Atlas Copco AB (OTC:ATLKY) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Mattias Holmberg: Mattias Holmberg, DNB, here. I was curious to hear a bit more on the comment that you’ve seen activity levels in several end markets weakened in the quarter. If you can make any comments on the cadence, perhaps if the run rate was improving or worsening through the quarter? And also, if there were any specific end markets in addition to what you said here that could be interesting to mention?

Mats Rahmström: I mean if you look at the different businesses of ours, of course Q4, from an orders received perspective, we expect it to be sequentially down every time. But the main difference in demand is, of course, in the memory sector’s on semi. And the strong side is all the sustainability applications, both in Compressor Technique but also then in Industrial Technique with electric transformation. So I would say from our perspective then, we are in a strong position when it comes to changing application to more sustainable applications. We have more products than we have had in the past. So even in the slower climate, I think we challenge ourselves at least to grow in those segments. But the main downside in the report is on the semi side and specifically on the memory side.

Mattias Holmberg: Nothing on if the run rate was worsening or improving through the quarter?

Mats Rahmström: Well, I think China, I think, is the only one. I don’t know exactly. We have the numbers on Asia in front of us but — of course, we had at its worst, we had 48% of our people and I think that relates to our customers and to our suppliers as well. So I assume that there was very little activity. And we can see in some of our factories that we had very little output during December as well. And I think that we need to give China and Asia really look at that in the beginning of the year because we are normally down in China and it seems like they have new funding coming into the new year. So for us, Q1 in Asia will be extremely important for our performance in 2023.

Operator: The next question comes from Max Yates from Morgan Stanley.

Max Yates: I just wanted to ask about the compressor division and the regional trends and specifically on Industrial because I was slightly surprised to see that kind of orders have grown in Asia and Africa but had decreased in all of the other regions. I would have thought because of the disruption in China that Asia would have been a bit weaker. So could you maybe talk about in your sort of shorter-cycle businesses when you look at what is happening in Europe, what is happening in North America? Are there anywhere kind of in your sort of small and midsized compressors where you are seeing weaker activity? And how would you sort of characterize how that has evolved? Because it looks like from the outside that volume growth is now negative and particularly in places like Europe that is now declining in your short-cycle businesses. So could you talk a little bit about how that’s evolved for industrial compressors specifically?

Peter Kinnart: I think for industrial compressors, especially the smaller ones, we have indicated that we have seen a single-digit decline. And I think that’s particularly in Europe, something we have seen. And it’s often, of course, related to the fact that this business is also going through indirect sales channels, distribution channels which normally have built up a certain amount of stock and the moment that they see some kind of hesitation in decision-making processes of their customers, they will typically be very hesitant to place new orders. And as a result of that, of course, that will have an impact on — for those type of machines. Also typically, even with direct customers, you would have quite short decision cycles and, of course, an owner that is feeling the impact of maybe lower confidence level in the economy.