Salzgitter AG (SZG) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Dear shareholders, shareholders' representatives, and ladies and gentlemen, my name is Heinz-Gerhard. I'm Chairman of the Supervisory Board, and I now open this year's AGM of Salzgitter AG. And in accordance with the Articles of Association, I will chair the meeting. I would like to extend a warm welcome to you all also on behalf of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board. It would have been nice to have welcomed you personally to our AGM. However, the special circumstances do not allow this, this year. Again, as you saw from the convening of the AGM, the Executive Board decided, based on the corona legislation and with the consent of the Supervisory Board, to hold this year's AGM again as a virtual Annual General Meeting without the physical presence of the shareholders and their proxies. In doing so, we are making use of the option granted by legislation in the stock corporation until the end of August 2022. In addition to the Executive Board, which is fully represented, the Executive Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Dr. Urban is also here and his public notary, [ Dr. Gauly ], who will take the minutes of the AGM. The other members of the Supervisory Board are connected via the Internet and probably here on the screen and have the opportunity to communicate with me and the members of the Management Board if necessary. In addition, the proxies of the company are also present in this room. The Virtual AGM enables us to protect your health and the health of our service providers and employees in the best possible way. And additionally, holding this AGM as a virtual meeting means that you, our shareholders, also have the chance of making all pending resolutions in a timely manner and without having to indefinitely postpone the AGM. We are aware that holding a virtual general meeting necessarily involve certain restrictions on the rights of shareholders. In particular, shareholders and the management of the company cannot enter into a dialogue as is usual in the context of a general debate. In order that you can also exercise your shareholder rights appropriately at the virtual general meeting, the company has given you various options within the scope legally provided and technically feasible. The online service means that you can exercise your rights via the online service until I finally call for the vote, as would be the case in a normal general meeting. It is also impossible to file an objection via the online service. And in addition, registered shareholders were able to put questions to the Management Board in the run-up, and we will address all of these questions today after hearing from Mr. Groebler. We also assume that -- during this difficult period, we are acting in your interest. Once again, we will be offering a simultaneous translation of Mr. Groebler's speech from German to English, and you can change your language settings on this website, if you wish. If you have any technical problems with the investor portal, please contact our hotline directly. And you can find the contact details on the back of your registration confirmation. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to everyone who helped prepare and conduct this AGM. If you have ever attended an AGM personally, you know that we traditionally commemorate those members of the company who have died since the last AGM. We do that before we enter the agenda. The various people who worked and did their best for our company. This year, we would, however, also would like to commemorate not only our deceased colleagues, but also those people who have died in connection with the pandemic and the current war of Russia against the Ukraine. We are aware that both events represent a human tragedy for many people. May I also ask those present here to hold a few moments of silence as a sign of empathy. Thank you for your participation. Ladies and gentlemen, before we move on to the agenda, I would like to point out there have been a number of changes to the Supervisory Board since May 19, 2021. Mr. Klingebiel was elected by the last general meeting as an additional or neutral member of the Supervisory Board and Mr. Papenburg as a shareholder representative. These gentlemen, therefore, succeed Dr. Tegtmeier and Dr. Koster, who resigned from their posts. Furthermore, the District Court of Braunschweig appointed Ms. Piel, with effect from July 22, 2021, and Mr. Bloemers, as of July 1, 2021, as new employee representatives. They succeeded Ms. Buntenbach and Mr. Lauenroth who resigned from their posts. The only, but of course, not insignificant change to the Executive Board since the last AGM was that, as announced, Prof. Fuhrmann left the Executive Board as of the end of June 30, 2021, and Mr. Groebler then took over as Chairman of the Executive Board on the following day. Let me move on to the formalities. Today's Annual General Meeting was convened by publication in the Federal Gazette on April 21, 2022, with notification of the complete agenda and the proposed resolutions of the Supervisory Board and, as applicable, the Management Board for Items 2 to 9 on the agenda. I note that the AGM was convened in correct form and in a timely fashion. In addition to the announcement in the Federal Gazette convening of the AGM, according to information from the Management Board was communicated to the intermediaries, to shareholder associations and other persons entitled to information in accordance with the statutory provisions. On April 21, 2022, the invitation to the AGM meeting was forwarded. So those publications and media is such that it can be assumed that the information has been disseminated throughout the European Union. I further note that the following documents have been available on the Internet at the Salzgitter website since the AGM was confirmed and also during this AGM