Good morning or good afternoon all, and welcome to the Acerinox First Half 2022 Results Presentation. My name is Adam, and I'll be your operator today. If you'd like to ask a question during the Q&A portion of today's call, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. I will now hand over to Carlos Lora-Tamayo, Head of Investor Relations to begin. Carlos, please go ahead when you are ready. Thank you. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the Acerinox conference Call for the First Half 2022. The call will be led by our CEO, Bernardo Velázquez, and our CFO, Miguel Ferrandis. They will start with a short presentation and then continue with the Q&A session. Before getting started, let me remind you that this conference call is being broadcast on our website, acerinox.com. Now, Bernardo, please go ahead. Thank you, Carlos. Good morning, everyone. This is Bernardo Velázquez, and I'm very happy to present this extraordinary result. It is very important for me to explain that we have been saying in the last years that with our efficiency, our flexibility, with all the progress that we have done and we continue doing with our current plans, we have reached a new level of competitiveness. Now with these results, I think this is proven that we have fulfilled our promise. Let's start with sustainability and saying that we are showing here the most important topics. That first of all is a circular economy. We need to recycle 100% of our waste to become a real paradigm of the circular economy. We have the product, we have the process, and we are working hard on this, as you can see in the numbers. Second is environment, but for us, it's also efficiency. Because everything that we do to reduce CO2 emissions, to improve our energy efficiency, at the end will be higher efficiency and better results for the group. So this, in this sense, sustainability and efficiency are going together. The same we can say with safety. At the end, safety is something I think is our right to come back safe to home, but it's also a question of money because the lowest level of accidents and incidents that we have in our plant, or the highest level of productivity. Not much to say about the results. I'm sure that you have all seen our numbers. Very good numbers. Highest ever. It's a record. Q2 has been a record and H1 also has been a historical record. Let's see the dot points. Where is this? How we reach this level of results and where are they coming from? I think that we have to say that, of course, we have enjoyed a tailwind based on the good consumption, good demand of stainless steel, also the restocking process. As usual, that have been helped by the increase of nickel price. All these situations were good for our business, but we cannot forget that we have achieved these results in a very complex scenario. We manage a lot of uncertainties, we manage the disruptions in the supply chain, we manage a high cost, especially in the energy, incidents, and everything, and at the end, we have reached the record year. This extraordinary results can let us announce due to our very healthy financial situation, that we are ready to announce this share buyback, a new share buyback of 4%, that with and within we'll complete the 10% that we increased with our capital increases in the year that we were given the scrip dividend. Miguel, if you can explain the financial results. Yes, thank you. We are going to pass very quickly through the slides. Most of them are very, very self-explanatory, and you have a lot of comments in the reports presentation we have done early morning. Just to remark some facts, you can see the quarterly evolution. We have obtained this new record of quarterly EBITDA of EUR 523 million. Obviously, a record always are challenges for the coming future. In any case, as we also announced in our results presentation, this is not going to be a stairway to heaven. We understand that the third quarter, obviously, we shall see some correction in the figures. In any case, keeping for the second part of the year, very, very healthy and sustainable profits. What this graph also shows us is the evolution of eight consecutive quarters of increasing results. A huge demonstration, especially in the last six quarters, that with proper market performance and proper tailwinds, all the achievements in cost savings, in efficiency we have been working hard for years, are much more easily appreciated and contribute substantially to our profits, as also the diversification that we have been doing in the last period through moving to the high performance alloys. All of this definitely is contributing to this constant increase in profitability we have been achieving. I want to point out what we were able to demonstrate, for example, in 2020. We demonstrated that we have a strong flexibility. We made an excellent performance in the world crisis, probably after the war, which was the world recession of the COVID, for making a tremendous exercise on rationalizing the fixed cost of the group. This contribute to keeping this good track. We demonstrate that we can face and sail properly in troubled waters, but also as soon as the tailwind comes and the market reacts and recovers, we are in the best position for taking all the advantage of the tailwinds as we are mentioning. I think this is very easily appreciated in this chart. Both sections of Acerinox Group, if we go to the next slide, the stainless steel, both sections have had a strong, very strong performance. Our traditional stainless steel business have developed excellent performance. All the units have been really doing well. We have been benefiting from the strength and consistency of