Yahoo Finance IPG Photonics (IPGP) Q2 2018 Earnings Conference Call Transcript
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IPG Photonics (NASDAQ: IPGP)
Q2 2018 Earnings Conference Call
Jul. 31, 2018 10:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
Prepared Remarks
Questions and Answers
Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good morning, and welcome to IPG Photonics' second-quarter 2018 conference call. [Operator instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the call over to James Hillier, IPG's vice president of investor relations, for introduction. Please go ahead, sir.
James Hillier -- Vice President, Investor Relations
Thank you, Christine, and good morning, everyone. With us today is IPG Photonics' chairman and CEO, Dr. Valentin Gapontsev, and senior vice president and CFO, Tim Mammen. Statements made during the course of this call that discuss management's or the company's intentions, expectations, or predictions of the future are forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include those detailed in IPG Photonics' Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, and other reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Copies of these filings may be obtained by visiting the Investors section of IPG's website or by contacting the company directly. You may also find copies on the SEC's website.
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Any forward-looking statements made on this call are the company's expectations or predictions only as of today, July 31, 2018. The company assumes no obligation to publicly release any updates or revisions to any such statements. For additional details on our reported results, please refer to the earnings press release in the Excel-based financial data workbook posted to our Investor Relations website. We will post these prepared remarks on our Investor Relations website following the completion of the call.
With that, I'll now turn the call over to Valentin.
Valentin Gapontsev -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, everyone. IPG delivered another quarter of record revenue, net income, and bookings, driven by the rapid adoption of our high-power products. During the second quarter, we shipped more than -- more high-powered units and sold more optical power than we did in an entire year just three years ago. We also made important strides in our newest products areas.
We achieved strong growth in our new ultraviolet, [Inaudible] and ultrafast pulsed-laser products. We also delivered a record quarter in our systems and beam delivery business, evidence we are becoming a more complete solution provider within the automotive and aerospace, railway, pipeline, entertainment and medical device industries. While the second quarter was strong, demand softened in Europe and China at the end of the quarter, resulting in more modest year-over-year growth in orders. We believe this strength is primarily driven by macroeconomics and geopolitical factors rather than competitive dynamics.
We're seeing strong order activity in North America and some smaller regions. We remain the market leader in fiber laser technology and expect to maintain, if not expand, our market share this year. IPG pioneered in the development of hundreds of key technologies over the last two decades that enable our technology and cost advantages within the laser industry. There is no company that can deliver high-power laser solutions at our scale, quality, cost and lead time.
Our high-power fiber lasers enable faster processing speed, along with superior productivity and flexibility. These benefits only increase at higher powers. As a result, we're benefiting from rapid market acceptance of our ultra high-power fiber laser technology at six kilowatts and above. Ultra high-power laser sales increased more than 50% year over year, and are now more than 40% of total high-power product sales.
We continue to see our largest OEM customers immigrating to high-power fiber laser cutting solutions at eight and 10 kilowatts. In addition, the leading-edge OEMs are now purchasing our unique fiber lasers at 12 and 15 kilowatts, which has no laser competition at all. These ultra high-power lasers continue to demonstrate faster cutting speeds and improved end-user productivity. At the lower end of the cutting systems market, Q2 sales of our high-power, rack-mounted fiber lasers increased by nearly 50% year over year, with an even higher growth in unit volumes.
The market for lower-end laser cutting systems in China has been expanding rapidly, driven by the superior productivity and flexibility of fiber laser cutting system over non-laser technologies, such as punch-presses that use inflexible dies that take weeks to build and wear out over time. Although the market for lasers in low cost-cutting systems remain a competitive one, our rack-mounted products have enabled us to expand the market for laser technology, while accelerating growth in this important product category. We're seeing strong traction in our newest pulsed laser products. Sales of green pulsed lasers used as an ablation tool for improving solar cell efficiency more than doubled versus the year-ago period.
