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NV Bekaert SA (Bekaert) reported a 3% decline in revenue for Q1 2025 compared to the same period last year, amid a challenging market environment. Despite efforts in innovation and operational optimization, the company’s stock fell by 3.66% in pre-market trading, reflecting investor concerns over revenue performance and broader market challenges. According to InvestingPro data, the company maintains a strong financial health score of 2.69 (GOOD), with an impressive gross profit margin of 84.06%.
Key Takeaways
- Revenue for Q1 2025 decreased by 3% year-over-year to €1,991 million.
- Stock price dropped by 3.66% following the earnings announcement.
- Launched the Evita brand and won a Material Innovation Award.
- Continued development in hydrogen technologies and sustainable construction.
- Market challenges include overcapacity in the tire industry and subdued demand in Europe and North America.
Company Performance
Bekaert’s overall performance in Q1 2025 was marked by a decline in revenue, reflecting the broader challenges faced in the tire industry and subdued demand in key markets like Europe and North America. Despite these challenges, the company maintained a strong global footprint, enabling flexibility in managing supply chain disruptions and local production advantages in the US.
Financial Highlights
- Revenue: €1,991 million, down 3% from Q1 2024.
- Joint ventures revenue: €240 million, down 2% year-over-year.
- Proposed dividend: €1.90 per share.
- Executed €50 million of a €200 million share buyback program.
- Capital expenditure reduced to between €150 million and €160 million from €190 million.
Market Reaction
Following the earnings announcement, Bekaert’s stock price fell by 3.66%, reflecting investor concerns over the company’s revenue performance and the challenging market environment. The stock is currently trading within its 52-week range of $8.45 to $10.40, indicating market caution amid broader economic uncertainties. InvestingPro analysis suggests the stock is currently undervalued, trading at an attractive P/E ratio of 8.34x with a dividend yield of 6.19%. For deeper insights into valuation opportunities, explore the Most Undervalued Stocks list.
Outlook & Guidance
Bekaert remains optimistic about stable sales and EBITDA margins in 2025, expecting equal performance between the first and second halves of the year. The company continues its portfolio transformation and anticipates potential small M&A transactions throughout 2025.
Executive Commentary
Yves Kirstjens, CEO, emphasized the company’s resilience, stating, "We are well positioned to protect our margins and our business." He also highlighted the strategic transformation that has made the company more resilient through cycles, adding, "The strategic transformation has made our company more resilient through the cycles."
Risks and Challenges
- Continued overcapacity in the tire industry could pressure margins.
- Subdued demand in Europe and North America may impact sales growth.
- Uncertainty around import tariffs could affect market sentiment and pricing.
- Potential challenges in rubber reinforcement and specialty businesses.
- Macroeconomic pressures and geopolitical tensions may pose additional risks.
Q&A
During the earnings call, analysts questioned the impact of tariffs on wire rod prices and the company’s production flexibility across regions. Bekaert addressed challenges in its rubber reinforcement and specialty businesses while confirming ongoing development in hydrogen technology.
Full transcript - NV Bekaert SA (BEKB) Q1 2025:
Conference Operator: Good morning and welcome to the Beckert First Quarter twenty twenty five Trading Update Call. At this time, all participants are on a listen only mode and the floor will be open for your questions after the presentation. If you require assistance, you may press 0 on your keypad at this time and an operator will assist you. If you wish to join the queue to ask a question at any time, you may press 1. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Mr. Guy Marks, Vice President, Investor Relations. Sir, the floor is yours.
Guy Marks, Vice President, Investor Relations, Beckhart: Excellent. Many thanks for the warm welcome, and thank you all to those on the phone for joining today’s Q1 twenty twenty five trading update. I’ll hand over very shortly to CEO, Yves Kirstjens and CFO, Seb Parvey. But just before I do that, I’ll take you through
Yves Kirstjens, CEO, Beckhart: the safe
Guy Marks, Vice President, Investor Relations, Beckhart: to this or any other publication issued by Beckhart. With that out of way, I’d like
Yves Kirstjens, CEO, Beckhart: to hand over to Ives. Thanks, Kai. Also, warm welcome from my side on the trading update for Q1. So in the first quarter of twenty twenty five, we delivered the top line just south of EUR 1,991,000,000, 3 percent lower than Q1 of twenty twenty four. On our joint ventures, we delivered around EUR240 million of top line, 2% lower than in Q1 the year before, so same times of dynamics in that region.
