Konecranes - Interim report, January-March 2026
00:00:00 - 00:00:50
Linda Häkkilä: Hello all, and welcome to follow Konecranes Q1 2026 results webcast. Apologies for
the small delay. We had some technical issues here at the studio. My name is Linda Häkkilä. I'm the
head of Investor Relations here at Konecranes, and with me today as our main speakers, we have
our President and CEO, Marko Tulokas, and our CFO, Teo Ottola. Before we continue, I would like to
remind you about the disclaimer, as we might be making forward-looking statements. As per usual,
we will first start with our presentations from both the CEO and CFO. After that, we're happy to
answer your questions through the conference call lines. Now, without any further comments, I would
like to hand over to our CEO.
00:00:52 - 00:01:51
Marko Tulokas: Thank you, Linda, and good afternoon, everybody. I'd like to start by describing the
first quarter operating environment and some of the key parameters to this first quarter. First of all, as
we all have obviously seen, there's quite a lot of geopolitical uncertainty. This first quarter, it of course,
continued in the form of the conflict in the Middle East. This has created some uncertainty and
apprehension amongst our customers, but also some supply chain discrepancies. But, what I'm very
happy about is that we managed to end the quarter with very good orders. If we look at our demand
environment in general, there are many segments that held very very well where others also slowed,
and the same is valid for the different regions and Business Areas.
00:01:52 - 00:02:23
Marko Tulokas: What I'm particularly happy about is that our relative profitability held very well,
improved, and actually was the best quarter one ever in Konecranes' history, despite the lower
volume in this first quarter. That really speaks for the Konecranes team's ability to execute price and
apply cost controls also under such circumstances. In the coming slides, we'll talk more about that.
00:02:30 - 00:03:17
Marko Tulokas: Again, if you look at this order intake development, that was really a good start to the
year, and that, considering the environment, is very satisfactory. Our order intake grew almost 4%
year-on-year with comparable currencies. At the same time, sales volumes we are less happy about.
There are a few reasons for that. There are three, to be specific, and we'll talk more about that. But,
as a result of these two things, of course, our order book grew to a very satisfactory €3.2 billion. That
is actually the highest level in the last three years, and it is a good starting point for the rest of the
year. Our order book is, in fact, 100 million higher at the end of quarter one this year than it was the
previous year for 2026 sales.
00:03:19 - 00:03:56
Marko Tulokas: Also, we are very happy about the fact that our comparable EBITA margin increased
to 11.6% that is the highest ever quarter one margin, as I already stated. It improved in the Industrial
Service and Port Solutions, but slightly decreased in Industrial Equipment, particularly in Industrial
Equipment because of the lower volume in quarter one. These improvements were mainly driven by
very good execution, a favorable mix, and pricing and applying cost control.
00:03:56 - 00:04:51
Marko Tulokas: Let's move on to look at the key operating environment parameters for the first
quarter. There are two things that I'd like to talk about here, which are the most obvious ones. The
first one is the conflict in the Middle East. The second one is the US tariffs, which have been with us
now for the last four quarters. I'd like to start with the Middle East conflict. First and foremost,
Konecranes operates in four countries in the Middle East. We have roughly 180 Konecranes team
members in that region. That is approximately 1% of our whole organization or our workforce. The
most important thing for us, of course, is the safety of our team members. I'm really happy to say that
our team has been safe and out of harm's way the whole duration of this conflict.
00:04:51 - 00:06:17
Marko Tulokas: Konecranes’ sales to the Middle East is less than 5% of group sales. The impact on
the first quarter to our sales related to this conflict is approximately €15 million, or somewhat less than
that. We have also seen some freight and fuel costs rising, but that has been for a quarter-one result,
a fairly limited impact. We are managing those cost pressures either with our long-term hedging
arrangements, as well as our pricing actions, and logistical rearrangements. Secondly, related to the
US tariff situation, there have also been some changes. The section 232 tariffs, they do remain in
place, but I'm sure many of you have seen and heard from the other calls, also there is changes to the
calculation methodology and at the same time, there are changes to the reciprocal tariffs, replacing
the 15% with new tariffs of 10% as a net effect of both those changes, our analysis shows that the net
effect is negligible or non-material.