In only our second quarter selling ultraviolet lasers, we achieved our first million-dollar quarter for this product, driven by an application in consumer electronics. This product family expands our addressable market for margin and engraving of non-mental and for material ablation. Within our new family of ultrafast pulsed lasers, revenue increased double-digits sequentially, as we continue to target opportunities in the micro materials processing, scientific and medical arenas. As we explained, our product capabilities within optical accessories, beam delivery products and systems, we're becoming a more complete solution provider to our customers.
Sales of beam delivery accessories, including high-power welding and cutting heads, scanners, collimators, beam switches and process fibers, increased by 50% during the second quarter. System sales grew at an even faster rate, nearly doubling on a year-over-year basis, as we continue to target solution opportunities in the automotive, aerospace, railway, pipeline, and medical device industries. I remain confident in IPG's ability to grow faster than the markets we serve. We're still in the early stages of fiber laser penetration against traditional tools and process technologies that are inflexible and less precise and less powerful by comparison.
IPG's growth is enabled by the superior productivity, reliability and cost of ownership of our products over competing laser and non-laser solutions. Moreover, we continue to advance in new product areas that meaningfully expand our addressable market in the micro materials processing, medical, defense, scientific and projection and display industries. Despite some headwinds in our business over the near term, IPG has multiple potential growth drivers for the long term as we really deliver on our mission to make our fiber laser technology the tool of choice in mass production. With that, I'll turn the call over to Tim.
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Valentin, and good morning, everyone. I will review the key financial highlights of the quarter. Revenue in the second quarter grew 12% to $414 million. Foreign exchange headwinds during the quarter relative to sales assumed in our Q2 guidance reduced revenue by $8.4 million.
Without this impact, Q2 revenue would have been above the midpoint of our guidance range. Revenue from materials processing applications increased 11% year over year, driven by lasers sold for cutting and 3D printing applications. Revenue from other applications increased 33% year over year. By region, second-quarter revenue in China increased 10% year over year and represented approximately 49% of total.
Sales of high-power CW lasers for cutting applications drove the majority of the revenue increase in China versus the year-ago period. Welding sales in the region declined on a year-over-year basis. We saw an expected reduction in demand related to consumer electronics investment cycle as well as continued softness in high-power welding related to automotive and electric vehicle battery welding in the region. In Europe, revenue increased 18% year over year, driven by strength in medium-power lasers for 3D printing applications, high-power lasers for cutting applications and high-power pulsed laser sales for cleaning and stripping applications.
Based on the record level of laser shipments into 3D printing customers during the first half of 2018, we expect to see a period of digestion through the end of the year, with second-half laser shipments into 3D printing customers down versus the first half of the year. In North America, second-quarter revenue growth increased by 23% year over year, driven by strength in cutting and welding applications. Sales in Japan decreased 2% year over year, with a continued rebound in cutting, offset by declines in welding and marking and engraving. We continue to target compelling expansion opportunities in cutting, welding and other application areas that we believe will drive improved performance in the region.
Turning to performance by product. High-power laser sales increased 20% year over year to $266 million in the second quarter and represented more than 64% of total revenue. Fiber lasers at six kilowatts and above grew at an even faster rate, and now account for more than 40% of all high-power laser sales. Sales of our one-, 1 1/2- and two-kilowatt rack-mounted fiber lasers increased by nearly 50% year over year, with even higher growth in unit volumes, driven by rapid growth in lower-end laser cutting systems in China.
Pulsed laser sales increased 1% year over year, with rapid growth in green, ultraviolet, ultrafast, and our highest-power pulsed products, offset by lower sales of lower-power pulsed products. Medium-power laser sales decreased 7%, as strength in 3D printing and welding applications was more than offset by a decline in cutting, attributable to the shift by OEMs to kilowatt-scale lasers. Other product sales increased 27% year over year due to the strong sales growth in systems and beam delivery accessories that Valentin noted earlier. Finally, QCW sales of $20 million declined 32% year over year due to the expected reduction in demand related to the consumer electronics investment cycle.
