Juha Rouhiainen : Good afternoon, and good morning, everyone. This is Juha from Metso's Investor Relations, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to this conference call where we review our second quarter '26 results. We'll begin with the presentation given by our CEO, Sami Takaluoma; and CFO, Pasi Kyckling, after which we'll be taking your questions. And as a reminder, the length of this call is 60 minutes, and we will be making some forward-looking statements, and that's why we have the disclaimer in the presentation deck. But with these short remarks, let's kick off, and I'll be handing over to Sami. Please go ahead.
Sami Takaluoma : Thank you, Juha. Good afternoon, good morning also from my behalf. The key message today is that the second quarter was a strong quarter for Metso. Orders, sales, profitability all improved year-on-year, and our cash generation also strengthened. The strongest momentum was in Minerals, where customer activity remained healthy across both equipment and aftermarket. First, I will summarize the Q2 performance and the main business drivers. Then I will touch our strategy execution and market outlook. After that, CFO, Pasi Kyckling, will cover the financials, cash flow, balance sheet and the segments. Finally, we will then move to the Q&A. In this presentation, we will also address several topics that have been active in the sector recently, including the mining demand, aftermarket trends, aggregate development margins, and the cash conversation. Let's start with the Q2 performance. Overall, the quarter confirmed that the customer activity remains healthy and particularly in the Minerals segment. We saw strong order growth, continued aftermarket momentum, higher sales and improved profitability. Importantly, the order growth in Minerals was broad-based and driven by both equipment and aftermarket, not by one single, large project. The key figures here summarize the quarter quite well. Orders increased by 18%, corresponding 16% in constant currencies. Sales also increased by 6% and 5% of that organically. Adjusted EBITA, EUR 221 million and the adjusted EBITA margin improved to 16.6%. Operating cash flow was EUR 206 million, and the rolling 12-month cash flow from operations was EUR 915 million, corresponding 98% cash conversion rate. The main driver was Minerals, where both equipment and aftermarket orders grew at double-digit rates. And here on this slide, you can see the longer time frame showing that the orders increased. Now the book and bill was 1.1. The order backlog was also increased by 13%, being now EUR 3.7 billion, which gives us a good visibility for the future revenues. Sales grew by 6% and aftermarket represented now 57% of the group sales, 54% 1 year ago. Adjusted EBITA, as said, margin expanded to 16.6% with both segments improving year-on-year. I think the important message is also that the cycle is now translating to more clearly into our numbers. In Q1, the discussion we had was partly about the timing and conversion. And now in the second quarter, we have seen the strong order growth, improved sales and also the higher margin and healthy cash flow. During the quarter, we have continued to execute our "We Go Beyond" strategy and to invest in capabilities that support our long-term strategic targets. Customers are a very important part of our strategy and proximity to customers remains as one key factor in the success. We have now expanded our presence in San Juan in Argentina, the country that is developing in the future as one of the main mining countries. And we have also had a grand opening in our expanded service center and new training center, the largest in Metso in U.S., Mesa in Arizona. And we also strengthened our presence and footprint close to the customers in Western Canadian service center opening. And in Finland, here, we have also made a decision in the second quarter to strengthen further the aggregates technology center in Tampere and the second phase was kicked off during the second quarter. These are not, as such, isolated investments. They do support the same structural themes that we see across the market. Customers, they want availability, they want productivity. They need life cycle support, and they definitely need a fast local service response. We have also strengthened our technology portfolio with launches of the new product. And we have also been focusing for the lithium carbonate process developments. These innovations support our role across the minerals downstream processing, and they will help our customers to improve their own productivity, resource efficiency, and sustainability. And save the date here in the slide, is a reminder for all of you that September 10, we will have Metso Summit, where we will talk through a lot of these innovations in a very professional way. So recommendation is strong to book the date to your calendars and join the event. As it comes to outlook, our market outlook is unchanged. We expect the market activity in both Minerals and aggregates to remain at the current level as it has been in the second quarter. It is important to note that our outlook is defined. It describes what is expected for the next 6 months, and it's adjusted for seasonality. And with this, I pass the microphone to CFO, Pasi.
