Kennametal Inc.

Good morning. I would like to welcome everyone to Kenna Mental's first quarter and fiscal 2025 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, Simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star, then the number two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Michael Pisi, Vice President of Investor Relations.

Thank you, Operator. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us to review Canada Metals' first quarter fiscal 2025 results. This morning, we issued our earnings press release and posted our presentation slides on our website. We will be referring to that slide deck throughout today's call. I'm Michael Pisi, Vice President of Investor Relations. Joining me on the call today are Sanjay Chaubey, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Pat Watson, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. After Sanjay and Pat's prepared remarks, we will open the line for questions. At this time, I would like to direct your attention to our forward-looking disclosure statement. Today's discussion contains comments that constitute forward-looking statements and, as such, involve a number of assumptions, risks, and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such statements. These risk factors and uncertainties are detailed in Kenna Metal's SEC filings. In addition, we will be discussing non-GAAP financial measures on the call today. reconciliations to gap financial measures that we believe are most directly comparable can be found at the back of the slide deck and on our form 8K on our website. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Sanjay.

Thank you, Mike. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I'll start the call today with some end market commentary, followed by a review of the quarter and examples of the industry-leading innovative solutions we are bringing to market. Then Pat will cover the quarterly financial results as well as the fiscal 25 outlook. Finally, I'll make some summary comments and then open the call for questions. Let me start on slide three by saying that from an industry and microeconomic perspective, fiscal 25 has started out pretty uneven, similar to what we saw at the end of fiscal 24. During our fiscal first quarter, market conditions worse and further in EMEA, and that is impacting several of our end markets. In addition, industrial production in the U.S. has continued to be soft. We also saw two major labor disputes, one in the shipping industry, which was resolved quickly, and the second one impacting aircraft production, which was resolved recently. Despite these broader industry and market challenges, we remain focused on things that we can control. We continue to make progress on initiatives to drive above-market growth, including innovative product launches and demonstrating our products and solutions at several key industry events. I will elaborate more on these in a moment. In addition, we remain focused on primary working capital, as shown by the strong free cash flow that will deliver this quarter. Now let's turn to the results. For the quarter, sales decreased 2% year over year. At the segment level, infrastructure increased 1% organically, while metal cutting was down 4%. On a constant currency basis, Asia-Pacific sales increased 2%. However, EMEA declined 1%, and the Americas declined 2%. Moving to our end markets, aerospace and defense grew 13%, energy grew 2 percent. Our other markets experienced declines. Transportation was down 2 percent, general engineering declined 3 percent, and earthworks declined 6 percent. I want to reflect for a moment on our results versus the expectations we outlined last quarter. Our results were at the lower end of our expectations. This was mostly due to challenging market conditions in general engineering and transportation in the EMEA and Americas regions within metal cutting. Now turning to profitability for the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 14.3% compared to 16.6% in the prior year. Adjusted EPS decreased to 29 cents compared to 41 cents in the prior year quarter. Cash from operating activities year-to-date was $46 million compared to $26 million in the prior year period. Free operating cash flow year-to-date was $21 million, up significantly from negative $3 million in the prior year. And we continued our share repurchase program with $15 million worth of shares bought back during the quarter. Reflected in our EPS and as noted last call, was a portion of the investment in third-party expertise to execute some of the initiatives related to our $100 million cost improvement plan. The EPS results also include our participation in trade shows that take place every other year, including IMTS in the U.S. and AMB in Germany. We are encouraged by the level of interest during those shows. Our booths were very active. and we have a strong lead generation from both events. Finally, we remain focused on generating strong cash flow and implementing operational initiatives to improve our overall performance. Now, turning to slide four, I want to provide an update on the growth benchmarking that we introduced last year at Investor Day. As you may recall, we provided a comparison of our metal-cutting growth relative to publicly traded peers and data provided by industry trade groups in certain countries. First on the left, once again, this quarter, metal cutting performance, while negative on a constant currency basis, matched the publicly traded peer set. Over the last couple of years, as you can see here, we have been demonstrating our ability to compete and win. On the right, you can see that we have performed relatively well in these key countries. In the U.S., we delivered 3 percent growth, very modestly below the overall market. This is mostly driven by the timing of special projects in aerospace and defense and transportation. In the countries listed, we continue to outpace or match market growth. For example, in Germany, while the broader market there declined significantly, we achieved flat growth. Our performance was due in large part to our growth initiatives. Also of note, the broader peer group may have been impacted by lower export sales. Finally, let me say that our innovative solutions, best-in-class customer service, application engineering support, and commercial excellence continue to position us for above-market growth. Now, speaking of our innovative solutions, on slides five and six, I would like to highlight examples of how innovation as a competitive advantage continues to deliver enhanced product offerings to our customers. First on slide five is our new PrimePoint long wall mining pick from our infrastructure portfolio. Notably, this pick is equipped with a polycrystalline diamond tip which enables operators to run longer. This innovative mining solution also provides reliability in the harshest and most abrasive conditions and is ideal for coal, salt, and other soft mineral applications. This is one of three mining products launched this quarter. It is a great example of unique solutions that support customers who are operating in challenging environments. On slide six, we have our top Swiss micromachining solution from our metal cutting portfolio. These high-precision turning tools focus on serving the micromachining needs of customers in the medical, aerospace, and transportation markets. And this product suite has ultra-sharp cutting edges for longer tool life and superior surface finishes for use in titanium and stainless steel applications. This launch is a great example of the progress we have made executing the strategy we discussed during Investor Day last year. We identified these applications, specifically medical and aerospace, to help us fuel above-market growth. Now let me turn the call over to Pat, who will review the first quarter financial performance and the outlook.