Second-quarter gross margin of 56.8% was up 90 basis points from Q2 '17 and above our guidance range of 50% to 55%. We were able to more than offset declines in average selling prices with improved manufacturing efficiency, cost reductions, and favorable product mix. Second-quarter operating income was $162 million, or 39.3% of sales, up 110 basis points from Q2 2017. Excluding a foreign exchange loss of $2 million, operating margin was 39.8%.
Operating expenses as a percentage of sales increased 130 basis points year over year, as we continue to make necessary investments in sales, engineering and administrative talents, as well as in IT systems. On a sequential basis, operating expenses declined 170 basis points as a percentage of sales. Q2 net income was $122 million, and earnings per diluted share were $2.21. Foreign exchange losses reduced EPS by $0.03.
If exchange rates relative to the U.S. dollar had been the same as one year ago, we would have expected revenue to be $23 million lower and gross profit to be $15 million lower. The effective tax rate in the quarter was 26%, which benefited from the lower effective tax rate for income earned in the United States due to the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and an increase in excess tax benefits related to equity compensation, which were partially offset by provisions for uncertain tax positions and other matters. We ended the quarter with cash, cash-equivalents, and short-term investments of $1.3 billion and total debt of $47 million.
During the quarter, we repatriated $406 million in cash from Europe into the U.S. We expect to repatriate an additional $117 million from Europe into the U.S. in the third quarter. As a result, we expect our interest income to increase by more than $3 million per quarter.
Cash provided by operations during the quarter was $109 million, up 32% from Q2 2017. Capital expenditures were $57 million, up 160% year over year. We continue to invest in new facilities and equipment to meet demand for our products over the next several years. Second-quarter capex includes $26 million to acquire a manufacturing facility adjacent to our Oxford, Massachusetts, operations.
We repurchased 132,000 shares for $31 million, completing the initial $100 million authorization of our anti-dilutive repurchase program. Since the program began in July 2016, we repurchased 593,000 total shares for $100 million at an average price of $168. The board of directors has authorized the new $125 million anti-dilutive stock-repurchase program. Under this program, IPG management is authorized to repurchase shares of common stock in an amount not to exceed the greater of 1) the number of shares issued to employees and directors from January 1, 2018, through March 31, 2019; and 2) $125 million, exclusive of any fees, commissions, or other expenses.
As a reminder, the share repurchase program authorization does not obligate the company to repurchase any dollar amount or number of its shares, and repurchases may be commenced or suspended from time to time without prior notice. Turning to our guidance. Book-to-bill was at one for the quarter. While orders grew slightly on a year-over-year basis, order flow was below our target, as demand softened in Europe and China at the end of the quarter.
This more modest year-over-year growth in orders has persisted through July, and we believe is primarily driven by macroeconomic and geopolitical factors rather than competitive dynamics. In addition, we do not expect to see a material pickup in welding during the third quarter, as projects related to electric vehicle battery investment may only materialize in Q4, and the consumer electronics investment cycle remains a headwind to growth. Finally, foreign exchange tailwinds that have benefited revenue for the last four quarters have reversed with the depreciation of the Chinese yuan and euro. While we are encouraged by the strength in new products and select regions, including North America, this growth will only partially offset the more modest outlook in China and Europe.
Based on these factors, for the third quarter 2018, we expect revenue of $360 million to $390 million. We expect our third-quarter tax rate to be approximately 26%, excluding effects relating to equity grants. We anticipate delivering earnings per diluted share in the range of $1.80 to $2.05. As compared to just a few months ago, the current global macroeconomic trade and geopolitical environment is more uncertain, and could remain so.
In addition, we expect foreign exchange to be more of a headwind, particularly with the depreciation of the Chinese yuan over the last month. As such, we believe full-year revenue growth for 2018 will be in the range of 7% to 9%. As discussed in the safe harbor passage of today's earnings press release, actual results may differ from our guidance due to factors, including, but not limited to, product demand, order cancellation and delays, competition, tariffs, trade policies and general economic conditions. Our guidance is based upon current market conditions and expectations, assumes exchange rates referenced in our earnings press release, and is subject to risks outlined in the company's reports with the SEC.