Pasi Kyckling : Thank you, Sami, and good day, everyone, from my side. I will now go through the financials more in detail. Let's start with orders and revenues. The order bridge shows clearly where the order growth came from. The strongest contribution was from Minerals Equipment, followed by Minerals Aftermarket. Aggregates order intake was stable. Overall, group orders increased 18% to EUR 1.462 billion. In Minerals, equipment orders increased by 50%, driven specifically by grinding and crushing solutions. North America performed strongly from a market area point of view. The increase was driven by a broad flow of small- and medium-sized orders up to EUR 20 million across commodities and geographies. Aftermarket orders increased by 13%, reflecting healthy activity across our installed base. In the sales bridge, Minerals aftermarket was the main positive driver of sales growth. The Minerals equipment sales were lower year-on-year due to timing of customer projects. Mix improvement in Minerals supported profitability as aftermarket share increased by 17% and represented 68% of segment sales. Aggregate sales increased 7%, driven by equipment. Overall, our order backlog increased 13% year-on-year or more than EUR 400 million. Let's then move to our result bridge. Adjusted EBITA increased from EUR 183 million to EUR 221 million, reflecting adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.6%. The improvement was driven by higher volumes and improved gross margin, partly offset by higher selling, general and administrative expenses and other items. The mix was supportive for the EBITA development. Gross margin improved by almost 200 basis points to 33.3%, and it reflects a combination of volume growth, favorable mix, and specifically the increase in Minerals Aftermarket share and overall solid operational execution. Both Aggregates and Minerals improved adjusted EBITA margins year-over-year. EPS from continuing operations increased to EUR 0.15. Operating profit was EUR 185 million compared to EUR 178 million a year ago with operating margin of 13.9%. I'd like to also remind all of us that a year ago, we had a positive larger one-off benefit EUR 27 million from the revaluation of STM shares in our second quarter results. Let's then move forward and look at our cash flow generation. On a rolling 12-month basis, cash generation continues to be healthy. During the second quarter, cash flow from operations improved to EUR 206 million compared to EUR 147 million a year ago. The main driver for that was higher profitability, while the change in net working capital was slightly positive compared to a year ago. On a rolling 12-month basis, the cash flow from operations was EUR 915 million, corresponding to cash conversion rate of 98%. As said earlier, we increased our order backlog year-on-year by EUR 400 million, and the book-to-bill during the second quarter was 1.1, and then that is also reflecting our working capital needs. Let's then move and look at our balance sheet. Our balance sheet continues to be strong. Net debt to EBITDA at the end of second quarter was 1.3x, and that's below the ceiling of 1.5x that we have set as a target. Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the quarter were EUR 383 million, and we have EUR 700 million revolving credit facility fully undrawn. During the quarter, we exercised the first option to extend the RCF by 1 year, and it is now maturing in 2031. We also maintain an investment-grade credit profile and have the Baa2 rating from Moody's with positive outlook. Overall, our balance sheet continues to be strong, and it gives us flexibility to execute our strategy. We can continue to invest in our service capability technology, local presence, and selected growth initiatives while at the same time, maintaining disciplined capital allocation. Let's then look at our segments and start with Aggregates. The Aggregates orders were EUR 333 million during the quarter, broadly stable year-over-year, corresponding to 1% organic growth in constant currencies. In Aggregates, demand remained very strong in North America, while Europe was somewhat softer. In Europe, the Iran war and increased diesel costs specifically impacted negatively the aggregate demand. Equipment orders declined by 1%, while aftermarket orders increased by 6%. From sales point of view, we reported 8% organic growth in constant currencies. Equipment sales increased 12% and aftermarket sales declined 4%. The aftermarket comparison here is affected by the calculation change we implemented in the beginning of the year. And under that, certain products were reclassified from aftermarket to equipment. The impact in second quarter was EUR 8 million in orders and EUR 9 million in sales. Profitability in Aggregates improved clearly. Adjusted EBITA increased by EUR 11 million to EUR 56 million, and the margin improved more than 200 basis points to 16.3%, supported by higher volumes, strong execution, and overall cost discipline. Let's then look at our Minerals segment and Minerals delivered a strong quarter. Orders increased to EUR 1.129 billion, corresponding 21% organic growth. Equipment orders increased by 50%, driven particularly by crushing and grinding solutions and aftermarket orders increased 13% and this reflects healthy activity across the installed base in spares and wears as well as in upgrades and modernizations. Book-to-bill was 1.14 and the backlog increased year-over-year 13% to more than EUR 3.1 billion. Sales increased to EUR 992 million, representing 4% organic growth. The sales growth was aftermarket-led with aftermarket sales increasing 14% and representing 68% of Minerals segment sales. Adjusted EBITA also increased and came in with EUR 182 million, representing 18.3% margin. Here also more -- close to 200 basis points improvement year-over-year. Higher volumes, improved mix, and strong execution overall supported the profitability. With that, I'd like to hand back to you, Sami, for a summary.
