolidation generated approximately NOK 30 million in savings by redesigning and automating processes, reducing complexity and improving efficiencies. And together, these initiatives illustrate how the whole organization is working with numerous targeted improvement initiatives and delivering measurable recurring savings. And these are all the savings and initiatives that we add up in our improvement program. Then moving on to some further profitability levers outside the formal improvement program. And the cases I would like to highlight here today includes the energy cost improvements at Alunorte, the capacity ramp-up in the smelters and also our strategic workforce adjustments. One of the most significant decarbonization initiatives we executed last year was the fuel switch at Alunorte. The chart on the left shows the quarterly unadjusted energy cost development for the refinery. And as shown, we have transitioned from an energy mix dominated by fuel oil to a mix based largely on LNG, where the other category represents coal, electricity and biomass consumption in the refinery. And the result is both a positive step change in reduced CO2 emissions and the cost reduction so far around USD 50 million per quarter. We are also making solid progress on ramp-up of the curtailed smelter capacity. The volumes we curtailed in 2022 are expected to be fully back during 2026, where every tonne provides a positive contribution to the bottom line. In addition, we have highly attractive creep projects under execution as well as potential projects for future decisions. And the upside from these creep projects will be captured in the regular improvement program. On the people side, our strategic workforce adjustment is progressing ahead of plan, and we have already achieved the targeted white collar FTE reduction for 2025. At the same time, we have a clear plan to deliver on the reduced consulting and travel costs of approximately NOK 200 million in 2026. And the redundancy cost for 2025 is expected to be around NOK 400 million booked outside the adjusted EBITDA, and we expect little to no redundancy costs for 2026. Let's then move to the outlook for 2026 based on our adjusted EBITDA of NOK 31 billion delivered over the last 12 months per Q3. The strategic white collar workforce reduction and cost efficiency measures is expected to generate savings of NOK 900 million when comparing to 2026 with the last 12 months. Furthermore, based on the current market conditions, ramp-up of curtail smelter volumes will contribute with additional NOK 300 million, although the ramp-up profile is dependent also on the market development. Next, the improvement program is expected to further boost results by an estimated NOK 1.2 billion. And this takes us to an estimated adjusted EBITDA for 2026 of approximately NOK 33 billion if markets stay as they have been for the last 12 months. If we take the last 12 months from Q3 as a starting point, but use spot prices instead of the average last 12 months prices, we get a positive market impact, bringing the total EBITDA to around NOK 35 billion. Higher aluminium spot prices and high standard ingot premiums are the biggest positive contributions, while less favorable U.S. dollar to NOK currency rates and lower alumina spot prices have a negative impact on the consolidated level. We have also illustrated market sensitivities at the bottom of this slide for the main commodity drivers. There are many moving parts that are not included in this overview. And furthermore, this is not a guidance, but the high-level sensitivity analysis, which aims to cover the largest moving parts in the results for next year. Moving then to capital allocation for the company. While the capital allocation framework remains consistent with previous years, the backdrop of a softer market and increased uncertainty has led us to sharpen our priorities even further. In this context, we have deliberately reduced return-seeking and growth CapEx to concentrate more tightly on the most value-creating opportunities across our portfolio. The upstream segments remain in sustained and improved strategic mode, meaning asset reliability is the core priority in the capital allocation. Despite the continued softness in the downstream markets, we remain a strong condition in the long-term fundamentals of extrusions and recycling. These areas, therefore, receive the highest share of the growth CapEx, although the absolute amount has been reduced this year and also next year. And finally, securing access to competitive renewable energy remains essential to our strategy. And we are selectively allocating growth capital to the energy business area like the Illvatn pump hydro storage project that we announced this year. The capital allocation for both 2025 and 2026 has been reduced to NOK 13.5 billion, down from the previously guided NOK 15 billion. In addition, we have removed the NOK 1 billion to NOK 2 billion of annual flexibility from both our short- and medium-term guidance to provide greater transparency and predictability. The medium-term CapEx guidance of around NOK 15 billion remains unchanged, reflecting our commitment to the 2030 strategy. Sustaining CapEx remains stable, reflecting the continued importance of preserving the integrity of our assets and ensuring reliable and efficient operations. And after several years of upward pressure, we are now seeing sustaining CapEx levels stable, supported by more disciplined planning and improvement execution. Growth and return-seeking CapEx continues to be allocated to key strategic focus areas as illustrated in the chart on the right. The expected returns for the investments reflect normalized market conditions and remain in line with previously communicated indications. And this underlies our confidence in the profitability outlook of the downstream segments longer term. At the same time, we recognize the current market softness and reduced