Ferroglobe: Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call - FERROGLOBE PLC

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Ferroglobe's third quarter 2026 conference call. Joining me today are Marco Levy, our Chief Executive Officer, and Beatriz Garcia-Cost, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started with some prepared remarks, I'm going to read a brief statement. Please turn to slide two at this time. Statements made by management during this conference call that are forward-looking are based on current expectations. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements can be found in Ferroglobe's most recent SEC filings and the exhibits to those filings, which are available at ferroglobed.com. In addition, this discussion includes references to EBITDA, adjusted EBITda, adjusted gross debt, adjusted net debt, and adjusted diluted earnings per share, among other non-IFRS measures. Reconciliations of non- IFRS measures may be found in our most recent SEC filings. We'll be participating in the Stevens Annual Investment Conference in Nashville on November 17th. We hope to see you there. With that, I'll turn the call over to Marco. Thank you, Alex, and thank you all for joining us today. We appreciate your continued interest in FerroGlobe. Our third quarter results continued to reflect challenges in our silicon metal and silicon base alloy segments as a result of predatory import prices and external factors affecting costs. Despite these adverse conditions, we generated positive free cash flow. Total shipments declined 3% quarter-over-quarter to 183,000 tons. A silicon metal and silicon base alloys volumes declined 6%, partially offset by a 1% increase in manganese base alloy. As a result, revenue declined 2% from the second quarter to $370 million. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $2 million, compared with positive $30 million in the second quarter. The decline was due to extraordinary energy costs, mainly in Spain, associated with the Middle East conflict, and to a lesser degree, predatory pricing in the ferro-silicon segment. Excluding the $18.5 million impact from high energy prices, the adjusted EBITDA would have been approximately $16 million in the third quarter. Beatriz will provide more detailed comments in her section. Next slide, please. Since the last call, we have made tangible progress on the following strategic priorities. Lowering and right-sizing our cost structure, expanding our critical materials platform, pursuing the results of Venezuela, and strengthening our core business through trade protection. Let me start with right-sized footprint and cost structure. Last month, we've initiated an aggressive cost reduction program to increase our capacity utilization, enhance our operating efficiency, and strengthen our competitive position. Once fully implemented, we expect the cost reduction problem to enhance our annual EBITDA by approximately $100 million, plus or minus 15%. Our plan to take on the difficult business environment and increase profitability include the following. First, we are consolidating our operations to our most cost competitive plan enabled by our flexible footprint. Our goal is to boost capacity utilization to 80% up from less than 60% today. To accomplish this, we plan to close five plants around the globe with minimal impact on our sales volumes or our ability to expand into critical materials. We will work through these changes together with our employee representatives as required. Some of these operations might be switched to critical materials. At the same time, we are restarting Selma to produce ferroalloys. As for the non-strategic plans, we are exploring the best way to monetize them whether through afterlife divestitures or alternative use as data centers second we plan to reduce our corporate overhead primarily through account reductions overall we expect to reduce corporate and operations workforce by approximately 20 once the process is complete, subject to consultation with employee representatives where required. These are difficult decisions, but necessary steps to align our cost structure with the current market conditions and position the business for improved profitability. These actions will lower furloughs with fixed costs per ton, target working capital reduction of $30-40 million, and decrease future capex, creating more streamlined organizations positioned to generate stronger cash flow and EBITDA. We have already begun this process by announcing the mothballing of our South African plans in Himalaya and Polokwane due to lack of demand. The upfront cost of implementing this transformation plan is expected to be in the range of $40 to $60 million, net of targeted working capital reduction over an 18-month period. Moving to critical materials, our expansion is progressing ahead of schedule. During the third quarter, we began shipment of pheromone adenine to commercial customers well ahead of our original year-end target. This demonstrates our ability to produce critical pheromoides in Monzon, Spain, with minimal capital investment. We expect additional pheromone adenine shipments in the fourth quarter, as well as our first commercial shipment of other critical pheroloids, such as ferrovanadium and ferrochromium. As part of the critical material expansion, we continue our discussion with the U.S. Department of War. These discussions to build a domestic supply of certain critical materials continue to progress on schedule our september 16 summary proposal included magnesium and manganese and seven additional critical materials and we expect to present our final proposal this month in november the negotiations should begin in early 2027 and conclude before the end of the first quarter. As for Venezuela, we continue to push for the license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, required to finalize any agreements. Concurrently, we have begun initial discussions in Venezuela to prepare for an expedited restart of our operations. On our effort to protect the business, trade measures continue to gain momentum. On September October 1st, the European Commission initiated an interim anti-dumping review into imports of Chinese silicon metal, and October 23rd, the Commission announced the registration of all Chinese silicon-metal imports. This simply means that each import will be recorded and monitored in detail for future review. This decision is