Amrize (AMRZ) Q3 2026 Earnings Call: Preise stützen Wachstum, Ausblick aktualisiert

Wichtigste Erkenntnisse

• Amrize berichtete für das 3. Quartal 2026 ein Umsatzwachstum von 2,2 %, das trotz wetterbedingtem Volumendruck durch Preiserhöhungen, Zuschläge und jüngste Übernahmen gestützt wurde.
• Der Jahresüberschuss stieg um 3,3 % auf 558 Mio. US-Dollar, das verwässerte Ergebnis je Aktie stieg um 4,1 % auf 1,02 US-Dollar und das bereinigte EBITDA erreichte 1,1 Mrd. US-Dollar.
• Das bereinigte EBITDA im Bereich Baumaterialien wuchs um 2,7 % auf 938 Mio. US-Dollar, während sich die Marge des Segments um 30 Basispunkte ausweitete. Die Preise für Gesteinskörnungen stiegen um 6,9 % und die Zementpreise um 1,8 %.
• Der Umsatz im Bereich Gebäudehülle stieg um 3,6 % auf 929 Mio. US-Dollar, das bereinigte EBITDA fiel jedoch um 14,6 %, da Rohstoff- und Frachtinflation die Dynamik bei Eindeckungen für Gewerbeimmobilien überwogen.
• Das Management aktualisierte die Prognose für 2026 auf einen Umsatz von 12,2 Mrd. bis 12,4 Mrd. US-Dollar und ein EBITDA von 2,95 Mrd. bis 3,05 Mrd. US-Dollar.
• Amrize schloss seine Aktienrückkaufermächtigung über 1 Mrd. US-Dollar am 28. Oktober ab und hatte im bisherigen Jahresverlauf über Dividenden und Rückkäufe 1,1 Mrd. US-Dollar an die Aktionäre zurückgegeben.

Wichtige Finanzdaten

Geschäftliche und operative Entwicklung

Baumaterialien

Der Bereich Baumaterialien profitierte von Preiserhöhungen, Übernahmen und Einsparungen durch das ASPIRE-Programm. Die Zementpreise verbesserten sich um 1,8 % und kehrten damit den im Vorquartal gemeldeten Rückgang von 0,2 % um, während sich der Preisanstieg bei Gesteinskörnungen von 4 % im 2. Quartal auf 6,9 % beschleunigte.

Das Zementvolumen ging um 4,2 % zurück, hauptsächlich aufgrund ungünstiger Witterungsverhältnisse in mehreren Regionen. Das Volumen bei Gesteinskörnungen sank um 0,2 %, wobei Übernahmen und eine stetige Infrastrukturnachfrage die wetterbedingte Schwäche teilweise ausglichen.

Das Management gab an, dass Preise, Zuschläge und Kostenkontrollen zu einer positiven Preis-Kosten-Position für das Segment führten. Amrize erweitert und entlastet zudem Zementkapazitäten in Märkten wie Texas, Alberta und Quebec, während sechs Steinbruchprojekte mehr als 150 Millionen Tonnen an Reserven hinzufügen sollen.

PB Materials und Rapid Ready-Mix entwickelten sich weiterhin über den ursprünglichen Erwartungen des Unternehmens. Das Management geht davon aus, dass sich beide Übernahmen im Jahr 2026 positiv auf das Ergebnis je Aktie (EPS) auswirken und Synergien mit dem Netz von Amrize für Gesteinskörnungen und Zement in Texas schaffen werden.

Gebäudehülle

Die Volumina im Bereich Eindeckung von Gewerbeimmobilien blieben stark, gestützt durch Systemverkäufe sowie Großprojekte in den Bereichen Rechenzentren, Lagerhallen und Bildungseinrichtungen. Die Eindeckung von Wohngebäuden blieb schwach aufgrund langsamerer Bestandsimmobilienverkäufe, Einschränkungen bei der Leistbarkeit und begrenzter sturmbedingter Ersteindeckungs- und Neueindeckungsaktivitäten.

Die Preise im Bereich Gebäudehülle verbesserten sich im Vergleich zum Vorquartal und drehten im Jahresvergleich ins Plus. Höhere Rohstoffkosten auf Petrochemiebasis und Frachtkosten belasteten jedoch die Profitabilität, während geringere Dachschindeln-Volumina den operativen Hebel verringerten.

Kosteneinsparungen und Kapitalallokation

Das ASPIRE-Programm generierte im bisherigen Jahresverlauf Einsparungen von 73 Mio. US-Dollar. Das Management bleibt zuversichtlich, für 2026 80 Mio. US-Dollar und das langfristige Ziel von 250 Mio. US-Dollar bis 2028 zu erreichen.