Thank you, Sanjay, and good morning, everyone. I will begin on slide seven with a review of Q1 operating results. The quarter's results show that we continue to execute our initiatives in the face of challenging market conditions. Sales were down 2 percent year over year, with an organic decline of 2 percent, an unfavorable currency exchange of 1 percent, partially offset by favorable work days of 1 percent. Sales this quarter were at the lower end of the expectations we provided last quarter. Relative to those expectations, we experienced slower market conditions, most notably in the Americas and EMEA, in our general engineering, transportation, and earthworks end markets. Energy was a bit stronger than we had anticipated due to project volume. Year over year, we experienced market headwinds in most end markets and regions, with the exceptions of aerospace and defense in energy end markets and the Asia Pacific region. I will provide more color when reviewing the segment performance in a moment. Adjusted EBITDA and operating margins were 14.3 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively, versus 16.6 and 9.9 percent in the prior year quarter. During the quarter, we realized approximately $5 million in savings from the previously announced restructuring program. This action has successfully delivered annualized run rate pre-tax savings of approximately $35 million. Lastly, foreign exchange headwinds from the strong U.S. dollar were approximately 1% this quarter. The adjusted effective tax rate increased year-over-year to 25.1%, primarily driven by discrete items recognized in the prior year quarter in unfavorable geographical mix, partially offset by a benefit of $1 million from the favorable resolution of a tax dispute in India. Adjusted earnings per share were 29 cents in the quarter versus EPS of 41 cents in the prior year period. The main drivers of our EPS performance are highlighted on the bridge on slide eight. The year-over-year effect of operations this quarter was negative, reflecting lower sales and production volumes, higher wage and general inflation, and the impact of temporary plant shutdowns. These shutdowns were for routine maintenance and process improvements within the infrastructure segment and were partially offset by favorable timing of raw material costs and incremental restructuring benefits. We also received a net benefit of 4 cents from insurance proceeds related to the tornado that damaged our Rogers facility in the fourth quarter of FY24. You can also see the effects of the tax rate and pension on EPS, with taxes and pension costs of negative 2 cents. Other reflects lower share count, which contributed 1 cent. Slides 9 and 10 detail the performance of our segments this quarter, starting with metal cutting. Reported metal cutting sales were down 4% compared to the prior year quarter, with a 4% organic sales decline and an unfavorable foreign currency effect of 2%, partially offset by favorable workdays of 2%. By region, on a constant currency basis, Asia Pacific grew 3%, the Americas declined 1%, and EMEA declined 6%. Asia Pacific's growth was primarily driven by the transportation end market and reflects modest improvement in China and continued strength in India. America's year-over-year decline this quarter was due to slower conditions in the transportation and general engineering end markets, partially offset by the execution of our growth initiatives in aerospace and defense. EMEA's year-over-year performance reflects weakness in general engineering and transportation end markets, most notably in Germany. Looking at sales by end market, aerospace and defense grew 5% year over year as our strategic initiatives continued to drive results. These initiatives were partially offset by OEM production challenges. Energy was flat, with strength in EMEA from project work offset by the Asia-Pacific region as we continued to experience a slower market and project delays. Transportation declined 2% year over year, due to EV and hybrid project wins in the prior year and an overall slowdown in EMEA and the Americas, partially offset by Asia Pacific project orders. And lastly, general engineering declined 4% year-over-year, with modest growth in Asia Pacific, offset by lower production activity in EMEA and order timing in the Americas. Metal cutting adjusted operating margin of 8.2% decreased 300 basis points year-over-year due to lower sales and production volumes, higher wages, and general inflation in foreign exchange of $2 million, partially offset by lower raw material costs, restructuring savings of $4 million, and price. Turn to slide 10 for infrastructure. Reported infrastructure sales were flat year over year with organic sales growth of 1% offset by unfavorable business days of 1%. Regionally, on a constant currency basis, EMEA sales increased by 12%, Asia Pacific increased 1%, and America's sales declined by 3%. EMEA growth was primarily driven by order timing in aerospace and defense and general engineering. Growth in Asia Pacific reflects strength in general engineering, partially offset by slower demand in China, which impacted earthworks. The Americas decline was due to lower mining activity in earthworks and project order timing in general engineering, partially offset by defense