Cooper-Standard Holdings (NYSE:CPS) released second-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Thursday. Read the complete transcript below.
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Summary
Cooper-Standard Holdings reported second quarter 2026 sales of $721.3 million, a 2.2% increase from the previous year, driven by favorable foreign exchange and customer price adjustments.
The company achieved $15 million in savings through cost optimization initiatives and reported a net new business award of $118 million in the quarter, contributing to a total of $246 million in new business for the first half of 2026.
Despite a net loss of $18.8 million in Q2, the company anticipates recovering material cost increases in the second half of the year through commercial agreements and expects positive free cash flow generation for the full year.
Strategically, Cooper-Standard Holdings is focused on expanding its margins and return on invested capital through cost optimizations, new program launches, and enhanced commercial agreements.
Management is optimistic about the future, maintaining full-year guidance for sales and profitability and highlighting the company's ability to adapt to flat production volumes while achieving margin expansion.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Cooper-Standard Holdings second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. During the presentation, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Following the company prepared comments, we will conduct a question and answer session. At that time, if you have a question, you will need to press star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star two. As a reminder, this call is being recorded and the webcast will be available on the Cooper-Standard Holdings website for replay later today.
I would now like to turn the call over to Roger Hendrickson, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Roger Hendrickson, Director of Investor Relations
Joining our call this morning, the members of our leadership team who will be speaking with you on the call this morning are Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and John Bannis, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I need to remind you that this presentation contains forward-looking statements. While they are made based on current factual information and certain assumptions and plans that management currently believes to be reasonable, these statements do involve risks and uncertainties.
For more information on forward-looking statements, we ask that you refer to slide three of this presentation and the company's statements included in periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This presentation also contains non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures compared to their most directly comparable GAAP measures are included in the appendix to the presentation. With those formalities out of the way, I'll turn the call over to Jeff Edwards.
Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Roger, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining the call this morning. To begin on slide 5, I'd like to highlight some key second quarter data points that we believe are reflective of our continued outstanding operational performance and our ongoing commitment to our core company values. In terms of operations and customer service, we continue to deliver excellent performance for product quality and service. Ninety-nine percent of our customer scorecards were green in the quarter.
For new program launches, we also continue to deliver strong performance with 97% of the customer scorecards being green. And for the most important operating metric, safety performance continues to be excellent. A shout out there to our plant employees. Thank you all. Just further on safety, listen to these stats—pretty impressive. During the second quarter, we had a total incident rate of 0.17 reportable incidents per 200,000 hours worked. That's well below the world-class benchmark of 0.35.
Importantly, 44 of our plants have maintained a perfect safety record with a total incident rate of zero for the first six months of the year. That's 75% of all of our production facilities achieving a perfect safety score and demonstrating that our ultimate goal of zero safety incidents is achievable. We're proud of our entire global team for their focus and achievement in this most important operating measure. In terms of cost optimization, we had another solid quarter with our manufacturing and purchasing teams delivering $15 million of savings through lean initiatives and other cost-saving programs.
These cost reductions and operating efficiencies are always important, but I would call them critical in periods of hyperinflation such as we just experienced this quarter. So I want to give a special shout out to our purchasing team and our manufacturing and engineering teams for their continued excellent work and achievements. We appreciate all you're doing. In addition, we did a nice job managing working capital and spending in order to optimize cash flow during the quarter.
We were pleased to deliver a solid $16 million in free cash flow, a $40 million improvement over the second quarter of last year. Finally, we're continuing to leverage our world-class service technical capabilities and our award-winning innovations to win significant new business. In fact, during the second quarter of 2026 we received $118 million in net new business awards which will drive additional profitable growth as they launch over the next few years.
Turning to slide 6, putting this strong commercial performance in context, this brings the total net new business awards for the first half of the year to $246 million. This remains ahead of our plans for the year so far, which we believe puts us in a strong position to achieve the full year goal of over $400 million in 2026 and topping $700 million when combined with last year's award. As you can see in the chart, our new business awards have been accelerating over the past few years as the financial strength of the company has been improving.