In that context of a challenging market environment, we keep on working on protecting our margin, cost control, but also working capital. The way we look at ’25 is that we are lowering our capital expenditure from around 190,000,000 that we had foreseen to 150,000,000, 1 hundred and 60 million range. Our growth platforms are well positioned when the demand picks up in the upcoming two, three years. In terms of the balance sheet, we keep on having a low financial leverage, so today we have the AGM in Cortec here, where we will meet our investors virtually and physically, some of them, and we are proposing a dividend of 1.9 Euro per share, which is a continuous increase of our dividend in line with our policy, and we have executed €50,000,000 of our buyback program of our own shares of the total program of €200,000,000 20 5 million euros per quarter. If you have a look at the different businesses, it’s a mixed picture.
I think for all the industrial companies and for the whole economy, there’s a strong focusing on understanding what impact will be of the import tariffs and to minimize that impact. So let me start with rubber reinforcement, the tire reinforcement business. We see a strong performance in China with a strong automotive demand. We see that both in rubber reinforcement as well as in steel wire solutions, and we see some subdued demand in Europe and North America, a little bit continuation of the Q4 of twenty twenty four. Overall, we see an overall remaining overcapacity in the industry, and an uncertainty on the tariffs.
However, as Bekaert, we are well positioned, as we have a global footprint, and we’ll come back to that in our position in The US more specifically. In Steel Wire Solutions, we see a solid sales performance, both in volume and mix. As announced, we are on the trajectory to divest our business in Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Venezuela, and that’s fully trending on track. For our ropes business, both steel ropes and synthetic ropes, we reconnected with stable production reliability in the steel ropes business, and of course, we see some uncertainty on the demand and the order book for our steel ropes business, and lower hosting demand in China. Specialty business, we see the impact in sustainable construction, mainly in The US, where we see compared to Q1 of twenty twenty four, we see a drastic reduction in the number of newly built factories and newly newly built warehouses.
On the other end, we see positive evolution in, let’s say, emerging regions where our construction ceramic business is getting more traction. So I speak more specifically about India, Middle East, and also China. And then as expected, we announced last year that there was a technology evolution in the semi not in the SEMICOM, but in the solar waving panels for ultra wide Finder products, so we still had some solid sales in Q1 twenty twenty four, so the comparables show a drop in that sales, but as expected. So let me turn to the situation on the import tariffs. So let’s start with giving you a picture on on how our supply chain is structured for The US.
So we have 70% of our sales is local production, and the remaining 30% is basically divided by less than 10% coming from China, and the rest from Europe and Middle East. Also, in terms of, let’s say, the raw materials, 65% is locally sourced with the main import coming from Brazil. So with a strong local footprint, we are able to react, but also with our global supply chain, where we can supply from Asia, from China, or from Europe, if required. On top, we’ve been negotiating, the team has been negotiating in all the businesses how we cope with these import duties, and the additional cost are passed to our customers. Of course, this will have impact on the end demand where, of course, products and inflation could play a role, so the big uncertainty is how the whole market and economic sentiment in The US and the investment context will evolve.
Again, I want to repeat, we are well positioned also in previous, let’s say, disruptions of the supply chain, we can think about COVID, or about the energy crisis, we are well positioned to protect our margins and our business. On the other hand, we all know that the uncertainty on the overall demand and the sentiment plays a role. So to be monitored further in the upcoming weeks and months, and I hand over now to Sappo to give a little bit more perspective on the different financial performance of the businesses.
Seb Parvey, CFO, Beckhart: Thanks, Yves. And let’s start by looking at the consolidated sales bridge, showing how did we move from €1,250,000,000 sales in the first quarter last year to €991,000,000 sales in the first quarter this year. ’1 of the biggest drivers is raw materials, and that is pass through effect of lower raw material and energy costs compared to first quarter last year. You should also remember that there were some surcharges with energy included still in last year Q1 sales prices. Price and mix has changed, down by $11,000,000 but this made an impact from changes in the regional mix between the different countries.
As an example, more sales in China compared to U. S. Or Europe and some other rate differences between the countries. Net volume down 12%, FX giving a small benefit of 9,000,000, so no big changes on FX front. And portfolio change net 4,000,000.