growth. Looking at sales by end market on a constant currency basis, aerospace and defense increased 42% from our continued focus on growth initiatives in EMEA and the Americas. Energy increased 2%, mainly in the Americas, driven by project timing. partially offset by lower U.S. land-based rig count. Agile engineering was flat due to temporary plant shutdowns in the Americas, offset by order timing in EMEA and Asia. And lastly, earthworks declined 6% due to customer mine consolidation and lower mining activity in the Americas and the Asia Pacific in prior year orders. Adjusted operating margin declined 110 basis points year-over-year to 6.9% primarily due to the following factors. The previously mentioned plant shutdowns from maintenance and process improvements, higher wages, and general inflation. These factors are partially offset by net insurance proceeds of $4 million, favorable price raw material timing, restructuring savings, and higher sales volume. Now turning to slide 11 to review our free operating cash flow and balance sheet. Net cash flow from operating activities was $46 million compared to $26 million in the prior year period. The change in net cash flow from operating activities was driven primarily by working capital changes and the $5 million received from the favorable resolution of a tax dispute in India, partially offset by lower net income compared to the prior year period. Our free operating cash flow increased to $21 million from negative $3 million in the prior year. Primary working capital this quarter was down from the prior year. The company continues to focus on optimizing inventory levels and remains focused on driving improved working capital. On a dollar basis, year over year, primary working capital decreased to $624 million, and on a percentage of sales basis, primary working capital decreased to 31.8%. Net capital expenditures decreased to $25 million compared to $29 million in the prior year quarter. In total, we returned $31 million to shareholders through our share repurchase and dividend programs. We repurchased 600,000 shares for $15 million in Q1 under our new $200 million authorization. And, as we have every quarter since becoming a public company over 50 years ago, we paid a dividend to our shareholders. Our commitment to returning cash to shareholders reflects our confidence in our ability to execute our strategy to drive growth and margin improvement. We continue to maintain a healthy balance sheet and debt maturity profile with no near-term refunding requirements. The full balance sheet can be found on slide 17 in the appendix. Turning to slide 12, regarding our second quarter outlook, we expect Q2 sales to be between $480 and $500 million, with volume ranging from negative 5 to negative 1 percent, price realization of approximately 2 percent, and a neutral effect from foreign exchange. Let me share some detail on the sales assumptions impacting the Q2 outlook. Our Q2 range at the midpoint reflects growth that is generally in line with our historical norms. On a year-over-year basis, aerospace and defense growth continues, albeit moderately, as North American OEM production disrupted by the strike, will impact the second quarter. Energy is anticipated to be flat. General engineering declined slightly, but similar to Q1 levels. Transportation is expected to decline mainly due to prior year project winds and lower volumes in EMEA, and earthworks is anticipated to be flat. Non-cash pension expense is expected to have a negative impact of approximately $1 million on a pre-tax basis. Interest expense is assumed to be approximately $7 million and an effective tax rate of approximately 27.5%. Lastly, we expect adjusted EPS in the range of 20 to 30 cents. The EPS range reflects the year-over-year change in the Q2 tax rate, which at the midpoint is approximately a 13-cent headwind to EPS. Now, on slide 13, regarding our full-year outlook. We continue to expect FY25 sales to be between $2 billion and $2.1 billion, with volume ranging from negative 3 to positive 2 percent, net price realization of approximately 2 percent, and we anticipate an approximate 1 percent year-over-year headwind from foreign exchange. Our EPS outlook remains $1.30 to $1.70, and free operating cash flow remains at greater than 125 percent of adjusted net income. The other assumptions embedded in our outlook also remain unchanged. As Sanjay noted in his prepared remarks, there have been some developments over the last quarter that have placed some additional pressure on our end markets, namely the strike in aerospace and defense and macro challenges in EMEA. To get to the top end of our sales outlook would require a quick rebound in aircraft production from the just-resolved strike as well as a turnaround in EMEA. From a macro perspective in the U.S., we would need industrial production growth to resume. These types of events would give us sequential sales growth a bit above our recent seasonality. The midpoint of our outlook reflects seasonality in line with our historical averages. As such, we expect year-over-year aerospace and defense to have moderate growth, transportation to increase slightly, general engineering to be flat, and earthworks energy to decline slightly. And with that, I'll turn it back over to Sanjay.