investment amount downstream are now increasingly directed towards projects that give good payback based on cost and efficiency improvements alone and less towards expansion of capacity. On the net operating capital side, our performance has improved over the last years and stabilized, and we continue to focus to get the net operating capital performance improving going forward. We expect the net operating capital days to improve by 2 days in 2026, driven mainly by mid and downstream stock improvements. The improvements are expected to come as a result of improved systems, supply chain flexibility and further strengthening of the recycling network. The NOK guidance of NOK 30 billion is in line with Q3 '25 -- year-end '25 guidance, reflecting underlying improvement expectations for Q4 '25 and also '26, partly offset by the higher premiums, especially in the U.S. Then moving on to our profitability growth road maps, where we summarize everything that we have been through today. And what we present as a 2030 potential for EBITDA, RoaCE and cash flow are not forecasts, but simplified indications, long-term potentials based on sensitivities after we have delivered on the planned improvement programs and also the growth initiatives. We have used spot market price scenario in addition to the base case scenario where we keep prices constant on the last 12 months as of Q3. We start with adjusted EBITDA Q3 last 12 months at NOK 31 billion and RoaCE at 10.9%. If we add the planned improvements and growth potential, we get to adjusted EBITDA of NOK 43 billion and RoaCE of 16%. When we run sensitivities on spot prices, the adjusted EBITDA is lifted to NOK 45 billion and RoaCE to 17%. And this indicates strong profitability based on our current ambitions. The cash flow potential illustrates the cash flow available for return-seeking and growth CapEx and shareholder distribution, which is at NOK 24 billion based on last 12 months assumptions and NOK 25 billion in the spot scenario. The delta between the EBITDA potential and the cash flow potential is largely the tax payment in addition to the annual sustaining CapEx. Then we see further drivers not included in the scenarios, both on the positive and the negative side. On the positive side, we could see some further upside potential due to positive market and macro development. And we have a higher greener volume potential than visualized here. Declining focus on greener products or unfavorable regulatory frameworks can have a negative impact. And these potential positive and negative drivers could also apply to all the business areas that I will present next. Then moving to Bauxite & Alumina. And despite operating in the first quartile of the cost curve, Bauxite & Alumina experienced a period of challenging profitability in the years before 2024. Since then, the situation has fundamentally shifted and B&A delivered a remarkable last 12 months RoaCE of 29%, driven by high alumina prices in the last quarter of last year and also the beginning of this year, along with the full impact of the implementation of the fuel switch project. And this is well above the 10% return requirement for B&A, aligned with our long-term ambition for sustainable growth and value creation. Adding then planned improvements, the RoaCE increases by additional 2 percentage points to 31%. However, B&A is highly sensitive to the alumina price, which currently is significantly lower than what has materialized on average over the past 12 months. This, in turn, leads to a significant lower profitability in the spot scenario with a RoaCE of 4%. We remain focused on enhancing B&A's profitability by further improving the cost position, strengthening operational reliability and advancing on the sustainability performance. And B&A also plays a pivotal role in terms of delivering Hydro's overall greener products to the market. And while we have made significant strides in mitigating risks through asset integrity improvements and fostering stronger community relationships, operational and country-specific risks remain, particularly in Brazil's volatile regulatory environment. Managing these challenges effectively, along with navigating operational complexity at the bauxite mine will remain essential to maintaining B&A's critical role in Hydro's value chain. Then moving to Aluminium Metal. Similar to last year, we present Aluminium Metal and Metal Markets as separate reporting segments to provide transparency and clear understanding of the individual contributions to performance. Looking at Aluminium Metal Q3 last 12 months, RoaCE has been 11%. When adding contributions from the improvement programs, restart of curtailed volumes and growth initiatives, RoaCE increases to 14%, significantly exceeding the return target. Q3 last 12 months EBITDA is at NOK 10 billion. And after ramp-up of curtailed volumes, improvements and growth initiatives, we get to NOK 13 billion. While B&A's profitability is challenging in the spot market scenario, Aluminium Metal, on the other hand, would deliver remarkable returns in this scenario. Based on spot aluminium and alumina prices and currency rates, Aluminium Metal would deliver a RoaCE of 13%. And then looking at the free cash flow, we see this ranging from NOK 7 billion to NOK 15 billion between the different scenarios. There are several further upside drivers for Aluminium Metal in the coming years in addition to those earlier mentioned. There are potential benefits in portfolio optimization and in continued to target high-value segments, like we have exemplified with our wire rod investments at Karmøy. Further potential and downside risk include operational and supply chain disruptions that could affect productivity and delivery time lines. Then moving to aluminium to metal markets. Over the last 2 years, metal markets has faced profitability challenges due to persistently rising scrap prices and subdued demand. These pressures are