Interim Report Q3/2023

Metso updated its segment reporting by moving its Metals & Chemical Processing and Ferrous & Heat Transfer businesses into discontinued operations as of September 30, 2023. Both businesses have previously been reported under the Metals segment. The Smelting business was transferred to the Minerals segment. All income statement, order intake and order backlog figures presented in this report relate to continuing operations and the financial information for the comparison periods has been restated accordingly.

Figures in brackets refer to the corresponding period in 2022, unless otherwise stated.

Third quarter 2023 in brief

• Stable activity in mining and soft activity in the aggregates market
• Orders received declined -10% and amounted to EUR 1,191 million (EUR 1,318 million)
• Sales grew 1% to EUR 1,319 million (EUR 1,305 million)
• Adjusted EBITA increased 5% to EUR 213 million, or 16.1% of sales (EUR 202 million, or 15.5%)
• Operating profit increased to EUR 189 million, or 14.3% of sales (EUR 187 million, or 14.4%)
• Cash flow from operations was EUR 161 million (EUR 21 million)

January–September 2023 in brief

• Orders received declined -4% to EUR 4,020 million (EUR 4,186 million)
• Sales grew 12% to EUR 4,049 million (EUR 3,614 million)
• Adjusted EBITA increased 31% to EUR 662 million, or 16.4% of sales (EUR 505 million, or 14.0%)
• Operating profit was EUR 604 million, or 14.9% of sales (EUR 306 million, or 8.5%)
• Earnings per share were EUR 0.49 (EUR 0.24) and for continuing operations EUR 0.49 (EUR 0.23)
• Cash flow from operations was EUR 333 million (EUR 110 million)

President and CEO Pekka Vauramo:

The market activity in the third quarter was in line with our expectations, with a stable demand in Minerals and a softening in Aggregates. Our proposal pipeline in the Minerals equipment business is strong, and there is continued investment activity in electrification metals, such as copper, lithium and other battery minerals. The quarterly order intake, however, was affected by slower customer decision-making, mainly due to macro and other external uncertainties customers are facing. The demand for services has remained healthy, thanks to customer efforts to improve productivity; rebuild and modernization activity also has picked up.

The activity in our main Aggregates markets was softer, with continued weakness in Europe and an anticipated short-term decline in North America. The softer Aggregates market was the main reason for our Group orders being 10% lower year-on-year. Minerals' orders declined slightly, largely due to a negative currency impact.

Our performance continued to strengthen and both segments improved their profitability year-on-year. The Group's adjusted EBITA margin increased to 16.1% from 15.5% in the comparison period. This was driven by successful cost and price management and an improvement in overall operational performance. Cash flow from operations improved to EUR 161 million due to lower working capital requirements.

Sales of our Planet Positive products during the last 12 months grew 34% year-on-year to EUR 1,490 million. There continues to be strong demand for these sustainable products. We received a large Planet Positive order for the delivery of a copper concentrator to a mining customer in Kazakhstan consisting of primary process equipment for grinding, flotation and dewatering. Examples of other Planet Positive orders include grinding mills to an iron ore producer in Canada, supporting decarbonization of the steel industry, as well as delivery of an effluent treatment plant for Keliber’s lithium hydroxide refinery to be built in Finland.

We have also had an active year in acquisitions and made three announcements this year. This is in line with our strategy of expanding our offering and competencies and using our global presence to grow these acquired businesses to add value to our customers. In addition, we have proceeded in the divestment of the Metals & Chemical Processing and Ferrous & Heat Transfer businesses and moved them to discontinued operations as of September 30.

As a result of our strategy process, we have evaluated our financial targets and decided to increase the adjusted EBITA margin target to more than 17% over the cycle from the previous target of more than 15%. This upgrade is based on our view of having further possibilities to improve the profitability of our segments and improve the value generation to our shareholders.

Market outlook

According to the company's disclosure policy, Metso’s market outlook describes the expected sequential development of market activity during the following six-month period using three categories: improve, remain at the current level, or decline.

Metso expects the market activity to remain at the current level in both Minerals and Aggregates.

In its previously published outlook, Metso expected the overall market activity to remain at the current level in Minerals and to slightly decline in Aggregates.

Key figures

*Q1–Q3/2022 and full-year 2022 includes a EUR 150 million non-recurring charge related to the wind-down of business in Russia.

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Audiocast and conference call details

President and CEO Pekka Vauramo and CFO Eeva Sipilä will present the results in an audiocast and a conference call for analysts and investors on 27.10.2023 at 1:00 p.m. EEST.  

The audiocast can be followed at https://metso.videosync.fi/q3-2023

A recording and a transcript will be available on this webpage after the event has finished.    

Conference call participants are requested to register on the link below. 

http://palvelu.flik.fi/teleconference/?id=10010591

Further information, please contact:  

Juha Rouhiainen, Vice President, Investor Relations, Metso Corporation, tel. +358 20 484 3253, email: juha.rouhiainen(a)metso.com