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Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Wagners' full year results briefing. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to introduce Wagners' Managing Director, Cameron Coleman.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We welcome to our 2022 full year results presentation. Today, I'm joined by Fergus Hume, our CFO; and also dialing in from London is the CEO of our EFC business, Michael Kemp.
Overall, our revenue of $338 million for the year was 5% higher than the prior corresponding period. Business delivered an operating EBIT result of $20.9 million. The overall result was driven by strong demand for construction materials and project services across the group, predominantly in our cement, steel and concrete businesses. While the FY '22 sales was stronger, our EBIT result was lower than that of the previous year, mainly due to the movement in project work, including the Cross River Rail project falling mostly into FY '21.
Business also witnessed an increase in material costs in FY '22. Our Composites business has grown in revenue in both Australia and the U.S., although delivered lower margins as material cost increases were unable to be passed on to customers due to fixed price contracts.
Progress of our Earth Friendly Concrete technology continued to advance in the U.K. and Europe. As we have previously highlighted, we have significantly increased our investment in EFC during the period in scaling up -- in our scaling up strategy.
During the period, we continued the campaign seeking an investment partner in our EFC business to assist with the development of the EFC technology and the scaling of operational capacity in our identified global markets. The opportunities for EFC are exceptional with the ever-increasing demand for products that reduce carbon emissions in the build environment.
While we received a significant level of interest from both domestic and international companies wanting to partner with Wagners' on this journey, to date, we have been unable to agree terms on financial metrics that we believe would be in the best interest of our shareholders. As such, at this stage, we have decided to suspend the formal campaign while we continue to prove up the go-to-market channel and production of supply. We now remain committed to pursuing the strategy already in place to continue to develop the EFC business without any external investment.
I'll talk to the company's outlook in more detail later in the presentation. However, I thought it was appropriate at this point to discuss some of the market conditions that have both impacted our performance over the last year and will also have an impact on our performance in FY '23. We are confident in the markets in which we work. We've experienced a high demand for construction materials and services throughout FY '22 and cannot see any reason for this to decline in FY '23.
While there were no major government projects or infrastructure spend in FY '22 and unlikely any in FY '23, we are encouraged by what we anticipate is likely to occur beyond this. With some significant projects committed over the coming years, we hope we can play a role in. In addition to this, the Resource sector continues to provide opportunities for our bulk haulage, contract crushing and mobile concrete businesses.
The positives in the business don't always come without challenges. Generally speaking, we've been subject to cost increases in many areas. The business has been diligent in passing these increases on to the consumer wherever and whenever contractual arrangements allow. However, some agreements did not allow us to recoup the full impact of these increases throughout the period. On a positive note, the market generally seems to understand costs are increasing. As we review and negotiate contract terms with our customers, the impact of these price rises are being passed on through appropriate escalation provisions. Therefore, we expect the impact of these cost increases to minimize looking forward.
I'll now hand over to Fergus to take you through the FY '22 financial results in a bit more detail.
Thanks, Cam. Looking at the operating full year '22 results, which excludes EFC, revenues have increased by 5% to $338 million compared to FY '21. The revenue compared to the prior corresponding period increased in cement, concrete, steel and CFT, partially offset by reduced activities in our contract crushing and precast businesses.
The operating gross profit reduction of 3% compared to the prior corresponding period, that's 55% compared to 58%, is mainly due to increased input costs during the second half relating to raw materials, shipping and fuel that we're unable to be passed on to customers due to contractual agreements and lower contributions from some major projects in the precast and contract crushing businesses.
The operating EBIT decreased by $4.6 million due to the reduction in gross profit just discussed and increased operating costs, reflecting an increase in employee numbers from 688 to over 800 and higher depreciation due to investments in transport and quarries. We have continued to invest in our international expansion in CFT and EFC, with the latter having an increased spend in this year of $1.2 million compared to last year to total $3.2 million for the year.
Turning to the segment results. The CMS segment, or Construction Materials and Services segment is the largest business within the company. The good news is that our cement, concrete and steel businesses all increased revenue throughout FY '22. Transport maintained a solid growth achieved over the last few years with new projects replacing projects that were completed during the year. The increases in revenue were partially offset with the reduction in activity in the precast business following the completion of the Cross River Rail project, which was 75% completed in FY '21, and the contract crushing business with a delay in the material supply in Central Queensland.
