Nel ASA’s New Electrolyzer Platform and Samsung Pact Promise Scale, But Orders Tell a Different Story

Nel ASA shares fell 7% to €0.29, near 20% below 52-week high. Despite new alkaline electrolysis platform and Samsung partnership, Q1 revenue dropped 5% and orders lag.

Nel ASA shares slid another 7 percent on Wednesday, dragging the price to 0.29 euros and pushing the stock nearly 20 percent below the 52-week high set on May 25. The pullback comes barely a month after the Norwegian hydrogen equipment maker had rallied more than 54 percent from its January low, a surge that briefly took the stock above 0.37 euros before the selling pressure set in.

The recent correction has been sharp — seven trading days wiped off nearly 16 percent of the market value even after the strong year-to-date run. Annualised 30-day volatility stands at close to 98 percent, a level that keeps even committed shareholders on edge.

Two product developments underpin the bull case. In May, Nel launched a new pressurised alkaline electrolysis platform after more than eight years of development and successful prototype testing at its Herøya facility. The company claims it can achieve full-system costs below $1,450 per kilowatt for a 25-MW plant — roughly half of the $3,000 per kilowatt typical for many industrial projects today. Production capable of scaling to 1 GW per year is already planned at Herøya, with a roadmap extending to 4 GW annually, backed by up to 135 million euros in support from the EU Innovation Fund.

At the World Hydrogen Summit in Rotterdam, Nel and Samsung E&A went a step further, unveiling CompassH2-A+, a fully integrated 100-MW system built around Nel’s pressurised alkaline electrolysers in containerised 25-MW modules. The plant is designed to produce roughly 40 tonnes of hydrogen per day at a purity of 99.999 mol percent, while requiring 50 percent less space than comparable setups. Crucially, Samsung E&A provides a full-system guarantee covering everything from the electrolyser stacks to the balance of plant — a sign that Nel’s technology is being embedded into commercially viable large-scale concepts.

Financial results, however, have yet to reflect that promise. Nel generated revenues from customer contracts of 148 million Norwegian kroner in the first quarter of 2026, a 5 percent drop from a year earlier. EBITDA came in at minus 100 million kroner, though that was a 15 million-kroner improvement over the previous year’s first quarter. Order intake reached just 85 million kroner, while the order backlog shrank 24 percent year-on-year to 1.113 billion kroner.

Investors are waiting for proof that product launches and partnerships will convert into tangible order flow. The company’s cash position of 1.443 billion kroner provides enough runway to continue executing its strategy, but the market wants to see the top-line engine reignite. Nel has already booked a roughly 70 million-kroner order for the second quarter, supplemented by a $7 million PEM order in April for containerised systems. Whether that will be enough to demonstrate early commercial traction for the new alkaline platform remains an open question.

A glance at the Global X Hydrogen UCITS ETF’s portfolio snapshot from June 3 underscores Nel’s relative positioning. The stock accounts for 4.81 percent of net assets — a respectable showing but well behind sector heavyweights such as Bloom Energy (15.06 percent), Plug Power (14.12 percent), and Doosan Fuel Cell (11.96 percent). Ballard Power Systems, Ceres Power, and ITM Power also command larger weights. While institutional hydrogen exposure includes Nel, it is not treated as a core holding — a sobering signal about the stock’s perceived standing within the sector.

Analysts remain cautious. Berenberg rates the shares “Hold” with a target of 2.30 Norwegian kroner, while Citi also sticks with “Neutral” and a price objective of 2.40 kroner. The current price in euros — equivalent to roughly 3.30 kroner — suggests limited upside from official targets even after the recent selloff.

All eyes now turn to Nel’s second-quarter results, due on July 22. That report will reveal whether the order book has started to fill meaningfully and whether the combination of a next-generation platform and a heavyweight partner like Samsung can shift the narrative from potential to proven commercial delivery. Until then, the stock remains a high-risk play on the hydrogen transition, swinging between technology milestones and underwhelming financial reality.