in accordance with the statutory provisions. In other words, the convening of today's meeting, including the agenda with the proposed resolutions of the management, the approved annual financial statements of Salzgitter AG and the approved consolidated financial statements as of 31st December 2021, the combined management report of Salzgitter AG and the group for financial year 2021, the report of the Supervisory Board and the Management Board's proposal for the appropriation of retained earnings. The same applies to the explanatory report of the Executive Board on the -- in accordance with Section 289 and Section 315 of the Commercial Code and the information and documents required to be accessible pursuant to Section 124 of the company's act. This year, we will also keep a list of participants. This will list the company proxies present in the room and the shareholders that they represent. The list of -- depending upon the list of shareholders changes to that, powers of attorney are granted to revoke that this will be updated. I would now like to provide you with the following details of the participants -- of the shares -- proxies represent 26 million shares represented. This represents 44% of the registered capital. In addition, we have postal votes for 38,000 shares. That adds up to 41 million shares, and that represents 69% of the registered capital. The number of votes cast via the proxies of the company and the number of votes cast by post is decisive for voting. Ladies and gentlemen, after my introductory remarks and the report by the Management Board, we will respond to the questions submitted by shareholders in a timely manner. After the questions have been answered, we will move on to the agenda items and the resolutions. A few notes on voting. Voting in today's AGM is possible via the online service using the Individual Access data printed on the voting rights card. By postal vote and by authorizing the proxies of the company until the point in time in today's AGM at which I close the voting on the agenda items. I will announce the closure of voting beforehand. Until the voting is closed, you can still change the vote you've already cast in the way you mentioned. I will remind you to vote again when the time comes. I would like to ask you now to cast your votes in good time. Information on exercising the voting rights can also be found on the invitation and on the company's website for the Salzgitter AG company. We'll vote by releasing the positive votes in accordance with your instructions on the individual items on the agenda. Postal votes received by the deadline will also be taken into account when determining the voting results. Today, the votes will be counted using this additional method. So yes votes and no votes are added together. The total is the share capital represented at the meeting. It is then determined whether the resolution proposal was approved or not. Abstentions are not counted. The voting process and the counting of votes are monitored by the notary who has checked the technical requirements in advance. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now entering the agenda. So first of all, let me go through agenda Items 1 to 9. Presentation of the approved annual financial statements of the Salzgitter AG and the consolidated financial statements as of 31 December 2021 with the combined management report and the report of the Supervisory Board; Point 2, resolution on the appropriation of the balance sheet profit; Point 3, resolution on the discharge of the members the Management Board; Point 4, resolution on the discharge of the members of the Supervisory Board; Point 5, appointment of the auditor for financial year 2022; Point 6, resolution on an authorization to increase the share capital with the option of excluding subscription rights Authorized Capital 2022 and on a corresponding amendment to the Articles of Association; Point 7, resolution on an authorization to issue bonds with warrants, convertible bonds, profit participation rights and/or participating loans or a combination of these instruments with the possibility of excluding subscription rights, the creation of new conditional capital, Conditional Capital 2022, and a corresponding amendment to the Articles of Association; Point 8, resolution on the approval of the remuneration report; and Point 9, amendment of the Articles of Association. In the invitation, you will find the resolution proposed by the Management Board and the Supervisory Board for the individual items on the agenda. Ladies and gentlemen, before the Management Board report, I would like to briefly go through the work of the Supervisory Board in 2021. The Supervisory held 6 meetings in the past financial year. These involved detailed discussions with the Management Board on the course of business and the situation of the company, including effects of the corona pandemic. Between meetings, the Board was continuously informed about the development of individual business areas and of major group company. We questioned the deviations from the plan as presented at the beginning of the year. And the work of the Supervisory Board focused mainly on the following 2 topics. Firstly, the central topic of the work of the Supervisory Board throughout the financial year was the crucial issue of the future of low CO2, steel and the SALCOS program. In steel production, iron ore was traditionally smelted using coal as reducing agent and energy source. This creates considerable amounts of carbon dioxide emissions. In order to emit carbon dioxide, the European Union has required that emission certificates be purchased. This involves not only additional costs. But irrespective of this, we also want to make the best possible contribution to achieving the goal of significantly reducing national and global CO2 emissions. For this, it will be necessary to implement completely new process technologies