Thank you, Pat. Turning to slide 14, let me summarize. Overall, although macro conditions remain challenging in the short term, the global megatrends that drive market growth over the long term remain intact. As always, we remain committed to driving growth and managing costs in line with market conditions. And in all cases, we will be guided by our value creation pillars of growth, continuous improvement, and portfolio optimization while strengthening our foundation so that we can deliver long-term shareholder value. And with that, operator, please open the line for questions.

If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star, then the number two. Our first question comes from Steven Fisher with UBS. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning. Wondering if you can just help us frame the margin assumptions you have for the second quarter sequentially compared to the first quarter, excluding the benefit from the insurance proceeds. I think typically seasonally they should be lower, but I'm just curious. kind of what you're embedding in there in your assumptions, and maybe you could just kind of bridge the key items for us.

Yeah, certainly. So I would say we think going Q1 to Q2, you know, more or less flattish from a margin perspective. A couple things to think about. There's certainly, you know, going from Q1 to Q2, pull out the benefits from the insurance proceeds we had in Q1. non-operating item, but obviously we've got a little bit of benefit from the resolution of that Indian tax dispute in there as well. We'll see a little bit of pickup because, as we talked about, some of those plant shutdowns, that'll go away, and some of the expense we had around some trade shows goes away as well. On the other side of that, you know, we'll see a modest tick up in compensation as compensation normally goes up for us here on October the 1st. That's generally when a lot of our employees on a global basis receive their annual salary adjustments. So those are kind of the major puts and takes, but overall, flat margins.

Okay, that's very helpful. And then, you know, the guidance does imply a nice recovery and organic growth in the second half. Can you talk about, you know, where you have the most confidence in that recovery or is perhaps the bias at this point absent any other information that we should be kind of gearing towards the lower end of the range.

Yes, Steve, Sanjay here. First of all, as we said last quarter also, that we assumed slight recovery in the second half of the calendar year 25 in the industrial production and also in the oil rig counts. And as you might have seen, the oil rig count is down right now to 565. As of right now, the Spear's outlook is that it's going to stabilize around 590, 600. And then when you start to look at the auto production, that also assumes slight improvements globally, especially like in the U.S. and China. EMEA, at this point, we continue to see some pressure on auto production and auto sales. And then you start to move into oil and gas, I mean, sorry, the earthworks, relatively stable in that. In aerospace defense at this point, our assumption includes slight improvement. We know that there were some issues, but slight improvement in that also. It depends on how much supply constraints they can resolve. But that's the way we are looking at it, slight improvement in the second half of the year. Long-term, obviously, much better outlook for aerospace and defense.

