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

We’ll be feeling that very quickly in his own pocket and therefore, will be also quite quickly to decide against a new investment rather soon. Whereas on the large project, of course, we see typically longer discussions, also multiple departments involved more technical evaluations. And then those decisions have usually already been taken and continued to be executed even at a significantly later stage. I would say Europe was the main area where it was softer. North America, a little bit less and then Asia still.

Mats Rahmström: These smaller compressor could also be influenced if we have announced price increases to distributors that actually place orders a little bit early before those to stock up a little.

Max Yates: Do you have any sense of inventories across your distributors? Are you able to check with them kind of what inventory levels they’re running with? And do you get the sense that those are elevated and that might be part of it as well? Or is that not really the case?

Peter Kinnart: No, we don’t really have information on that with our distributors. But it is generally a fact that, of course, as business is growing they tend to build up stock. They want to be able to deliver fast to their customers. That’s usually 1 of their main sales arguments as well that they have it available and they can simply deliver it immediately. And so typically, they will have a significant stock amount when the business is really booming. And then, of course, when things start to turn in the other did they will, of course, be hesitant to order. And what typically happens is that the customer would order from the distributor, the distributor would deliver but would then not be inclined to replenish that stock right away. And so he will wait for the next order for that type of machine to come before he will order to us, let’s say, in this case.

Mats Rahmström: When we say that we don’t know, we mean that we don’t consolidate it on our level, of course, the local customer center and the sales teams are well aware of what they have in inventory.

Operator: The next question comes from Sebastian Kuenne from RBC.

Sebastian Kuenne: Sorry for drilling again into the cost issues. What surprised me a little bit was the fact that you seem to those cost rises for suppliers for electronics only now, where many other companies saw it already in April, May 2020, so more than 2 years ago. What has changed now in Q4 that it makes it so different? Why do you have to buy spot market now? And why was that not the case in the past? Maybe you can shed some light on that issue?

Mats Rahmström: I think that is probably a miscommunication from our side or a misunderstanding on your side. I think we had talked about the spot market buying several quarters and it’s been a factor for us to make sure that we can supply to our customers. We have the choice between not supplying or buying to extremely high prices of electronics and it’s been ongoing for quite a number of quarters. I think it’s been in our report as well.

Peter Kinnart: And also, if you compare the bridge for the Q3 with the bridge for the Q4, then you will see that the cost impact in relative terms at all that different from what it was the previous quarter. The big difference between the 2 quarters is actually more related on the currency side. With that being said, I don’t want to indicate that we are hiding behind currency to not talk about some issues that we need to tackle. But I think this is quite similar from my perspective as it has been in last quarter and previous quarters, I think — so I think that is nothing new really that we see this quarter. But it seems to be quite persistent and continues to affect our profitability also this quarter.