in steel production. This will involve considerable investments in the medium term. The Supervisory Board would focus on this complex topic at an extraordinary meeting in February of this year in order to become familiar with these various facets of this trend -- of this forthcoming transformation process. Point 2, since the last quarter of the financial year, the Supervisory Board also focused on the group's new strategic direction. An extraordinary meeting was held in November that was exclusively dedicated to this topic. And what the Supervisory Board had the Executive Board provide details on the status of considerations with respect to Salzgitter AG 2030 strategy. And this was discussed intensively with the Executive Board members. This topic also played an important role during the course of the year. The focus was on the company's orientation towards circular solutions such as decarbonization of steel production. The concentration on sustainably oriented business areas. And linked to these aspects, the company's renewed external image. [ Explanatory ] report on the main aspects of the Supervisory Board activities. A detailed report can be found on the company's website starting on Page 6 of the annual report. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to give you some explanations on the resolution proposed by the Supervisory Board. Item 2 of the agenda is proposed to distribute a dividend of EUR 0.75 per dividend eligible share for financial year 2022. The Supervisory Board is of the opinion that this proposal represents an appropriate balance between dividend interest of the shareholders and the company's need for relations. Under Item 5 of the agenda, the Board proposes reappointing Ernst & Young as auditor for 2022. Ernst & Young has been working with us since 2020. The Audit Committee of the Board monitored the auditing work and were satisfied with the quality of the audit so that we can, with a clear conscience, propose that you elect -- that you reelect this company as auditor. Item 6 and 7 of the agenda propose to replace the authorizations to issue shares from authorized capital and to issue certain bonds and the associated conditional capital, which expired at the end of this -- in May this year, replace them with new ones, each for a 5-year term. This does not result in significant changes. In the future, the Board management should be able to optimally use the possibilities of the capital market to -- within the interest of the shareholders and to achieve any short-term capital requirements in the company. Item 8 on the agenda is a proposal that the report on the remuneration of the Management Board and Supervisory Board members, which is to prepare for the first time for financial year '21 to be approved due to a change in the law. Finally, under Item 9 of the agenda is proposed to amend the company's other considerations so that in the future, the Supervisory Board members need no longer be elected by the AGM for the maximum legally possible period, but can also be elected for shorter periods. On the other hand, the possibility should be opened up for members of the Supervisory Board to be able to take part in the company's general meetings by means of video and audio transmission in so far as this makes sense on an individual basis. So much for the proposed resolutions and for the applicable [ amendment ] as applicable. And I would like to ask Mr. Groebler, the CEO of Salzgitter AG to present his supplementary comments on the management and group management report in 2021 and to give the AGM report on the current financial year. Mr. Groebler?

Thank you very much. Dear shareholders, the [ friends ] of Salzgitter AG, ladies and gentlemen. I too would like to extend a warm welcome to you for today's Annual General Meeting. I would have liked to greet you personally because it's also my first AGM, but unfortunately, the developments and official regulations regarding the corona pandemic, we're still so uncertain that at the time of the invitation, we had to decide on a digital AGM this time too. But we're looking forward to a face-to-face AGM next year. Before I come to Salzgitter AG, let me briefly address the Russian attack on Ukraine. This war is a human tragedy. It brings nothing but suffering, pain and sadness to the heart of Europe. We, all employees of the Salzgitter Group, condemn this war in the strongest possible terms. I'll give you 2 examples how we as a company are committed to helping people. First of all, we experienced a broad wave of solidarity throughout the company, employees, codetermination, management, all of us on Board. The employees have donated more than EUR 100,000. And really, I'm so proud of that. We doubled that and matched it and provided an additional EUR 500,000 for emergency aid. And on top of that, the Salzgitter AG initiative has been started with the steel action model in which all integrated iron and steel works are involved with this job and training opportunities for refugees from Ukraine and Germany. The aim is to offer prospects for the time with us and training for the period of reconstruction in Ukraine. And I look forward to everyone who gets a perspective in our company. Let me add something, if I may. We know and experience the daily discussion of how to make ourselves independent with our energy. One way would be the LNG terminals that are being discussed now in the political field. And we are already producing the pipes through which the gas will flow from the terminals into the German gas network into the grid at Wilhelmshaven. This is the type of pipe that is being manufactured right here at this site. And so we're already active in the solution of -- finding the solution to our energy independence. And just now in these politically and economically uncertain terms, strong companies are needed, companies like us, like Salzgitter AG. I will show you how that Salzgitter