Sami Takaluoma : Thank you, Pasi. So to summarize, strong minerals demand drove the orders growth in the second quarter. Healthy pipeline in Minerals also continues. We delivered margin improvement in both of our segments and remained strong in the cash conversation at 98%. And we have continued to invest for our future growth. So to summarize all that, I think the second quarter demonstrates that the positive market drivers in the Minerals, especially, are now translating into stronger orders and higher aftermarket business, resulting improved margins and also healthier cash generation for Metso. And with that, back to you, Juha.
Juha Rouhiainen : Yes. Thank you, Sami. Thank you, Pasi. We are done with the presentation and can open lines for Q&A.
Operator : The next question comes from Edward Hussey from UBS.
Edward Hussey : Just a couple for me. So the first one is you talked about the new service center in Argentina and an expansion of the service center in Arizona. Obviously, there are some big copper projects expected to FID in these 2 regions fairly soon. So should we see these investments in service centers as a potential lead indicator that you might be winning some of these orders?
Sami Takaluoma : Thank you, Ed. Excellent question and excellent logic. Obviously, we wouldn't be doing investments in this scale if we wouldn't be knowing that there's going to be a good usage of those resources and facilities in the future. So this is in line with our expectation of the future orders when it comes to the new projects.
Edward Hussey : Okay. That's very helpful. And then maybe just one other. So obviously, very strong underlying growth rate in equipment orders. Do you sort of have a number that we should think about as the sort of underlying run rate of equipment orders going forward? I mean, for example, should we now think that EUR 400 million, excluding any large orders, is the sort of number we should pencil into our models going forward?
Pasi Kyckling : Yes, thanks for that. And I mean, if we first look at second quarter a little bit more in detail. So indeed, we had very strong sort of what we call the base business. So orders in value below EUR 5 million, and we had also very strong in the sort of a basket from EUR 5 million to EUR 15 million. And if I look at '25 and first quarter of this year, this was the strongest quarter in these baskets. I wouldn't directly draw a conclusion that we continue quarter after quarter at this level. Even in the smaller ones, it will be somewhat lumpy. However, what we take internally from this is that the underlying demand is there. Like I said, it's broad-based. We also, this time highlighted our stronghold, I mean, crushing and grinding. Many of these orders came from that. But again, just penciling the same going forward wouldn't be the right logic. Market activities there, et cetera, but we expect to see some volatility also in these smaller orders going forward.
Operator : The next question comes from Christian Hinderaker from Goldman Sachs.
Christian Hinderaker : I want to start on the crushing and grinding orders in Minerals OE. When we think about those as base orders or small or mid-size, is that replacement? Is that expansion? It's obviously brownfield. And then when we think about the scope, i.e., the broader comminution circuit and sort of downstream equipment classes, should we read this as being customers upgrading specific pockets of their process? Or are they upgrading the whole setup and that you've just won share, particularly in those product areas and somebody else has been winning elsewhere? That's the first one.
Sami Takaluoma : Yes. It's a combination. Of course, they are brownfield, majority of them, and both replacement and then capacity increasements by debottlenecking. Typically, flow sheet starts from the crushing and screening. And that's the first place that certain investments start to happen when there is a need to stabilize the production levels to the new levels or making sure that the future production is trouble-free. So in that sense, I don't draw that kind of conclusion, as you suggested, that we have been winning this part and somebody else has been winning the rest because those discussions continue with some of them with these same customers.
Christian Hinderaker : Okay. Understood. And can I ask then what we should think about in terms of the aggregates business? We had a pre-buy effect that you flagged in the context of the Section 232 tariffs in Q1. You're suggesting that growth in North America was actually coming through in the second quarter still, but the weakness was on Europe, which I presume is then negative. What's happening in the U.S., I guess, in particular? How should we think about that through the back half?