the American market. We have also been obviously taking advantage of the good momentum of the European market in the recovery after the COVID and the normalization of the stocks throughout the supply chain. We have also been benefited in Columbus by the diversification going into the mild steel as well, and the good market momentum in the Asian market. We have a very consistent and obtaining double-digit EBITDA margins in all the units, and this create more or less this achievement of EUR 481 million in the quarter and delivering operating cash flow only in a quarter which is EUR 265 million if we take the whole semester. Also the performance has been extremely successful in the high performance alloys. The high performance alloys is developing a very good traction. We are having records in the order book entry. We are having excellent figures in production, in sales. Most of the sectors are actually doing fine. Oil and gas, obviously the chemistry sector is fine. Even the car industry, even though is having a lower momentum, is also contributing. The aerospace is coming back. Probably most of the sectors of the alloys could be just the electronics if they want better, but any case, the order book is full. We have obtained quarterly EBITDA of EUR 41 million. It is a 14% margin, which is extremely successful. If you just look to the semester figures, VDM and our high performance alloys contribute with EUR 65 million. The historical record for VDM in its history was the year 2019, with a yearly EBITDA of EUR 96 million. Just in this semester, we have been able to obtain this. This is a strong EBITDA with 11% margin, which is very, very successful. As is very successful also the track record of the integration. We have already achieved synergies of EUR 13 million, keeping in mind that the target for the year was EUR 17 million. Also in terms of synergies coming from the integration, we are going substantially better even than that was our forecast for this year. Then going through the cash flow, there are some issues to remark. At the end, what we are appreciating here is the allowance and the flexibility that our financial strength provides us. You know, we have three big areas obviously for the capital allocation, which are investments, remuneration, and working capital. We have kept our Capex program for this year, probably in the first semester, the figure and the total figure that appears, which is EUR 46 million, it shall be a bit lower than the one in the second semester. We still keep the figure of EUR 140 million for Capex in the year. This is a consistent part of our strategy and our capital allocation, as well as the distribution to shareholders. In the first semester, especially in the first quarter, we made the share buyback, and we invested EUR 115 million in that program. In July, we have already been paying, and the dividend shall appear in the next quarter cash flow, and we have devoted EUR 130 million to paying the dividend. As you know, we are also announcing a share buyback program, as Bernardo mentioned, which is taking place in the second half of the year. At the end, this means that in a total basis, we are going to allocate to redistributing to shareholders more than EUR 350 million around, depending on the final cost of the buyback program of this 4% that we have announced. This is a strong part of our capital allocation. What's relevant is that what we have is the flexibility for allocating capital to the working capital to take the whole advantage of the market momentum. In this excellent semester, the working capital has increased EUR 807 million. We have enabled to take advantage of the momentum by devoting all this cash to the working capital. It's clear that in the second semester of the year, the movement shall be reducing working capital and consequently a stronger cash generation. Even though that the cash generation is satisfactory and also is showing in this chart the relevance of the conversion differences, which in a multinational group means that a strategy of keeping a strong cash position in the States in the actual momentum is a successful strategy. At the end, it's clear that the strength that the dollar is taking is a huge factor, not only for constantly improving and contributing to the profitability of the group, but also in addition, the strong cash position we have in the States with this strong dollar in a time also in which that the interest rates are substantially improving and going up in the States, shall no doubt contribute to a better cash and balance position of the group. We are coming to an end. Conclusions are very simple. We've got exceptional second quarter results, exceptional first part of the year results, and of course, that we are proud of the results as we manage the complex geopolitical scenario. What can we expect for the second half of the year? It is difficult to say because we have a lot of uncertainties. You know, we have to remember that we are living in a conflict in Europe, and it is difficult to predict how it is going to affect our business. No, but what we can promise is that we will control the controllables, and we will focus on cost control, we'll focus on not to have any problem with the supply chain. We'll focus on taking advantage of our geographical diversification. We will try, as we normally say, to control the controllable. In this sense, with the visibility and the other books that we have today and with the strength of the American market, we can say that Q3 EBITDA will remain at a very strong level, but not comparable with the exceptional Q2. I would like to spend some time in this slide, the last slide, because I think that