AG got through 2021 well. And I'll give you examples, the strongest corporate profit in over 10 years, stock price, 45% up at EUR 0.75. We proposed the highest dividend since 2008. And we also got off to a good start in 2022. Very strong first quarter, a new strategy, Salzgitter AG 2030, which we communicated in on February. And accelerating our journey from gray steel to green steel, and this is a new thinking for a new industry. A company can only be successful if the employees feel okay, and if they're healthy. Therefore, health and safety, occupational safety is therefore a top priority for me as CEO. Every employee, whether from our own company or from external companies should leave our plants as safe and healthy as they have come to work. And this graphic shows a positive development of our accident rate. You see 2020, it was the corona pandemic. We had less activities in our plants. Positive development, but we still have a long way to go. A rate of 13.6% is clearly too high for me, too high for all of us. That's why we do a lot to increase occupational safety. One example is the health and safety days at Salzgitter Flachstahl. We have a few pictures that we like to look at now. So it is the first time that we carried out these health and safety days, more than 2,000 employees from trainees to work directors have accepted this offer and go through various stations, from virtual fire extinguishing exercises to health procure, to accessing your own working environment offered on 13 days, including weekends from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. in the morning to enable shift workers to also participate. I can tell you the feedback was consistently, consistently positive, will hopefully be reflected in improved occupational safety in the future. For me, health and safety is responsibility and success for the company. That's a big factor. Now let me take a look at numbers. And we go from the outside to the inside. Let's take a look at the commodity and energy prices. First of all, we look at the raw material and energy prices, and they have developed very dynamically. You see all graphs show exponential development. In other words, we're operating now in an environment of very strong and sometimes historical price developments for more than 18 months now. And this has to be managed. As we mentioned actively, we do that with our very successful hedge portfolio. And this enabled us to financially mitigate some of these cost increases. The prices for our products have also risen sharply in the past 18 months, especially in the second and third quarters, which is also then reflected in the results for 2021. The price developments are not a European phenomenon. Internationally, we see similar tendencies in North America. Inflation is even more pronounced. And you see that on the right-hand chart in the black curve. At the moment, however, the markets are falling in contrast to the commodities so that we are assuming a challenging second half of the year, for which we are well-prepared. How so? I will show you in a minute. Despite these price developments, we are looking forward to a very successful 2021. We see the good performance of the plants, enabled very good crude steel volumes. External sales are scratching the EUR 10 billion mark and we have thus recorded the best pretax result for more than 10 years. And my sincere thanks goes out to all of our employees without whom such a success would not have been possible. The financial successes are the highlight, but there is more. On the one hand, we reported to you about the new heat treatment plant in Ilsenburg at the last general meeting. This is now received by our customers due to the outstanding product qualities, and they received it very well. On the other hand, we will start our new hot-dip galvanizing line at the Salzgitter site in the coming weeks. I have brought to you a short movie for that. So the aim is to expand the range of hot-dip galvanized steel to 1.5 million tonnes per year once the new plant has started up. And the new hot-dip galvanizing Line 3 has an annual capacity of 500 tonnes. And this increases our hot-dip galvanizing capacity by more than 1/3. Around EUR 200 million would be the investment sum, as you see it here in these images. And the target customer segment here, of course, is the automotive sector. What I'm impressed was is the fact that despite corona and supply chain issues, the system was delivered on time and it has already been started up, and our customers are happy. As shareholders, you are particularly interested in 3 things, of course. That's the company's performance, which is more impressive as the charts shown. You just see it. And then, of course, the stock performance. And of course, you want to hear about our dividend policy. This is what I'm talking about now. We are very pleased that the performance of the Salzgitter AG share is so clearly positive not only in absolute terms, with a plus of 75% at the end of May, since the beginning of 2021, but also relative to the most important indices, such as the Steel Index or the DAX. The reasons for this, well, not only is it the market development and the steel sector, but also it is the confidence of the markets in what we are able to do in our strategic orientation of Salzgitter AG 2030 and, of course, in our outstanding employees. Dear shareholders, now it's about your participation in our success. I can tell you your commitment and trust are paying off. Our proposal is this, we pay out a dividend of EUR 0.75 per share. And this dividend would be the highest since 2008. And based on the closing price in 2021, there is a dividend yield of well over 2%. I'm sure you will all agree that we can call 2021 a successful year, successful in the dimensions of financial performance, operational performance and resilience as well as strategic development. And we used the starting position