Sami Takaluoma : Yes. U.S. has remained a good market. There are also good, positive signals in the air for U.S. in the future as well. There is a Highway Bill moving as we speak in the house, and that typically has been then creating in a mid-term future also activity in the aggregate side. So some amount of work for U.S.-based customers has been also coming from the data center work. So in that sense, the activity level remains good in the U.S. side. And then the Europe, as you reflected, has okay level, but it was impacted mostly for the increased fuel prices as contractor type of customers in Europe started to struggle with the profitability with the high level. So that was slowing down the investment decisions than in this quarter.
Christian Hinderaker : And then maybe just finally, pumps. Did that grow double digit?
Pasi Kyckling : Sorry, Christian, say it again, I didn't hear you well.
Christian Hinderaker : If we think outside of the demand on crushing and grinding to areas like pumps, did they see double-digit growth as well? Or it was really all from crushing and grinding?
Pasi Kyckling : No, it's not absolutely all from crushing and grinding also, for example, pumps where you referred to, we continue to see a good growth, and that continues to be a focus area. So it's not only crushing and grinding, but crushing and grinding was specifically strong compared to some of the earlier periods here. But it's certainly pumps. It's also other parts of the flow sheet where the orders came in.
Operator : The next question comes from Klas Bergelind from Citi.
Klas Bergelind : My first question is on the sales outlook in Minerals. And this is the second quarter now where we have weaker equipment revenues versus expectations. And if we do the dip in orders and revenues over 6 months, then we should have EUR 300 million more backlog, but the backlog moved up by less than EUR 100 million since end of December. I'm trying to understand if there are any cancellations versus delivery delays, if this is Reko Diq or any other project, because I'm not sure how it can be linked to your divestments as your numbers have been restated. And then moving over to the service growth and the deliveries of the modernization orders. To what extent should we see a sales acceleration here from current level? I'm trying to sort of see into the second half, a bit weaker equipment versus accelerating service. And sorry, one more on the equipment side. These equipment orders that are small and mid-sized, can this improve the equipment revenue run rate already into the second half?
Pasi Kyckling : Yes. So thanks, Klas. That was 3 good questions. And if I may start from the last one. So I mean, there, we see the typical turnaround times. But indeed, some of those we expect will result to revenue already late this year, not so much maybe third quarter, but fourth quarter, some of those orders that we got now will start to generate revenue. And then there is some longer lead items as well where it clearly goes to 2027. Then your question on backlog is excellent, and I heard you also discussed this with Juha earlier. We are looking at that. What I can say you right now is that, I mean, we haven't had any larger cancellations. So that's not the factor. Obviously, in business, orders get canceled. But during first half of this year, we haven't had any larger ones there. I mean, we have had one customer bankruptcy case where also backlog has been impacted. But there, we talk about a couple of tens of millions. And then, the delta that you are highlighting is larger than that. This specific case where we have the customer bankruptcy, the order is not received any time recently. It is closer to the merger than today. So it has been in the backlog already for a good period of time. And now we cleaned it when the customer went through the bankruptcy process. Then -- and we need to get back to you on this backlog development because there is clearly a discontinuation, the sort of basic logic has a relatively big gap. Obviously, part of that is FX, et cetera, but we need to look at that, and we'll come back to you. Then finally, you had a question on upgrades and modernizations. There, I mean, we continue to see a good amount of orders coming in. Those orders are typically in service portfolio or aftermarket portfolio, the ones which take a bit longer to translate to revenue. But if we think from activity and order intake level, they continue sort of a similar healthy level as a couple of previous quarters. And then the orders that we started to receive, basically, a year ago, they start to contribute to our revenue now and then even more second half of this year.
Klas Bergelind : Very quick, final one, on inventories. Inventory days continue to increase happened in the first quarter and now again in the second quarter. Did the margin benefit from any overproduction? And how should we think about the days as we go through into the second half?
Pasi Kyckling : No. I mean, margins did not benefit from the overproduction. However, where we benefited from the margin is good capacity utilization. So the absorption that we have from our own operation was well managed and some of our own manufacturing is running flat out, which is, of course, good from the overall cost performance point of view. And then you're right, inventories continue to trend up, and that is very much in line with the backlog that we have and working with future deliveries. And when we zoom into different inventory categories, the work in progress inventories is the one where we see most of the increase. And then when it comes to DIO, our intention is not to sort of increase the inventory and increase the DIO going forward, but it will fluctuate based on the delivery needs that we have for different customer projects.
Operator : The next question comes from Max Yates from Morgan Stanley.