evident in the last 12 months Q3 RoaCE of just 0.5%, significantly below the targeted 8%. However, looking ahead towards 2030, as market normalize, ongoing projects are completed and improvements are realized, we continue to anticipate a substantial recovery with a potential RoaCE of 13%. In the EBITDA bridge, the expected improvements become evident, illustrating the increase from the current Q3 last 12 months EBITDA of NOK 700 million to projected NOK 3 billion to NOK 4 billion and this trajectory reflects the impact of ongoing initiatives and market recovery, underscoring the long-term value potential in the recycling activities in metal markets. Further upside potential for metal markets include increased scrap availability as well as technology development and deployment. Further downside risks include prolonged market downturn affecting both demand and scrap availability and increased competition also for scrap. Then moving to Extrusions -- and challenging market conditions with significant demand reduction have impacted extrusions heavily over the last 2 years. For Q3 last 12 months, Extrusions achieved a RoaCE of 2%, far below the targeted level. Identified improvement measures, growth projects and market recovery are expected to lift these figures significantly, leading to a RoaCE of 12%. Our long-term EBITDA target is ranging from NOK 8 billion to NOK 10 billion with free cash flow projected around NOK 6 billion under this scenario. And further upside potential for Extrusions lies in driving higher growth, continuous portfolio optimization and accelerating improvement initiatives. Digitalization, in particular, presents a substantial opportunity within the Extrusion business and across the whole portfolio in Extrusions. On the downside side, downside risks include inflationary pressure alongside the market and operational performance variability that we have seen. And these factors will require careful management to sustain long-term profitability. Then moving to the final business area, Energy. And Energy, when we present this, we have excluded the Rein joint venture, which is reflected in Hydro's financials as an equity accounted investment. For Q3 last 12 months, Energy, excluding Rein joint venture had an EBITDA of NOK 4.5 billion, which is a strong result compared to Energy's historical performance. In the normalizations and other category, assumed lower gain on price area differences long term is reducing EBITDA, which is partly offset by higher net spot sales based on a normalized production volume. After adjusting for improvement program and growth ambitions, we anticipate EBITDA of NOK 4.1 billion in Energy, excluding Rein joint venture. And when using spot energy prices, the EBITDA remains stable at the same level with a corresponding free cash flow of NOK 1.4 billion. The key further upside driver is strong energy markets on the back of increasing demand for renewable energy. And on the downside side, energy markets remain volatile and are exposed to changes in regulatory frameworks, including tax regulations around power production. Then moving to our dividend policy. Hydro remains focused on delivering competitive shareholder return, continuously benchmarking performance against comparable investment alternatives. The proposed distribution for 2025 will be presented with our Q4 results in February 2026 and put forward for approval at the Annual General Meeting in May 2026. Over the past 5 years from 2020 to 2024, Hydro has maintained a strong payout ratio, averaging 67%, excluding the share buybacks. From '20 to '24, we have consistently delivered on our dividend policy, achieving an average dividend yield of 5.9% over the 5-year period. And this was supported by notably strong yields of 9.9% for 2021 and 7.7% for 2022 earnings, reflecting substantial distributions in excess of the 50% adjusted net income guideline and which is also a standout level compared to an industrial context. Our capital structure policy remains unchanged with an adjusted net debt target of around NOK 25 billion over the cycle, which continues to include the current year's shareholder distribution. And then as I conclude my part today, I would like to highlight the key parts of Hydro's financial strategy. First, we continue to uphold a strong financial position, supported by our investment-grade credit rating, which provides both flexibility and resilience through cyclical markets. We also maintain a solid shareholder payout ratio in line with our dividend policy, reinforcing our commitment to value creation and predictable returns. Thirdly, we are reinforcing the strong performance drive across the company, increasing resilience through market cycles. Our improvement initiatives are on track to exceed the 2025 target and remain firmly positioned to deliver on the 2030 target. And on top of this, we have initiated additional improvement initiatives this year to further strengthen operational excellence and long-term competitiveness. On capital allocation, maintaining strict capital discipline remains central to our financial strategy. We have tightened our near-term investment plans in 2025 and 2026 to protect our flexibility to navigate changing market conditions. At the same time, we continue to focus the growth and return-seeking investments in key strategic priority areas, ensuring that capital is deployed where it can best support Hydro's long-term ambitions and deliver sustainable value. The proposed capital allocation and improvement targets supported by reduced investment levels, continued capital discipline and ongoing cost-cutting efforts strengthen Hydro's competitive position in challenging markets. And furthermore, this reinforced earnings resilience through the cycle and lay a solid foundation for sustained growth and attractive shareholder returns. And with that, I would like to welcome Eivind back on stage for his final message and then our Q&A.