And the good news is that we will have available capacity to launch much of this new business over the coming years with minimal capital investment. We're certainly proud to be the supplier that our customers are increasingly turning to for quality components, consistency of delivery, and collaboration of critical design and development of new technologies. With these awards in hand driving incremental variable contribution margins and a strong outlook for new business wins ahead, we're increasingly confident that we'll be able to execute our plans and achieve our longer-term strategic financial targets for growth, margins, and return on capital.
Now let me turn the call over to John to discuss the financial results for the quarter.
John Bannis, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Jeff, and good morning, everyone. In the next few slides, I'll provide some details on our financial results for the quarter and discuss our cash flows, liquidity, and aspects of our balance sheet and capital structure. On slide 8, we show a summary of our results for the second quarter and first half of 2026 with comparisons to the same periods last year. Second quarter 2026 sales were $721.3 million, an increase of 2.2% compared to the second quarter of 2025.
The increase was driven primarily by favorable foreign exchange and, to a lesser extent, favorable volume, mix, and customer price adjustments and recoveries. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was $53.9 million compared to $62.8 million we reported in the second quarter of 2025. The year-over-year change was primarily due to higher costs for materials, duties and tariffs, and other general inflationary pressures. On a U.S. GAAP basis, we reported a net loss of $18.8 million in the second quarter of this year compared to a net loss of $1.4 million in the second quarter of 2025.
Adjusting for restructuring expense, net of tax, from both periods, adjusted net loss for the second quarter was $2.3 million, or $0.13 per share, compared to adjusted net income of $1 million, or $0.06 per share, in the second quarter of 2025. Our capital expenditures in the second quarter of 2026 totaled $13.8 million, or 1.9% of sales. This was higher than the prior-year period due to increased launch-related investments and automation, but in line with our full expected run rate of 2% to 3% of sales.
We continue to exercise discipline around our capital investments, consistent with our goals of maximizing returns on invested capital. For the first half of the year, sales were $1.4 billion, up year over year primarily due to favorable foreign exchange, and adjusted EBITDA for the first six months was $104.9 million and adjusted net loss was $7.6 million. I'll provide some additional detail on the drivers of the year-over-year changes for the quarter and the first half in the charts on the next couple of slides.
So, moving to slide 9: For second quarter sales, favorable foreign exchange was a tailwind of approximately $10 million in the quarter versus the second quarter of 2025. Favorable volume and mix, net of customer price adjustments and recoveries, had a positive impact on sales of approximately $5 million compared to the same period a year ago. For second quarter adjusted EBITDA, lean initiatives in purchasing and manufacturing positively contributed $15 million year over year, demonstrating continued strong performance from our global teams.
In addition, favorable foreign exchange added $2 million compared to the second quarter of last year. More than offsetting these improvements were $10 million of higher material costs around rubber, metals, and resins, as well as $8 million in increased wages and general inflation, and $8 million in higher duties, tariffs, and other costs. Most of the commodity inflation was driven by higher oil prices, which averaged about $30 per barrel higher in the second quarter than before the Middle East conflict began.
As discussed during our first quarter conference call earlier this year, the gross commodity inflation incurred during the second quarter is really a timing difference. Based on the structure of our commercial agreements, we expect to recover most of these incremental input costs, as well as tariffs, in the second half of the year according to the index-based contracts and agreements we have in place, as well as through typical commercial negotiations.
This is really the first time that our index-based contracts have been significantly tested since we put them in place, and we're pleased that they are working as intended. Price increases have already gone into effect in the third quarter, which will allow us to recover much of the material cost inflation we have seen. Moving to slide 10, looking at adjusted EBITDA for the first half of the year, our teams have generated $31 million in savings or increased efficiencies in manufacturing and supply chain optimization, which continue to benefit our results.
We have also seen $3 million in savings from past restructuring initiatives. Nonetheless, these positive drivers were more than offset by $15 million in wage increases and general inflation, $11 million in higher duties and tariffs, and $10 million of higher material costs, as well as $8 million of unfavorable volume and mix along with $6 million of other costs. As mentioned, despite ongoing cost pressures from materials and tariffs, we remain confident in our ability to recover or mitigate the vast majority of these impacts through commercial recoveries and operational actions.