That is a net of capacity closures, mainly in SWUS, steel wire solutions in Indonesia and India, as well as additional sales from Pexcot, the acquisition we made last year. Then let’s move to PEUs, our divisions, and start with rubber reinforcement, where we had strong performance in China, offsetting volume decreases in Europe and North America. That’s mainly due to lower demand for truck tyres in Europe and North America. We had high plant utilization in China that led to lower average sales prices, but higher plant utilization is supporting profitability in rubber reinforcement business. Our leading position when it comes to innovation was also recognised and we won the Material Innovation Award at ThioTech Expo twenty twenty five and we also launched Evita our new brand of next generation ultra mega tensile solutions.
Then also to highlight that on top of the reported sales on the left hand side, we have also €45,000,000 sales from our joint venture in Brazil, and those are not included in the consolidated sales. Then let’s move to Steelwire Solutions. And there we have solid sales performance both on volumes and mix. And good to note is that even if you look at the right hand side graph, sales looks rather flat, but there is good underlying growth in SWS business when you exclude plant closures. So like for like volumes were up 2.7% and in EMEA volumes were up 2%, thanks to strong sales in agriculture and consumer products.
China volume strongly up 14% by strong demand for automotive components and North America up 4%, That’s thanks to peak in agriculture seasons and energy utility sales. In Latin America, volumes were down 2%. We have strong outlook despite uncertain trade policies, strong order books, especially at energy utility customers both in Europe and North America. And we have been successfully passing on high raw material prices to customers in steel wire solutions business as well as in other businesses. I think that is a job well done by our sales force.
And they’re following also the historical operating model that we have had when it comes to rising large. And in this SteelEye Solutions business area, have $169,000,000 of sales from joint venture in Brazil, and that is not included in the graph of reported sales on the left hand side. Then moving to PPRT, our ropes business. Steel ropes business in Europe and North America continued to further improve output reliability. I’m sure you all remember that we had some struggles there last year, but those are now behind us and we have been able to stabilize the output.
Results are in line with expectations. We see 2% volume growth in steel mills in The Americas and China, and production output will have been maintained in UK and US as mentioned already. The advanced cost low elevator hoisting demand in China has impacted volumes That is a reflection of the construction business in China currently that has been a bit down. Here we have a bit mixed outlook.
It’s global uncertainty around the tariffs that is leading to a slowdown in customer activities in ropes. And we see slower order intake in mining and grain and industrial markets. But there’s healthy pipeline for oil and gas projects currently compensating partly the slowdown in some of the businesses. And demand for advanced port applications is expected to remain stable. Then moving to specialty businesses, where we are having strong focus on cost management and we have paused when it comes to capacity ramp up as we are well invested, but we are ready to continue on the growth investments as soon as the markets start to recover.
We still believe that these are future growth engines when it comes to our business. In sustainable constructions, bodies were down 10%, sales 14 and especially US flooring business where the project delays in automotive and logistics sectors have had a negative effect. Also in Europe increased price competition is impacting volumes and the slow economy in Europe is reflected here. But what’s main positive is the increase in adaptation of our products in high growth markets India, China and The Middle East. And we believe that over time this will create volume growth opportunities for us.
And there is healthy pipeline when it comes to volume growth in tunneling and infrastructure businesses. Then other segments of specialty businesses, first of all, hydrogen, we have stable sales despite project delays and high customer stocks, so managing quite well under the current market conditions. And following the technology shift that Jose was relating to related to solar applications, sales for ultrafine wires were significantly lower compared to first quarter of twenty twenty four, but in line with the previous quarter, so stable quarter on quarter. That is something we had expected, so no surprise as such. This was also, I think, well communicated during the second half of last year.
And semiconductor applications remain a growing and profitable business here. When it comes to combustion technologies and hose and conveyor belt, we see lower sales versus last year’s first quarter, but these are also in line with the expectations. With this, handing over back to you, Yves, please.
Yves Kirstjens, CEO, Beckhart: Thanks, Seppo. So to summarize, it’s clear that the strategic transformation has made our company more resilient through the cycles and that to portfolio evolution, cost control and exiting lower margin business. If you look at the impact of the tariffs year to date, minimal. We have to see, of course, the remaining of the year, but on the other hand, as we explained, we are well positioned with our local footprint and our flexibility of sourcing and the back to back with our customers. However, the overall market demand remains fragile and uncertain for us.
So in that context, we were expecting a weaker market from 2024 going into 2025, which was confirmed. We are currently expecting a stable sales and stable EBITDA margins. And also to remind the audience, we communicated at the beginning of the year that the plan for 2025 was an equal plan of first half and second half, so different seasonality for the business than we had in previous years. So handing over to Guy for the Q and A. Thank you.