Terrific. That's very helpful. I appreciate it.

And the next question comes from Julian Mitchell with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Hey, Julian. Hi. Maybe just the first question, if you could elaborate a little bit on China and I suppose broader Asia Pacific. You know, you had decent low single-digit growth there year on year in the first quarter. But we hear very mixed things on industrial demand in China versus, say, construction, where the news is uniformly more negative. So maybe help us understand kind of what you're assuming for the balance of the year in terms of Asia-Pac or China revenue trends, please.

Julian, first of all, let me start with China. As you said, construction and mining continue to be under pressure. And beyond that, we have seen stable and slightly improving markets in other major end markets that we serve. India continues to be stable and improving, or not only improving, it has been strong, I should say. So overall, in fact, the way I will describe here, despite pressure on construction and mining, we think it's going to be stable and slightly improving.

That's helpful. Thanks very much. And then just wanted to circle back, you know, when we think about that, I suppose we'll look half on half, but you have a, you know, a fairly typical, you know, second half increase in operating margins, total company in the back half versus the first half normally. Pretty similar, I suppose, this year seems to be dialed in. So any color you could provide as we think about kind of the weighting of that margin ramp may be Third versus fourth quarter, you know, anything to bear in mind in that sense and understanding that I think second quarter margins are kind of flattish sequentially. So we know that that base and then you have kind of a couple of points of back half step up, I think.

Yeah, a couple things I'd reflect on. You know, what drives a lot of that margin performance in the second half is just the seasonal uptick in volumes. That is the primary driver of what's going on from a margin perspective. So as you think about what the normal cadence is, Q3 to Q4, you know, Q4 typically is our higher margin quarter, just, again, based on margins. The only other thing I would layer in on that is, you know, as we continue to work on operational excellence and productivity and those things, that stuff will ramp as we move throughout the year as well. And then lastly, and just in terms of lapping type of restructuring things, again, this is more of a year-over-year, but you'll see more of that restructuring benefit come in first half, and you're going to see it come in the second half again on a year-over-year basis. Great. Thank you.

And the next question comes from Steve Barger with KeyBank Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Mark, Steve.

Steve, your line might be on mute.

Sorry about that. Yeah, Pat, starting with the slide eight, that bridge, you showed the negative impact of lower production volumes Working cap as a percentage of sales looks pretty flat over the last few years, and you've had negative volume growth over the past year. Can you just talk about where you are now for inventory relative to demand? Do you need to continue to take production days out, or how are you positioning relative to the, you know, potential back half improvement that Sanjay talked about?

Yeah, I mean, overall, I'll just reflect on the general trajectory of what we're trying to do, in particular with inventory. Steve, is we're trying to take inventory out of the system. And so I would say simply over the long run that implies that production would be slightly below, you know, where demand is, right? I think you saw inventory come up from Q4. You know, I think there's a little bit of FX in there, I think about $11 million sequentially. So after you kind of pull that, I would say pretty normal seasonal adjustment in terms of inventory in Q1. Our objective here really is to get primary working capital as a percent of sales down to about 30%, as our outlook is by the end of the fiscal year. That will require us, again, as part of our long-run strategy here, to kind of constrain production in a reasonable way to get that down and get the benefit of higher sales volumes over time and on lower inventories.

Let me just add one more thing, Steve, onto that. we have been making, as part of the overall continuous improvement, a lot of basic improvements in our sales operations planning and the supply chain network, like what we move from where in the world and all that. And we've been making, you know, sustainable progress on that. And that will continue. So to Pat's point, we will very closely monitor markets, but at the same time, we expect that we'll continue to improve our overall working capital.

Understood. Thanks. And then on that same slide, is there an opportunity around the temporary shutdowns for maintenance and process improvement, meaning that you can use those shutdowns in just a generally softer environment right now to move some product lines and accelerate plant closures to lock in structural cost savings for when we do see the markets improve?

Yes, Steve. The thing that we have mentioned there about the temporary plant shutdown, these are relatively short targeted at very specific assets, preventive maintenance, and overall process improvements. That's what we have done here. These are not long enough to make major change in terms of footprint. We are working on footprint as a separate initiative, and we will come back to all of you at the appropriate time when we are ready to discuss more of that. But as we have said that we invested those actions will be a little bit more back half-loaded of our timeline horizon of that.