00:06:17 - 00:07:48
Marko Tulokas: Finally, the tariffs to the Chinese-made port equipment. There is no material change,
and they do remain in place. In that respect, our operating environment opportunities have not
changed. Now moving on to our demand environment in the coming slides. I'd like to start with the
Industrial Service and Industrial Equipment as usual. When we look at our usual key indicators, and to
start with the capacity utilization. What can be seen here is that for our two largest regions, Europe
and the US. The manufacturing capacity utilization has been approximately flat for the last 12 months,
with some improvement in EMEA and a slight decline in the US. That also reflects somewhat how our
funnels look. Generally speaking, I would say that our sales funnels in the industrial business remain
solid, and we see good activity in many segments. It's obvious, and it's necessary to say that,
particularly in such a situation, the customers’ hesitation and let's say somewhat nervous reactions to
these changes or different news is of course visible. The decision-making, therefore, is slower or
more difficult to anticipate than maybe usually it would be.
00:07:50 - 00:08:26
Marko Tulokas: If you look at the same environment from the manufacturing demand indicator or the
confidence PMI point of view, it is obviously the same picture, a fairly flat development in the last year.
What is noteworthy here is that EMEA is showing expansion. It's actually the four-year high. It is also
now showing confidence or expansion in the EMEA region. That is, of course, good news and longawaited. As I've said earlier, our funnels are also in good order.
00:08:29 - 00:09:28
Marko Tulokas: The other thing I'd also like to say about this, of course, there's been some, let's say,
decline in the Indian manufacturing PMI visible in this slide. Also, as shown in the graph at the top.
From our point of view, the Indian market continues to be a very solid market, and the manufacturing
activities are very buoyant, and there are good funnels in place. There is no material change to that
from our point of view. Moving on to the Port Solutions. The container throughput index demand
indicator, it continues to be at a good level. In fact, in the first part of this year, or the first quarter,
there has been very good, solid development with the container throughput, with a minor decline or
slowing in the growth rate in the last month of the previous quarter. That can be attributed to the
situation in the Middle East. But, it is still a very positive sentiment.
00:09:28 - 00:10:33
Marko Tulokas: As always here, it is important to remember that the long-term drivers for this
container handling business and investment to container handling is very positive. There is an
automation trend. The geopolitical trend of repatriation of volumes, the consolidation trend in the
industries, the sustainability electrification trends, and, then of course, demographics, all drive longterm positive demand or investment in the container handling industry. Looking at the volumes, once
again, as I stated, a solid order intake that is an increase, particularly in Industrial Equipment. We did
have one large process crane order for Industrial Equipment. Also, there is some decrease in
Industrial Service, but we will continue to expand our agreement base, which is, of course, the most
important thing for our growth engine going forward.
00:10:33 - 00:11:33
Marko Tulokas: We had a good quarter in Port Solutions, but didn't reach the same level as in last
year’s first quarter, which was also a very, very solid quarter. An increase in the Americas and Asia
Pacific, but a slight decline in EMEA, regionally, looking at things. On the sales side, it was a slower
quarter. That was actually in all Business Areas and in all regions, there are basically three core
reasons for this. First of all, seasonality typically in quarter one is a slower season, particularly in the
industrial business side, timing of deliveries reflecting to our project businesses in ports, as well as the
process crane industrial side. Then, of course, the Middle East impact, which was somewhat less
than 15 million. These three contributed to the somewhat slower volumes in the first quarter
compared to last year.
00:11:33 - 00:12:40
Marko Tulokas: I'm also very happy about the fact that the book-to-bill ratio continues to be positive
and has been more or less so for the last year. That, of course, means that we have a very strong
order book that is at its highest level in three years, since quarter three of 2023, at €3.2 billion. It's an
increase in Industrial Equipment and Port Solutions and a slight decrease in Industrial Service, and
we have also seen sequential growth of this order book of 6.3% from the previous quarter. And finally,
such a solid quarter-one development for our profitability, particularly when we had somewhat lower
volumes. It is something that builds confidence, and we are very well on track for long-term financial
targets, as you see from this particular graph. I'd like to now ask Teo Ottola to join me next, and then
I'll come back shortly for the demand outlook and the guidance.