Accordingly, we expect only a modest net effect on full-year results and will continue to proactively manage changing commodity conditions and recovery timing throughout the remainder of the year. Turning to slide 11, as Jeff mentioned earlier, we had a strong quarterly performance in terms of cash flow. Free cash flow, defined as cash provided by operations minus CapEx, was $16.3 million in the period. This was an improvement of $39.7 million compared to the second quarter of last year, driven primarily by our successful refinancing in the first quarter and our continued focus on optimizing working capital.
Year to date, cash usage was higher than the prior-year period, reflecting lower first-half earnings driven by elevated material and tariff costs, volume and mix dynamics, as well as increased capital investments supporting new program launches and automation initiatives. As material cost recoveries take effect and operational efficiencies ramp up further, we continue to expect positive free cash flow generation for the full year. We ended the second quarter with a cash balance of $126.6 million, coupled with $167.6 million of availability on our ABL facility, which remains untapped.
We had total liquidity of nearly $300 million as of June 30, 2026. We believe that this current level of liquidity, combined with expected future cash generation, provides us with sufficient resources to support the continuing execution of our strategic plans to deliver profitable growth, lower our net leverage, and maximize returns on our invested capital. This concludes my prepared remarks, so let me turn it back over to Jeff.
Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, John, and in this last portion of our call, I'll comment on our high-level strategic imperatives and how we believe these are positioning us for continuing profitable growth over the next several years. Then I'll wrap up with a few comments on our outlook for the business and our industry in general in 2026. So if we can turn to slide 13, our strategies and operating plans are built around the four key strategic imperatives that you see outlined on slide 13.
By aligning the company around these common objectives, we continue to drive significant improvements in virtually every aspect of our business, and by the continuing execution of our plans and strategies, we're positioning the company to deliver continued profitable growth, further improvements in margin, and significantly improve returns on invested capital. Slide 14 — the charts on slide 14 provide a concise summary of the progress we've made in restoring the financial health of the company.
Through our successful strategic execution, we've been able to increase our gross profit margins by 160 basis points over the past two years despite reduced or flat production volumes in our two largest operating regions. This includes the impact from the significant decline in production on one of our key programs here in North America that resulted from a customer supply chain disruption beginning in the fourth quarter of last year and carrying into the first half of this year.
Because of our success in driving sustainable efficiencies and fixed cost reductions, we believe we will continue the trend of expanding margins in 2026 and beyond, even if production volumes remain flat, and we would expect to leverage any increases in production volume to drive further profitability and returns. In addition to our cost optimizations, we're benefiting from continuing launches of new programs and products with enhanced variable contribution margins.
As the new programs ramp up, they're replacing older programs that have lower margins on average. Our book of business launch cadence and the timing of run-out business give us a high degree of confidence in our expanding margin outlook. In addition, our enhanced commercial agreements with top customers allow us to recover most material and tariff cost increases such as those we experienced this quarter. This significantly reduces the risk for turbulent market conditions that might otherwise disrupt our strategic execution.
Turning to slide 15, both of our business segments are continuing to execute their sound strategies to drive profitable growth and improve returns on invested capital. Specifically, in our sealing segment, where we're already the global leader in the industry, we're leveraging our leading technologies, expertise and innovation to capture additional share and profitability. We've also deployed sophisticated digital tools, and we're in the process of implementing several automation initiatives within our manufacturing facilities to drive further efficiencies and improved asset utilization.
Finally, as we continue to deliver exciting innovations that provide incremental value to our customers, we're winning more than our share of new business. Turning to slide 16, we provide a few examples of the sealing innovations we've introduced into the market that are beginning to gain traction and drive sales. Our Flush Seal system has been very popular and is already in production on more than 20 vehicle programs. A more recent innovation, Flexicore Body Seals, is an award-winning technology that we expect will be in production on two vehicle programs later this year.
In addition, we're advancing development projects for Flexifit Glass and Flexifit Hidden Outer Waist Belt technologies with several customers and expect to add these innovations to our list of new business awards very soon. Turning to slide 17, in our Fluid Handling Systems segment, we believe we have an unmatched portfolio of products and innovations that position us well to take advantage of increases in ICE and hybrid powertrains in the U.S., the continuing adoption of EVs in China, and the evolving mix of hybrids and EVs in Europe.