Amrize hat im bisherigen Jahresverlauf 1,1 Mrd. US-Dollar an die Aktionäre zurückgegeben. Das abgeschlossene Rückkaufprogramm über 1 Mrd. US-Dollar entsprach etwa 4 % des Grundkapitals. Der Verwaltungsrat erklärte zudem eine Dividende für das 3. Quartal von 0,11 US-Dollar je Aktie, zahlbar am 18. November.

Prognose des Managements

Amrize erwartet nun für das Gesamtjahr 2026 einen Umsatz von 12,2 Mrd. bis 12,4 Mrd. US-Dollar und ein EBITDA von 2,95 Mrd. bis 3,05 Mrd. US-Dollar.

Für den Bereich Baumaterialien erwartet das Management, dass die Zementpreise im 4. Quartal positiv bleiben und die Zementpreise im Gesamtjahr unverändert bis im niedrigen einstelligen Prozentbereich steigen werden. Für die Preise bei Gesteinskörnungen wird im Gesamtjahr ein Wachstum im mittleren einstelligen Prozentbereich erwartet. Das Unternehmen geht davon aus, dass das Segment im 4. Quartal weiterhin preis-kosten-positiv bleibt.

Für den Bereich Gebäudehülle erwartet das Management, dass die Preis- und Zuschlagsdurchsetzung die Preis-Kosten-Spanne im 4. Quartal im Vergleich zum Vorquartal verbessern wird. Das Unternehmen rechnet jedoch nun erst 2027 mit einer positiven Preis-Kosten-Dynamik, da die Inflation im Jahresvergleich höher ausfiel als zuvor erwartet.

Das Management geht davon aus, dass der normale saisonale Lagerabbau die Nachfrage nach Dachschindeln im 4. Quartal belasten wird. Der aktualisierte Ausblick berücksichtigt auch das Fehlen eines Netto-Versicherungsvorteils von 36 Mio. US-Dollar, der im 4. Quartal 2025 verbucht wurde.

Risiken und zu beobachtende Bereiche

• Höhere Fracht-, Diesel- und Rohstoffkosten bleiben insbesondere im Bereich Gebäudehülle ein Gegenwind für die Profitabilität.
• Erhöhte Zinssätze und Einschränkungen bei der Leistbarkeit könnten Bauprojekte verzögern und die Nachfrage im Wohnungsbau weiter belasten.
• Das Wetter beeinträchtigte im 3. Quartal die Volumina von Zement und Gesteinskörnungen, während das Ausbleiben schwerer Stürme die Eindeckungs- und Neueindeckungsaktivitäten bei Wohngebäuden verringerte.
• Der saisonale Lagerabbau bei Händlern wird voraussichtlich die Auslieferungen von Dachschindeln im 4. Quartal belasten.
• Das Management erklärte, dass der Zeitpunkt der Rückkehr des Bereichs Gebäudehülle zu einer positiven Preis-Kosten-Position teilweise vom künftigen Inflationsumfeld abhängt.
• Die Konversion des freien Cashflows für das Gesamtjahr wird aufgrund höherer Investitionen in das Geschäft voraussichtlich unter dem Unternehmensziel von 50 % bleiben.

Wichtigste Punkte aus der Fragerunde der Analysten

Erholung des Preis-Kosten-Verhältnisses: Das Management zeigte sich zuversichtlich, dass der Bereich Baumaterialien im 4. Quartal preis-kosten-positiv bleiben wird, gestützt durch Preiserhöhungen, Zuschläge und Einsparungen aus dem ASPIRE-Programm. Im Bereich Gebäudehülle wird eine Erholung für 2027 erwartet, wobei das Management kein bestimmtes Quartal nannte.

Nachfrage 2027: Das Management erklärte, dass es für 2027 ein Wachstumsjahr für Amrize erwartet. Die Nachfrage nach Eindeckungen für Gewerbeimmobilien und die Projekt-Pipeline bei Rechenzentren, Fertigung, Energie und Infrastruktur bleiben unterstützend, obwohl Zinssätze den Zeitplan von Projekten beeinflussen könnten.

M&A-Strategie: Amrize beschrieb seine Übernahmepipeline als solide. Das Management hob den Beitrag von PB Materials und Rapid Ready-Mix hervor, präzisierte jedoch nicht, ob es sich bei künftigen Transaktionen um kleinere Ergänzungsverkäufe (Bolt-on) oder größere Deals handeln werde.

Volumina im Bereich Baumaterialien: Das Management führte die Schwäche im 3. Quartal hauptsächlich auf das Wetter und anspruchsvollere Vorjahresvergleiche zurück, nachdem das Wachstum Mitte 2025 eingesetzt hatte. Es blieb mit Blick auf die Volumina zu Beginn des 4. Quartals und für 2027 unter Vorbehalt der Zinsentwicklung zuversichtlich.

Zementimporte: Das Management gab an, dass Amrize im Jahr 2026 nahezu keine Zementimporte verzeichnete. Seine Strategie konzentriert sich auf inländische Lieferketten, den Ausbau von Werkskapazitäten und operative Effizienz statt auf Importzement.