00:12:41 - 00:13:49
Teo Ottola: Thank you, Marko. Let's actually continue with the profitability, where Marko already
started. Our comparable EBITA margin improved from 11.1% to 11.6% in a year-on-year comparison.
Despite the improvement in the margin, the comparable EBITA in euros declined by €3 million. We
can next take a look at some of the factors behind these changes with the help of the EBITA bridge
that you can see on the right-hand side of the slide. If we start with the pricing, the pricing impact in a
year-on-year comparison was something like 3% or so. When we combine that information with the
fact that the sales declined by almost 5% in comparable currencies, we are actually taking a look at
quite a significant underlying volume decline in a year-on-year comparison, which is obviously
creating a negative impact to the EBITA comparison against Q1 of 2025.
00:13:49 - 00:15:04
Teo Ottola: On a more positive note, the net of inflation pricing impact continued to be positive. Also,
the product mix was more favorable now than it was a year ago, particularly in performance.
Execution was better than it was a year ago. This creates a positive delta to the EBITA bridge. The
difference primarily comes from Port Solutions when it comes to execution. Further, when we take a
look at the fixed costs. Fixed costs were well under control. As Marko already mentioned, we actually
had slightly lower fixed costs in Q1 in comparison to the situation a year ago. However, the
currencies, and this is the translation impact that we are seeing here. Translation impact was negative
in the amount of roughly 5 million in the year-on-year comparison. As a summary, the EBITA was
burdened by lower underlying volumes. But then, on the other hand, it was supported by good
execution, good cost control, and net inflation pricing.
00:15:07 - 00:16:17
Teo Ottola: We can move to the Business Areas. Let's start with the service as usual. Service order
intake with comparable currencies was almost 1% up in a year-on-year comparison. In this slide, we
can very clearly see that now in Q1, the FX differences have been quite big. The order intake declined
by almost 4% in reported currencies. Now the bullet points in the slides are in reported currencies, as
they should be. However, now that the FX differences are big, this skews some of the underlying
development. For example, now in service, when we take a look at the different parts of the
businesses, we have actually grown both in parts as well as in field service. When we take a look at
the situation in comparable currencies, of course, more in parts than in the field service. Then,
correspondingly, in the regions, when we take a look at those with comparable currencies, we grew in
the Americas as well as in EMEA. But, there was a decline in APAC.
00:16:17 - 00:17:27
Teo Ottola: Agreement base, which continued to grow nicely 4.6% year-on-year with comparable
currencies, whereas the order book was slightly down. Going into the sales. We have roughly similar
underlying, let's say comparable currencies growth, as in the order intake, a little bit less than 1%.
Again, when we take a look at regions, we had growth in the Americas, stability in EMEA, and a
decline in APAC. When we take a look at the comparable currencies, and of course, the Americas in
particular, it looks different when we take a look at that with the reported currencies. EBITA margin
improved by 0.2 percentage points to 20.4%. Despite somewhat sluggish volume development, the
reason is primarily operational improvements that we have been able to make over the past 12
months or so. In practice, it is visible as very good cost control in the service business.
00:17:30 - 00:18:10
Teo Ottola: Industrial Equipment, where we had a good order intake growth of 11% in comparable
currencies. If we take a look at that by business units, we had very good growth in process cranes.
We had a decline in components and standard cranes in reported currencies. Then again, when we
go and take a look at the same with the comparable currencies, both of these were pretty flattish in
year-on-year comparison. Sequential comparison, which is also interesting in many cases.
Sequentially, we actually grew in all of the major business units in comparison to the fourth quarter.