Conference Operator: Thank you. The floor is now open for your questions. If you wish to join the queue to ask a question at this time, please press star one. We do ask if listening on speakerphone today, please pick up your handset when asking your question to provide optimum sound quality. Once again, please press star one on your phone at this time to join the queue to ask a question.
Please hold a moment while we poll for questions. Our first question is coming from Frank with
Frank Claassen, Analyst, Degroof Petercam: Good morning, Frank Claassen, Degroof Petercam. Two questions, please. First of all, on your guidance of flat revenues, what kind of assumption do you make on the wire rod prices? Will it go down because of the lower steel prices? Or will the tariffs play a role here?
Some words on that, please. And then secondly, on the M and A agenda, yes, can you elaborate what’s yes, what is your view currently? Is it still the same? Do you see more movement here? What are your plans for the M and A agenda?
Thank you.
Seb Parvey, CFO, Beckhart: If I take first your question on revenues and wire rod assumptions, and then I think Yves can take the M and A each end apart. When it comes to wire rod prices, we have seen rather stable low prices already in most of the market with the exception of The U. S, and we expect that to continue. But in The US, obviously, if you look at the tariffs, that is going to continue to push up wire rod prices. And that is obviously something we take into account in our pricing.
And like I we have been successfully mitigating when it comes to higher costs due to the tariffs, when when it comes to price negotiations with our customers.
Yves Kirstjens, CEO, Beckhart: Okay. Thanks. And Frank, on the question on M and A. So, as you know, priorities for us are two aspects: is, first of all, consistently delivering the performance, and that’s a priority where we are working on for this year as well, while also continue to transform the portfolio of the company. And as mentioned before, we continue looking at different levels of M and A in some of the industries we’re in, is that a consolidation play for us as market leaders?
We’re looking at adjacencies to strengthen some of our platforms, and there are ongoing cases, and as mentioned before, the challenge, are only closed when they are closed, and but we continue to work on it. The opportunities, of course, there that some of the expectations are more becoming realistic, So hopefully, we can, let’s say, move with some smaller transactions during 2025, while keep on working on further strategizing the platforms we want to win with Bekaert in the future.
Conference Operator: Okay. Thank you for your comments. Thank you. Our next question is coming from Wim Host with KBC Securities. Your line is live.
Wim Host, Analyst, KBC Securities: Yes. Thank you, and good morning also from from my side. I have a couple of questions. Maybe first on on tariffs. Can you elaborate on how you have adjusted production so far?
In which divisions, which geographies have you fine tuned and changed production capacity or adjusted production? That’s the first question. And the second one would be on rubber reinforcement. Can you update on the capacity utilization per region now as we speak? And also, yes, quantify the volume changes that you saw in the first quarter per region?
Those were the questions.
Yves Kirstjens, CEO, Beckhart: So perhaps I can take the first one, Seppo can both do it. On the tariff, fundamentally, if you look at adjusted production, no fundamental changes. So in our operating model anyhow, we have flexible allocation and sourcing, so there the teams are constantly looking at the best flows, correct, based on the demand supply. So if you look at some more concrete businesses, we miss in steel wire solutions, so the team has been looking at flows from China to US, delivering from Europe to U. S, so we have some flexibility there, so we are and also in agreement with our customers reviewing some of these flows.
On the rubber reinforcement business, remains mainly the same types of flows, but also combination of local production plus import mix changes. So I would say, fundamentally, we didn’t need to do any capacity realignment or adjustments, it’s more of activating some of the different flows to optimize the supply. And on the capacitization of RR, you have to, as mentioned, RR in China, automotive demand overall pretty strong in Q1, both in AWS as well as in rubber reinforcement, so that we have a good utilization in in the factories in US in China up to close 9500%. If you look at Europe, US, that’s more in the range of 75%, in line with previous utilizations. In terms of volume changes per region, I don’t know
Seb Parvey, CFO, Beckhart: Yeah. In China, we are up some, say, 10% with the good volume development, while Europe, U. S. Both are down, say, 5%. So that is also, like you said, reflected on the capacity utilization rates.
Wim Host, Analyst, KBC Securities: Okay, understood. Thank you very much.
Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Martijn Dendrev with ABN AMRO. Your line is live.
Martijn Dendrev, Analyst, ABN AMRO: Yes. Thank you, operator. Good morning, gentlemen. I have a few and I’ll take them one by one. On rubber reinforcement, you mentioned continued overcapacity.