Just to add to that, Sanjay, I think over time, Steve, and we did this, I think, two years ago in the December quarter, I think our ability from a sales and operations planning perspective is as market conditions change and as we think about what we need to do to be responsive to the customers – you know, being able to more finely dial in where we can have production and take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves in terms of, you know, again, managing production in a thoughtful manner.

Appreciate the detail. Thanks.

And the next question comes from Angel Costello with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to talk about maybe you've Put a finer point on kind of the near-term trends. What are you seeing kind of September, October versus, you know, what you saw in the first kind of full fiscal 1Q? Just general kind of trends across the end markets, please.

Yeah, Angel, overall industrial production and oil and gas, as I mentioned earlier, these are going to stay relatively stable or flattish, you know, like as Pat talked about the Q2 outlook. Where we see continued pressure right now, which we already have built in our outlook, is transportation industry and market in Europe. And then mining construction also continues to stay soft, in our opinion, in the second quarter. But overall, like I said, globally, our view is that things will be more in the stable range.

And maybe switching over to price-cost, just can you talk about what you're seeing in terms of both tungsten and just general kind of cost inflation? And then, your kind of degree of confidence around kind of getting the 2 percent realization and just product kind of price-cost thoughts would be helpful.

Male Speaker 1 Yeah. So, just we'll start with Tungsten. So, Tungsten has been in a range of about, let's call it 305 to 325. So, it's been, you know, relatively steady here over the past couple quarters. You know, as we've talked about in the past that, you know, we generally get then visibility about two quarters out. So, I would say as we think about price-cost in particular in the infrastructure, segment you know uh we've we've got reasonable stability here i would not anticipate a significant price cost tailwind or headwind at this point in time again looking out this quarter and then the following quarter uh overall i think from an inflation perspective there remain pockets where there is some additional price being pushed on by the supply base and but i would say in general we've seen this trend of continue uh you know moderation in terms of inflation rates um pretty much across the board. And so that's kind of what we're looking at there. Sanjay, do you want to comment on anything on the pricing?

Yeah, pricing-wise, at this point, we did implement the metal cutting price in July, and we had some strategic pricing on this infrastructure side. Our goal is obviously to make sure that we are offsetting inflation on that. And, Angela, I would like to also go back in your broader question on the market. I didn't talk about aerospace and defense. I want to just give you a little bit more color on it. In the near term, which is Q2 for us, we don't expect major change. Even though the labor dispute has been resolved, we think some of those improvements will come in the calendar year 25.

Very helpful. Thank you.

And the next question comes from Tammy Zachariah with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Thank you so much. Hi, so my first question is historically, how does Fed rate cuts impact you? Do you see a pickup in demand maybe at a one or two quarters lag? What are you hearing from customers now that finally rates have started to come down? Is there a sense of optimism amongst customers? So any thoughts on how you're thinking about this rate cut environment transitioning hopefully to a lower rate scenario?

Yeah, I think overall lower rates will be constructive. I think, you know, as always the case with monetary policy, that lag period is variable, right? And so, you know, I would think if you look back historically, it's probably several quarters before that really starts turning around. Obviously, the Fed's, you know, we're not going to take action here in the near term on that. You know, I think from an overall customer perspective, you know, there's a customer belief that's out there as well that rate cuts are constructive to the long-term market. you know, growth potential. You know, that being said, if we balance that against, you know, current period indicators like PMI here in the U.S., you really haven't seen that turn from a customer sentiment yet.

Got it. That's helpful. And my other question is, just to clarify, can you tell us how to model any business days impact for the next for the remainder of the year for the next three quarters?

Yeah, in Q2, there's basically about a half a day, half a day up year over year. I think Q3 is about a half a day in the other direction, down and about, I think it's about a half a day again in Q4. It should be down. So it's kind of be a wash for the most part.

Got it. Thank you.

And the next question comes from Chris Dankert with Loop Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Hey, morning. Thanks for taking the questions. Good morning. First off, just a quick housekeeping item, and apologies if I missed it, but did you delineate what the realized restructuring savings were in the quarter?