00:18:10 - 00:19:14
Teo Ottola: Regions, year-on-year, we did well in the Americas. APAC grew as well, whereas there
was a decrease in EMEA against fairly tough comparables. The order book grew by approximately
10% year-on-year comparison. Sales were completely flat in comparable currencies. No growth, no
decline. When we take a look at that by business unit, we had a decline in process cranes. However,
the other two main business units were more flattish from the sales point of view. Comparable EBITA
margin declined by 0.4 percentage points to 4.2%. The main reason behind that is the lack of volume,
so there was no volume growth. This was partly offset by positive net of inflation, pricing and cost
control, but obviously only partly as the EBITA dropped both in percentages as well as in euros.
00:19:18 - 00:20:31
Teo Ottola: Port Solutions where the order intake declined by 3.8% in a year-on-year comparison with
comparable currencies. We had good order activity in the ASC, RMG cranes. When we take a look at
the shorter cyclical product categories, lift trucks, for example, year-on-year, we had growth in order
intake quarter-on-quarter. It was a little bit down. Then again, on port service, year-on-year growth in
a sequential comparison is flat to slightly down in comparable currencies. Sales came clearly down by
13% year-on-year comparison. This is primarily as a result of the order book timing, but it is also
partially as a result of the Middle East conflict and the delays in deliveries as a result of that. The
group level delays in deliveries were something like 15 million in the first quarter as a result of the
crisis. The vast majority of that is visible in the Port Solutions, so it partially explains, but the timing of
the order book is clearly a bigger factor here.
00:20:32 - 00:21:58
Teo Ottola: Comparable EBITA margin improved very well, 1.6 percentage points to 9.9% despite the
underlying low volume. We had very good execution during the quarter, as already mentioned, which
was more than offsetting the negative development in the volumes. We also had a little bit, let's say,
one-time gains in a way, provisions that were cancelled in a way during the first quarter. But, clearly,
the bigger explanation is the underlying good execution in the ports business. Then, a couple of
comments on the balance sheet and cash flow topics. Net working capital continues to be at a good
level, a little bit higher than at the end of the year, 7.6% of the rolling 12-month sales, within our target
area of being below 10% of rolling 12-month sales. We had a little bit more inventory at the end of Q1
than at the end of the year. Consequently, the free cash flow for the quarter was not as good as it had
been during the previous quarters. Still, when we take a look at the rolling 12-month free cash flow, it
is on a good level, and cash conversion continues to be clearly above 100%.
00:22:00 - 00:22:51
Teo Ottola: Then EPS. The EPS numbers have been adjusted for the share split. The return on
capital employed is on this slide as well, which continues to be between 22% and 24%, depending on
whether one takes a look at the reported official return on capital employed or the comparable one.
On the right-hand side, we then have the net debt, or in this case, net cash. Actually, we had net cash
in the amount of 185 million at the end of Q1. This one is missing the dividend payment that took
place in the month of April. The dividends, roughly, let's say, in the ballpark of 180 million, a little bit
less than that. With these comments, I will then hand over back to Marko.
00:22:51 - 00:24:18
Marko Tulokas: Thank you, Teo. Looking at our demand outlook. Our demand outlook remains
unchanged, as I already said earlier. The environment generally for industrial customer segments
remains on a healthy level. Our port customers' container throughput is and was on a high level, and
of course, the long-term prospects for container handling, as earlier stated, remain good, and there is
no material change as a result of the recent developments due to these factors. But of course, the
uncertainty related to geopolitics and trade policies is at least not lower than it was a quarter ago. Of
course, it does remain high, and that, of course, we have to keep in mind when we look at the
demand, and that translates to our order intake. Now, with financial guidance, we reiterate our
financial guidance. We expect our net sales to remain approximately on the same level or to increase
in '26 compared to '25, and our EBITA margin to remain approximately on the same level compared to
last year. That means we remain confident about the future, but realistic about the uncertainties in the
environment, and with that, I thank you all. Now we move to Q&A. I welcome Linda back here.
00:24:22 - 00:24:31
Linda Häkkilä: Thank you for the presentations. Now we are ready to start the Q&A session. Operator,
please, you can open the conference call lines.