This flexibility around powertrains, combined with our ability to design and deliver engineered solutions to optimize vehicle efficiency, is creating opportunities for increasing content per vehicle and profitable new growth. Additionally, the current challenges in our market are creating difficulties for some of our competition, resulting in opportunities for us. Recently we received a call from an OEM with whom we'd had traditionally stable business but, frankly, a lower level of revenue.
They shared that they had a problem with a direct fluids competitor and asked if we'd be interested in and willing to invest in growing our relationship with them beginning immediately. Together we moved fast to make modest capital investments and preparations in our plant and this customer moved business that was already in production and awarded it to our Fluids group. And this was not a one-time event. Over the past 10 months, our Fluids group has been awarded mid-production conquest business nearly 10 times, with the awards totaling nearly $40 million in annual sales, and that's effective this year.
So our continued commitment to providing world-class quality, service and overall value to our customers is certainly being recognized, making us the clear supplier of choice for vehicle fluid handling systems. As we've said in the past, our longer-term strategic target, make no mistake, is to double the fluid handling business within the next five to seven years. With recent new business wins and a long list of target business opportunities coming up, we believe we're on track to achieve this goal.
Turning to Slide 18, to conclude our prepared remarks this morning, I'll shift focus to the near term and our outlook for the rest of 2026 as we look forward to the remaining five months of the year. We're optimistic that certain headwinds we've faced over the past few quarters will be resolved or mitigated in the back half of the year. We are seeing more normalized production volume on certain key platforms and we expect that to continue. Additionally, while our cost for materials remain elevated due to oil prices and disruptions in the Middle East, we've begun recovering these incremental costs per the terms of our commercial agreements and through further commercial negotiations. It's important to note with the enhanced commercial agreements and index-based contracts that we put in place over the past few years, we've structurally improved the business to limit the potential risks in precisely these types of hyperinflationary markets. Meanwhile, we're focusing on delivering high value for our customers, optimizing our operations around the world, and successfully executing our strategic plans to drive profitable growth, further expand our margins and once again maximize return on invested capital.
Turning to Slide 19, so, despite the higher material costs that we've discussed and the timing of commercial recoveries that impacted our results here in the second quarter, we believe we remain on track to achieve our full-year plan for sales and profitability in terms of adjusted EBITDA. This was reflected in the midpoint of our guidance range, which we've kept unchanged even though we tightened the upper and lower ends of the range to reflect better visibility mid-year, which is traditionally how we've done it.
We did make a few minor adjustments to other elements of our guidance, including a small increase in capital spending reflecting incremental investments for the unplanned new business launches that I described earlier, an increase in restructuring expense as we accelerate initiatives to optimize fixed cost in our overall operating footprint, and a decrease in expected net interest expense to reflect the terms of our successful refinancing. So in summary, we're confident and believe that we will deliver strong full-year results in 2026.
And importantly, we believe we are solidly on track to achieve our longer-term strategic financial targets that we've reviewed with you for adjusted EBITDA and return on invested capital as we continue to grow and improve the business over the next four to five years. As we wrap up, I certainly want to thank our customers, our suppliers and all of our stakeholders for your continued confidence and support. We also want to thank all of our employees for their continued hard work, dedication and their commitment to driving sustainable long-term value.
This concludes our prepared remarks. So let's move into Q&A.
OPERATOR
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up the handset before entering your request. To withdraw from the queue, please press star two. One moment, please, for your first question as we assemble the queue. Your first question comes from Michael Ward of Citibank. Your line is already open.
Michael Ward, Analyst at Citibank
Thank you. Good morning, everyone.
Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Mike.
Michael Ward, Analyst at Citibank
Jeff, when you talk about these conquest awards, is that unique to the fluids business, where you can pick it up that quickly? Normally hear about conquest wins and they're one, two, three years down the road, but for it to, it sounds like it's impacting business today.
Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, that's right, Mike. As I said, it is unique. We are well positioned with technology and with our ability to execute. And as we've talked many times, the fluid business is critical components, right? I mean, if it leaks, it shows up in your driveway or your garage and there's a big problem. So I think customers are really taking a look at the innovation we have, the technology we have, how well we're executing in that business. And so when they have issues, you know, they're addressing them quickly.
