Umicore Sa Ord New (UMICF) Q2 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Hello and welcome to the Umico half-year 2024 results call. My name is Caroline and I'll be your coordinator for today's event. Today's call has been recorded. For the duration, your lines will be on listen only mode. However, you will have an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you require assistance at any point, please press star 0 and you'll be connected to an operator. I will now hand over to your host Bart Sabs, the CEO, to begin today's conference. Please go ahead, sir. Thank you. Yes, thank you. So good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Umicore H1 results update. Today, I think we have a pretty packed and interesting agenda for you. We'll first start off with the strategic review on the batching materials where we stand. Let's then have a look at the key figures and the highlights of the first half 2024. Then we'll go over the business review for the different business groups. One of us will talk to you about the financials. I'll be coming back with the outlook for 2024. Then we'll do a wrap up and then it's open for Q and A. So let me start off by the strategic review for battery materials. Now there's a new market reality out there and we have to adjust to it. The market context is challenging and we have seen a slowdown in the growth of EV sales in the short and mid-term. The OEMs are revising the speed, but also the regional setup of their electrification plants, and this results in a more limited visibility in the short and mid-term. Now, of course, we cannot stand still, and we're taking, therefore, immediate actions, and we have been taking those actions already. Now, we launched already the strategic review to assess our growth projections beyond 2024 for the battery...