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#6

So thank you, Olaf. So let me close with a somewhat broader picture and summarize why we believe Hydro is well positioned to continue to create value in an ever more volatile world. First of all, we have a world-class asset base. And there are a few, if any, companies in our industry that can combine long-life bauxite and alumina resources, low emissions primary portfolio and the world's largest extrusion business. These are strategic long-term assets that give us scale, optionality and a very competitive cost base. Secondly, energy resilience. Aluminium production very often comes down to access to power. We have premium access to reservoir-based hydropower in high-value markets, but we also have strong sourcing capabilities that secures us predictable renewable power for our global smelter portfolio. And that's an advantage that few companies can replicate overnight. Third, we have a low carbon advantage. Through Hydro REDUXA and Hydro CIRCAL, we have built credible, verified low-carbon brands with full traceability from mine to metal. These are commercially successful products that customers choose because they trust the data behind them. Fourth, a strategic supplier in Western deficit regions. The shifts that we see in trade policy, security of supply and regionalization all point in one direction. Reliable producers inside the U.S. and the European systems are becoming more valuable. Hydro is already embedded in these supply chains, close to customers, inside the tariff walls and positioned to deliver certified metal quickly. Fifth, capital discipline and predictable returns. We have, over time, shown that we can both grow and strengthen the company while protecting the balance sheet, delivering improvements and maintaining a solid and strong dividend track record. And as you heard earlier today, we continue to prioritize disciplined capital allocation aligned with the market realities as we see them. And finally, we are positioned for growth. Long-term offtakes, framework agreements and deep technical partnerships give us clear visibility on demand in the fastest-growing green transition segments. And our integrated value chain from mine to metal to recycling to extrusion enables us to scale traceable, sustainable products with a strong customer pool. So to conclude, in a more -- ever more volatile macro environment, the value of what Hydro already is only becomes more pronounced. And that is also why we're confident in our long-term position and why we continue to execute with discipline on the strategy that we set out towards 2030. Thank you so much for the attention.

Baard Erik Haugen

executive
#7

And then we please stay and we invite Trond Olaf and Paul back on stage for the Q&A. We have 2 microphones in the room, one in the front, one in the back. So raise your hand, and please wait until we get the microphone to make sure we get the sound also on the webcast.

Unknown Analyst

analyst
#8

[indiscernible] Arctic. You're maintaining a significant uplift on recycling. Does that include any potential restrictions on scrap exports from U.S. and Europe? Or will that come on top?

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#9

That would come on top. What we assume in the bridge is really a normalization of the prices that we've seen in the past over a certain period of time. So we're not taking the peak here, but the normalization of prices over time. What is, in a way, good is that there seems now to be more regulatory support on exports of scrap. So Safco, which was out last week, saying that they are working hard on this to find a mechanism to ensure that more of the valuable scrap stays onshore in Europe. And that, of course, comes from 2 angles. It comes from the fact that Europe is short what they define as a strategic raw material. But export of scrap is also export of energy in solid form, right? Remember, recycling scrap takes 5% of the energy as it takes when you produce it the first time. So it's really about strategic resilience for the European area as well.

Marina Calero Ródenas

analyst
#10

Marina Calero from RBC. I have 2 questions on my side on Extrusions. Can you give us a bit more color on the internal rate of return that you're achieving with the reductions in capacity that you announced today? And then looking into 2026, how should we be thinking about Extrusions EBITDA? Is it fair to assume might be another flat year-on-year? Or how are you thinking about it right now?

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#11

Starting to fill in Paul.