Vollständiges Transkript der Ergebnis-Telefonkonferenz

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz

Ausführungen des Managements

Operator

Hello, and welcome to the Amrize Q3 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Also as a reminder, this conference is being recorded today. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time.

I will now turn the call over to Dillon Cumming.

Dillon Cumming

Thank you, and good morning. This is Dillon Cumming, Vice President of Investor Relations for Amrize. Welcome to Amrize's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. We released our third quarter financial results yesterday after the market closed. You can find both our earnings release and presentation for today's call in the Investor Relations section of our website at investors.amrize.com.

On the call with me today is Jan Jenisch, Chairman and CEO; and Sam Poletti, CFO. Before we begin, during the call and in our slide presentation, we reference certain non-GAAP financial measures which we believe provide useful information for investors. We include reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to U.S. GAAP in our earnings release and slide presentation.

As a reminder, today's call is being webcast live and recorded. The transcript and recording of this conference call will be posted to our website. Any statements made about future results and performance, plans, expectations and objectives are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those presented during the call due to various factors, including, but not limited to, those discussed in our Form 10-K and in other reports filed with the SEC.

The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. Please also note that in today's presentation, certain prior period financial information includes revisions that were not material to any previously issued consolidated financial statements. Additional information regarding these revisions can be found in our Form 8-K filed with the SEC yesterday after the U.S. market close.

With that, I will now turn the call over to Jan.

Jan Jenisch

Thank you, Dillon, and thank you all for joining us today. I will begin with our top highlights and takeaways. We made important progress across our business in the third quarter. We increased revenue 2.2% on strong pricing and contributions from our recent acquisitions. This demonstrates the strength of our network and strategic footprint to deliver resilient results even with weather patterns affecting volumes across construction markets.

We grew net income 3.3%, and to $558 million and increased adjusted EBITDA to $1.1 billion. Diluted earnings per share increased 4.1% to $1.02. And Importantly, we expanded our margins in Building Materials by 30 basis points. This was thanks to strong pricing growth in cement and aggregates and solid traction with our energy, fuel and freight surcharges to offset oil price-driven cost inflation as well and excellent progress with our ASPIRE savings program. These results demonstrate our strong market position and our commitment to operational efficiency.

Our Building Envelope business continued to see strong commercial roofing momentum led by expanded system sales, large-scale data centers and industrial projects, while residential roofing was soft due to lower sales of both new and existing homes as well as software reroofing activity. Segment profitability was affected by higher freight, raw material costs and the lower shingles volumes. We are proactively managing what we can control.

Our pricing improved sequentially and year-over-year, and we had solid traction with our fuel and freight surcharges. We continue to successfully execute on our capital allocation strategy of investing for profitable growth through CapEx and M&A, while returning cash to our shareholders. We executed on $262 million of CapEx in the quarter, focused on attractive growth projects to expand production and improve efficiency and best serve our customers.

Our recent acquisitions, PB materials and rapid ready mix have been excellent additions to Amrize. Both positively contributing to our results and further strengthening our footprint in the Texas market. Through the third quarter, we have delivered $1.1 billion of cash to shareholders with our dividends and share repurchases.

As of October 28, yesterday, we successfully completed our $1 billion share repurchase authorization. And our Board has declared a third quarter dividend of $0.11 per share. That's no look at our market environment. In this quarter, we saw weather patterns impact construction volumes. In commercial construction, which makes up half of our business, we continue to see a strong pipeline of mega projects leading the way for both materials and roofing systems.

Billing Materials projects that broke ground in the third and fourth quarter of last year are now converting into building envelope demand. While elevated interest rates could affect the timing of some projects, we expect continued strong long-term demand for these projects, particularly data centers, advanced manufacturing plants and energy projects. These carry multiyear run times and our footprint, scale and distribution network with over 1,000 sites across North America is uniquely positioned to serve customers for these attractive projects.

In addition to the commercial projects, the required infrastructure upgrades associated with these projects offer a variety of opportunities for our business. Turning to infrastructure. Sales of federally funded projects continue to support steady demand. The recent infrastructure funding expansion should continue to offer near-term support for infrastructure activity in the U.S. and we expect the successor bill to drive a long-term infrastructure tailwind for our business.

The Draft Build America 250 Act includes strong funding for cement and aggregates intensive projects. In Canada, the federal and provincial governments are committing substantial funding to infrastructure. This includes their build communities strong fund and Ontario's 10-year capital plan with investments in national infrastructure, energy, public transportation, health care and housing. These programs are expected to support long-term demand for cement, aggregates and once in Canada.

Within the residential sector, interest rates and affordability challenges continue to limit new construction in the quarter. Reroofing remained pressured by a lack of significant storms and lower levels of existing home turnover. We expect this environment to continue through at least the fourth quarter with normal seasonal destocking trends likely to weigh on Q4 shingle demand.