and started the year 2022 just as successfully. Especially the first 3 months were exceptionally strong, with the result of EUR 465 million. And that across all business areas, and in particular, of course, the business is supported by the areas of steel production and trading. Now you may ask how does Russia's attack on Ukraine affect us? Well, since the first day we put into effect the task force that will look at the situation in Ukraine. We now know that the impact on our business is limited, less than 0.7% of sales are done with Russia and Ukraine. Our raw material deliveries, especially iron ore and coal, are virtually unaffected. We don't get any coal or ore from Russia or the Ukraine. But of course, there are indirect effects. Electricity gas prices and uncertain sales markets, automotive or cable harnesses and that some of the plants have sandstones. Some of these effects are noticeable, but they can be managed actively. And we, as a company, know how to respond. My conclusion is this, the start of the year is very encouraging and has prompted us to make the following forecast. We are convinced that, in 2022, we can achieve sales of almost EUR 11 billion. That is a pretax profit in the range of EUR 750 million to EUR 900 million and a return on investment equivalent to the previous. Here, we assume, and that's the effects of the supply chain disruptions and the Ukraine conflict will remain at the current level and not increase further. And abrupt termination of gas deliveries, for example, would certainly also have an impact on Salzgitter AG, which cannot be reflected in a respectable fashion in any forecast. All in all, a very positive and encouraging view of 2022 for all of us. In addition, we will consistently implement our Salzgitter AG 2030 strategy, which we have developed last year and published, as I said, in February. We're working on implementing it. Our Salzgitter AG 2030 strategy, this is a topic that is particularly important to me. And therefore, I want to focus on it now. In July of last year, we announced that we wanted to review Salzgitter AG strategy and gear it to the current challenges. We analyzed 4 thematic blocks, the strategy itself, who or what is it that we want to do in 2030 or later, what kind of company do we want to be, what would be the right portfolio to support the strategy, how can we improve our business efficiency, how can we realize that, and what are the enablers are necessary and useful to put this strategy into practice. And we have been guided by 3 strategic cornerstones. First of all, circular economy. Steel is the perfect representative of a circular economy. It is versatile in use. In our society, you will see so many areas of use of steel, small and big. Steel can be recycled. It's very efficient. And we have an industry of scrapping, of scrap recycling that we can reuse again in our plants to make new plants. Circular economy, that's one of the strategic cornerstones. Second, of course, profitability. Sufficient profitability secures the necessary means and resources for a self-determined and independent future. And last but not least, growth in customer-oriented solutions. Through closer interaction with our customers and an even better understanding of our customers, individual growth can then be achieved in stable markets. And that's where we want to go. Basically, this means that Salzgitter AG will remain an independent and diversified group in the future, which relies on products and services, which are profitable in the long term. This strategy is essentially based on our vision and mission. Let me single out 3 terms here. First, circular. As I just said, we will align the group's products and services accordingly and focus on those markets in which we can advance the aspects of circular economy. Second, pioneering. Salzgitter AG wants to and will lead the way. Our ambitious program is certainly the best example, SALCOS. SALCOS is the transformation of the Salzgitter site from a coal and blast furnace-based, and thus CO2 intensive one, to a steel production towards that is based on hydrogen and thus basically CO2 free. And the third pillar is partnering. Such a transformation is difficult to achieve successfully on your own. In the past few months, we have concluded first partner agreements with companies that want to join us on the path through industrial decarbonization and with whom we can generate added value that we would not be able to achieve on our own. As you see, we live what we believe in. We create a new way of thinking for a new industry. And with the successful implementation of our strategy, we will be the strongest steel and technology group in Europe in terms of transformation ability, profitability and attractiveness as employer for our current employees and for future generations. And we will be pioneers in low CO2 steel production in terms of time and quality. We can and want to gain market share here. And we will secure the future viability of the group and thus secure valuable jobs, not only here at Salzgitter site, but everywhere where we're active. And with this strategy, we stand for people, steel and technology. Salzgitter AG has dealt with the issue very early on as to how to produce steel without CO2 emissions in the future. SALCOS describes our path to this. In the summer of 2021, we already made a decision that the SALCOS program should be implemented quickly and comprehensively. So we have the current social trends -- we have anticipated the current and social trends. And we also anticipated the political decision that were to be taken based on this, as can be seen very clearly from the current discussions in Brussels. And we have demonstrated that we are already on the right track here with various preparatory projects that can also be seen. Look at this movie. We have set up the entire process chain from renewable energies to electrolysis and direct