Paul Warton

executive
#12

Yes, you should start, yes.

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#13

So I think when you think about the internal rate of return, so NOK 0.5 billion in cost savings, be it out of '26, capital savings, avoid the CapEx on top of that. That combined with the restructuring cost of less than NOK 2 billion gives you a payback time somewhere between 2 and 3 years.

Paul Warton

executive
#14

Yes, it's an attractive return on IRR for sure. So market next year, I mean, we're not guiding for 2026, given all the uncertainties that we see in the marketplace. So we'll refer you to the market commentators on what they're saying for 2026. But I think with what you've heard today, the current condition, geopolitics, inflation, energy, all the issues that are challenging us in the last few years, until some of those resolved, then it's challenging to look at the CRU forecast and say, okay, that's what's going to happen. And if you remember from previous years, this is very much a slower start in H1 and then recovering in H2. And this we need to watch, look, learn, listen and we'll adapt accordingly, okay? So yes, it's positive. It's second half loaded, but we're not going to spend money unless we see those numbers really coming through.

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#15

But I think it's also important to add, building on your comment earlier, Paul, pipelines from end consumer to our production seems to be pretty emptied out, meaning also that if there is a turnaround, you will probably get the multiplicator of demand, at least at the beginning as we start to replenish the pipeline.

Daniel Major

analyst
#16

Dan Major from UBS. First question, just looking at the cost performance in the Bauxite & Alumina business. On Slide 46, you show this USD 50 million run rate of reduction in energy costs relative to first half of 2024. When we look at your reported unit costs in B&A, they went up because of the third-party purchases of alumina and they've come down to around the same level as they were before the fuel switch project. Where is an additional USD 50 million per quarter of costs coming from in this business to offset the reduction in energy? And what's the outlook for that going forward?

Trond Christophersen

executive
#17

Yes. So what we show in our presentation pack is the actual energy cost in Alunorte. So we actually do see that we deliver on the targets of around USD 200 million in energy cost savings in Alunorte. I think what makes it a bit more difficult for you to follow on the outside is, as you referred to, then, the part of what you're seeing is also including the profits from our third-party alumina portfolio. And although we don't present the contracts we have, I think it's well known in the market that we have LME-linked contracts in that portfolio. So then you will see sort of a different profitability on those contracts depending on the LME percentage for the alumina price and the actual alumina price in the market. So I think that is blurring the picture that you are following when you look at the sort of apparent cost level in Alunorte. But when it comes to the cost position in Alunorte, we do see the energy savings that we expected.

Daniel Major

analyst
#18

Okay. Sorry, just to follow up on that. If inputs stay the same as they are today in terms of LME, et cetera, would you expect that reported unit cost of about USD 340 to trend lower going forward? Or would it be at a similar run rate?

Trond Christophersen

executive
#19

More or less, I would say that. I mean we always have the improvements and all that we're working on over time, taking down cost levels. And as always, in B&A, it's really the commodity price movements that will be the biggest drivers of the results. But if everything stayed flat, yes, more or less.

Daniel Major

analyst
#20

Okay. And a second question, if I could. You mentioned the cost of restructuring and the redundancies through the P&L being largely done by the end of this year. If we think about the gap between net income and cash flow or what other cash items we should expect for next year? Is there any other significant cash flow items that might impact the net debt bridge into next year as a consequence of that restructuring? Or is that all done by the end of this year?

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#21

For the shared programs, so the white collar restructuring that we've done.

Daniel Major

analyst
#22

Or any other items?

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#23

Yes. That will be mostly complete to any significance by the tail end of this year.

Daniel Major

analyst
#24

So no change in working capital, no other items like it should be a fairly clean year as you see it this year in terms of cash flow conversion.

Trond Christophersen

executive
#25

That's what makes sense.

Ephrem Ravi

analyst
#26

Ephrem Ravi from Citi. First question on the road map on the extrusions. There's the NOK 0.6 billion to NOK 0.9 billion commercial ambitions and NOK 0.6 billion to NOK 1 billion from uplift from growth projects. How much of those 2 are really dependent on a market recovery? So if there is no market recovery, should we just take those off from the road map?