00:24:33 - 00:24:51
Operator: If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter
the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone
keypad. The next question comes from Daniela Costa from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
00:24:52 - 00:25:13
Daniela Costa: Hi. Good morning. I actually have three questions, if possible. Maybe I'll ask them one
at a time. The first one, just to go back to, I think you've mentioned the up to 50 million impact on the
revenues from the Middle East. Shall we expect that to be all resolved and deliver on those revenues
entirely within 2Q?
00:25:13 - 00:25:24
Marko Tulokas: Just to be clear, it's 15 one five, not five zero. I’m not sure what you actually said, but
one five. Maybe, Teo, you can continue from there, right?
00:25:24 - 00:25:50
Teo Ottola: Yes. One five, so 15. And like said, the majority of that is within the ports and smaller
amounts within the other two Business Areas. We are expecting at least the majority of that to be
delivered during the second quarter. The bigger cases that we have there have not been delivered as
of now. But, the expectation is that during the second quarter, that would be the case that they will be
delivered.
00:25:52 - 00:26:27
Daniela Costa: Got it. Thank you. Then, just to follow up on service, on being slightly weaker year-onyear, given what we have seen, I think you mentioned you had it in a presentation, the PMIs and
manufacturing capacity utilization had not really deteriorated in any region, and you put pricing
through, which I guess is also reflected in there. Were there any specific subsegments? Do you think
that was also some hesitation on servicing, and that's coming back in Q2? How should we think about
the underlying reason why this is weaker now?
00:26:28 - 00:27:08
Marko Tulokas: I won't comment on Q2, but I'll say what I mean. Of course, the quarter one picture
when it comes to service was, I mean, of course, as you correctly stated, there is some positive
development in the PMI indexes. Also, we do see higher activity in the customers when we measure
through our trueconnect or remote service connections compared to last year. But, it is somewhat
early to say that increased activity has not yet been reflected in increased manufacturing activity, and
therefore, the needed service is not really reflected directly in the volumes yet.
00:27:10 - 00:27:42
Daniela Costa: Thank you. Then, finally, I think in the remarks I've said it wasn't a very big number,
but nonetheless, you mentioned the whole freight and fuel costs within the statement. Can you just
remind us of that in your pass-through clauses? We know you kind of pass through for raw materials,
but do the clauses include any of these? It's just more a matter or a lag of time, or freight and fuel
costs are kind of dealt with at that spot and they're not in inflation clauses that you pass on to
customers.
00:27:44 - 00:29:15
Teo Ottola: Okay. If we start with the freight, which is actually a much bigger topic for us from the cost
mass point of view. If we have project deliveries, and then we have other freight costs. If we take a
look at the project delivery, in most of those cases, the pricing has already been agreed when, let's
say, transportation has been ordered. But then, when we take a look at the rest of it, which is clearly a
bigger part of it, we do not generally have those kinds of pass-through clauses that we would
automatically push forward. In case there are very sudden changes, it is of course possible that it will
burden our cost base. But then, over time, of course, this will be passed on to the customer prices.
Then, at the end of the day, it is a question of the pricing power, like so many other inflationary topics.
When we take a look at the fuel or energy, we are not really hedged against fuel changes, but we are
primarily, for the most part, we are hedged against the other energy costs. Electricity, gas, and those
kinds of things, we have hedges in place. The fuel, there are, in some cases, surcharges that we can
use, but it may be the same thing as well, so that over time these changes will then be taken to the
contracts and we take it from there.
00:29:17 - 00:29:18
Daniela Costa: Got it. Thank you.
00:29:20 - 00:29:25
Operator: The next question comes from Panu Laitinmäki from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
00:29:27 - 00:29:55
Panu Laitinmäki: Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to ask about the guidance for flatter,
higher sales. Could you talk about the assumptions behind that, and especially the higher sales?
Where would that come from? As I understand, the order book to bill was positive in Q1, but how do
you see the delivery from the order book for the remainder of this year, compared to what you had a
year ago?