Max Yates : Just my question is around margins in the Minerals division. You've obviously had a kind of nice step-up year-over-year but against an easy comp. Some of that is obviously mix, which is favorable in the quarter. I guess, my fundamental question is, when you look at the margin improvement and kind of around that 18% level, is that a fair reflection of the improvements that you've made in the business, the journey to 20% margins? Or is this really just a sort of very strong mix quarter and we shouldn't kind of extrapolate that too much? So maybe I'll just start there. How many of these -- how much of this sort of margin improvement being kind of in that, yes, 18-plus range is the structural improvements versus just mix?
Pasi Kyckling : Yes. first of all, you are right that it's a soft comparison. Of course, we had a weaker quarter a year ago, and then we absolutely wanted and needed to show a strong improvement from there. And you remember that we had a couple of extraordinary items there last year, which are obviously not repeating. And one item that has been corrected to sort of a normal -- more normal level is the mix. And we are not thinking that this mix was extraordinarily good, but rather sort of normal. And you may remember that in our strategy overall objective is to grow after market, many reasons behind that. And then the other thing that impacted is simply volumes. Volumes help and like we discussed just with Klas, the absorption in this quarter was lower. Our facilities are running full, and that is good for our cost performance. So that's the way how we think about it. And again, more normalization rather than anything else. And when we look forward, the order book is there. We expect that we can run flat out also during the coming period, thanks to the order book, and that should support margin development also going forward.
Max Yates : Okay. And maybe just a quick follow-up on the Minerals aftermarket piece. So another quarter of 10% order growth. I mean, clearly, for most players in the industry, Sandvik as well, we're seeing kind of outsized aftermarket growth rates versus what we would maybe consider normal, whether that's a kind of high single-digit number. I guess could you maybe just walk us through what you think is happening in the industry that's allowing this? Is it that you're getting a bit more price? Is it the rebuilds? Or maybe to what extent, is it some of your own initiatives, whether that's kind of penetration attached, attachment rates, or higher value of service per machine? Just trying to trade off how much are we relying on the market? Can that continue versus some of your own initiatives around aftermarket?
Sami Takaluoma : Yes. Thank you. Maybe I can shed some light for that question. So first of all, this one as well, it's a combination, of course. Pricing is one element. And and we have been enjoying good pricing strategy and execution as well. So it has a certain impact. But I would highlight that in our aftermarket growth journey and story that it's very much the centerpiece of the strategy that we launched third quarter last year, meaning that we have also done inside Metso, certain changes in the focus areas we have put investments in and the customer base, of course, is also in a good condition, meaning the market is positive for our customers. They want to invest for the aftermarket, and this is also one element that is creating this growth. In our thinking, we are targeting for those strong single-digit growth, but I don't complain that we have been going a little bit beyond that one now in the last 3 quarters.
Operator : The next question comes from Vlad Sergievskiy from Barclays.
Vladimir Sergievskiy : A few questions, please, and starting with new equipment orders. How should we think about this very big number of underlying orders this quarter? It is about EUR 400 million. It's twice what it's historically been for some time. What triggered this base to actually double all of a sudden in Q2? Is it like a significant part of your pipeline that quickly converted? And why we shouldn't consider this EUR 400 million as perhaps a new level at least for a few quarters?
Sami Takaluoma : Thank you, Vlad. It's reflecting the good, strong pipeline that has been there and which we have been working very actively with the customers. And we are very happy that this work that we are doing all over the world in different countries for these cases is yielding the results. And then especially now in the second quarter, it was very successful to close those deals. As Pasi was, already in an earlier question outlining, we do see very healthy pipeline also for the future. Capital equipment business is always having certain elements that the decision-making is sometimes very fast for this replacement and sometimes when everything is clear, it can still take some time. So I think the good way of thinking is that there is a good pipeline. Metso is doing good work with the customers and it's definitely seen as a quality supplier for these needs, and we continue our work on our side with the customers.
Vladimir Sergievskiy : That's great, Sami. I really appreciate the color. Can I follow up on this and just say, if you think about the very near-term pipeline, something which you think is very realistically come through quickly, is the pipeline reduced after this quarter? Or it's still as good as it was when you were entering Q2?
Sami Takaluoma : Well, of course, from the pipeline, we have converted the orders, those ones that you also mentioned. At the same time every week, every month, there is new opportunities starting to develop in different stages. So in that sense, pipeline remains very good looking and healthy good looking for going forward as well despite that we converted very nice amount from the pipeline to the orders in the second quarter.