The reduction in higher-yielding project work, together with the cost increases mainly due to shipping and fuel were the reasons for the reduced EBIT margin. We also had mixed results from our CFT business, whilst we experienced strong revenue growth, we lost in margin. The revenue growth mainly came from our custom build business being marine infrastructure, pedestrian and short-span road bridges, including a $3.8 million increase in revenue from our U.S.A. business.
Unfortunately, the business experienced increases in costs of raw materials and shipping during the year, which we were unable to pass on to our customers due to contractual terms, which contributed to the lower EBIT. Our investment in research and development continues to create new product lines, which will provide opportunities to expand geographically, evidenced by the new poles developed for our electrical distribution products. Whilst the revenues increased in the U.S., our cost structure increased with more people hired to expand the U.S. operations. We are now producing CFT products from our factory in Cresson, Texas, U.S.A.
As we continue to invest in the EFC technology and market development, our financial performance is not reflective of the development of the business, particularly in Europe. The negative $3.2 million EBIT is seen as further investment to scale this business to meet growing demand for products that reduce carbon emissions in the built environment. We now have a manufacturing facility in the U.K. and a [ team resource ] to meet the challenges of production and creating and meeting market demand.
We move to the cash flow and the net debt slide. The cash flow from operations was significantly reduced in FY '22. We increased our working capital, mainly inventory. We also increased capital expenditure to improve production capacity and deliver operational efficiency. Increase in inventories was mostly to ensure security of supply following supply chain disruptions in FY '22 and to service the expanded production capacity brought online during the year, and we expect to maintain these levels of inventory until there is more certainty surrounding supply and distribution.
A significant component of the CapEx spend was $10 million in CFT, increasing the production capacity in Australia and the U.S.A., with the manufacturer installation and commissioning of 3 new pultrusion machines. The spend in the U.S.A. also included nearly $3 million on land and buildings. $2.7 million was spent on EFC, with the majority on the construction of the manufacturing facility in the U.K. We purchased plant and equipment of $3.4 million in concrete, $7.1 million in quarries and $7.4 million on transport for higher payload combinations and mobile equipment. We expect to spend less on capital expenditure during [ FY '22 ]. I'll now pass back to Cameron to take you through the business performance.
All right. Thanks, Fergus. We'll get started with our cement business, where our revenue increased by 11% in FY '22, and volumes were the highest on record for our cement plant. So just to recap, our Cement business accounts for over 1/3 of the group's revenue, with the vertical integration of our business unit. It benefits from many other operations going on in other segments of our business. So in simple terms, when the Cement business is performing, it's a good indicator of the strong level of activity that's going across the group.
Things are currently positive. We are experiencing good volumes out of our major customers and record volumes from the cement plant, with additional capacity available to service expansion in our customer base. We have a long-standing sales team focused on growth, both in bulk and bag cement from both our Pinkenba and Townsville operations. Having said that, the business was not without the market challenges I highlighted earlier. These included increased shipping and raw material costs, with some costs not all recovered from customers. Contractual arrangements dictate whether the full increased costs can be passed on moving forward.
However, we were reasonably comfortable with the level of our cost recovery at this point. Production efficiencies were realized during the period as a result of capital invested into our bagging facility, and product ranges were expanded following the installation of a new line handling asset.
Moving on to our Concrete business, which is a substantial customer of our Cement business. Revenue grew 18% on the back of expanded Southeast Queensland batch plant network and increased volumes from our customer base. We were again faced with unfavorable market pricing for the majority of the year. However, average selling prices per cubic meter have improved over the last few months, and we anticipate this to continue.
In addition to increasing volumes across Southeast Queensland, we also secured the supply of concrete for the [indiscernible] project, about 400 kilometers west of Brisbane, which is now complete.
Moving on to the reinforcing Steel business. Throughout the year, we opened a new facility in Brisbane, complementing our Toowoomba factory. Whilst the supply chain for reinforcing steel has seen much disruption due to the war in Ukraine, along with shipping challenges, the demand for steel has not eased in Southeast Queensland. Revenue in this business has more than doubled over the last 12 months, and it now provides a significant contribution to the overall group's performance. We look forward to the investment we've made into the Brisbane operations providing even further growth in FY '23.