Paul Warton

executive
#27

So commercial ambitions, first of all, I mean, this is a market share development. So whether your markets are up or down, the share is always consistent. So that's one that because of what we do with components and OEMs and projects, this will build market share for us. So that's in the numbers in a soft market and a growing market. Of course, you would imagine it's a bit easier to achieve those in a high-speed growth market. And then on the growth, that's CapEx driven, of course. So this is, for example, this is the Cressona by zero investment. This is the Hungary casthouse investment. This is the automotive presses in Hungary and Tønder. Those will deliver on the projects we've already booked. So as long as the rollout of these platforms with the components is in line with our projections and the OEM projections today, then they will deliver no matter what's happening in the rest of the markets. But if that softens, then of course, that will impact the growth projects from those investments.

Ephrem Ravi

analyst
#28

Related to that, if you look at the IRR chart, the pie chart on Page 40, the recycling projects supposed to have an IRR of 15% to 30% and extrusions is 20% to 35%. But your current RoaCE in that business is 0% and 2%, respectively. So again, what kind of assumptions of market recovery do you need for those IRRs to be met? And is there any flexibility on the CapEx spend to kind of stop it now and not destroy value?

Trond Christophersen

executive
#29

I can comment on it. So yes, so the indicated IRRs are based on normalized market conditions. But what we do see from all the projects we have sanctioned for extrusions in the last 1.5, 2 years is that they deliver well above cost of capital even without any market growth. So they are above 10% if you assume that the market stays flat from now and forever. So they are still profitable projects because of the cost savings in this project and Paul showed one example with this press replacement, where we take out manning costs and reduce maintenance costs with the new presses and that more than compensate for no growth.

Ephrem Ravi

analyst
#30

And last, just maybe this is a question for someone else, but Tomago smelter, you've -- obviously, the power contract goes off. What's the latest on that? And again, are you prepared to kind of go along with whatever your JV partner decides on that project in -- now, I suppose?

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#31

No. So the consultation process in Australia and Tomago is ongoing. We still have power until the end of 2028. Negotiations so far has not -- has been constructive. We -- as you know, we have not been able to find a good power contract until now. Now if that arises between now and the end of 2028, will we look at that? Yes, we would. But as of today, with the power contracts that we've had on the table, it's very hard to see that it's viable beyond '28. So a new contract would need to come.

Jason Fairclough

analyst
#32

Jason Fairclough, Bank of America. A bit of a market question for you. So if we think about metal flows into Europe, there's a couple of big smelters that are under pressure right now. So we've got Mozal turning off. That's not small. We've got a force majeure out of Century in Iceland. But then conversely, we've got this distortion in the U.S. because of tariffs, right? So how do we think about those metal flows? What does it mean for premiums? And do you feel like your markets business is being dynamic enough here?

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#33

So 2 potentially significant disruptions, right? So Mozal, roughly 0.5 million tonnes, typically, 300,000 tonnes of that comes into Europe. [ Hisal ] roughly 200,000 tonnes being out at least for the better part of 2026. These are typically what we would call greener standard ingots. So again, it comes into what kind of pressure does that actually give to European premiums because 0.5 million tonnes less and then 0.5 million tonnes less of green standard ingot. So there will be, again, less greener products in 2026 if these 2 still stay out or are closed after March 2026 in Mozambique. We'll see, but it should be a positive support. On top of that, of course, we also have the Russian sanctions where quantities will be taken down from 270,000-some tonnes in ' 25 down to 50,000 tonnes come February 2026, again, taking away metal that typically have been placed in Europe. So fundamentally, that should be good. It will change from trade flows if Europe still needs that metal and that will be attracting them either from the Gulf or from the Southeast Asian parts of the world.

Jason Fairclough

analyst
#34

And so again, to the second part, do you feel like your markets people are in a good position to harvest this?

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#35

We believe we are in a very good position to harvest on this, Jason.

Amos Fletcher

analyst
#36

It's Amos Fletcher from Barclays. First question was just regarding extrusions, Paul. I just wanted to ask what's the volume number underpinning the 2030 EBITDA target?

Paul Warton

executive
#37

You asked that last time, I think -- it's different to what it was 1 year ago. So to be frank, I'll leave that to Investor Relations if they want to share that.

Amos Fletcher

analyst
#38

Okay. Next question was on Alunorte. You guide every quarter for it to operate at nameplate capacity, yet it basically never does. Is there anything you can do to make sure that it does deliver that and potentially pull down unit costs. So we're actually making a proper return on capital instead of 4%?

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#39

Do you have the answer to Alunorte?

Trond Christophersen

executive
#40

Sorry, I didn't get your -- I was thinking about the volume, sorry.