important because it indicates how seriously the European Commission takes the matter and allows potential duties to be applied retroactively. The market has already responded with the European Silicon Metal Index rising 7% since the announcement of this review. In the United States, the ITC's final determination in the silicon metal case against Australia and Norway was announced on August 3rd. Subsequently, the U.S. index rose 10% following the announcement. Finally, Korshell has made strong progress in the third quarter. They received a $50 million award from the U S Department of Energy to build the first US gigafactory dedicated to 100% graphite-free silicon anode batteries. This award comes at a great moment in Corsair's growth as they have now signed multiple military customers in the drone and autonomous vehicle space. Corsail continues to work with multiple OEMs to further validate the silicon anodes technology on a greater scale next slide please i'll update on our segments starting with silicon metal on slide five we're seeing improvement in the silicon metal segment with index prices up ten percent in u.s and six percent in europe in the third quarter reflecting a positive response to trade options on both sides of the Atlantic. Our realized prices improved 3% over the second quarter. Our silico metal volumes declined 6% to 38,000 tons with US sales down 8% and EU sales down 3%. The decline was driven mainly by seasonality with volumes up 14% over Q3 2025. Importantly, we are seeing increased customer interest, an encouraging sign as we continue our 2027 contract negotiations. Next slide, please. Silicon Basel lowest volumes remain significantly above last year's level, although they declined 6% in the third quarter compared to the second quarter to 59,000 tons. Index prices were down 2% in Europe and 1% in the U.S., while our realized prices were essentially flat. Our European volumes declined substantially, reflecting our disciplined decision not to pursue incremental volumes at unprofitable prices. Excess inventory and elevated import volumes continue to wait on price recovery, particularly in the European market, where the ferro-silicon index is down 16% year-to-date. The main culprits are Malaysia, Bhutan, Azerbaijan, India, and Angola. Commission's annual review of the ferroalloy safeguards scheduled for later this month can potentially bring meaningful improvement to the alloys market in 2027. Next slide, please. Manganese-based alloys remain our most consistent segment. Volumes remain strong, increasing 1 percent to 86,000 tons. While index prices were down approximately 1% in the quarter, our realized prices increased 5%. The market outlook remains positive, supported by firm pricing and healthy volumes. Looking ahead, both the silicon-based alloys and manganese-based alloy segments are expected to benefit from improving still demand. In its October short-range outlook, the World Steel Association forecast 2027 finished steel demand growth of 3% in Europe and 2% in North America. Manufacturing activities support this view, with September PMI reaching 52.9 in the Eurozone, a 52-month high, and 55.9% in the U.S. Income production is expected to grow by 2% in the U.S. and 3% in Europe. I would now like to turn the call over to Beatriz Garcia-Cols, our Chief Financial Officer, to review the financial results in more detail. Beatriz? Thank you, Marco. Please turn to slide 9 for a review of the third quarter income statement. Total third-quarter sales declined 2 percent from the prior quarter to $370 billion, driven by a 3 percent decline in total volumes. Lower volumes in silicon metal and silicon-based alloys were partially offset by higher realized prices in silicon-metal and manganese-based alloy. Compared with the third quarter of 2025, sales increased 19%. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $2 million, compared with a positive $13 million in the prior quarter. As a reminder, second quarter adjusted EBITda includes a $5 million benefit from litigation in Spain. Current energy costs reduced adjusted EBITDA by nearly $19 million in the quarter. Excluding these items, the adjusted EBIDDA would have been $16 million. Adjusted EBITD margin was negative 0.6 percent compared with a positive 3.5 percent in the second quarter. Next slide, please. Total metal revenue was $102 million in the third quarter. A 6% decline in volume was partially offset by a 3% increase in average selling price to approximately $2,669 per tonne, up from $2.592 per ton in the second quarter. Cost per tonne increased by 3 percent due to higher energy and electrode prices in North America. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $2 million, a slight improvement compared with negative $3 million in the prior quarter. Silicon Basal Oil's revenue declined to $117 million, driven by a 6 percent sequential decline in volumes to 59,000 tons. Realized prices were essentially flat at 1,973 dollars per ton. Adjusted EBITDA for the segment was negative 2 million dollars, down from positive 15 million dollars in the second quarter, which includes the 5 million dollar litigation benefit in Spain. Volume and price declines explain approximately $2 million of the decline, with the remaining EBITDA decline reflecting higher energy costs and lower fixed cost absorption in euro. Next slide, please. Manganese-based alloys revenue increased to $114 million, as volume increased 1 percent to 86,000 tons. An average selling price improved 5 percent to $1,330 per ton. Higher energy costs, primarily in Spain, were the main driver of increased cost per ton overall energy account for 85 percent of the cost increase. Adjusted EBITDA was $11 million compared with $13 million in the prior quarter. Next slide, please. For the third quarter, cash flow from operations was $26 million, driven by a $32 million release of working capital. This is well ahead of the approximately $50 million release we target for the second half of the year on our last call. We don't expect material changes in working capital in the fourth quarter. For those less familiar, the PP&A mark-to-market of $77 million is related to our energy contracts, which are excluded from adjusted EBITDA due to their volatility and non-cash impact. CAPEX was $20 million up from $70 million in the second quarter due to the timing of the actual payments for our charcoal plant in Spain. We expect CAPEX to decline significantly