Nel ASA's Order Book Is Filling Faster Than Its Invoices Are Being Issued
Published on 11/03/2026 at 17:31 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Nel ASA has a demand story and a delivery problem, and the gap between the two is the single most important thing investors need to price. Orders are pouring in at a pace the company has rarely seen. Cash from actual customer contracts is moving sharply the other way. Until those two lines converge, the Norwegian hydrogen specialist remains a business in transition rather than one in recovery.
The third quarter of 2026 laid the contrast bare. Order intake hit NOK 253 million, a jump of 339% from the same period a year earlier, while the order backlog stood at NOK 1,314 million. Revenue from customer contracts, by comparison, came in at just NOK 112 million — down 63% year on year. Total revenues and income reached NOK 138 million, a figure that should not be conflated with the contract revenue line, just as the order growth should not be read as sales growth.
Weak activity in the alkali business weighed on the top line during the quarter, according to the company. That places the core difficulty squarely in operations rather than in winning new business. The bottom line told the same story: EBITDA landed at minus NOK 93 million, and Nel booked a net loss of NOK 141 million. A healthy balance sheet does not alter that operating picture — the company held liquid funds of NOK 1,078 million at the quarter's close, a snapshot of its liquidity position on the reporting date rather than a measure of earning power.
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A production plan that stops short of revenue
Alongside the numbers, Nel is pressing ahead with the build-out of its first production line for pressure-driven alkaline technology at Herøya. The blueprint calls for an annual capacity of 500 MW by the end of 2026, followed by an upgrade to 1 GW of yearly capacity in 2027. Those are planning figures describing manufacturing capability, not sales already booked. How quickly the new orders convert into billings, and how well the expanded plant is utilised, will matter as much as the order intake itself.
New hands at the wheel during the turnaround
The leadership transition announced earlier is now under way, overlaying the operating challenge. Chief financial officer Kjell Christian Bjørnsen has held the role of interim chief executive since Sunday, with Torbjørn Berg stepping in to run the finance function on a temporary basis. Morten Holum has been named to succeed Håkon Volldal as chief executive, taking up the post no later than 1 May 2027. The arrangements organise the handover; they do not by themselves improve the figures.
For investors, the checklist is straightforward. Order intake, revenue and earnings each deserve separate scrutiny, because a surge in bookings says nothing about income already earned. The NOK 253 million in new orders is an encouraging signal of demand for Nel's offerings. The 63% revenue decline and the negative EBITDA cap how much weight that signal can carry. Evidence of a genuine operating turnaround will only arrive once the order book starts showing up in the revenue line and the loss narrows.
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