We expect an eventual return to normal weather patterns and the structural housing shortage to eventually drive a return to industry growth over the long term. Overall, we see makeup projects continuing to lead the way for Amrize. Underlying growth trends, including onshoring of manufacturing, AI, energy, infrastructure and population growth are resilient, growing and long term in nature. And these projects have significant size and scale for Amrize.

Let me share some examples of our customer projects underway. In North Dakota, we are supplying both building materials and our Elevate MAX PVC roofing system for a new data center project. In Harbor, Texas, we are supplying cement, aggregates and ready-mix concrete for a new 5-gigawatt campus that represents the second largest data center under construction taxes.

In Louisiana, we are supplying high-performance cement and Slack for a new 12-mile long water infrastructure channel that build the work, access flood nodes to protect nearby communities. In the Toronto area, we are supplying aggregates and concrete for a large hiring infrastructure modernization.

On the building envelope side, we're supplying our Elevate Italy TPO system for a new cold storage facility in the Pacific Northwest. And both our Duralast and loved brands are supplying multiple education and school construction projects across North America. These are just some examples of our current projects and our pipeline continues to grow. Let us turn to our ASPIRE program.

As we continue to deliver for our customers, we are also driving synergies and operational excellence with ASPIRE. Our team has been successful in executing hundreds of projects across raw materials, services, logistics and equipment. We have an ongoing focus on strategic sourcing initiatives as well. For example, we have onboarded about 1,000 new suppliers.

We have now achieved year-to-date savings of $73 million, which has proven especially important in the current inflationary environment. This gives us a high degree of confidence in our full year target of $80 million and we are on track for our long-term goal of $250 million in savings through 2028.

Let us review our growth investments. We spent $262 million in CapEx in the third quarter. This includes production expansion and debottlenecking initiatives across several of our cement plants. These initiatives are focused in attractive markets like Texas, Alberta and Quebec, where we expect population and economic growth to drive customer demand for our solutions in the years to come.

Cement or expansions in Mantis, Cancer City, Cincinnati, Columbus and Labor Texas represent further growth projects that will continue to strengthen our distribution network in attractive growth markets. Our teams continue to execute 6 major Agrate quarry expansions aimed at adding more than 150 million tons of reserves to support our growth. In Building Envelope, our team continues to make excellent progress on our new state-of-the-art Malachi Shing plant in Indiana. This will enable us to expand market share in the attractive Midwest and Eastern markets.

Looking at M&A, we are executing our strategy with a strong focus on synergies and growth markets. Our acquisition of PB Materials, the aggregates leader in West Texas is proving to be an excellent addition and is exceeding our initial expectations. This quarter, we closed the acquisition of Rapid Ready-mix a fast-growing concrete producer in Dallas-Fort Worth. Both acquisitions are EPS accretive this year and are delivering significant synergies with our aggregates operations and cement network in the region, complementing the planned expansion of our Midlothian cement plant.

These actions demonstrate how we align our M&A and CapEx investments to connect our network and capitalize on growth opportunities. We are continuing to deliver cash to shareholders with year-to-date capital return now standing at $1.1 billion. We completed our $1 billion share repurchase program on October 28, representing around 4% of share capital. We have now paid $364 million of dividends year-to-date, including the special dividend for 2025 and the first and second quarter dividends of $0.11 per share earlier this year.

Additionally, the MIC Board of Directors has declared a dividend of $0.11 per share for the third quarter to be paid on November 18. We Importantly, these dividends are paid out of capital contribution reserves and are not subject to Swiss affording tax.

I will now turn it to Sam to review our quarterly financial results in more detail and later discuss our full year guidance.

Samuel Poletti

Thank you, Jan. Turning to our results for the third quarter. We delivered a resilient year-over-year revenue growth of 2.2%. And as accelerating pricing traction in both segments complemented positive contributions from completed M&A. This reflects the insulated position of our inland markets, accelerating aggregates pricing and contributions from our premium cement product offerings, which taken together, should continue to drive above-market pricing growth through the cycle.

We have also successfully passed energy, fuel and freight surcharges across both segments to offset increasing cost of production, which are continuing to flow through on a lag basis. In total, price accounted for $78 million tailwind in the quarter, which excludes additional contributions from surcharges across the majority of our business lines. These surcharges added a further $23 million to our year-over-year revenue change in the quarter.

Volume performance in the quarter was mixed, with unfavorable pressure from weather, particularly in the Northeast, South and Central regions. These volumes, pressures were most pronounced in our cement and aggregates business lines. Commercial roofing volumes remained strong. while residential roofing volumes remained under pressure from lower stone-related reroofing demand. Altogether, volumes represented $69 million headwind in the quarter.