Now to the precast operations. This year saw a 25% reduction in revenue compared to '21, attributed to the timing of projects. The large Cross River Rail precast tunnel segment's contract was completed early in the financial year. This business secured and delivered a number of other projects during the period. However, we generate higher margins when working 24 hours a day producing tunnel segments in an automated factory. We have been successful in securing the supply of precast concrete tunnel segments for the Sydney Metro project. This project will demand almost 3x the number of segments compared to the Cross River Rail project and will contribute approximately $140 million in revenue over a 20-month period.
On to our transport projects business. Revenue has been maintained with new projects replacing completed projects throughout the year. Margins were slightly lower due to the early start-up costs associated with these new projects along with some increased maintenance costs necessary to upgrade some of the fleet. During the period, we've invested over $7 million into new purpose-built haulage units and other plant and equipment. This investment occurred late in FY '22, and therefore, the benefit in productivity will be fully realized in FY '23 and beyond.
Now on to our quarries business. We experienced a reduction in contract crushing revenue as we were required to demobilize for a period of time on one of our large crushing projects. We have since remobilized to the site and expect to complete around 800,000 tonnes of crushing on this project over the next 12 months, making a significant contribution to the group's performance.
Despite the reduction in the contract crushing area of the business, our fixed quarry sites experienced increased revenues as a result of strong volumes. There has been over $7 million invested in new plant and equipment across our quarries business in FY '22, mostly at our Wellcamp Downs quarry in Toowoomba, where we're installing a large crushing plant. This investment will be completed over the next 6 months. And once the plant is commissioned, it should result in significant reduction in production costs on this site.
Now moving on to our Composite Fiber Technologies business across Australia, New Zealand and the U.S., revenues increased by 33%, with a significant contribution to sales coming from the U.S. business. In Australia and New Zealand, FY '22 saw an increase in sales in the pedestrian infrastructure market. Unfortunately, margins achieved were reduced compared to FY '21 due to material cost increases not passed on to customers with fixed price contracts. Over $4 million was invested in our facility at Wellcamp during the period with the increase in our production capacity.
Two additional pultrusion machines were commissioned. These machines have increased production capability and are designed to service the emergency -- the emerging utility pole market that Fergus spoke of.
Looking at our U.S. Composites business, a new facility in Texas is now operational with the first pultrusion machine fully commissioned. In FY '22, we invested AUD 5.5 million in the U.S. operation, comprising the land, building, pultrusion machine and other plant and equipment. We have also expanded the size of our team in the U.S. from 4 staff to 20. We're encouraged by the size of the U.S. market, where we've been able to generate over 10% of the total CFT sales in FY '22. Most sales in FY '22 were prior to the establishment of our U.S. facility, therefore, subject to the increased costs associated with shipping the materials from Australia.
Looking at our Earth Friendly Concrete business. Our technology is now being deployed in projects or trials in London, Germany, Netherlands, India, along with Southeast Queensland. As a result of the activity in the U.K. and Europe, we have invested considerably in the expansion of the business and the development of our technology to capitalize on the demand for carbon savings in the built environment in those regions.
We've built a manufacturing facility in London and increased our staffing resources in this region, which is reflected in the EFC result for FY '22. The production capacity of the London plant is significantly greater than that of the plant we've established in Brisbane. Also in the U.K. and Europe, we have partnered with a number of consumers of EFC and suppliers of raw materials. This both secures the offtake for Earth Friendly Concrete on a long-term basis and the supply chain to ensure quality materials are available on a reliable basis for our consumers of the product.
In Australia, we've invested into enhancements to our batch plants through Southeast Queensland to enable them to supply EFC to our local customers. We have continued to invest in research and development, broadening the number of applications EFC can be utilized in, and we'll continue to do so.
So moving on to the outlook for the Construction Materials and Services business. We see it positive. We already have a large number of secured contracts across the group and a strong pipeline of sizable opportunities ahead of us. The Sydney Metro tunnel segment contract will contribute $140 million worth of revenue over a 2-year period, commencing in October 2022. This project provides a significant value not only to the precast business, but also to our cement, concrete and steel businesses due to the vertically integrated model we operate.
We continue to supply concrete to wind farm projects having recently secured the supply of concrete to another new wind farm in Central Queensland. This project will see us deliver over 65,000 meters of concrete, of which the majority should be supplied during FY '23.