the new situation hasn't been understood completely by the markets. It is not probably your case because you are always suggesting that Acerinox share price is below value. I think that you probably understand this perfectly, but for many people in the market, this is still new. Now, of course, we are working very hard. We have been working very hard in the last decade. That has been the toughest decade in the history of stainless steel. We lived the 2008 crisis, the 2014 financial crisis, the COVID crisis in 2019, and at the same time that China was increasing capacity and moving in this 10 years from around 30% of the global production to 67%. This decade has been the decade of many problems and also of the globalization and also of the unfair trade practices. Now we are starting a new period. No, this is what I would like to explain to you. You know, with all these new tensions, geopolitical tensions, before COVID and before these things, we started to see this kind of a polarization in the geopolitical situation. Now, remember, Section 232, several measures in Europe and these kind of things and governments, United States and in Europe, started fighting against unfair trade practices. We started with COVID, and we suffered, first of all, lack of the necessary sanitary elements and of course, masks and these kind of things, and then semiconductors and several other things. That was before the disruptions of the supply chain that we suffered with the COVID situation. Also, we had the problem in the Suez Canal that also delayed like 10 days most of the goods coming to Europe. These factors are now moving to a more regional business. I'm not saying that the globalization is over, but we will live with a mixed model. What does it mean? With the disruptions in the supply chain, the geopolitical problems, the cost of transport, the trade defense measures and all these things, most of the purchasing managers in Europe and United States will try to diversify the suppliers and also to give a higher weight to the local or the regional suppliers. That means that will increase local purchases in Europe and in the United States. If everybody in the supply chain tends to do the same, that means that industry will come back. I mean, this is something that we have been crying all the time in the last times, you know, that we need industry in Europe and in United States. This new situation, I think, is contributing to this industry coming back to Europe. That means also not only more local purchases, but also is a higher stainless steel consumption. At the end, what can we expect for the future? That we'll have a higher consumption, will be higher production in our plants, and we will take advantage of our global position, but also that with trade measures plus transport costs, plus the need of have a regional supplier, the gap between the Asian prices or let's say the Chinese prices and the European and American prices, the gap will be higher. I'm sure that will be higher or I guess that it will be higher. I think in the future, we can expect a healthier situation for the European and American industry, of course, for the steel and the stainless steel industry. At the end, will be reflected in better results that for sure are not reflected in the share price today. With this reflection, I finish the presentation and we can give the floor to Carlos. Thank you, Bernardo and Miguel for the presentation. Let's start now the Q&A session. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question today, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your headset is fully plugged in and unmuted locally. That's star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. The first question today comes from Krishan Agarwal from Citibank. Krishan, please go ahead. Your line is open. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes, sure. Perfectly. Thanks, Bernardo. Thanks, Miguel. My question is for Bernardo. I mean, EUR 523 million is a record number, and I'm assuming there is a bit of a support from inventory valuation here. America, as you are saying, is very, very strong, both in terms of the market and the pricing. Then I'm assuming that the weakness is coming from the euro. Your Q3 guidance appears strong, but then, what sort of indication you can give us that this inventory valuation will reverse in the Q3, but then the underlying EBITDA will stay strong in Q3 and Q4? Thank you very much, Krishan. It's difficult for me to give you these numbers because first of all, because we never give a forecast for the future, we give just some indications. I think it would be very, very easy for you to calculate the stock effect. Now just look at the nickel prices, the evolution of nickel prices, and you can make an estimation of how much was for the Acerinox Group. What is true is that still we can see a very strong American market. We are number one in North America, and even increasing our relative position there in the market. We are the preferred supplier in the American market, and we will also take advantage of this. I think this Q3 is going to be strong, but it's strong for what we historically consider strong, not, as we said, not comparable with Q2. Understood. My second question is on the, you know, capital allocation. You have, you know, announced another set of a buyback. If I were to look at my forecast or the consensus forecast, you probably can exit the year with a net cash position. Any kind of medium-term thoughts how you would approach the capital allocation with a strong balance sheet in the, say, next 12 months? Well, as you know, as we have explained, the capital allocation in the first semester, the main usage