Our acquisitions continue to outperform our expectations with PV materials and rapid Ready-mix contributing a total of $77 million in revenue for the quarter. Now to review our adjusted EBITDA performance. In the third quarter, adjusted EBITDA was slightly up year-over-year to $1.1 billion. Pricing actions and M&A drove the entirety of our resilient year-over-year improvement with partial offsets from lower volumes and continued inflationary impacts from freight, diesel and raw materials.

Our ASPIRE spire savings continue to mitigate the magnitude of these cost items, contributing to a positive price over cost position at the consolidated company level. We continue to take pricing actions and surcharges across all parts of our business to address the persistent inflation in U.S. freight rates, direct diesel expense and raw material expense in both segments.

Turning now to our results by segments. For Building Materials, revenue grew 1.8% year-over-year to $2.8 billion. By product, Cement pricing saw year-over-year growth of 1.8%, a positive inflection versus the 0.2% year-over-year decline reported last quarter. Year-over-year improvement was broad-based across markets and continues to reflect the benefits of our market-leading cement foot trends.

We also saw strong aggregates pricing growth of 6.9% and which represents an acceleration versus pricing growth of 4% last quarter. Similar to cement, growth in the quarter was broad-based and supported across our geographic footprint. Cement volumes fell 4.2% year-over-year. As previously mentioned, volumes saw unfavorable impact from weather patterns in several of our key regions in the quarter.

Aggregates volumes were down 0.2% year-over-year. Similar to our cement footprint, headwinds from weather were offset by benefits from acquisitions and steady demand from multiyear infrastructure projects. Building Materials adjusted EBITDA increased 2.7% year-over-year to $938 million. This year-over-year improvement was led by strong pricing and positive contributions from acquisitions, partially offset by ongoing headwinds from higher freight and diesel costs. our ASPIRE savings helped to partially mitigate headwinds from these costs.

As mentioned, we continue to implement surcharges across both cement and aggregates which, over time, should more fully offset the inflationary impact of oil and energy seen year-to-date.

Turning to Building Envelope. Revenues grew 3.6% year-over-year to $929 million. driven by stronger volumes in commercial roofing and positive pricing traction across both commercial and residential roofing. We continue to see success from our system focused sales strategy. combined with positive contributions from large-scale projects, including data centers, warehousing and education. Overall, commercial roofing demand remains resilient.

Turning to residential. Underlying market conditions faced ongoing headwinds from slower exiting home sales and a lack of significant storms. Affordability challenges continue to limit residential new construction. Building Envelope adjusted EBITDA was down 14.6% year-over-year. with tailwinds from stronger volumes, entirely offset by raw material inflation and higher freight.

Margins were unfavorably impacted by the ongoing delay between price realization and oil-driven inflation across our cost base. Importantly, at a segment level, pricing increased sequentially and inflected positive on a year-over-year basis. As previously announced actions continue to gain traction through the course of the quarter. Praveen fuel surcharges continue to ramp in Building Envelope segment as well. which are additive to the underlying pricing growth in the quarter.

We expect this trajectory of price improvement to continue through Q4 and into 27 which will help to drive the sequential improvement in our price over cost spread in Q4 versus Q3. We have a strong balance sheet and investment-grade credit ratings. As of September 30, 26, on a trailing 12-month basis, our net leverage ratio was 1.8x. We had approximately $299 million of cash and cash equivalents with $3.4 billion of total available liquidity.

This financial strength Coupled with our investment-grade balance sheet, gives us a significant liquidity to deploy capital for growth investments, acquisitions and return cash to shareholders. The strength of our balance sheet and resilience of our cash flow profile puts us in a favorable position for capital allocation. We will continue to maintain a balanced approach between organic growth investments M&A and cash return to shareholders.

I will now pass the call back to Jan to review our updated 2016 guidance.

Jan Jenisch

Thank you, Sam. In Building Materials, we expect cement pricing to be positive in the fourth quarter and to be flat to low single digit for the full year. We expect aggregates pricing at mid-single-digit growth for the full year. Elevated interest rates could drive softer volumes in our Building Materials segment in the fourth quarter.

We expect to be price over cost positive in building materials with price growth, energy, fuel and freight surcharges and our Aspire savings offsetting ongoing oil price-driven cost inflation. In Building Envelope, roofing markets remain mixed. With positive commercial volumes, offset by weather-related challenges in residential.

As a result of a lack of significant storms and ongoing affordability challenges we expect normal seasonal destocking patterns to weigh on fourth quarter shingle demand. This will likely pressure shipments at an industry level. We continue to see good traction with our pricing actions and surcharges in both commercial and residential and expect further improvements in the price over cost spread in the fourth quarter versus the third quarter.