So I thought it was important this morning to share that because it is different, it is unique. That's happened actually to our sealing teams a couple times as well here in the past 12 months. But we're proud of the fact that we have those relationships. Our footprint allows us to be nimble and quick and flexible. Obviously moving sealing programs is more challenging than some of the fluid businesses, Mike. So I think, you know, both of those things play a role.
But really hats off to our manufacturing and engineering teams and obviously the commercial folks that are on the front end there making that happen. But we're pretty proud of that. And look, I said we're going to double the business in five to seven years. And we said that two years ago. So we're on track to achieve that as well. So our fluid team and our sealing team are performing at a very high level. We're proud of them.
Michael Ward, Analyst at Citibank
So a combination of the product innovation as well as—sounds like some weakness on the competitive front where they're struggling.
Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, or decisions that they made. I'm not sure which it is. Maybe it's a combination of both. You know what I mean?
Michael Ward, Analyst at Citibank
Right. John, I just want to make sure, confirm your second half outlook based on your guidance and what it suggests. If I'm doing my math right, you're talking about adjusted EBITDA margins in the second half at the midpoint of the range, 12% plus. And when I look at the cash flow numbers, 100 million in surplus cash or free cash flow. Is that—am I looking at it in the right way?
John Bannis, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, you are. Your math triangulates, Mike. That's the expectation. Certainly when you think about these recoveries coming online, that'll benefit EBITDA and then follow through to cash flow, both. So both of those metrics will benefit in the second half. And you know, all the focus that we put on the call today earlier about purchasing performance and the manufacturing team's performance, you know, they had a strong first half, but they're looking forward to even better half.
As you look at the overall bridge going across the page, they're in line with another 50-plus million dollars in the second half of incremental savings year over year. So that'll go a long way towards completing the walk in the second half.
Michael Ward, Analyst at Citibank
Okay, now that's not going to be the run rate for next year, but it certainly is, you know, next six months or so, you have a pretty positive outlook. So that's good news. Thank you very much.
Roger Hendrickson, Director of Investor Relations
Okay, Mike, thanks.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from Doug Carson of Bank of America. Your line is already open.
Doug Carson, Analyst at Bank of America
Thanks, guys. Thanks, Jeff. John and Roger, you, great job on the business wins. It's impressive year to date. It's a big number. I just want to maybe double click on the guidance. As we look at the $105 million you've done in the first half, that would suggest an 80-plus million EBITDA each quarter on the low end of the guidance and around 95 million a quarter to reach the high end. So when we try to get that goal, I'm looking at the recoveries as a big part of that.
Help me think about that a bit of what type of recoveries would we be looking at. Because when I look at slide on slide 10, the kind of year-to-date bridge, where are we getting the recoveries, the duties and tariffs, the general inflation? Because that number's got to be kind of quite big to get to your guidance, given the kind of unit volume and mix has been kind of negative year to date. Negative eight.
Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah. Doug, I'll take it. This is Jeff. So clearly the $30, in some cases higher, variance that we had in oil that John spoke of in his prepared remarks, in essence, we said this in the last quarter call that there's a quarter or so lag, in some cases a little bit longer. So effective July 1st, I mean, we had a significant price increase from our customers that went in for all purchase orders to begin collecting. The difference between what we had in the plan with them, which was I think around $65, to a price increase of over $90.
So that's kind of how it works. And now we're collecting that back. Obviously, the price of oil is below that number today. But the way this works is each quarter that average gets adjusted into the price. So we've been very clear about that really for a couple years now. And, as I mentioned and John mentioned, it's really the first time we've had to put it into action. It's working. It's working well. Our customers have lived up to every single deal they made with us.
And the rest is what we call the normal negotiation. I mean, anytime you have energy costs spike like they have for everyone, there's negotiations that go on, you know, every single day, either to offset those or get help in other ways to offset those. And that's what we refer to as other commercial negotiations. And then most importantly, it isn't just all about that. We have to continue to execute on the cost side. And as we talked about, in the beginning of the year, we had significant plans.
We had 95% of our cost initiatives for the year already identified before we started January of 26. So the teams are executing. That's what you heard us talk about in the first quarter, that's what we quantified here in the second quarter. So we're well positioned to continue to deliver. Most of those things have already been implemented, and we're reaping the benefits of those cost initiatives that were started last year, implemented beginning of this year and paying bills as we go forward.