Like the precast project, wind farms also delivered value to other businesses through our vertically integrated model. Our contract crushing business has recently remobilized on that large project in Central Queensland I mentioned, and that's expected to deliver in excess of $20 million revenue this year. The transport projects business has a number of long-term contracts in place, providing a secure revenue base to support the capital we've invested in this business to date. The Resource sector continues to present further opportunities for this business.
We expect a strong contribution from our Cement business on the back of contracted volumes together with a high level of activity across the Southeast Queensland construction materials sector. Concrete volumes are also expected to increase. However, more importantly, we expect to see improved pricing conditions. We are also excited by the outlook of the Steel business this financial year, on the back of the capital investment we've made to establish our Brisbane facility.
So moving on to the outlook for CFT. We will continue to build on the strong sales performance we achieved in FY '22. The capital invested in our Wellcamp facility enables us to supply new products such as power poles, light poles, marine piles and conveyor rollers, all new markets for CFT. The investment made in this business over the past 12 months not only positions us to grow sales significantly, but also to deliver production efficiencies to product lines such as Crossarms.
Growth is also expected in the U.S. with our U.S. facility now established in Texas. The business is now resourced with the required sales team, operational expertise to manufacture the composite products and service those local markets.
In the Australia-New Zealand custom build business, we have a strong forward order book secured with a number of projects contracted in the pedestrian infrastructure and boardwalk markets.
We will continue to invest in research and development, focusing on identifying new products and markets, along with developing production efficiencies throughout the manufacturing process. We will continue to identify other international opportunities for the use of CFT and recently appointed a dedicated [ BD ] resource for the Middle East, where we have a proven track record of delivering projects of significant value.
Now on to EFC, our Earth Friendly Concrete technology. Domestically, the outlook for EFC is to focus on sales, leveraging of the investment in EFC's Brisbane manufacturing facility, ideally located to service the Wagner concrete batch plant network. We are also looking for opportunities to service new markets with EFC through third-party-owned concrete batch plants.
Internationally, volumes are expected to increase, particularly in the U.K. and Europe, with supply agreements now in place with various customers, including roof tiles, pipe and precast manufacturers. In the U.K., we have established a manufacturing facility in London with a much greater capacity than our Brisbane manufacturing facility. The U.K. EFC business is now resourced with the required sales team and operational expertise to manufacture and deliver the EFC technology to various concrete manufacturers, enabling them to service consumers requiring products that reduce carbon emissions. We will continue with our investment in research and development to enable further development of the technology, broadening the number of applications EFC can be used in.
So in summary, last year delivered results as anticipated. Increased costs, as I've mentioned earlier, certainly impacted our ability to maximize profitability in some areas of the business. Moving forward, we have now managed to pass on these increased costs in most areas of the business. On the back of the secured projects I have highlighted, we expect the business to deliver improved results in FY '23.
I'd like to thank the Board and our entire team at Wagners for their support, dedication and commitment to our business. And that concludes the formal part of our presentation. However, Fergus, Michael and myself are happy to address any questions you may have.
[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Matt Abraham with Credit Suisse.
My first query just relates to the outlook -- sorry, the commentary you provide indicates that you're assuming a continued level of demand in FY '23. And you also point to pricing action that will maintain margin. The summary and catch hold point is that there is an improvement in performance that is expected in the next period from this one that we've just been through. Would it be possible just to give us a bit more color on where you're expecting that improvement to come from given the stability of the other outlook comments, please?
Well, I guess the 2 big -- thanks for your question. The 2 big significant revenue drivers that we sort of called out, particularly in Fergus' part of the presentation, were the remobilization to a large contract crushing project that provided significant revenues a couple of years ago to the business and will provide significant revenues again this year to the business, coupled with the precast concrete project that we called out. Those 2 projects will move the dial reasonably significantly compared to the prior period, given there wasn't the level of activity in those 2 businesses.
We see cement sales remaining strong, and that's on the back of not only the Southeast Queensland market, but further afield where we participate in these larger wind farm projects and areas such as that. So we -- and then coupled with that, we do expect concrete -- the Concrete business to continue to grow, albeit we're starting off a fairly low base at Wagners and -- with our establishment of our batch plant network, but we do expect growth in volumes and improved margins in our concrete business.