in the fourth quarter. Free cash flow was positive $6 million, compared with $20 million in the prior quarter. Next slide, please. We paid our quarterly dividend of 1.5 cents per share on September 29th. Our next dividend of $1.5 per share is scheduled for December 30th, payable to shareholders of on record as of december 22nd we end the quarter with approximately 93 million dollars in cash unchanged from the second quarter adjusted gross debt was 135 million dollars and net debt increased slightly to 42 million dollars we continue to maintain a solid balance sheet which gives us the flexibility to execute the cost reduction program and support our critical materials expansion. At this time, I'll turn the call back to Marco. Thank you, Beatriz. Before opening the call for Q&A, I'd like to share the key takeaways from today's presentation on slide 15. While our third quarter earnings results are disappointing, We are taking decisive action to improve profitability. The cost reduction program will consolidate production at our most competitive plan, increase capacity utilization to approximately 80%, and streamline the organization. Once fully implemented, we expect to add $100 million to our annual EBITDA, plus or minus 15%. While we expect the fourth quarter to remain challenging due to energy costs and weak ferro-silicon market in Europe, these actions are within our control and can deliver long-term benefits regardless of market conditions. At the same time, the fundamentals of our core markets are improving. Steel demand is forecast to grow next year, which supports our ferroalloy businesses. Trade protection is working. Silicon metal index prices rose 10% in the U.S. and 6% in Europe in the third quarter. And European investigation into Chinese silicon metal is now underway. Our strategic direction is very clear. Build a leading Western critical materials platform. We completed our first shipments in the third quarter, and additional shipments are expected in the fourth quarter. We have demonstrated that our existing furnaces can produce these critical materials quickly and with minimal capital investment. Our discussions on critical materials with the U.S. government continue to advance, and The Korsch Health $50 million Department of Energy Award gives us further confidence in our investment in silicon battery technology. Operator, we are ready for questions. Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To answer your question, please press star one and one again. We will now take our first question. From the line of Nick Giles from B Riley Securities, please go ahead. Thank you, operator. This is Henry Hurl on for Nick. Hi. I first wanted to ask, are the five plant closures a view that European demand does not fully recover, or do they more assume that Venezuela backfills those tons? Well, as you know, we have quite a broad asset footprint, and we are looking at different combinations to increase our asset utilization at 20 percent from an average of 60 percent We forecast demand growing better, a higher rate in U.S. in the next few years, and as a consequence, we are talking about restarting Venezuela and restarting Selma in the United States. We have disclosed in my pitch the decision on South African plans. We are not going to disclose anything else about the additional assets as we need to engage other stakeholders and employee representatives before disclosing our plans in a more transparent to it got it understood marco and then also at this time are you able to provide any more details of the status of the venezuela permit yes um we should get the license anytime soon at the same time we have started our discussions in venezuelan to restart the plant the main the main topic is electricity supply and reliable electricity supply as you know we can easily ramp up and down our furnaces we have this possibility running electrical furnaces but we need electricity reliability. The license is required to, sorry, to close any kind of negotiation. Understood. And then looking at the critical materials business, how do you expect shipments to ramp from 3Q to 4Q, and how many other materials might be involved in those shipments? yes well in this quarter we are producing again pheromone and danium we we will run productions of ferrovanadium and ferroclone low carbon we seem to be able also to run trials on Theraborm. So for these four products we need the validation at industrial scale production meaning we have produced pheromone danone industrially but not the other three products that I mentioned so it is rather premature to talk about volumes for the quarter in 2027 our objective is to validate our production capabilities this quarter and then we will plan for market introduction got it and then last one for me it looks like that the eu could possibly make the anti-dumping duties on china retroactive um could you provide any more color on that or what you're hearing yeah i mean the we have put a lot of pressure because this has been a never-ending saga i want to remind you that we asked for safeguards in silicon metal and the fact that safeguard somewhere not applied to silicon metal has caused a disaster in terms more results of safeguards for ferro-silicon. And now we have changed our approach. We are going for anti-dumping review against China. The interim review was officially started on September 1st and on October 23rd the US announced monitoring of imports. what it means is that the EU is going to organize the import of silicon metal outside of China by all the 27 EU countries. And monitoring these imports has a couple of effects. One, you prevent stockpiling materials, exported materials from China before the European Union decides on the new measures and second the registration basically allows the Commission to eventually decide to apply measures retroactively So, this is a good result, but again, we are not where we want to be. Understood. I'll turn it over, continue, best of luck, guys. Thank you. Once again, to ask a question, please press star 1 and 1 on your telephone. That's star 1 and 1 to ask a question. There are no further questions at this time. I would like to hand back over to Marco Levy for closing remarks. Thank you, Sandra, and thank you all. In a nutshell, we are executing on what we can control, and we look forward to updating you on our progress during the next one thank you again for your participation and have a great day