With that, Valentin and I will be happy to take your questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you. [Operator instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Joe Wittine with Longbow Research. Please proceed with your question.
Joe Wittine -- Longbow Research -- Analyst
Hi, good morning. So, Tim, you called out 3D printing, EV battery, welding, and then the C-cycle. So I mean, and those are meaningful parts of the business, but not the majority of the business by any stretch. So beyond that, I'm curious, is the rest of the business holding up, the integrated channel business, etc.?
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
I mean, through the first half of the year, you've seen weakness on the welding side. You've seen strength in 3D printing, and really, I would say, outperformance on cutting. The growth on the cutting is more -- that certainly slowed into Q3. And then you've got the welding continuing to be slow and the 3D slowing down.
We did want to call out that, in July, there was still a modest growth in year-over-year order flow. It certainly wasn't at the level we would -- we need to have to grow the business in the range that we're expecting to. So I would characterize it that orders flow's holding up, it's just not at the level we need to see it. But you do have significant weakness in some of the applications, particularly the EV not coming back as strongly as we expected, even in Q2, certainly not in Q3.
And then the 3D printing is really going to be quite a lot weaker in Q3 at this point in time.
Joe Wittine -- Longbow Research -- Analyst
OK. So for the -- let's call it the automotive business, your main OEM partners or the integrated business there or general industrial and ag, your kind of core cutting basis, right? Are those investments slowing or being put on hold due to tariff-related uncertainty at all? Or are you not necessarily hearing that from what I'm characterizing is the core business here?
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
Well, I said in China, I think there's a lot more uncertainty within the end market, where we're a little bit removed from it. But the tariff talk and the trade war talk, I think, is having a psychological effect on the end markets, and certainly making people less optimistic about the investment decisions they're making. So yes, absolutely, particularly in China. Obviously, Europe is a large export market.
So that weighs on Europe as well. So -- and undoubtedly that the uncertainty is certainly causing a pause in investment decisions within those end markets that you referenced.
Joe Wittine -- Longbow Research -- Analyst
Right. OK. Makes sense. And then with that, what was your approach with assembling the second-half guidance, given what was -- it sounds like it's an ongoing continuation of this pressure through July? Did you kind of consume -- assume a continuation of the July pattern throughout -- through December, let's say? Or do you factor in any kind of relative pickup?
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
So when we pulled together the guidance, interestingly, there's quite a lot of backlog already on hand for Q4. July order flow, we were pleased to see, did show some modest growth year over year. So I'd say that on the order flow, it's like we haven't seen any further deterioration. It's kind of stable.
Where we're working on some projects for the EV, those projects will certainly have some competition from other suppliers in the market. But we hope that we win those. So that would be some upside that we'd expect coming into the end of the year. The other thing we've referenced is that so long as the macro doesn't deteriorate in a year where you don't have the consumer electronics cycle investment, you generally see Q4 being slightly up on Q3.
So we've tried to take that into account as well in really estimating what's going to happen for the second half of the year. I'd say we'd caveat that with it really assumes that there isn't any greater uncertainty or further macroeconomic impact over the coming three months or so.
Valentin Gapontsev -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Into the same trend, we're looking now -- we see some of the -- and you provided the shippable orders. So we're talking -- we're only talking about the markets only shippable orders with a fixed delivery date. But we see much faster growth in large orders last year in frame orders. They're growing the frame orders, but our customers are now afraid to fix delivery date.
This is a major problem. They're waiting on what happened of full uncertainty will illustrate more tariff and so on. They'd prefer to wait now with the new shippable orders, in our opinion.
Joe Wittine -- Longbow Research -- Analyst
Makes sense. Thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Jim Ricchiuti with Needham. Please proceed with your question.
Jim Ricchiuti -- Needham & Company -- Analyst
Hi, thank you. I'm wondering if some of the weakness that you're seeing, is it broadly based among your customers? Or is it confined to some of your larger customers?