Okay. So the Concrete business will have volume growth whereas cement is more just, I guess, a continuation of the trend you've seen in this year, which is just strong sales. Is that correct?
We see the sales growth continuing in cement this year.
Yes, Okay.
And that's on the back of that vertically integrated model we spoke to. We've got wind farm projects. We've got a large chunk of concrete moving to the Sydney Metro project, which is all additional volume for us.
Okay. Okay. Understood. That's helpful. Just the next one, just on your comments on the steel segment. So you said that revenue doubled. Could you just remind me how material that component of revenue is please?
Fergus Hume here, Matt. Historically, steel has been quite a small part of the business. It would have only sort of been in the single digits in millions for revenue. However, it was in the high teens to almost touching the $20 million worth of revenue last year. And it's just we've seen a significant amount of growth in steel. And that sort of gave us the confidence to put the manufacturing capacity into Brisbane. So we're expecting to get some more benefit out of that.
Okay. Great. That's helpful. And just last one for me, if I may. So just on the cost commentary, an increase in costs, which it sounds like you've been able to pass through, which is great. I understand that you have a contracted clinker cost. So could you just give a bit of color as to what are the key cost pressures you're facing and if you expect those same cost pressures to be, the key ones that you're looking to pass on in FY '23 as well?
I think if you look at costs, we've had increased costs across a lot of our businesses in terms of raw materials. So steel, CFT and cement, that's -- cement, not so much on the clinker side of things, you're correct, but there was a significant increase in shipping costs, which has affected the whole industry and not just -- I mean it affected the whole shipping industry is what I should say, it increased costs. So we -- that's where we've seen the pressures come through, mainly in the shipping side of things, but there are a more raw material costs, especially in steel and our CFT business.
And then just generally in fuel costs and labor costs.
And our next question comes from the line of Raj Ahmed with CCZ Equities.
Just a couple of questions. The first one, I think, Cam, you mentioned that, looking at the EFC side of things, you were looking to -- if I heard it right, you're looking to sell EFC through third-party concrete batching plants in Australia. Is that -- did I hear it right?
That's right, Raju. Yes. So we're not -- we're certainly not focusing on building batch plants ourselves to sell our EFC technology. Our EFC business is much more stand-alone these days and focused on selling that technology, not only to the precasters and concrete producers that we're having success within Europe, but also across Australia and India for that matter. So it's not something that we want to sort of insist on Wagners only adopting that technology. It's available to all producers.
If I may ask, what would be your, I suppose, key value proposition here for an existing concrete batcher to adopt this technology?
It would be to offer a zero-cement alternative to the concrete products that they supply to the market today. So in -- what we find in Europe, and why we've invested so heavily in London, is people are insisting on a zero-cement concrete, and that's what we make. So the value proposition for someone in Australia is to sell zero-cement concrete, not just a carbon-reducing concrete.
Do you see this to be a material line item in terms of revenue in the next 3, 4, 5 years in England and Australia?
Not in Australia, no. No.
Okay. All right. So let's quickly touch on the European market. I mean you mentioned that you've had a lot of interest, but you haven't received a satisfactory offer. Can you give us some clarity, if possible, what it is that you are looking for in the context of, I don't know how much you can disclose in the context of that, what -- how do you value this business as it stands?
That's a good question, Raju, on how you value the business. The business has the potential to be significant. So just based on -- we've had Michael over there now in the U.K., and he's been going around talking to some of our customers as well as Denis Wagner, the Chairman was over there last week as well and went through the U.K. and Germany and met potential customers.
He came back very energized about the value of EFC and what people are looking for -- people are [indiscernible] It's a high-demand thing. And the feedback that we got from all of the customers was that we were by far and away more advanced than any other sort of competitor in it. To get a better feel for that value, it might be worth, Michael, just giving you a quick update on some of those customers and what they are saying.
And also what we've actually achieved with EFC in London, particularly with the team that we've assembled. So Raju, the situation, to sort of cut to the chase on the offers we have had to join as an investment partner don't deliver without sort of putting a number on it, they definitely don't deliver the value that we expect, and we were not able to get to a point where we saw that it was the right thing for the shareholders of this business to accept one of the offers that was presented, and we see a better path forward.