Yeah, it's $5 million discreetly in the quarter year over year. Since inception of the program, it's, you know, run rates $35 million on an annual basis. So if you think about it in the quarter from baseline, it's, you know, 35 to about over four.

Okay, perfect. Perfect. Thanks for that. And I guess just to drill down a little bit more on the margin at metal cutting, I guess it's a pretty hefty, decremental, it seems like it's 2x typical. I think typically you call it 40% decremental on volumes despite some of the cost actions. Maybe can you just help us understand, is it mixed? Kind of what else is going on under the hood there in terms of margins for metal cutting here?

Yeah, well, first off, when we think about margin decrementals for metal cutting, we talk about average being in the mid-40s there, and I've always said metal cutting is north of that. And so metal cutting will tend to have higher incremental decrementals than the average of the business. As we think about what the performance of the segment was here in the first quarter, big reduction in volume, that's coming through both on the sales side and on a production basis as well, right? And on top of that, you know, you've got a couple other things. Obviously, you've got the restructuring benefits coming through in the quarter. However, on the other side of that, and we talked about this going into the quarter, we would see some temporary costs flow through Q1 as well that would kind of suppress the margin a little bit here on some of the, excuse me, trade shows we went to and the like. And so, a couple of cross currents there, but the big story is almost always the case in metal cutting, is what's going on from a volume perspective.

Yeah, I think on top of that, we had one event of one-time gain last year that we let out last quarter.

Yeah, we'll take a look at the detail. There it is.

And the next question comes from Joe Ritchie with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Hey, guys. Good morning. Morning. How are you doing, Joe? Hey, really... really helpful slide on the metal cutting share gains, I guess, in Europe specifically. I guess the question I have is, as you kind of think about, you know, hopefully a potential recovery in that end market, do you expect to keep these types of share gains if the market were to recover? And then just what are you kind of looking at as maybe leading indicators and maybe just focusing on the German market? that could maybe give you some confidence once that market starts to turn.

Yeah, Joe, I think as I mentioned earlier, based on the IHS data and publicly available information from the OEMs, we think that the near-term pressure will be there. In the meantime, like we also said earlier in the prepared remarks, that our gap versus the trade group, It might also be driven by the fact that the other partner, other parties were impacted by lower export sales. So I wouldn't say that we will see any major deviation from what we see here, but the market overall is going to be under pressure. And in the meantime, of course, we continue to do things with respect to new project wins. As customers are also going through the mix change in terms of they were going a little bit strong on electric vehicles. That adjustment is happening where the shift is going to happen a little bit more towards hybrid. So there's going to be some of those comp issues because of that, but we believe that we are very well positioned to support our customers, whether they go for ice engine or hybrid or battery, we're there to support them. So overall we will continue to do above market growth there.

Okay. Helpful. And then, uh, Sanjay, you're going to be my first election question. So, you know, post-yesterday, how are you thinking about just potential implications for your business, also with the prospect of, you know, potential tariffs on the come? How does that, you know, potentially, you know, change your, you know, either competitive dynamics here or abroad? Just any thoughts that you have, broad thoughts on the outcome from yesterday. Okay.

Yeah, I think we know we have to learn more in coming months to see how the overall policies come out. But what we will expect is that the industrial production is going to be one thing that we want to watch to see how that affects, because that has the biggest effect on our overall business. With respect to tariff, I'll let Pat also add his opinion, but we don't we are a global business. We do business and, you know, in all different continents. And in a lot of cases, you know, we are making things where we sell. There is not going to be a lot of direct effect on it, but how does it affect overall sentiments that we have to watch? And then on the material cost, it might have some impact, but too early for us to tell much detail at this point.

Yeah. I would just say, I would reiterate that Sanjay in the sense that like, you know, we, From a manufacturing footprint perspective, we're global. We aim to support customers locally with production where we can, and so that tends to minimize some of the effect of tariffs on the business. That being said, the big feedback loop there is based on any government policy that affects overall consumer confidence, and therefore industrial production is going to have a feedback loop on us, positive or negative.

Okay, guys, thank you.

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back to Sanjay Chaubey for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining the call today. As always, we appreciate your interest and support. Please don't hesitate to reach out to Mike if you have any questions. Have a great day. Thank you.

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