Vladimir Sergievskiy : That's great. I really appreciate it. And final one for me. There was a sizable capacity adjustment cost in Minerals. Could you give us some color what it was linked to?
Pasi Kyckling : Yes. Thank you, Vlad. So indeed, as adjustment items, we reported some costs, and it basically links to 2 items. The first one is that we are doing some efficiency work internally that resulted to sort of one-off type implementation costs that is reported there. And then the second one is that we have, in our backlog, still a couple of legacy projects in solutions that we have disposed and there was some costs related to those. So that is basically what we had in -- well, Minerals and that represents also the group level adjustments in the second quarter.
Operator : The next question comes from Tore Fangmann from Bank of America.
Tore Fangmann : Two questions from my side. One, on the orders again. I appreciate EUR 400 million is a decent level underlying. But I was wondering how do you think from here about the large orders coming through? Is there still the expectation for this that like towards end of this year, early '27, we should see like larger projects coming through for you as well? And then I'll take the second afterwards.
Sami Takaluoma : Yes. Thank you for that question. The large projects are developing all the time. There is some news also in the public domains available all the time. So there is no fundamental change in that picture. We also know that these large orders, they are kind of lumpy ones, and they come when they come. And what we do in Metso is to focus of these small, medium-sized because that's kind of like how the business model is built up. And then we work at the same time for the large ones. Timing of those looks okay. Second half of '26 is definitely seeing something from that area as well and then the strong pipeline that is building there. So it creates good-looking opportunities from the order perspective for the several quarters ongoing here.
Tore Fangmann : Okay. I mean, second half is any day now. It sounds good. So second question on revenues. It sounded a little bit like we should not see too much acceleration of the OE revenues already in the second half, maybe sticking to around about the level where we are at right now, and then we should see a larger OE revenue growth from '27 onwards. But on the other side, we should see some aftermarket acceleration to the second half given the strong modernization, but also like spare parts orders we've seen in first half and end of last year. Is this the right perception? Or am I getting something mixed up here?
Pasi Kyckling : Thanks, Tore. And I think directionally, you are getting it right. And if I provide a little bit more color on the OE side of things. So some of the larger orders that we have gotten during the previous -- more distant previous periods, they are coming -- they have come to the sort of end of those project deliveries. And then the new larger orders that we recorded very late last year, first quarter this year, they start to gradually ramp up to the revenue. And I'm referring to Birla and Ar Rjum, and then the Tia Maria order that we got in Q1. And with that dynamic, the way how you were sort of thinking is logical. And then when it comes to aftermarket, so indeed, there, we have been constantly growing the backlog. Most of the backlog growth is in the aftermarket side of things. And that is gradually turning to revenue, helping us to sort of work with our overall mix. And then obviously, we all know that aftermarket is the sort of better part of the business from a profitability point of view. Then when it comes to aggregates -- and I think your question was mainly Minerals focused, but in aggregates, the order intake first half of this year in the equipment side has been really, really solid. And we obviously will deliver a significant part of that during the second half of the year.
Tore Fangmann : Okay. Understood. And just following up on the Minerals part. And then sorry, one follow-up on aggregates as well. But briefly on the Minerals part, a follow-up. We did second half of last year on the revenue side, we saw very strong revenue growth here. So this creates somewhat of a tougher comp second half versus what you see in the first half. Any thoughts from you about this?
Pasi Kyckling : Well, it's a factual comment that it is indeed, like you said, tougher comps, and we'll be against that then when we have a discussion in late October when it comes to third quarter and then in January when we -- or early February when we talk about fourth quarter. But I don't know if I have any other thoughts on that.
Tore Fangmann : Appreciate it. And then just lastly, you mentioned on the aggregates. You had very strong orders in Q1, partially maybe driven by pre-buying. Do you see a risk of H2 somewhat activity coming down further than in usual years where we should see like sequentially the decrease in H2 that it's even like more pronounced this year given some of the demand might have been pulled forward already?
Sami Takaluoma : Aggregate has much faster cycles than the minerals in a typical way and also aggregate has this seasonality. How it looks that 2026 is looking solid from the seasonality point of view. Typically, there is a good high activity in the orders in the first quarter and then declining to the second and third and then picking up again for the Q4 when the year-end decisions are made. So kind of expecting a similar kind of performance of the market now in this year as we have been used to in the past.