Okay. So what I'm trying to understand here is, when you embarked on this, I suppose, strategic partial sell-down, correct me if I'm wrong, but the intent was to bring in a partner who knew the market and provide the funding for you to accelerate the growth. So at this point in time, would it be fair to say that you will now see a slower growth profile in that market? Or is it more a case of you're more emboldened by the, I suppose, the demand setting this year versus when you first embarked on this initiative?
Well, I think you're right in saying the right partner would have bought not only some investment to the business but some growth strategy and the ability to provide channels to market. That's been our focus. What we've managed to achieve through the year, and I will get Michael to speak to this in a moment, is those customer partners are emerging very, very quickly, although they're not the right financial partners to join our business. They're certainly the right consumer and right manufacturer of this type of technology to sell to the consumer base over there. So Michael, if you could just give us a couple of minute snapshot of what you've managed to achieve, I think that would be helpful.
Yes. Sure, Cam. Over here in the last 6 months, we've put a team on, we developed a manufacturing capability here in London, and I am completely galvanized in their approach. We've got a huge opportunity. We are rated by our customers as the leading technology available today for what is called as a bracket low-carbon concrete and what we are separating ourselves as a zero cement concrete. We're not just using a bit less cement, we're actually using no cement.
So from a climate carbon point of view, we're actually making a serious difference. We're seeing client -- government clients in the U.K., going to bid for major, major projects and pricing carbon. So they're putting numbers up to GBP 70 a tonne on the rating of a tender. So you put your pricing for your tender, you have to do your carbon accounting, and they're valuing that carbon at up to GBP 70 a tonne. So the U.K. market is completely focused on carbon reduction from the government level down. We're the leading technology in this space for [indiscernible] of the world's CO2. So I am absolutely galvanized in our approach. It's the right time to be here, and it is a fantastic opportunity for us.
Okay. Look, 2 more quick questions, hopefully. On the CFT side, would there be -- is there a, if I may say, a lesson learned in the pricing of shipping, given the fixed price contracts have hasn't really allowed you to bring in the margins that the product would otherwise have allowed you to?
It wasn't just shipping, Raju. It was also labor escalations. So when we win a project, there's often a 2- to 3-month lead time from contract award to completion, and it's very difficult to get escalation provisions in a 2- to 3-month contract. They're always hard dollar. So what we saw was glass rose quickly and resin rose quickly, so lesson learned there is to push harder to get escalation provisions. But then things like fuel and other commodity changes like that are difficult to build into those short-term contracts. So -- but yes, we definitely have a major focus on having those provisions in our contracts.
Okay. That's helpful. And the last one is back in the Australia and the CMS segment. It's quite promising that you've won a material supply contract into the Metro. Is this indicative of your potential to look at other metro projects in the years ahead? And also, how do you now see or value the Inland Rail opportunity for Wagners in the context of earnings flow over the next sort of 3, 4 years?
Well, I think you're right, it's 3 or 4 years away, it's not in the next 2 years. So -- for the Inland Rail project, and let's hope it is in the next 3 to 4 years. There's massive earnings opportunity there with even larger infrastructure from precast perspective. But this opportunity we've just secured with the Sydney Metro project just highlights once you've invested in these factories and in the ability and the people to execute this work, you can move further afield. And we're very sort of excited to be supplying that project and are looking quickly at where else we may be able to find similar opportunities to grow our revenue?
And our next question comes from the line of Liam Schofield with Morgans Financial.
Just 2 quick questions. On margins, can you sort of point to where the -- I suppose, the weakness is? Is it more in cement? Or is it in concrete? Or are you seeing it across the board?
In the second half of last year, Liam, cement, we obviously suffered some margin weakness there. There was an increase in shipping that came through, and due to contractual reasons, we were unable to pass that on to all of our customers. Obviously, an increase in cement has an increased cost to concrete as well. So we saw some margin pressure in concrete.
Now pleasingly, what we've seen in both of those is that there has been price rises across the market and price rises have been accepted across the whole market, which is quite different to what it's been for the last few years. So we sort of saw a lot of that alleviate.
CFT, I think we've mentioned that, and Raju, you asked the question just before. But yes, we probably had some contracts where once again, we suffered some increased costs on raw materials and shipping, and we're unable to pass them on because of fixed price contracts, and we have addressed a lot of that in some of our newer contracts for larger projects where we do have some sort of capacity to recover that.