00:29:55 - 00:30:40
Marko Tulokas: As I stated earlier, the order book started this year, and also at the end of quarter
one, it is positive compared to last year, about 100 million at the end of quarter one. Of course, we
have more to deliver. Of course, there is uncertainty related to the prevailing situation and how fast
we can post the delivery result. We have in most of our businesses with at least a quarter to sell, and
the sales funnels are quite robust. There are, of course, opportunities to also exceed sales. Then if
there is a further headwind, then of course, we're confident that we can stay on the same level as we
had last year.
00:30:41 - 00:31:14
Teo Ottola: Maybe additionally on that one. The sales funnels continue to be in good shape. The
number of new cases has been during the first quarter quite okay. The order book is there. It is higher
than it was a year ago. Then, of course, what we don't know is whether there are disturbances,
geopolitical stuff, or others, and how it will impact the future order intake. But, as I said, the funnel
values and the number of new cases, at least regarding Q1, have been in fairly good shape.
00:31:17 - 00:31:49
Panu Laitinmäki: Okay. Thank you. Secondly, on the tariffs, you said that, or I understood that the
change in the 232 tariffs doesn't change much for you. But, thinking about the impact on your PNL,
especially going to the later part of this year, as you mentioned a year ago, like tailwind from tariffs,
that you increased pricing before you got any impact on the cost side. How should we think about
tariffs impacting your profitability going forward this year?
00:31:49 - 00:32:12
Marko Tulokas: You are correct, we were stating more or less three quarters last year that there has
been a tailwind in tariffs, but we also said at the same time that we expect that to level off towards the
end of the year, and this year, that is more or less what has happened. We don't really see a tariff
tailwind, nor do we see a significant headwind at the moment, which is either from the tariffs
specifically.
00:32:15 - 00:32:27
Panu Laitinmäki: Okay. Thank you. Maybe a final one on capital allocation. I guess this is a topic that
we discussed often, but do you have anything new to update us on the M&A pipeline or thoughts
around that?
00:32:28 - 00:32:48
Marko Tulokas: No. When we have news to update you will hear it with the others also. But, jokes
aside, of course, it's something that we continue to work on. It's a timing-related issue when we are
able to materialize. In that sense, the situation hasn't changed. It continues to be in our focus.
00:32:50 - 00:32:51
Panu Laitinmäki: Okay. Thank you.
00:32:55 - 00:33:07
Operator: As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone
keypad. The next question comes from Mikael Doepel from Nordea. Please go ahead.
00:33:09 - 00:34:02
Mikael Doepel: Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. A couple of questions here. Firstly, on the
demand outlook. Maybe you could talk a bit more about that. We're already into the second quarter of
the year. The war continues. You mentioned some uncertainties. Maybe you could just provide a bit
more color or what you see here, for example, with industrial customer segments. What do you see
there? Anything that sticks out in any way now heading into Q2 compared to Q1. Also, on the port
side, I mean, the short-cycle orders were down sequentially. I think they were up in Q4. How has that
been trending into Q2? Just trying to understand, are you seeing incremental or sequential weakening
now, given increased uncertainties, or would you say that things are holding up pretty well?
00:34:04 - 00:35:10
Marko Tulokas: Starting from the industrial business side, adding color to what was earlier said by
Teo and myself, the funnels are at a healthy level. What I said earlier about some, let's say, hesitation
or nervousness, there is changes due to how the customer behavior may be on shorter notice than
there was earlier. But, that is something that, with our tools and the presence that we have, we are
confident because we have the ability to react to such changes quite quickly. Maybe the segment
related to an industry-related picture. There isn't really a big change in terms of how it looks between
the quarters, but it is also visible that the defense segment, the power segment, as well as the
aviation. What we also have discussed earlier were quite robust in the first quarter also, and the
defence segment-related opportunities visible in the funnel have materialized and started to
materialize in the fourth quarter and the first quarter of this year.