Operator : The next question comes from William Mackie from Kepler Cheuvreux.
William Mackie : A few questions from my side. Minerals, please. First, can we just dive into the order intake one last time and to review perhaps in a bit more detail how you would describe the regional development of the EUR 400 million and perhaps alongside that, the technologies beyond crushing that you've called out, just when you look at the pipeline, are you seeing a similar sort of technology development in terms of the demand profile? I'll take them one by one. I have a couple more.
Pasi Kyckling : No. Thank you, Will, for that. And I think during my presentation, I already, from a regional point of view, called out North America as sort of stronger than last year and maybe stronger than a couple of previous quarters here. And when we look at the regional pipeline going forward, obviously, all the -- we are organized in 7 market areas, so all of them have a lot of activities. But I would say that North America, we expect to continue very, very strong. In the other areas, I don't know if there is anything specific to call out from regional point of view. Then you had a question, and we discussed it a bit earlier in the call also when it comes to different business lines or products. And yes, indeed, crushing and grinding, we have highlighted here. We already discussed that our pump growth remains intact. We are growing with double digits, clear double digits there, and that has been the trend already for some time. The same goes for our screening business, also good growth there. And the pipeline varies between different products, but we expect based on the activity level that there is with customers, relatively good activity across the flow sheet offering that we have going forward. And now I'm talking about the small and medium-sized orders, sort of the base business.
William Mackie : That's very helpful. Across your business, you've seen developments of input cost or cost changes and also tariff changes. So can you then comment with regard to the backlog and the order intake bookings, how pricing is evolving and how you would describe the evolution of backlog or project margins over the last quarter in comparison to the prior year?
Pasi Kyckling : Yes. Thank you, Will. Again, a very good question. If I start from just discussing how we see cost inflation generally. So obviously, the crisis in the Middle East have created cost inflation. The way it is visible for us is via the fossil materials, and it is impacting our logistics. It is impacting energy cost at our foundries. That being said, those sort of energy-related cost items are not a big cost bucket for us. Logistics is, of course, important. Then, I mean, early on when the crisis broke out, when we started to see those inflationary elements, we've been very actively managing our pricing with our customers. Let's see how it plays out. It's, of course, a long game. But so far, we are quite happy where we are. And then when it comes to backlog, obviously, we have certain open exposures there, but I would say that relatively limited. And the way how we work with, for example, the larger minerals capital deals, we basically do back-to-back deals when we nail a deal with our customer, then we do the same with our supplier and sort of the main inflammatory risk is sort of mitigated. During the second quarter, I would say that we didn't see anything specific from the sort of margin -- backlog margin conversion point of view. And that tells that in this inflammatory environment, so far, we have managed the situation relatively well as a company. But obviously, this continues. I think today, we see again oil prices above $100 per barrel and so forth. So this is every day bread and butter for our teams, procurement teams, quotation teams, and others. And this is not the first time we do it. We have learned quite a bit during the COVID times when there was a broad-based inflation.
Sami Takaluoma : And maybe to continue, one more element is that in the quotations, the price validity. So that is, of course, with the current environment of the whole world. So they are quite short, and then we requote based on when the project starts to be alive and when that first validation has been expired.
William Mackie : If I could just move on to aggregates briefly. When I look at -- at least the way I was modeling Q2, your contribution margin was very strong. And I guess the Q2 '25 had a number of costs in there, including your ERP implementation. Is it possible to just sort of frame how you would describe contribution margins or what was in aggregates that led to such a solid profit performance in Q2 compared to the prior year?
Pasi Kyckling : Yes. Thanks, Will. In aggregates, we also had a part of those extra costs that we called out a year ago. Then another factor in aggregates is this factory utilization. So thanks to, obviously, very strong order intake first quarter this year, decent order intake late last year, we are busy, and that is a good situation from the capacity utilization and then cost performance and via that gross margin or contribution margin point of view. And last year also this time of the year, we were ramping up the operations again. You may remember that we had laid off some of our people because lack of work and so forth, and they were back in business, and that also caused some extra costs during the comparison period. But now we are in full swing with good order backlog and full execution, and that helps with margins and cost performance.
William Mackie : Super. One strategic question. Capital allocation, balance sheet strength is there, good cash flow. You called out opportunity to allocate to service technology and local presence. How would you describe your thinking around M&A, bolt-on acquisition, or larger acquisition opportunities to expand and further your current strategy, please?