Yes. So like most of your peers have just said that cost inflation ran well ahead of price growth during that second half. And it feels like this is what you guys have been exposed to as well?
That shipping issue for us was really February to June.
Yes. Okay. And as we sort of work through Earth Friendly Concrete, what are you sort of thinking in terms of OpEx and I suppose, to a degree, CapEx under the sort of the new, call it, go-to-market strategy. Are you -- is that going to be sort of in line with the second half for OpEx, do you think, next year? [indiscernible]?
I think we will probably spend a little bit more on EFC in a total for next year. We -- as Michael said, we're very encouraged by what the activity that we're seeing in Europe and U.K. We really need to focus our efforts on where there's the greater demand, and that seems to be the area that there is the greater demand.
Yes, perfect. And just one other quick question. Just on the quarries, the demobilization, how long did that last for?
I think it was 9 months. It was either 8 or 9 months.
Yes. Okay. So you're just saying next year, it will be a full year revenue contribution of about $20 million, and I suppose when you're...
Yes, well, it's quite different to last year because the tail end of it in the last year was all single shift, whereas now we're back to 24-hour operation.
Okay. No worries. So there was, call it, minimal revenue last year, but it will all be in this year?
Yes, a significant change in revenue from that site.
And our next question comes from the line of [ Michael Bets with Instantly Sold. ]
Just first of all, I want to congratulate you for steering the ship through a pretty difficult time in the last 9 months really since the war in Ukraine that have had an effect on all businesses everywhere. I just want to touch on the Earth Friendly Concrete. The CO2 savings compared to a normal batch of concrete, it's around 60%, I believe, is that correct?
As high as 70%, depending on the mix of concrete or -- yes, the mix of concrete that you use.
It's around a 70% savings, that's quite significant. Is there any advertising strategies at all for this Earth Friendly Concrete in the Australian market? Most people aren't sort of aware of it that I'm talking to.
We've got -- and Michael might want to jump in here. We've got a significant marketing strategy across the U.K. market. And to answer your question, no, we don't have anything of significance planned at this point in the Australian market. The Australian market for us has been where we've really had a great opportunity to trial some significant infrastructure projects. However, we really see our focus needs to be where the consumers are prepared to pay for the product, which, as we called out a little bit earlier, is -- our focus is in that London market.
Right, right. Is there any sort of market potential in the U.S. at all?
Michael, do you want to grab that one? That question?
Yes. Sure, Cam. So we have a significant marketing strategy. And at the moment, which is imminent, so it's about tying in with our capability to deliver. As I said, we've had the team, they've got their feet under the desk now. We've introduced ourselves to most relevant parties in the U.K. So now is the time to be hitting that.
The U.S., yes, I think there is a huge opportunity. Right now, it's about being able to deliver. So there is an opportunity. It won't be in every state in my experience in the U.S., but certainly in the likes of California, I think there is a great opportunity.
So EFC is a worldwide product. And that's really the opportunity that we have in front of us. And we will target initially jurisdictions where there is a demand for low-carbon materials. Generally, the government pushed down. So that's why the U.K. is such an attractive [indiscernible] government tenders there.
Yes. Also, too, on the Sydney project. This is a $40 million revenue over 2 years. That seems surplus. You project that to be a surplus to the $338 million that you -- of revenue this year...
It's $140 million -- sorry, it's $140 million over 20 months, which we will start in about October of this year.
Right. This project an increase in revenue over the next year?
Yes.
Yes, it is, yes. It's an additional project to what -- I mean we had some revenue this year. We had the tail end of Cross River Rail, and then we were doing some other prestressed concrete work during the year, but the revenue was down 25% on last year. But we expect the revenue to be significantly increased in precast due to the Sydney Metro tunnel project. We will be going 24 hours a day, 6 days a week, producing 67,000 tunnel segments over 20 months.
And I'm showing no further questions. So with that, I'll hand the call back over to Managing Director, Cameron Coleman, for any closing remarks.
Well, that concludes the presentation, everyone. Thanks very much for your interest. As we've sort of called out, we are quite encouraged by the level of activity we're seeing in the market, and the fact that we have been able to pass on the majority of our cost increases that we've seen across the business. So we're looking forward to a strong year, and we really appreciate your interest in our call today. Thank you. Bye.
Ladies and gentlemen [indiscernible] this conference, thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.