So that helps offset some of the wage inflation that John spoke of, and it does every year. So that's not unusual. And then finally, the supply base. I mean, we're very engaged. This is just a really challenging time for any material science company. Right. And so we're engaged with all of them doing our best from a purchasing point of view to leverage supply and demand and scale. And, you know, we have choices, too. And so that's been going on here the last couple months.
And we expect that to pay dividends for us the second half to help recoup what we funded for everybody in this second quarter. So I know that's a long explanation, but hopefully you get the context of it's, you know, there's two things that go on. We drive cost out and we have to receive compensation back. Both of those things are happening.
Doug Carson, Analyst at Bank of America
That's a very good summary to kind of summarize for myself. You're driving the cost is the lean manufacturing improvement that we see in that big bar and then capturing refunds and also the pricing coming through and oil a lot different than it was at the beginning of the year. And there's a lag, so we should expect not to get in front of it, but a Q3 that's going to look a lot different than Q2 as far as EBITDA.
Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
That's correct. And again, that's what we sort of highlighted to you last quarter, Doug, that we expected, you know, these headwinds in Q2 and that we expected to recover in Q3 and Q4. And that's exactly the way it's playing out. So I don't have any magic beyond that. I mean, that's just what's happening.
Doug Carson, Analyst at Bank of America
No, that's perfect. And you did say that. And it's helpful to kind of review it. And I appreciate the data and the slide deck. That's it for me. Thank you so much.
Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
All right, thanks, Doug.
OPERATOR
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you have a question, please press Star one. Your next question comes from Nathan Jones of Stifel Financial. Your line is already open.
Andres, Analyst at Stifel Financial
Good morning, everyone. This is Andres on for Nathan Jones. Just a quick question on 37 million in net new business coming from hybrids and BEVs. Obviously that presents a better opportunity from a higher content perspective. Can you kind of break out the net new awards between, you know, how much traction you're getting on EVs, hybrids, and if you've mentioned in the past kind of OEMs and consumers favoring hybrids, is that still the case when you're looking at future net new business awards and how the market's trending?
John Bannis, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Yeah. Andres, thanks for the question. This is John. Think of the 30-some million in the combined bucket, essentially 50/50. But I'll remind you going back to when we've talked to you about these new business awards before, the content-per-vehicle increases is on both of those. Right. So you do see a benefit compared to traditional ICE engines when you're talking full battery electric, but then even a greater extent on hybrids. So we continue to see that market development.
In fact, some of our major OEM customers are throttling back EV investments and new models there and going all in on hybrids. A lot of that is certainly driven by consumer preferences globally. It's not just a North American story, but Europe as well, and in China it's a combination of the both EV and hybrid story overall. So we continue to see that growing over time in getting more share of the overall market compared to the ICE engine variants.
A lot slower than, of course, anybody thought a couple years ago, but certainly still a positive development for Cooper-Standard Holdings. When you think about the increased content per vehicle that we would expect to see on those programs,
Andres, Analyst at Stifel Financial
That is very helpful. Thank you. And then maybe just on the F-150, kind of an update there, when you guys think about the back half of the year, we heard OEM obviously talk pretty positively about a ramp. What are you seeing on your end and how do you think about kind of revenue in the back half with respect to that?
Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, this is Jeff. I think started off July strong, obviously with additional production during what was intended to be shutdown period. So that was positive for the quarter. As it relates to releases for the fourth quarter we haven't really seen an uptick, so we didn't include that in the forecast. So if there's any additional volume up year over year then, then that would be a, that would be a positive for the second half. We were hoping there would be about a 20% uplift second half versus first half, but we haven't seen that in the release yet and so we didn't want to assume anything.
But like you, we've heard all the positive statements but if it doesn't show up in the release, we don't put it in the forecast.
Andres, Analyst at Stifel Financial
Very fair point. Thank you. Thank you very much to take my questions.
Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Andres.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from Wolf Joaf of EVR Research. Please go ahead.
Wolf Joaf, Analyst at EVR Research
Gentlemen, how are you?
Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Wolf.