However, the magnitude of year-over-year inflation has pushed our expectations for price over cost positivity into 2027. Our ASPIRE program remains on track to deliver $80 million in savings in 2026 with our teams focused on saving initiatives to address both underlying cost opportunities and efforts to mitigate cost inflation in both segments. As a reminder, there was a $36 million net insurance benefit in the fourth quarter last year that will not repeat this year.

As a result of these changes, we are updating our 2026 revenue and EBITDA guidance. We now expect revenues of $12.2 billion to $12.4 billion and EBITDA of $2.95 billion to $3.05 billion. These updated targets reflect ranges that we view as achievable under a variety of scenarios for the fourth quarter.

With that, I will pass the call back to the operator to begin the Q&A portion of the call.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from Anthony Pettinari with Citi.

Fragen und Antworten

Anthony Pettinari

Jan, you're obviously absorbing a lot of costs this year. And I'm just wondering, as we look to 27, can you talk about what kind of pricing actions you need to take in cement and aggs to recover those costs into the new year? And then just generally kind of your confidence in cost recovery and what seems like it could be a softer or at least a more volatile kind of demand environment?

Jan Jenisch

Yes. Thanks for the question. That's a big and important question. I think you've seen that the cost inflation has accelerated from Q2 into Q3. Now very hard to predict what's going to happen next year. I think we're going to revisit that in more detail. around the quarter 4. And fundamentally, we expect 2027 to a year of growth for us. Pricing momentum should continue. And then we have to see how the global situation evolves if that inflation will stay on that level or if you get some relief here.

Operator

Your next question comes from Trey Grooms with Stephens.

Ethan Roberts

This is Ethan on for Trey. I just wanted to clarify a few of the moving pieces around price/cost. So price cost and building materials is expected to exit the year in positive territory. But in building envelope, it sounds like as you ship on these roofing systems priced at legacy ASP that that's being pushed in 2027.

So one, we started to hear some conversation about perhaps some degree of a broadening of cost inflation outside of just freight and energy costs. So to what degree are you seeing this? And then two, on the building, but envelope price/cost piece, I know you mentioned that it would be positive in 2027, but is there any more color you can give on when exactly most likely just seasonally not a 1Q event, but any more color on high-level timing there would be great.

Jan Jenisch

Good question. I think, first of all, I I'm very proud of the team to execute this margin expansion of 30 basis points in Building Materials. And that was a tough challenge for us. You see our pricing cement up 1.8% in the third quarter. Aggregates up 6.9% in the third quarter.

And then you saw we reported another an extra $23 million of surcharges for energy, transportation and diesel, where a large part is also for building materials. So the teams have really executed very well in this high inflation environment, I'm very proud of that. we believe this will continue. We will carry that with pricing into the fourth quarter. And I think we're going to see satisfactory results or expect to be price over cost positive also or building materials. So a really great job done from the team.

I would say for Building Envelope, the challenge was maybe even it was a bit steep, I think, first of all, from -- you mentioned it, the cost inflation went beyond transportation or diesel only. We also have the petrochemical-based raw materials, which were inflated in Q3. So that was obviously a burden for our residential and commercial roofing products. So that was a bit steeper on the inflation side.

And then maybe second, the market, especially the soft environment for changes for residential roofing didn't help with the pricing. Nevertheless, the teams did also a good job here. We increased prices in both product lines or business lines, so in residential and in commercial roofing, which makes us confident for the future.

We have then also the surcharges are working well here, especially for transportation. As you mentioned, logistics is up significantly in Q3. So this is good. So now how is this turn where I'm confident our pricing is going well. So that is doing well. So the one thing not in our control is the inflationary environment. So we have that in the question before. We have to see now how this phases out. You saw the crude oil prices really stand at the moment.

So we have to really see how this plays out beginning of the year. But I'm confident that we do everything under our control to reach the target of priceable cost positive, but I cannot control the inflationary environment.

Operator

Your next question comes from Bryan Blair with Oppenheimer.

Bryan Blair

I also want to focus on building material -- building envelop price costs. Are you willing to quantify the dollar or margin impact in Q3? And then what's contemplated in Q4 guidance ahead of the transition to targeted parity or better looking at 2027.

Jan Jenisch

Yes. I cannot share that data with you. We obviously have our scenarios what can happen in Q4 and then also importantly, into the next year 2027. We know that the building envelope side or especially the commercial and the residential roofing has been on a bit of a roller coaster, right?

We started that we had last year, a very slow quarter 4. So the comparison base is actually on a low bar for Q4. At the same time, that volume decline led to pricing challenges beginning of the year. And then in Q2, we entered into this very strong inflation. So the building envelope side is challenged. At the same time, we had basically no weather impact like you normally would see.

So the reroofing and residential was largely disturbed the same rate increases for interest rates don't help. So we have a couple of things challenging at the moment. But again, I think we do the right thing on pricing on cost mitigation and on surcharges. And now we have to see how the inflation will play out in Q4 and then also for next year.

Operator

Your next question comes from Cedar Ekblom with Morgan Stanley.