has been for the working capital. In any case, we understand now that according to the cash flow that we expect for the second semester, we feel very comfortable with the decision of making the buyback, which is a decision that absolutely makes sense. We understand that, as I said before, in the second semester, shareholders shall take a relevant part of the capital allocation with a dividend in July plus the buyback program. Up to now, in this part of the year, keeping in mind that what we are doing is keeping track of the Capex previously announced. With it, we feel comfortable. In the coming quarters, we shall see in view of the circumstances. When you mentioned that we were going to be in a cash position, we don't think that we shall finish the year free of debt. This is something that may occur in the coming years, but probably not at this time. Because even though part of the net working capital shall be, or the cash allocated to net working capital shall be in the second half of the year, shall be liberated, but at the end, not enough for keeping the whole raise of EUR 800 million we are contemplating. We are going to have a strong reduction in working capital in the second semester, but keeping in mind that we are keeping a high output in most of the plants, and the effect is going to be coming mostly by the decline in the raw material prices and the effect that they may have in the valuation of the inventories, but not necessarily as a huge reduction of tons. The reduction on tons that we can expect shall be coming mostly for some additional stock or inventories we have done for preparing some of the maintenance shutdowns scheduled for the fourth quarter. Consequently, because of that, some of the inventories for keeping and feeding the rest of the lines in the plants active move to this partial increase on inventories, but this has not been so huge and should be more or less normalized in the second half of the year. The rest is coming from a period in which at the end we are seeing the nickel prices going down. Consequently, the extra alloys should be going down. This is what shall be correcting the working capital allocation and necessary. Not a huge reversion in the second semester of the EUR 800 million that we have invested in the first one. It shall take more time. It shall be a partial reduction of that. Understood. Okay. Okay, thanks a lot. The next question is from Ioannis Masvoulas from Morgan Stanley. Yannis, please go ahead. Good morning, gentlemen. Thanks for the presentation. Just going back to the guidance as my first question, you're guiding to a step-down of 50% in EBITDA quarter-over-quarter. That, I'd like to better understand the moving parts here, if possible. One element is the valuation gains, fine, but what about volumes? I mean, Q2 was fairly weak. What sort of delta should we expect for Q3 at the group level? Also in terms of pricing, the U.S. seems to be holding up, but Europe is weaker. Would you say that U.S. pricing will be stable, and then all the impact will be in Europe? Thank you. Thank you for your question. In terms of volumes, we have been suffering different incidents in our plants, starting with strikes in Spain, not in our plant, but in the supplier side. We have been suffering some breakdowns in our melting shops. That is the only meaning of this reduction in production because the market was there. The demand was strong and our order book was very strong. What can we expect for the second half of the year? A recovery in production, going back to at least the last year's levels. This is what we have in our plans. Regarding prices, it is true that in Europe, we have reduced our prices based on what is normal in our market, following the trend of the alloy surcharges, anticipating the trend of the alloy surcharges. Now in nickel, it remains stable at the level of EUR 21,000-EUR 22,000, then we expect, you know, a more stable alloy surcharges, more stable prices and will remain not as high as they were in the first half of the year, but still in a very healthy level. In the United States, the situation is different because the market is still very strong. You know that we always say that this is a more stable market, a more structured market, and the situation is still very good there. We are keeping the same level of prices, and we are keeping a strong order book, and still real consumption is performing very well. That's clear. Thanks very much. The second question on energy, you talk about energy costs that are up two and a half times year-over-year. Could you perhaps quantify the headwind in absolute terms? Are you seeing any benefit from the gas price cap recently introduced in Spain? Yes, normally, I don't like to speak about this, the effect of the energy price, but I must do it in order to alarm the Spanish government of the situation. My position of chairman of UNESID, you know, we have to say this. The energy cost of the gap between what was considered a normal cost and the final cost this year can be more or less at the level of more than EUR 100 million per year. It is important. It is really important. The new measures that have been taken by our government, what is called the Iberian Solution, is still not working. You know, I think, you know, they tried to do it. I think they tried to help the industry, but the final result is that, as we have to compensate the excess of cost of gas to the gas power station, at the end, you know, the money is more or less the same. Finally, we are paying more or less the same energy price. We hope that with the situation in the second half of the year, if it is only based on real consumption, probably prices will go down. If it is related with the lack of gas in Central Europe, especially, prices will go up. Is it what the question? That's clear. Thank you very much. The next question comes from Tristan Gresser from BNP Paribas Exane. Tristan, please go ahead. Yes. Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. The first one, on the European market, we've seen challenging market conditions for H2 with base price falling and energy costs rising. Do you think you'll be able to defend the 10% margin target you have in coming quarters in Europe? If not, do you believe you would be able to defend that level maybe at the group level, notably if energy costs stabilize at those very high level? Thank you, Tristan. Well, basically, when we think mostly in Acerinox Europa, the energy prices is the one that should be probably affecting our margin. Then the main difficulty for keeping the two-digit EBITDA is specifically because of the energy cost. If it's kept at this prices, there is a lot of uncertainty of where is going to be the energy price in the coming future. In any case, in the first half of the year with a strong increase in prices in the European market, this fact has been neutralized because the increase in prices was substantially higher. As much as now there is a correction in the level of prices, I mean, the base price in Europe, once that the stocks have been normalized in the market, we also see that the imports have taken its toll. So we understand there is going to be a bit more pressure on the base prices in Europe, and consequently, in this scenario, the crazy energy prices that we are suffering in Spain has more relevance. So this shall be the distortion, in fact, for us in Europe but not reaching maybe the two-digit for the second half of the year. Let's see, depending on where we reach, what should be the average for the year. This is going probably to be the big change. In these circumstances, with a much more lower level of business price that we have been facing in the first semester, this extra cost is more easily appreciated and spoiling the margins. All right. Understood. My second question for the U.S. market, we've seen some appliance makers cutting their guidance quite sharply for North America. Could you remind us your end market exposure in the U.S.? Also, you mentioned you remain optimistic in the region, but have you seen some slowdown there in real demand as order intake slowed or product mix changing? Any color there would be appreciated. Thank you. No, Tristan, as far as we can with the visibility that we have, the American market is still remaining very, very strong. We haven't seen any decline in our order book coming from the end user side. Of course, you know, with the trend of nickel price and the trend of the alloy surcharge, you know that the distributors normally try to readapt their stocks to the new situation, and I think some probably will have a slowdown in the distributor side in this month and the summertime, the summer period. So far, we haven't seen any sign of weakness in the real demand in the user business. Appliance is very strong. Auto is coming back. It's improving now with the higher number of chips available. Food industry and catering is performing really well. Trucks, like trucks and everything, until now, there's nothing that we can. No signs of slowdown in United States. All right. Thank you. The next question comes from Bastian Synagowitz from Deutsche Bank. Bastian, please go ahead. Yeah. Thanks, and thanks for taking my questions. My first one is on your guidance, and can I please come back to Yannis' question on shipment volumes, please? In the context of the weaker seasonality and then destocking and then also the maintenance breaks which you brought up, I guess we may see some volatility here. So could you please provide even a bit more quantitative color on the volume trend which you assumed in your third quarter guidance, i.e., may we see volumes dropping double-digit in the third quarter, or will the decline be less than that? Any color around that would be great. Maybe also differentiate a little bit how you see your different regional businesses performing. Seems like you're more positive on G S, but I was wondering whether that's also reflected in your volume implied guidance. Thank you, Bastian. In general, in sales, more or less, there is not going to be a huge correction. At the end, more or less, what we shall experience is some correction in the melting shop due to the maintenance shutdowns that were scheduled to take place in the second semester. This is partially affecting more the production. At the end, in terms of sales, we more or less our order book now for the third quarter is showing very similar figures to that of the second quarter. It's not going to be a huge correction on the sales. We are seeing that the American market performs strong. In Europe also, the order book is fine. No doubt that with a downward trend of the nickel and consequently the extra alloys, there are pressure on the prices, but not in the order book. Not in the tonnage to be sold. Okay. This look- Basically, third quarter really stable. That's quite amazing in an environment where you see, at least in Europe, some seasonality in destocking. Wouldn't you agree to that or? In terms of sales, yes. Maybe we are reducing our sales in Malaysia, for example, because the market there is tougher. You know probably our strategy to focus on high margins and profitability in that plan. No, but in general, it's. Let's see what happen. You know that in our market sometimes we have surprises after summer. You know, because normally when the trend change at this part of the year, many