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
Certainly more pronounced among the larger customers because they drive so much of the revenue. And that's one of the things that really also gives us some comfort that it's more macro and geopolitically rather than competitively driven. Because some of the competitors have got share among the smaller, even Tier 3 customers. And we're actually going to have a big effort this quarter to try and not win back -- we never really were supplying into those smaller customers, but to win over some of that business into the second half of the year.
Jim Ricchiuti -- Needham & Company -- Analyst
Got it. And Tim, I wonder how we should think about gross margins at these lower levels of revenues, as well as you also have some, what looks, sounds like in some areas, a better mix of business.
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
So yes, you've got some better mix of business. You've got some of the newer product introductions growing. You've got some of the new diode, R&D development, which is going to bring down diode costs quite substantially starting to come onstream in the second half of the year. So those are all benefits.
My bigger concern on the gross margin side, offsetting that and weighing on that, is the currency headwinds, which have really benefited us. So particularly, the Chinese yuan, that's gone from 6.40 at the beginning of the year, and now it's sort of -- it's ranging between 6.70 and 6.80. That clearly has much more of a headwind on selling prices in China. So I think we've got some definite puts and takes around that.
And then you've also got the euro depreciating a little bit nearly as dramatic as the yuan impact. I used the range of 55% to 56% when I pulled my guidance together. So I'm still forecasting strong gross margins, but certainly not in the -- up a half of 56%, 57%, where we have been -- I've been more moderate on that.
Jim Ricchiuti -- Needham & Company -- Analyst
And on R&D, a little bit of a step-up in the quarter. And it's been trending higher. Should we assume this kind of continued high level of R&D investment? Or should that flatten out a bit?
Valentin Gapontsev -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
No. We pulled R&D such when we are looking now at the beginning new world crisis now, so we have to perfect and perfect this cost develop, introduce market new products and new application, which will compensate the drop in the current applications.
Jim Ricchiuti -- Needham & Company -- Analyst
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Tom Diffely with D.A. Davidson. Please proceed with your question.
Tom Diffely -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
Yes, good morning. I was curious if you're seeing any changes in the competitive environment, specifically in China and maybe particularly around Raycus sales in the process of trying to go public?
Valentin Gapontsev -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
You see the Raycus sales first. We don't give away in the future Raycus, honestly speaking. From point quality of product, opportunities to compete with sales extremely limited opportunities. So the valuation market's crazy at all.
Regarding the density of such companywide Raycus changes company for them. They destroy the market. They drop and drop prices, watching very small more margin range. And so they once practically destroy market price and so on.
Each year, they -- this year, again, they created the drop of price practically up to 50% and more. It's crazy, too. We don't understand how they're working because they build materials that go into 70% to 80% of their unbillable. It's somewhat tricks.
We don't believe [Inaudible] without a report in the mark-to-market.
Tom Diffely -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
OK. But it sounds like...
Valentin Gapontsev -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
So this is a real -- they destroyed. Before it was a good market, mark-to-market. Now in unit, it's growing. But in price, they destroyed the practical unit changes, major players in Chinese players, where marketing system's growing out of this market OEM.
Because they absolutely practically destroyed. No prices at all. The same goes try to make destroy also fiber laser market it's over. Of course, we have better opportunity on our manufacturing, of course, much cheaper than we believe they have today.
But the price is going down. And this is a major problem. The units are growing a problem to grow. But in revenue, it impacts the revenue, final revenue for low-end product.
Tom Diffely -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
OK. But it sounds like, thanks to your cost structure, you're able to -- at least blend to gross margin is obviously doing quite well despite the impact from this China specifically. OK, maybe...
Valentin Gapontsev -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
We're working very hard to decrease costs in our product. This year, again, from beginning next year, we introduce new generation of the power for high-power fiber laser, much more efficient and much more perfect than your current one, and also much less costly. From a manufacturing cost, we decreased again 20% to 30%. It's now [Inaudible] with the in decline of ASP to support the sales price profitability at all.
But in the revenue, it impacted revenue. So we don't think the Chinese destroyed the marketplace.