Cedar Ekblom

My question relates to the Building Materials business. So in the third quarter, we had a positive price over cost delivery, which is, I think, very encouraging, especially in an environment where volumes were negative. If I'm thinking about the fourth quarter guidance, though, the sort of implication at the midpoint for the year-on-year trend, do I need to think about a negative price over cost in building materials in the fourth quarter?

Or is the price over cost challenge really centered around the building envelope business. So I'm just trying to understand about the sequential price over cost development and how we should think about that in the fourth quarter for materials specifically.

Jan Jenisch

Yes. Cedar, I already talked a bit about this. I think I'm very confident for building materials. We really made it -- I would say, our teams made an excellent job in on the pricing, on the surcharges, on cost mitigation and I think this will stay in quarter 4.

I think we have somewhere in the documentation, we also guide for positive price over cost for the fourth quarter, and this is what I'm expecting.

Operator

Your next question comes from [ Garrett Greenblatt ] with JPMorgan.

Unknown Analyst

As we think about the M&A environment going forward given the recent rating across the space and some larger acquisitions across your peers. How are you thinking about the opportunity and the health of the pipeline in -- should we continue to see acquisitions more bolt-on in Construction Materials? Or could we see something larger and more transformative across your portfolio?

Jan Jenisch

Great question. Look, I think we have a track record of successful M&A, and you can expect that from us also going into the future. I'd like to mention that we have 2 fantastic acquisitions this year already, PB materials, the leader, aggregates leader for West Texas. This was a fantastic deal. We have a great team in West Texas.

The market is really booming there with all the -- not only oil and gas, but all the projects they have for data centers energy projects. So we really are even on a good timing, but the company is just great. And we are above expectations for sales and EBITDA, and materials will be a fully earnings accretive already this year. Similar fantastic deals with Rapid Ready Mix.

We just closed on the last day of July, in Dallas, Fort Worth fantastic ready-mix company with huge growth and a great team also there. Also here, we expect to close the year above expectations and also this acquisition will be value accretive. So while these 2 deals might not qualify $1 billion deal. They are very important to us. They are adding more than 2% in sales and EBITDA in earnings growth and this is very important for our growth model.

Our pipeline is, I would say, we have a very solid pipeline of future M&A, and we're working on it on a daily basis. And I hope we can report more action here in the months to come.

Operator

Our next question comes from David McGregor with [ Lombo ] Research.

Unknown Analyst

Can you hear me?

Jan Jenisch

Yes, we can hear you.

Unknown Analyst

Okay. Wonderful. I'm sorry about the technology. Well, congratulations on the strong pricing performance in the quarter in Building Materials, 7% lift in ags, 2% in cement is pretty impressive in this market. I guess I would like to ask you what you learned from the midyear pricing this year and about what is maybe changing in the demand environment for eggs and cement?

And how does that guide your thinking you should develop your beginning of your ask?

Jan Jenisch

That's a good question. Look, first of all, I'm happy you remember when we talked about Q1 and we talk about aggregates, I think in Q1, we were only at plus 1% in pricing, if I recall correctly. And then we shared that we have the price increase planned for April, and that was true.

So we then sequentially or year-over-year, we had a 4% aggregate pricing increase for Q2, so fantastic. We followed through, there's a few selected pricing things, but basically really executed the April price increase very well. And now in Q3, we are up 6.9% agree pricing. Very proud of the team. We had many questions in the past, are you not putting pricing in aggregate to something. I always share we have 1 of the best in quarries and aggregates and quality.

And then our teams will show that. And so I'm really proud to do that. In addition, A lot of surcharges, I shared before, we had $23 million just in Q3 in surcharges alone, which was not part of the price. So very happy with this. So what did I learn? I'd tell you, we had a very strong focus on the pricing this year. This is something we talk with the teams where we follow up on it really on a weekly basis. and that helped a lot.

We're sharing with the teams, different experiences and so on. So that really helps. And I'm, again, I'm proud of what the team delivered selling is similar a bit, right? We promised we were down in pricing in Q1 and then we did the April price increase and teams executed this really well, and now we are standing at 1.8% increase for the third quarter.

So well executed. That was maybe a bit more challenging as we have maybe other market participants with softer pricing or something, but we didn't compromise and the teams were really committed to show such a pricing. So very happy. We're very happy.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Julian Radlinger with UBS.

Julian Radlinger

Can you hear me?

Jan Jenisch

Yes, Julian. Go ahead.

Julian Radlinger

Great. Okay. So on building materials volumes. So you started the year feeling quite positive on commercial demand particularly thinking back 9, 12 months now. And you had a good H1, I think, a bit helped by comps, right? Now Q3 volumes were quite soft. It's a little bit weather affected. That's clear.