years it is remain in the situation of wait and see, and see what happen. Probably in mid-September, we'll have the real feeling of the situation. So far, I can tell you that we haven't seen any weakness in our order book. You know, it's even in the United States. No, it is not only that the real economy is strong, it's also that the lack of employees, you know, is delaying some of the deliveries of many sectors. That means that they have extended the order book of applications for many industries. That will also give us more stability. We see a strong American market and probably a more uncertain situation in Europe. Perfect. Thanks. Thanks, Bernardo. Just one quick follow-up. Is there a way you could briefly tell us broadly how much maintenance charges you're taking in the third quarter? Will this be like a EUR 20 million-EUR 30 million cost item, which you will face in the third quarter? Is that a good assumption? Bastian, thank you. Normally, you know, this kind of program maintenance, you know, are prepared since with more than one year time. Normally we spread the cost of this maintenance through the years. It will not affect the results of the coming months. Got you. Okay, great. My last question is just coming back to, I guess, the point you were making to, just the structural nature of your business, i.e., that the market environment has changed, in principle, in your favor. Obviously, we're seeing some near-term volatility, but, I guess you also highlighted that the regionalization obviously is generally in your favor. I was wondering, is there a range for mid-cycle EBITDA which you have in mind for Acerinox as a whole company in this environment? Probably also having in mind that you obviously bolted on VDM as an additional business versus the past. Is there like a mid-cycle EBITDA range you've got in mind? Bastian, if the question is if we have a range of the EBITDA, the answer is yes. Sorry, I cannot tell it to you. Okay, fair enough. Thanks. Thanks, Bernardo. Sorry. The next question comes from Moses Ola from J.P. Morgan. Moses, please go ahead. Hi. Morning. Thank you very much for the presentation, for taking my question. Just have a couple questions. The first one's on the timing of the share buyback announcement. It's atypical for you to announce in Q2 versus typically in December. How should the market basically frame this off-cycle announcement? Should we still expect further room for additional returns with December results? Then secondly, I just wanted to understand the energy impact quarter- on- quarter. Going to Q3, what should we be thinking about maybe relative levels to Q2? If you have also any exposures to natural gas, maybe on your customers, if there's any production risk as well there on natural gas. Okay. Thank you, Moses. I answer the point on the buyback. Normally, as you mentioned, the decisions to be taken regarding distribution are in the month of December, historically, in the case of Acerinox. What now has been broadly put on the table for the board to take that decision, on one side is obviously the excellent evolution and the profitability demonstrated in the first semester, and also the good fundamentals for the full cash generation figures, not only in the semester, but also for the year. In view of these circumstances, and having clearly more or less the Capex designed for the whole year, it appeared that that was the proper time to proceed with the buyback, keeping also in mind the level of the share price that, as we have mentioned, we also consider it is not reflecting the value. At the end, in terms of investing the capital that we generate, we think a proper investment or there is no better investment at this time than going ahead and buying our own shares. In this basis, our commitment established some time ago was to make a buyback program, a global program of 10% for neutralizing the shares that were issued during the four consecutive years of a scrip dividend, where there were more financing tensions in Europe. At the end, up to now, we had a 6%, and what has been decided was that the pending 4%, the best time should be now. At the end, it's a decision, as we are saying, of the capital allocation, the expected reduction in working capital that we are comfortable contributing it for the second semester, as well as that with the Capex program, we are also in good shape, and consequently, we prefer just to start that movement. From now on, at the end, we allocate the order for proceeding to a bank, so we are not active doing that. It's another entity, the one that should more or less accommodate in this period and shall be more or less spread during the coming months. We understand that in the month of August shall be fully finished for the year-end. This shall be reported for the shareholder meeting next year in order for the decision of amortizing the shares. Moses, regarding the energy prices, first of all, I must say that this is a European problem. You know? Of course, natural gas is increasing around the world, but it's not comparable. The situation is not comparable. Of the world. We have a stable electricity price in United States and increase in natural gas that is not comparable with the one in Europe. Now we have a stable gas and electricity in South Africa and in Malaysia. We see a European problem. What's gonna be the situation in second half is difficult to predict, you know. Everybody's speaking about this, you know. Everybody's now looking in the newspapers if there's more gas coming from Russia or not, and what can happen. The reality is that in Spain we are not affected by the Russian gas. We are affected by the price of gas. Probably the price, if