Tom Diffely -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
Yes, OK. Maybe switching gears then on the 3D side. How big is the 3D additive manufacturing market today? And what do you see going over the next few years?
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
So I think through the first half of the year, our market has been up, again, close to 50%. It's going to go through a bit of a hiatus in the second half of the year. So the average growth rate in the markets is still being achieved at the 20% level that we've referenced before. And I think that is a sustainable rate going forward.
So I think that there's -- very much on the additive side, it's a temporary pause that we're seeing. And you're certainly starting to see not a lot of manufacturing processes deployed much, much more broadly and widely. And most of the companies that are continuing to grow the business significantly.
Tom Diffely -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
And your 20% number was a multiyear number, you said?
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
Yes. So there's market data out there. Tom, let's talk about that average growth rate of 20% being sustained over a five-plus year time horizon.
Tom Diffely -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
OK, great. Thank you.
Operator
[Operator instructions] And our next question comes from the line of Patrick Ho with Stifel. Please proceed with your question.
Patrick Ho -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst
Thank you very much. Tim, maybe following up just on some of your comments. You talked about cutting, slowing down as you go into 3Q, and you also mentioned that the impact of this current slowdown is among your major customers. How do you, I guess, differentiate -- talking to your customers whether this is in the macroeconomic, geopolitical situation? Or perhaps it's just a digestion period from some of your larger customers, given the strong buying that they've seen over the past 12-plus months?
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
Well, in terms of financial results, it doesn't really make a difference whether it's just digestion or macroeconomic. I think though that, certainly, there's more uncertainty from what people are saying, and they are referencing investment decisions being either more moderate or being delayed. And that is a macroeconomic impact. I think the question's almost a bit too nuanced, Patrick, I think.
If there is just a slowdown in the rate of growth of that cutting market at the moment, then you've got some weakness on the welding side, driven by the consumer electronics investment cycle and some of the other welding applications being slower. I don't -- yes, I'm not sure I can really parse out the difference between sort of digestion and macroeconomic effect of it. We're pretty certain with the larger customers. It's not a competitive thing because we're the exclusive supplier to the largest and highest volume OEMs that we have on the cutting side.
So it's not a competitive dynamic there. At the lower end of the market, there is more competition from some of the other customers.
Patrick Ho -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst
OK, fair enough. Yes, it may be just a nuanced thing because it sounds like your customers are sort of telling you that it's a bigger, I guess, macroeconomic and geopolitical concerns that are -- I guess, their buying habits.
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
Yes. I'd probably add any more to that at this point.
Patrick Ho -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst
But maybe a follow-up question. Given that you guys, in general, have been very accommodating to customers in terms of your own price reductions over time, how do you, I guess, look at potentially gaining share or entering some of the low- and medium-range fiber laser market opportunities that tend to be a lot more competitive, at least within those spaces in terms of pricing? How do you enter those market -- how do you, I guess, compete more effectively in some of those opportunities that are there?
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
So I think we already compete very effectively in them. It's not as -- we have a very significant share in the lower end of the cutting market. We have still significant share even at the lowest end of the pulse market, maybe not the dominant share there. So we compete by providing very high-quality product with better performance, very strong service and support and applications, product that meets safety requirements and warranty.
We're also potentially at the lower end of the market going to become a bit more aggressive around pricing, particularly in order to win some of the business from the lower cost, smaller cutting equipment manufacturers. So we will use our cost initiatives to be aggressive in the market, and ensure that the competition is not able to chip away at the lower end of the market. So we've always used that -- we've always said the pricing is not only to drive the expansion of the market. One of the key elements of pricing is to try and limit the ability of the competition to build scale.
Because if they build scale, they're potentially going to become a more meaningful competitor. And that strategy has not really changed. It continues to be deployed in that manner.
Patrick Ho -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst
Thank you.
Operator
And our next question comes from the line of Tom Hayes with Northcoast Research. Please proceed with your question.
Tom Hayes -- Northcoast Research -- Analyst
Thank you. Good morning, gentlemen. Tim, I think a lot of your comments have been focused on international markets, but it sounds like North America's doing pretty well. Maybe you can discuss what you're seeing there.
