President and CEO, Sandvik
Q3 report insights & cyber security | Studio Sandvik Ep13 (2025)
CEO Stefan Widing comments on the Q3 interim report, reflecting on performance and future direction. We also highlight an ...
About Stefan Widing
Stefan Widing, President and CEO of Sandvik, reported record financial results for the second quarter of 2026, describing the period as "a very strong quarter with record revenues and profits." He noted that total order intake grew 17% organically, total revenues increased 23% organically, and adjusted EBITA rose to 8.3 billion Swedish kronor, up from 5.6 billion in the prior year, corresponding to a margin of 22.6%. Widing attributed the performance to strong momentum across key regions and segments, good price realization, and a "superstrong quarter" for mining, where order intake exceeded 20 billion kronor for the first time in a single quarter. He also highlighted that the cutting tools business grew 20%, with an estimated 7% pre-buy effect from customers anticipating further price increases, and that aftermarket parts and services continued to grow at a "very high level." Widing commented on the broader economic environment, stating that while political and macroeconomic uncertainty persists, the trends Sandvik observes are "underlying positive" and "cautiously positive," with a "slight improvement in the business cycle" driven by general industry, aerospace, defense, and energy. He also discussed Sandvik's strategic expansion into filtration and dewatering solutions for the mining industry through the acquisition of Diemme Filtration, describing it as a move into "a very attractive end-customer niche that grows 15% with good aftermarket and high margins." Widing said the company has a stated strategy of growing in attractive niches downstream in mining and would continue to pursue similar acquisitions.
Transcript (33 segments)
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Host0:09
Hi everyone and welcome to Studio Sandvik. Here are our headlines for today: CEO Stefan Widing comments on the interim report. An industry-first recycling certification at the Svedala foundry. A new bolter miner is the next step toward automation. And we discuss cybersecurity with our guest Monika Kullberg. To kick things off, we have some good news from the Mining business where Sandvik received several major orders. The largest one is valued at 450 million Swedish kronor and includes loaders, trucks, and drill rigs to the Khoemacau copper mine in Botswana. Zimplats is the largest platinum producer in Zimbabwe and Sandvik will deliver mining equipment to their Ngezi mines at a value of 280 million Swedish kronor.
In October, Sandvik hosted a first-of-its-kind Intelligent Manufacturing Hackathon across six global tech centers. Around 200 software engineers and experts spent a day building prototypes that use AI to make our manufacturing software more intuitive and efficient for users. Six Sandvik software brands were represented at EMO, the world's leading trade fair for production technology. The fair took place in September in Hannover, Germany, where the brands showcased their latest innovations.
More Machining news: Sandvik Coromant hosted TechDays in Katowice in Poland in September where nearly 300 customers, partners and yellow coat experts explored the latest in machining and production technology. Sandvik Coromant together with the software brand Vericut and Sandvik company pro-micron showcased a total offer approach.
October is the cybersecurity month and Sandvik is doing quite a bit of work in this area. We have the pleasure of welcoming Monika Kullberg to the studio. Hi, Monika. Nice to have you here. You are our cybersecurity expert and psychologist and work here at Sandvik with cybersecurity. Why is cybersecurity so critical?
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Monika Kullberg2:31
It's because cybersecurity protects the very foundations of our digital lives. Our data, our systems. And also, our trust in our data and our systems. And we use these digital tools every day, for innovation, collaboration, creating products and to deliver our products, so it's vital that we can protect them. That means that cybersecurity is a lot more than just an IT issue. It's an enabler for every part of our business.
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Host3:10
What would you say are the most important parts in the digital defense?
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Monika Kullberg3:17
It's the balance between three things: people, process and technology. With people, everyone in the company, you, me and everyone else, we are the drivers of everyday security. When we see risks, when we talk about risks, when we take thoughtful decisions in our work, we increase the security. As people we normally need something to hold on to, so that we can work systematically across the board. That's where the processes come in, and help us to do that. And lastly, we have technology which gives us capacity to detect, prevent and respond to threats. If we have these three working together you get quite a powerful defense.
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Host4:19
Can you give some concrete cybersecurity tips to me as an employee?
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Monika Kullberg4:25
Absolutely. Firstly, think before you act. Especially when it comes to clicking on links or attachments in emails. And if you feel that something is a bit off, trust your instinct on that. And if you see something suspicious, report it. You don't have to be super sure about it. Just speak up. Because the faster we respond to a threat, the better we can protect everyone. Lastly, I would say, stay informed, do your training. Because that gives you the possibility to stay on top of what you can do in order to keep yourself and everyone else safer.
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Host5:16
Good tips. Thank you so much, Monika, for coming here today.
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Monika Kullberg5:19
Thank you.
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Host5:25
At the Rock Processing foundry in Svedala, Sweden, worn-out crusher components like mantles and concaves are recycled into new ones in a circular process. This reduces the need for virgin material, lowers CO2 emissions, and minimizes waste, and Sandvik is first in the industry to achieve a circularity certification for key crushing components. Now over to the big event of today: the release of Sandvik's interim report for the third quarter of the year. Our CEO Stefan Widing comments on the report.