We obviously have to deal with tariffs. Are Asian competitors forcing prices lower? Are they dumping products in Europe relatively speaking now that certain markets are off limits? And the second question is, it’s been a couple of quarters that we have negative volume in Europe and North America in RR. Do you have any mitigation action planned in terms of production footprint optimization?
Those were the first two questions for RR, please. Yeah.
: So Martin, I can take them.
Yves Kirstjens, CEO, Beckhart: So the situation of the tyre industry as a whole, and let’s say the tire court remains the same, so in terms of overcapacity, and mainly that overcapacity is in China. Correct? What we’ve not seen, because our customers are basically, in terms of sourcing strategy, pretty long term and stable in terms of how to allocate the business to the different players. So to your question, we didn’t see a more severe competition in Europe and The US recently, certainly not The US because of the issues in import duties, but in Europe, I think a pretty stable, I think it’s more the question on the long term of the competitiveness of this region. If you look at the evolution of the market demand in Europe and US on the mitigation action, so in US, you know, from tire court, there are not many local tire court players, right?
We are one of them, one of the few of them, So there, we always have been adjusting our capacity between local production and import. And I think in Europe, there is clear also the utilization of around 75. We are optimizing the manufacturing footprint and the utilization of the factories to max efficiency.
Martijn Dendrev, Analyst, ABN AMRO: So on the last point, that ongoing today, but there’s no, there hasn’t been an announcement in terms of a planned closure
Yves Kirstjens, CEO, Beckhart: or something like No, No decision has been taken on any closure, yeah.
Martijn Dendrev, Analyst, ABN AMRO: It. Then moving on to SWS, you mentioned in the press release two closures in Indonesia and India. Are those the small footprint adjustments that you mentioned in the Q4 twenty twenty four release? And if so, what level of costs have been taken out, just so we know what to take into account in 2025?
Yves Kirstjens, CEO, Beckhart: So, Craig, so these are smaller operations that were joint operations, correct, with our business in rubber enforcement. So these were small businesses, but due to the priorities and the focus, closed the operations, so minimum impact. But certainly some revenue volume that has shifted from other supply basis from other factories.
Martijn Dendrev, Analyst, ABN AMRO: Okay, clear. And you mentioned agriculture as in this case, particular case in Q1, a rather solid driver for volume. What percentage of revenue for SWS is still coming from agriculture actually?
Yves Kirstjens, CEO, Beckhart: It’s mainly reference to our business in The US, basically where the two big segments in a couple of segments, two important segments in in SWS US are on one end the fencing for agriculture, with a typically very strong business in the first half of the year, the first quarter, and that’s what we’re referring to. And then the second, of course, big business in The US more throughout the year is the transmission wires business and with the overhead cables reinforcement. So that’s the two businesses we refer to, the agriculture business in this case. Yeah.
Martijn Dendrev, Analyst, ABN AMRO: But what is it? Is it 10% of sales, 20% of sales in The U. S? Just to give us a bit of a sense of how large this segment still is.
: Top of mind. Let’s check, Martin. That is small
Seb Parvey, CFO, Beckhart: in the total sales picture. Yeah. In US.
: So total US is 700,000,000, but we’ll come back on that. Yeah.
Martijn Dendrev, Analyst, ABN AMRO: Okay. Then on specialty and the Dramix developments, could you elaborate a little bit on why there was lower demand in Europe? You’ve explained what happened in The U. S. Part of the business, but can you elaborate a little bit on what happened in Europe?
Yves Kirstjens, CEO, Beckhart: Yeah. So Europe is more an evolution, correct? It’s not a sudden change in the trend where, let’s say, the conversion from traditional reinforcement to thermodynamics, and in some mature markets, basically, we have high, let’s say, conversion rate already. Construction, industrial, let’s say, footprint in Europe, meaning new factories, warehouses are more limited. I think what we see now, what is perhaps positive for the future is, let’s say, attractiveness of industry in Europe, it’s also changing evolution policies and so on, so there we are looking positively into the evolution.
So that’s for Europe. US we explained, we’re also pivoting there to other segments in terms of the conversion play and continue our trend on penetrating this business in new regions.
Martijn Dendrev, Analyst, ABN AMRO: And final question on Specialty. Hydrogen, a little bit of a delay in Q1. There was already a bit of a delay in 2024, although the growth was still pretty strong. Any impact on your medium term expectations in terms not so much at the end volume or end sales level or the evolution towards that level?