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
Well, North America is performing very nicely. We had a great quarter in order flow from North America across a pretty wide variety of applications. The applications tend to be more diverse than the rest of the world. So the core industrial market applications were good.
The systems business order flow is growing nicely. And a lot of the green and UV -- actually, the UV going through China, but some of the green orders are going to Asia, but they're placed in -- on our North American entity. The telecom business performs pretty nicely in the quarter. The advanced business also, quarter over quarter, was a strong grower.
So yes, that was really quite a bright spot for travelers that North American revenue is less than 20% of the total. So you just kind of offset some of the weakness elsewhere with that North American growth.
Tom Hayes -- Northcoast Research -- Analyst
OK. And then I just want to kind of double back and make sure I understood your comments on, while you saw the sales slip in both medium and low power, it's more a reflection of the market moving upstream, the power spectrum than really kind of any large change to those specific markets?
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
Yes. All of the low-cost cutting equipment manufacturers have moved from selling 500 and 700-watt systems to selling one, one-and-a-half and two-kilowatt rack-mounted systems primarily. So that is the shift in the power. Obviously, at that lower end of the market, there is more competition from some of the other suppliers.
So if you look at the eight, 10, 12, 15-kilowatt, we're the exclusive supplier at that level. There's certainly ongoing competition. It's not new at the lower end of the market, but we have very significant share there still. And that part of the market is growing dramatically.
So the decline in medium power for cutting is not related to -- it's related to the shift to the higher-power levels, you're right.
Tom Hayes -- Northcoast Research -- Analyst
Great. Thank you for your time.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Mark Miller with The Benchmark Company. Please proceed with your question.
Mark Miller -- The Benchmark Company -- Analyst
You've done very well in the high-power market, as you just noted. But there's anticipation, and at least one of your competitors are going to be introducing higher-power lasers in the second half of the year. Do you see that market? Or has the market become more competitive? Or are you still -- have a very strong position there? Just wondering about the competitive situation in the high-power market.
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
No. I wouldn't say the dynamics on the high-power market have changed. People have talked for many years about introducing some higher-power products. We know one OEM that was looking at a high-power laser from a competitor, and they've actually -- come back to IPG and asked for a quote for the same power laser.
So that seems to indicate that maybe the product is not, from the comparator, ready for deployment commercially. So no, there isn't a change in the market, the highest end of the market.
Mark Miller -- The Benchmark Company -- Analyst
You indicated you're getting some good traction in the UV market. I wonder if that market is a primary competitor there responding to your inroads.
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
Well, the UV wins we've had, as we mentioned before, the lower power of UV for marking applications has -- they've performed really well. We saw really solid revenue reported for that type of laser in Q2 with some additional supplies we made in Q3. So the market acceptance of the product has been strong. And we also, outside of UV, booked some and recorded some revenue from the ultrafast.
So that was really pleasing to see because we're waiting for that revenue to start to gain traction.
Mark Miller -- The Benchmark Company -- Analyst
And did you say the million dollars was -- what that for ultrafast or for UV, first million-dollar-type quarter?
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
It was more -- yes, more than a million for UV in the quarter.
Mark Miller -- The Benchmark Company -- Analyst
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. We have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the floor back over to management for closing comments.
Valentin Gapontsev -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
OK. Thank you for joining us this morning. We look forward to speaking to you again next quarter, and we hope that maybe we will report to you more optimistic results in the space.
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, everybody.
Operator
[Operator signoff]
Duration: 45 minutes
Call Participants:
James Hillier -- Vice President, Investor Relations
Valentin Gapontsev -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Tim Mammen -- Chief Financial Officer
Joe Wittine -- Longbow Research -- Analyst
Jim Ricchiuti -- Needham & Company -- Analyst
Tom Diffely -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst
Patrick Ho -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst
Tom Hayes -- Northcoast Research -- Analyst
Mark Miller -- The Benchmark Company -- Analyst
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