00:35:10 - 00:36:18
Marko Tulokas: So, the segment differences are stated in my first slide. They are maybe even further
apart or more differentiated from each other than it was before. On the industrial side now, we
discussed when Daniela was asking about the service earlier. I hope that addresses that servicerelated question. If we move to a Port Solutions picture overall, as stated earlier, there is no big
material change in the demand, as discussed several times. This is a rather big project. That, of
course, is something that influences how these orders actually appear in the quarterly order intake.
However, from a funnel point of view, there are a number of bigger and smaller opportunities in the
heavier or larger port equipment side, but also in the short-cycle business that we have on the lift
trucks side, too. It is not really that way, a lot of different picture.
00:36:22 - 00:36:50
Mikael Doepel: Okay. Then I think you mentioned that the pricing was still positive net of inflation in
the quarter. I think you've been talking about this kind of effect fading away, but it's still there. I'm just
wondering how do you see this trend from here? Should we expect that positive effect to remain?
00:36:51 - 00:38:30
Teo Ottola: Well, our standard answer to this one is that we should not expect at least any big net
inflation pricing gain going forward. We did have that now to some extent still during Q1, and I think
that it's good to separate here the tariff impact and the other pricing impact. Now, like I guess Marko
already pointed out, we did not have a tariff-related tailwind in the first quarter. But, there was another,
let's say, net of inflation pricing impact that was positive. Maybe not to the extent that it was during the
last year, but to some extent, anyway, during Q1. Even if we would not advise expecting a continuous
net of inflation positive impact, the idea, of course, continues to be that we will be pricing inflation into
the customer prices, including, of course, also the inflation that may arise as a result of the recent
developments that there are, and the timing of those is then, of course, something that requires a little
bit of management. Then maybe one of the things to regarding, which is pricing-related to some
extent, is then the Euro-Dollar FX rate. That one is obviously very, let's say, difficult to price in, and we
are not actually, in a way, putting that into the same basket of pricing. The FX, particularly on the
Industrial Equipment side, had a negative impact on the margin in Q1 versus a year ago.
00:38:34 - 00:39:06
Mikael Doepel: Okay. That's clear. Then, just finally, if I can ask about the competitive environment
that you see out there. We are hearing some, at least some of your peers, talking about the increased
China competition and presence. We've listened to some of your Chinese peers being quite vocal
about increasing their presence and production in EMEA and elsewhere. I'm just wondering how you
see this impacting your business and your position, and what's your take on those developments
overall?
00:39:07 - 00:41:04
Marko Tulokas: Of course, this is not a new thing. This is something that has been a topic for quite a
long time. We are very acutely aware of that and are making our actions also to counter such a
development from the Chinese competition. When it comes to the recent developments, it is obvious
that pressure in the home region or possible limitations to deliver to some parts of the world create
new pressure to those that are still available for the Chinese competition. That has changed the
balance of the competition to some extent, but it's not uniform in any way between different segments
that we operate in, and it's not in any way significantly more or accelerated in the last months or
quarters, as far as we see this steady development. As we've discussed in this call, but also in the
individual ones, of course, our approach is not only to make sure that our technology stays
competitive. We are close to where the innovation happens, including China. But, also make sure that
our lifecycle approach, as well as our market reach through our distribution channels and well-known
brands, stay in good order and continue to be a competitive advantage. That, of course, differentiates
us positively from the Chinese competition. In the end, those are the most important things as far as I
am concerned. Long answer to your question, yes, there is pressure from the Chinese competition, as
there is also from other areas, but it is not in any way significantly increased. We are aware of it, and
we are taking our actions to counter it.
00:41:08 - 00:41:09
Mikael Doepel: Thank you very much.
00:41:12 - 00:41:17
Operator: There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers.
00:41:17 - 00:41:35
Linda Häkkilä: Thank you very much, Operator. Thank you, everyone, for following our event today
and for sending your questions. Before we close the event, I would like to remind you that
Konecranes will publish its Q2 results on July 24th. Until that time, have a lovely spring.
00:41:36 - 00:41:36
Marko Tulokas: Thank you.
00:41:36 - 00:41:37
Teo Ottola: Thank you.