Sami Takaluoma : Yes. As explained when we launched the strategy as well. So one part of the growth is planned to be inorganic, and we have a very clear M&A strategy that we are executing. So that means that several interesting discussions are ongoing with the potential targets, and we are executing that part of the strategy all the time as well.
Operator : The next question comes from Andreas Koski from BNP Paribas.
Andreas Koski : It will be a couple of follow-up questions, starting with service orders in Minerals, which grew strongly year-over-year, and the sequential development was better than I had expected. I mean in recent years, Q2 service orders have been down quite meaningfully from Q1, but that was not the case this year. So I wonder, did you have any larger service orders in Q2 and how to think about the sequential development going into Q3?
Pasi Kyckling : Andreas, thanks for the question. I mean, no, we did not have any sort of larger single orders this quarter. What we had was a very solid sort of a parts order intake and then also a continuous good order intake when it comes to our upgrades and modernizations. But again, that was sort of a similar level as some of the previous quarters. Those are typically a bit bigger ticket items, could be double-digit millions, et cetera. But that's not really -- that hasn't changed from Q1, from Q4, and would not explain the positive development. Our own read on this, Andreas, is that now, it's really the demand-driven increase and our customers, they want to operate their gold assets, they are copper assets with high utilization and that requires then the services, the aftermarket support that we provide, and it's a reflection of that healthy market activity.
Sami Takaluoma : Yes. And I would also maybe add one more thing. Once again, aftermarket is a centerpiece in our strategy. We have a lot of execution around this, meaning that the focus inside the company is different than in the past. Not saying that it was not in the agenda also in the previous years being one that led those businesses. But now it's kind of stronger than before. And I am convinced that the results that we have seen now in the second quarter for the orders are because of the very good market out there, our position, and then our focus for the aftermarket.
Pasi Kyckling : And if I may still complement, if you -- and we discussed briefly about capital allocation, but like we also showcased in this report, we have invested in our aftermarket presence. And it's not only this quarter. Now we highlighted a couple of service centers, et cetera. But if we look at past 12, 18 months, there is a number of -- I mean, not very large individual, but number of smaller investments that we have done. And that's, of course, is helping the growth as well.
Andreas Koski : Understood. And then coming back to the backlog phasing. So your total backlog is up by 13% year-over-year. Do you see that the backlog for delivery let's say, within the next 6 months in H2 is also up by around 13% year-over-year? Or is -- or has the backlog become larger -- longer, sorry?
Pasi Kyckling : A good question, but also a difficult one. I would say that there are certain elements that have given the sort of execution time of backlog a bit longer. And here, I refer, for example, in the aftermarket size for the upgrades and modernizations, they take longer time to deliver. They are good business for us, but the turnaround time is a bit longer. And that backlog compared to a year ago has grown more than our backlog in average. But overall, I wouldn't say that there is sort of a significant change. One aspect also is that we are we are busy in part of our aftermarket system. And then in some limited areas that results to somewhat extended delivery times, but again, not a big item as such.
Andreas Koski : So we should expect quite nice revenue growth year-over-year based because of the backlog expansion that we have seen.
Pasi Kyckling : Yes. Let's see how the execution goes forward. But I mean, the backlog growth certainly helps us to deliver future revenues. So...
Andreas Koski : Understood. And then the last question, you're talking a positive market cycle and that is now leading to a better order conversion. I'm just a bit curious why you decided to continue to guide for stable market activity over the next 6 months. Are you now seeing that the cycle is stagnating? Or why did you decide to not, yes, make your outlook a bit more optimistic?
Sami Takaluoma : Yes. I think -- thank you for that question. Market outlook reflects for the next 6 months compared to where we are today, and we have seen good market activity in the second quarter, and we expect to see a similar kind of good market activity going forward. We are not in a position to see that there would be a significant ramp-up from the good level that we are kind of like already been seeing.
Juha Rouhiainen : All right. We are coming up to the hour and need to wrap up this call. Thanks for listening. Thanks for participating. Before we go, just a reminder of the Metso Summit event on September 10. It's a fully virtual event showcasing a lot of new technologies, new solutions that we have invented for our customers, and I'm sure will be worthwhile everybody's time. Next time we'll talk about our numbers will be October 22, but I'm sure we'll see many of you before that. So thanks for this, and bye-bye.