Aperam S.A. (APEMY) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Prepared Remarks Transcript

Hi. Good morning, and a warm welcome to Aperam's Q2 Podcast. My name is Sud Sivaji, and I am Aperam's CEO and I really hope you are having a good start to the day. Today, together with our Chief Financial Officer, Nicolas Changeur, we are happy to explain our second quarter performance, give our view on the current markets, an update on Aperam's transformation and of course, give our outlook on Q3. To echo how I concluded our last call, we are building Aperam into a diversified, high-value materials player, despite the current global landscape presenting unexpected challenges. I told you then that against these headwinds, our confidence in a strong 2026 would carry into Q2, and we delivered. Not only did our momentum continue, in fact, Q2 2026 has officially delivered our best quarterly performance in 4 years. As is our standard practice, we will host the conference call with the Q&A later today. It will take place, as always, at 2:00 p.m. Central European Summer Time. We look forward to addressing your questions then. The registration link for the call is available on our website and can also be found on the penultimate slide of this podcast presentation. Aperam is providing the following information as part of its earnings release documentation. This material supports our quarterly financial reporting and where applicable, our disclosure of regulated information. Please take note of the disclaimer on Page 2. Moving to Page 3. I'm pleased to share our Q2 2026 key figures, making our best single quarter performance in 4 years. EBITDA reached EUR 159 million, reflecting a 77% sequential increase, bolstered by strong performance in