Yves Kirstjens, CEO, Beckhart: You mean the timing it takes to, in terms of to get this to Get to the 2,000 and that’s your question? Yeah, correct. Yeah. So, as I explained last time, so based on, let’s say, the evolution of the sustainability agenda, some changes in policies and priorities, the supply chain that is pretty full, right, we see that delay of the growing the demand with the two years. If you look at the horizon of 02/1930, we’re still positive about that business to make it a sizable business of a couple of hundred million with the full offering, and so the power transport layer, but also with launching the MEA.
So what we are doing currently is to make sure we have the footprint in China, we have the footprint in Belgium ready, correct. We start supplying our key customers from this also from the new Belgium location, ramping that up and keep on driving the R and D with the customers on the MEA offering. And so both the PTL and the MEA, let’s say, should generate in the future nice additional growth and margin. And we see the final investment decisions projects increasing, but of course, it takes time for going into implementation. So I would say on the midterm, still confident that we need to right size the resources we put on manufacturing,
Martijn Dendrev, Analyst, ABN AMRO: but also on R and D to follow the scaling up of this business. Thanks, Fred. And then my final question for Parfal, on BBRG, you mentioned stepping up output in North America and Europe, referring to the operational issues of 2024. Can you just remind us what was the negative impact on sales and EBIT of those issues in 2024, so we know what to adjust for in 2025?
Yves Kirstjens, CEO, Beckhart: Okay. That’s a good thing. Our memory.
Seb Parvey, CFO, Beckhart: Think sales sales wise, we were not suffering so much. It was more on on on the profitability because of the of the operational issues. And we were coming back in Q4, and particularly at the margins, were, I think, two to 4% below normal margins, sort of the first part of the year. So that gives you some magnitude.
Martijn Dendrev, Analyst, ABN AMRO: All right. Those were my questions. Thank you, gentlemen. Okay, thanks, Maarten.
Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Chase Cochrane with Van Launschotte, Kempen. Your line is live.
Chase Cochrane, Analyst, Van Launschotte, Kempen: Yes. Good morning all, and thank you for taking my questions. I’d like to take it back to SWS. Of course, you spoke to quite a strong energy and utilities market also in terms of the order book there. And Ms.
Ford, I’m wondering, do you believe there’s any pull forward effects in the first quarter in that business in The U. S, given obviously the ongoing tariff uncertainty? Was there sort of an artificial pull forward effect? Or can we also extrapolate that sort of performance for the rest of the year?
Guy Marks, Vice President, Investor Relations, Beckhart: Sorry, Chase. We got a little bit of breakup in your question. If I understood correctly, was the question, the the timing of revenues in SWS, whether there’s anything that was advanced from the normal pacing?
Chase Cochrane, Analyst, Van Launschotte, Kempen: Yeah. Exactly. Was there any pull forward in that business?
Guy Marks, Vice President, Investor Relations, Beckhart: I I I I think I think not. No. I mean, it it it’s a business that continues to perform well and no particular accelerations. I guess, getting to your question, it’s as a function of tariffs, but obviously potential uncertainty on the horizon.
Chase Cochrane, Analyst, Van Launschotte, Kempen: Alright. That’s clear. And then I have more of a strategic question, I suppose. You speak a lot about your local supply chains and your global footprint. And I’m wondering, do you see any sort of opportunity for you to actually gain market share in this environment, especially perhaps in the tire cord business where a lot of the peers are more Asian manufactured?
Do you see sort of any opportunities there that you can pursue?
Yves Kirstjens, CEO, Beckhart: No, it’s correct. So in a context where, let’s say, more local for local trade versus global trade, of course, with the global footprint gives us opportunity, and we are working on that to seize these opportunities. Now what we see is that our customers don’t change their sourcing strategy so quickly. Right? It takes some time to to work things through, but but certainly will be a positive context for us on grasping local demand.
Yeah.
Chase Cochrane, Analyst, Van Launschotte, Kempen: Okay. That’s great. Those are my questions. Thank you.
Conference Operator: Thank you. As we have no further questions on the lines at this time, I’d like to hand it back to management for any closing remarks.
Yves Kirstjens, CEO, Beckhart: That’s all right. Good. So first of all, thanks for joining this morning. Thanks for your questions. We will continue in Corteck with, in one hour, all the general assembly, and wish you a good day.
And thanks for your time on connecting with us today. Thank you.
Conference Operator: Thank you. This does conclude today’s call. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful rest of your day. We thank you for your participation.
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