Hi Stefan, welcome.
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Stefan Widing6:09
Thank you.
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Host6:11
Safety first as always in Sandvik. Can you talk about the progress during the quarter?
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Stefan Widing6:17
Good progress in the third quarter. Both total recordables (TRIFR) and lost time (LTIFR) were at all-time lows. Total recordables were down to 2.4, while lost time was down to 1. Both are obviously year-over-year improvements and as I said, all-time low figures, so we should be really happy with the progress we have made. And it's the second quarter in a row where we see really good progress. At the same time, we know that this is an area where we always need to continue to focus. If we lose focus we tend to go backwards again, so really good performance, well done to everyone who works with this. But please, continue to stay focused.
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Host6:59
The Q3 report was published today and one of the things you highlight was how Sandvik is leveraging the digital platform. Please extend on that.
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Stefan Widing7:11
We have invested quite a lot in the past years, both organically and through acquisitions into our digital platforms. We have expanded our position in our customers' value chain. Today this is part of the offering we bring to our customers, to make them even more efficient, productive and, in the case of Mining, also safer. So of course it's satisfying to see that it is also giving good results. What we highlight in this quarter is that both in Mining and in Intelligent Manufacturing, we see double-digit organic growth in the quarter, so that is something we want to highlight.
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Host7:49
Indeed a strong momentum, which we also noted in the Mining business with continued strong order intake. Machining and Intelligent Manufacturing reported high single-digit order intake growth. Still, you talk about a muted industrial cycle — could you sort it out a bit?
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Stefan Widing8:08
If we look at the industrial cycle, we see leading indicators, such as PMI (Purchasing Manager's Index) now hovering around 50, which is sort of the borderline towards growth. Which is positive — it's coming from below into that territory. We also see good momentum in certain segments, aerospace in particular. But also smaller important segments, like defense, medical and consumer electronics. We also see certain markets, like North America, China, India, where we see good growth. On the other hand, we also continue to see a subdued development in Europe. We see a weak automotive. General engineering has moved from negative to stable, but still not picking up from a growth point of view. So it is a mixed picture, and if we bring everything together, there are many positive signs and bright spots, but overall we still believe that the industrial cycle is muted. Then of course we delivered good growth in the quarter, that's driven by partly low compares, some pricing, but also strong growth in, for example, powder solutions and our software business. So all together it's a positive development, year-over-year in the quarter. But we still don't really see that pickup in the industrial cycle that we are waiting for.
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Host9:36
Finally, are you pleased with the operating profit margin of 19 percent in the quarter?
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Stefan Widing9:43
We think it's a good margin in the quarter, given the circumstances. We are not satisfied — we will be satisfied when we are at the 20 percent plus margin that is our target. But if we look at the quarter we have good leverage on the volume growth that we see in the quarter. We are very happy to see that we continue to fully offset and mitigate the tariff impact and also generally the cost inflation impact. But we have a significant currency headwind in the quarter, over one percentage point on the margin. Even though we offset a lot of that, we do not fully mitigate it, and that's why we still believe that the margin is good in the quarter.
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Host10:27
Thank you, Stefan.
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Stefan Widing10:27
Thank you.
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Host10:32
Good summary. Recently we introduced a new Let's Talk concept and in the first session all employees were invited to ask Stefan Widing any question they had in their mind. This brought some new perspectives on our CEO.
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Stefan Widing10:48
The first thing I can remember, I was probably six or seven years old, then my dream job was... I lived in an apartment block and we always had these guys cutting the grass and trimming the bushes and they had machines. As I grew older, it was bigger machines, like an excavator operator. When I was a younger teenager, it was fighter pilot. But then I came to my senses and wanted to become an engineer. I think that you early in your career should take opportunities and learn new things and do things you enjoy, because then you will do it a good way. When you come a little higher up, it's also important to deliver, perform for a while where you are. Higher up, if you want to aim at being a CEO, unfortunately I have to refer to timing and luck as well.
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Host11:42
Nice to see some new sides of Stefan. Very much so.
Now some news from Indonesia. Sandvik brand Walter welcomed 160 customers to a roadshow in Cikarang, where new solutions and technologies were presented. The Walter team was dressed in traditional Indonesian costumes which was highly appreciated by the customers.
Sandvik is introducing a next-generation bolter miner for longwall mining: Sandvik MB672. The miner includes innovative solutions designed to automate the bolting process, a development that will enhance safety as well as efficiency.
Paulina, do you remember the smash-proof guitar, the loader in the glass labyrinth and the impossible statue?
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Paulina12:33
Vividly so, I would say.
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Host12:36
These are all examples of Sandvik branding campaigns we have launched over the last couple of years. And now it is time for the next one. In October we will launch something new. We've been able to get our hands on a small sneak peek.
Exciting, and brief. But there is a lot more to come, so make sure that you don't miss out on the big launch on October 27. We can't emphasize that enough. That was all for today, we hope to see you again in December for the next show. See you, bye.