the situation gets worse, the gas price in all Europe will go up. We will have gas, you know. Spain has like 30% of the regasification capacity in Europe. That is a problem probably for the northern European producers. Something that we have to say to our customers, that they have to diversify and buy more from Europe, but also buy from the South. Because in Spain, we don't think that we will face the lack of gas. We'll have expensive gas, but we will have gas all the way, we think. Thank you. We have a follow-up from Ioannis Masvoulas from Morgan Stanley. Yannis, please go ahead. Yes, thanks very much. Bernardo, one question I had on your prepared remarks around the regionalization of the stainless steel markets and how that could benefit your business in Europe and the U.S. I guess in the U.S., you know, I can totally see the logic there. The struggle I have is in Europe, because if we end up in a situation where energy costs remain high for longer, and there is a more structural element to what we're seeing today, how do you think the stainless steel industry can respond? What do you think needs to be done, I guess, at the policy front to make sure that the domestic capacity remains viable? Thank you. You're right. It is very clear in United States, and I have recently read some reports in Bloomberg and in Financial Times about this situation that is very clear and it's very visible that this industry is coming back. Remember that they started before. Because before COVID, with the Trump announced Section 232, and since he was putting a lot of pressure to the big American companies to bring industry back to United States. They started before. Doesn't mean that Europe is not seeing or not facing the same situation. I think probably energy cost will influence these decisions, but finally this will be in the margins of the producers. For a purchasing manager, you know, the most desirable situation is to diversify between suppliers geographically, not only from different suppliers, but also from different regions. They will have to have a big portion of the supply much closer. Now we have seen the lack of electronic components, lack of chips, the chips that has, you know, affected so strongly to the automotive industry in Europe, but we also have seen a lack of cables for cars that from Ukraine that is also affecting the automotive industry. I think that we are all, not only our customer, we are doing the same. We are all diversifying and trying to bring some industry closer to our facilities. Now, I read an article also from one of the automotive components organization in Spain that they declared that they wanted to have more than 40% of the purchases in less than 1,000 kilometers. No? So this is interesting. Of course, you know, cost of energy probably and the less clear situation of the EU regarding trade defense and the CBAMs and all these things now will be a little bit more, we'll have more doubts. But I have no doubts that at the end that will happen. No? That's because this is a natural feeling. I think that's something that doesn't need the support of the governments. It is just the purchasing managers or companies affected by disruptions in the supply chain that they will see that they need to have closer suppliers. No? Imagine, now we are suffering supply problems from Russia and from Ukraine, but people can think in United States or even in Europe that we can have the same problem, you know, in China, we can have. Also, it is the new geopolitical situation, I think that teaches us that, you know, it's just common sense that we need to have closer suppliers. That will happen in Europe as well. Great. That's very helpful. Thank you very much, Bernardo. Maybe one last question from me on the high performance alloys division, which was exceptionally strong in Q2, and we saw EBITDA margins going from 8% in Q1 to 14%. How should we think about the second half, given the order backlog and given the cost pressures? Do you think you can sustain anything close to the Q2 margin levels, or should we be thinking something closer to the 10% sort of range? Well, as we said before, the order book is full. The prices also are having a very positive trend in the high performance alloys. What we must keep in mind is that for this division, the relevance of the nickel in the alloys and the relevance of the nickel revaluation has had a contribution for the second quarter. We do not consider that this 14% is the standard level of contribution, but has been in this case, but obviously supported by this revaluation. We, as you know, our target is a two-digit EBITDA. We always have considered the high performance alloys a much more stable sector than the stainless, and this was the virtue for us moving forward, the high performance alloys. Consequently, we keep that very comfortable with the two digits, but this 14% has been also supported by the nickel movements in this second quarter. We don't think that this is the new standard. That, that's very clear. Yeah, thanks very much. Thank you both. As we have no further questions, I'll hand back to the management team for any closing remarks. Thank you very much for participating in this session. We also have to thank you for your continuous support. As I said at the beginning, Carlos and Maria will always be available for your questions. I hope you know that the support that you are demonstrating, always recommending buying Acerinox and increasing the share price, will be reflected finally in the share price and we will be understood by the investors. Thank you very much. This concludes today's call. Thank you very much for your attendance. You may now disconnect your lines.