reduction. In this way, we're able -- we are already gaining experience with the processes that we will be using on an industrial scale starting in 2025. And we also operate what is currently the world's largest high-temperature electrolyzer for the production of green hydrogen that has recently achieved a record efficiency of 84%. And here, you see the reduction plant as it is being built. Our wind park right here at Salzgitter. Our plan is that we will ask the Supervisory Board for an investment decision for the first phase this summer. And in this first phase, a blast furnace is replaced by a direct reduction plant and an electric arc furnace. These are scheduled to go into operation as early as 2025. In Phase 2, then we have in 2030, another reduction plant and another electric arc furnace. And then Phase 3 should complete the transformation by 2033 at the latest. And then we will have fulfilled our CO2 emission, which is a reduction of 95%. To secure our transformation, we have defined 5 so-called control points, which we will occupy strategically. Number one, we will have the access to high-quality scrap sources. That's again an element of circularity. We make new products out of the old scrap. So number two, we have to have access to green electricity and green hydrogen. We do that with [ DEUMU ], our company. We are well positioned in the market, but we will have to increase the quantities to make sure we have that access. And the other two is, again, like I said, the access to green electricity and to green hydrogen. So we are leading the blast furnace route and we will have green electricity based on green hydrogen. So these are the 2 forms of energy we want to secure, enough green electricity, and we do that with partners. I will talk to you about that in a minute. But when we're talking about green hydrogen, we want to help to develop this market and to position ourselves at an early stage. Next point, we need an access to high-quality so-called DR or pellets. We need to make sure that we have direct access. We need the right quantities, the right quality, of course, and that must be secured. And last, but definitely not least, we have to have the access to technology for the DRI plants and electric arc furnaces. We must have the direct access. We are talking to partners about this. And this is where our partnering approach comes into play. And this, I ask you now to look at the lower part of the image that you see on your screen. We want to continue developing this ecosystem. Look at the partnership with Orsted. They are the #1 company for offshore wind parks in construction operations. Together, we strive to establish close value change in our business relationship delivery of offshore wind power, use of sustainability produced hydrogen, also for the reduction of low CO2 steel. And Orsted meets that, only then can they lower their CO2 production in Scope 3 because such wind park, each one needs about 3,000 tonnes of steel. And the third point is each mill, in case they -- when they have to go to scrap, they are great sources of scrap that we can, once decommissioned, that we can use again. I mean the wind turbines can be used for the steel production process. I mentioned enablers a minute ago. Boundary conditions that are important for the successful implementation of Salzgitter AG strategy 2030 is this. I would like to single out 2 issues. First of all, we need lean structures. We live in a volatile world where we need lean and flexible structures. We have to immediately respond to new situations. And we have, therefore, decided to streamline our group structure and go from 5 business areas to 4. In this way, we are positioning our group for the transformation that has been initiated in a lean, powerful and market customer-oriented manner. And the next one is portfolio management. In some areas, active portfolio management is already common practice. And we extend this practice to the entire group and consider our portfolio in particular from a strategic point of view, which business area fits the strategy, where can and do we want to grow, and where should we reduce our commitment. And we will be more active here in the coming months and years. We have also expressed our ambitions in concrete figures and translated them into a scorecard which you see here. We use that to measure achieving the financial and nonfinancial KPIs, newly set as a part of the Salzgitter AG 2030 strategy. This makes our aim transparent and gives you the chance to see where exactly we're at on our journey where we already have achieved the objective and where we still need a bit of time to travel there. So these are quite a few KPIs. And one point I should like to stress on. Our goal is that, as of 2025, have an EBITDA margin of between 8% and 10%. That means nothing less than consolidating the exceptional results of great years like the last one. Shareholders, thank you very much for your interest. You saw my input that we live in turbulent times, and your Salzgitter AG is well positioned. We see the world changing rapidly and your Salzgitter AG is pointing the way to success with a clear strategy. You are invested in a company of which you can be proud because then we are proud of it, too, because we will shape a new industry with this new thinking. And we look forward to you continuing to accompany us on this path. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Groebler, for that detailed report, very interesting details and your explanations on the current situation. We shall move on and address the questions submitted by the shareholders in the run-up to the Annual General Meeting, They're freely accessible. Transmission of the meeting on the Internet terminates at this point. Our online service does, of course, allow shareholders user access data and continue to follow the meeting to the end. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]