Wolf Joaf, Analyst at EVR Research
I just wanted to comment on the continued really impressive performance. The safety metrics that you guys continue to publish are just kind of astonishing. So congrats on all that.
Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Wolf Joaf, Analyst at EVR Research
We've done a really nice job with respect to net new business awards over the last several years. Call it 250 million in 22, 180 million each year in 23 and 2024, roughly. If global auto production is forecasted to be flat in 2027, how much could our production grow given past net new awards?
Roger Hendrickson, Director of Investor Relations
Wolf? I think if it's flat, the growth would obviously tend to trend in year over year depending on the launch schedule of each of the awards. I think what we have to consider is what was the projected growth outlook when we won the awards? Because that's really what those award totals are based on. So we see it as positive. We see it lining up well, as we've said, to achieving our longer-term targets. And all of those awards play into that.
Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well, this is Jeff, I would say even a little more specific than Roger just gave you as we look forward to building the 27 plan, which isn't built yet. Keep that in mind. Our forecast on flat sales, I mentioned earlier in my prepared remarks that we would still be on target to hit the increased margin expectation that we put out there in our strategic outlook last year for you. So that's point one. Point two. I would tell you that we would expect our revenue to just be under 3 million, assuming flat volume in the same mix.
Rough numbers of course, but hopefully that gives you some idea. There's no question that the net new business that we booked the last few years, we're launching it as we speak. We'll launch more as the year goes on. And then as we've also said, as hybrid comes on and as EVs come on, that helps drive our fluid revenue even further. Much of which is not included in that original outlook because we obviously didn't have all of the North American manufacturing ins and outs related to what EVs were going out and what hybrids were coming in when we built that plan last year.
So we have a lot better idea of what that is. As we sit here today, we'll be building our business plans for 27, 28 and 29 over the next few months. And then that will dictate what I just said. I expect it to look very good. I expect it to be on those strategic targets that we provided last year. Hopefully that helps.
Wolf Joaf, Analyst at EVR Research
Yes, thank you for the additional color. As you mentioned, if revenue and production is sort of flattish, you guys should still show margin expansion. Is there, can you provide any granularity around how much your margins should go up each year in a flat environment, is it 20 bps, 40 bps, 5 bps?
Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Well, we're up 160 basis points the last two years, I think I said in my prepared remarks. So, yeah, I'll just. I'll just use that to tell you that we know how to do it and we're not going to forget over the course of the next couple years. So VCM is up on all business that we're booking across the board on average. So we didn't just guess when we put together the forecast for the next several years that we've been talking to you guys about. As you know, we're booking business a couple years, in some cases three years, before we even launch it. So we know our costs, we know our prices, we know the available capital and the capacity that we have in the company.
And when we say that we don't need a whole lot of capital to do what we've already booked, that's the case. And we know what the margins are because we know what our costs are. So the only thing I don't know is volume and mix. But beyond that, what we can control, we're controlling.
Wolf Joaf, Analyst at EVR Research
Okay, and you, you discussed the competitive benefits in the fluids segment. I'm wondering if those benefits are enough to signal that we should be toward the high end of the full year guidance. Or maybe it's not enough to move the needle.
Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Yeah, if somebody can tell me what's going to happen in the Middle East, then I'll answer that question. Otherwise, I got no idea.
Wolf Joaf, Analyst at EVR Research
I know a guy. I know a guy. He has the answers. I'll put you in touch with him.
Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thanks, Wolf. I appreciate it.
Wolf Joaf, Analyst at EVR Research
Well, thanks so much. And congrats on just the continued operational performance. And I imagine we're just really, really enjoying the new contracts. They're just. Just great.
Jeff Edwards, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
All right, thanks, Wolf. Appreciate the questions.
OPERATOR
It appears that there are no more questions. I would now like to turn the call over back to Roger Hendrickson for closing comments. Please go ahead.
Roger Hendrickson, Director of Investor Relations
Okay, thanks, everybody. Again, we appreciate you taking the time to join us this morning. We appreciate the engaging questions. If there are any topics or issues that weren't addressed this morning, please feel free to reach out to me directly and we'll make sure that we get your questions answered. Thanks again for joining our call.
OPERATOR
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. And you may now disconnect.
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