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#41

This is also volume question. It was just a very different factory. It was Alunorte.

Amos Fletcher

analyst
#42

So Alunorte, so you guide every quarter for it to be at nameplate capacity. Very rarely, if ever, does deliver nameplate capacity. Is there anything you can do in terms of either spending, debottlenecking to actually deliver that and that could then potentially deliver quite possibly some proper return on capital instead of 4%, which is not acceptable in Brazil.

Trond Christophersen

executive
#43

Yes, we do. And I mentioned with this -- in the improvement program, we are following very closely the bottlenecks. And that was the improvement I mentioned with the 1% increase in flow. So these sort of initiatives to really protect the bottlenecks is key to get up the production in Alunorte. In addition, we are also doing some minor investments also to improve the bottlenecks. So we do have initiatives to get the capacity back to the nameplate. But in reality, the actual throughput of the refinery will depend on the bauxite mix and the bauxite quality over time. And I think as in most mining operations, you will see a deterioration of bauxite quality compared to what the refinery was designed for. So this is the sort of the constant fight that we're having to compensate for the different bauxite quality over time.

Amos Fletcher

analyst
#44

Okay. And then last question was just on sensitivity of your long-term EBITDA targets to CapEx spend. So if we were to assume a scenario where markets don't recover, you keep spending NOK 13.5 billion, how much would that impact your 2030 targets? And is there a rough sort of knock-for-knock sensitivity you give us?

Trond Christophersen

executive
#45

You mean if we see no growth for the...

Amos Fletcher

analyst
#46

Just if you spend NOK 13.5 billion on -- between now and 2030, how much would that impact your 2030 EBITDA?

Baard Erik Haugen

executive
#47

That would also mean that the market recovery part of the bridge would be much smaller. So it's a bit difficult to digest exactly what's in which part of the bridge because it will hit both the market recovery and the growth part by how much will depend on how severe the market downturn is.

Liam Fitzpatrick

analyst
#48

It's Liam Fitzpatrick from Deutsche Bank. First question is linked to that. We hope that European demand will recover. But if we're in the same situation in a year's time, is it safe to assume that NOK 13.5 billion is the level of CapEx that you'll continue to spend into 2027?

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#49

So we'll come back to whatever the number will be if the market doesn't recover. I think the important part that we've tried to convey today and which I believe we're actually showing in the numbers this year and indicating for next year is that we have a modular and incremental investment basis on how we do this, right? So if market doesn't recover, then we will, of course, not do the investments, capital investments. And then we can have a debate, is it NOK 13 billion or NOK 13.5 billion. But yes, we will not invest up to NOK 15 billion again unless we see market recovery and there is a market need for the products that we invest or production that we invest in.

Liam Fitzpatrick

analyst
#50

Second one is on the shareholder returns. If we're looking ahead to the full year results, should we assume that you stick fairly rigidly to the NOK 25 billion? Or is there a bit of flexibility around that because we have seen that in prior years?

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#51

So we'll -- at least on this -- in this meeting, we'll stick to the commentary we have and the dividend policy that we have. So 50% of adjusted net income and then a net adjusted debt target of NOK 25 billion and then we'll see.

Liam Fitzpatrick

analyst
#52

And then the last one for me. Just on this scrap policy, it sounds potentially very bullish for you. Is there a risk though that when we go through H1, if we start hearing a bit more around the policies that it could actually cause some dislocation and it could lead to higher exports in the short term and actually negatively impacting your business?

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#53

That would build on the assumption that there is a lot of scrap lying around in Europe that could just flow out, which I don't think is the case at the moment. Yes, there could be some short-term distortion, but I don't think that will be significant.

Alain Gabriel

analyst
#54

This is Alain Gabriel from Morgan Stanley. A follow-up on Liam's question on the CapEx for '26. How much flex do you have to cut CapEx if things do not improve at all from here onwards? And a follow-up on that one is, again, if we take a snapshot today and assume no improvement, how much working capital would you think you would reduce in 2026?

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#55

Yes. So on the CapEx side, of course, you always have some flexibility. But the NOK 13.5 billion really consists of sustaining capital because that is important to uphold over time. It's, of course, the easiest thing to cut, right? You can cut it in half and then everything runs fine for 6 months and then you have a lot of machines standing still and not able to operate, and that's expensive. So we want to keep the machines and our plants and operations up to speed. And then what comes on top of that is really, for the most part, already approved projects that we have. So some flexibility, but we will be careful adjusting it from that level.