But what exactly changed here? Was it just weather and weaker resi or did commercial or infra also slow down? And from today's point of view, as you're looking to Q4 and then especially into 2027. I mean is it reasonable to assume that can be a growth year? Or are things trending a little bit more flattish at the moment? Any color would be super interesting.

Jan Jenisch

Julian, thanks for the question. Look, I think we did -- on the volume side, we had a good quarter in commercial roofing. You want to point to this. We also see very continued demand for commercial roofing going into Q4 and then also for next year and really driven by, I think, icing on the cake is the by data centers, but also we have a long pipeline of projects here to be roof.

So this is going very well. I think on the chin side, we maybe we don't -- I think we don't show that number, but that was a softer Q3, and there was no storm season this time or something. So we have this and double effect of less demand and then some destocking in the distribution channel. So the Shields had a tough quarter.

Now we expect this should normalize in the future. I think I don't see that those volumes will stay that low for next year, especially, and we will get to a more normalized season. So I think -- does that answer your question, Julian?

Julian Radlinger

Excuse me. Sorry, sort of. I was actually asking for material, it's not for envelope, sorry.

Jan Jenisch

Okay. For materials, I think there's nothing to really worry about that we had actually billing materials has started to grow middle of last year. We talked about this in previous sessions that building materials with the more projects start in commercial and the strong infrastructure demand, we had a growth basically every quarter since then. So the comp is maybe a little bit more challenging for us at the moment. Had quite some weather effect, especially in Texas and some other regions.

I don't want to use this really as an excuse, but that certainly took down the volumes quite significantly in those areas. And we have -- I don't -- I'm quite confident for the volumes now going into Q4 and going into next year. After the one thing, I think we also shared with you in the docs is you have to see now the recent interest rate increases, how this will play out in midterm how this will play out. But nothing in my control.

I think we are doing what we always have been doing. We're focusing on acquiring those large projects and supplying our products.

Operator

Our next question comes from Martin Hüsler with ZKB.

Martin Huesler

I hope you can hear me.

Jan Jenisch

Yes, Martin.

Martin Huesler

Okay. So my question is about the free cash flow conversion. Obviously, you have returns target of 50%. And obviously, we can see that the CapEx is a bit higher for this year. But maybe maybe your thoughts on what you can expect for for the last quarter, I mean what range we might end up.

Jan Jenisch

Thank you, Martin, for the question. I pass this over to our CFO, Sam.

Samuel Poletti

Martin, happy to address that. I think from an overall perspective, we're very happy with where cash flow goes, obviously, have a seasonal business, which you know, so we're always getting the majority of the cash flowing towards the end of the year. This is particularly related to our maintenance programs, which we're doing in the low season.

So I'm very confident where we see that. We always have a good collection throughout the fourth quarter. So I would still expect that we are a bit lower on cash conversion, it's not at the 50% level, that's going to be a bit down because we are investing more into our business and we see that fruit than coming into fruition basically then into the next quarters and particularly next year.

Operator

Last question comes from Yassine Touahri with On Field Investment Research.

Yassine Touahri

I think your reporting suggests that you imported a bit more than 2 million tonnes of cement last year or around 10% of your volume. And I remember you mentioned that last summer that we intend to reduce import to just a few hundred thousand tons. Could you give us an indication of your import run rate this year and your expectation for next year?

And also on import, do you think that cement producer might take a more measured approach to pricing in coastal markets to discourage importers for expanding in a context where or even maybe push some out of the market in a context where they will probably see some significant pressure from a higher freight rate?

Jan Jenisch

No, look, our strategy is not to import cement. I mean we have, as Amrize a specific strategy to strengthen all our domestic supply chains we see as we are a local partner with local supply chains. And you see in our CapEx, we are increasing our flagship plans, the capacity and the efficiency here going into the future. We just finalized the big investment in [ Syngin, ] the largest single cement plant in North America.

We have other projects now in Canada in Texas to increase capacity and efficiency. This is our future. We have almost no cement imports this year because that's not our strategy. You see also our vision for the company. We are certifying now all our cement plans made in America Canadian ones as product of Canada. These are official logos from the government.

We are able to obtain and this is our strategy, local for local supply chains, and we don't believe that import strategy is necessarily sustainable or has sufficient returns. So you will see that from us. I think we demonstrated now people talk about imports, well, we increased the price, we increased the margins.

And I think you can expect more of that from us in the future, especially on the efficiency side, we believe we have a lot of leverage here going into the future as we have covered quite some -- had to cover quite some cost increase over the last couple of years. So very confident but precisely to your question, basically not in order this on cement.

Operator

We have no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Jan Jenisch for closing remarks.

Jan Jenisch

Yes. Thank you very much for joining us today for the third quarter, and I very much look forward to engage with you in the future, especially for our fourth quarter report coming up in February. Thank you very much.

Operator

This concludes the Amrize Q3 2026 Earnings Conference Call. You may now disconnect.