Alain Gabriel

analyst
#56

And on the working capital?

Trond Christophersen

executive
#57

So the working capital, we have been guiding on the NOK 30 billion this year and the same end of next year. I mean there are some price movements working against us when it comes to the total working capital level. But then on the performance side, we -- the plan is to compensate for that through the performance.

Matthew Greene

analyst
#58

It's Matt Greene from Goldman Sachs. I just want to press on Alunorte and from Amos' question, Trond Olaf, I think you may have answered it a bit. But relative to 2023 or a few years ago, this bauxite quality issue that you just highlighted there. And sort of where have you seen your consumable costs go up? I'm not talking energy, I'm talking caustic, I'm talking bauxite. And also on the mining side because you highlighted downside risk here is operational complexity in the mine. So yes, can you just sort of touch on how the bauxite operations are going and where your consumables have gone up in Alunorte in the last few years?

Trond Christophersen

executive
#59

So when you start the mining operation, you typically start in the best area and then you mine the best grades and then the quality deteriorates over time. And this is a trend in all mines, I think, as for us. The operation in itself is progressing well. No sort of operational issues in the Paragominas mine hitting our results this year. What we are working on is one of the examples I shown, how can we get down the unit cost for transportation because we have to drive longer distances as we continue to mine new areas and that we are trying to compensate for as part of our improvement program. So those are typically the initiatives we have to compensate for the natural cost increase due to the longer distances and the poorer quality, but then we have the improvement programs to compensate for that. So that's the way we're working on the Paragominas mine. So I can't provide any better sort of numbers to underpin and demonstrate it, but that's sort of the working mode to protect the operational performance and the profitability of the mine.

Eivind Kallevik

executive
#60

But there are several initiatives, but you say poor quality, but don't leave with the impression that it's that quality in Paragominas. It's still very good quality, but it's slightly less than what it was when we mined close to the beneficiation plant. But then there are a number of small but important improvement initiatives. I think we showed the truck on one of the slides, which is very much moving to larger trucks as we move to larger distances. And it's moving from diesel, it's moving into electricity also, which again takes down maintenance and takes down transportation costs. We do the removal of the overburden in a different way in certain parts of the mine rather than excavating everything directly, we use a technique, which is called microfragmentation, which sounds complicated, it's basically a grid of small explosive charges, which makes removal much easier. We've done significant upgrades to the cyclones at the beneficiation plant, which also means that we pump less bauxite residue to Alunorte today compared to what we did 12 or 18 months ago, again, taking down operational costs. So there's a lot of activities ongoing.

Magnus Rasmussen

analyst
#61

Magnus Rasmussen, SEB. A question on CBAM. You mentioned that you are working to close some loopholes, hopefully from 2028. How do you see the impact on your business financially in '26 and '27, given what is currently within scope?

Trond Christophersen

executive
#62

We will see very limited impact on our results next year. There will be some lower free allowances allocated to everyone in Europe as part of the CBAM. But then you get -- at least if you look at the forward markets for standard ingot in Europe, you see that some of the CBAM cost is then priced into the market. So in terms of our numbers, you will not really see a difference.

Daniel Major

analyst
#63

It's Dan from UBS again. Just to follow up on that question, like modeling the CBAM impact is quite tricky. We can see the spread between the duty paid and the duty unpaid as a sort of proxy for what the market is pricing in. Is it possible to provide some explicit guidance to us on what the cost impact would be of the reduction in free carbon credits like sequentially now up to 2032 to help us with that process?

Trond Christophersen

executive
#64

I think we can come back on that. I mean, for the coming couple of years, it's very marginal, but we can come back on that.

Baard Erik Haugen

executive
#65

Okay. No further questions? In which case, then we will finish off. Yes, please. Then that's it for this year's Investor Day. Some of us -- some of you will meet us in the Lancaster suite for the roundtable just across the hallway and before that, lunch in the Piano bar.

Read the full transcript via the API

You're viewing the first half of this call. Get the complete Norsk Hydro ASA transcript — plus 252,000+ transcripts from 12,000+ companies, speaker segments, AI summaries and full-text search — through the EarningsCalls.dev API.

Get the API View API docs →

This call discussed

For developers and AI pipelines

Programmatic access to Norsk Hydro ASA earnings transcripts and 252,000+ 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.