Business News

Stora Enso expects first quarter 2009 operating result clearly down on fourth quarter 2008

Wednesday 18. March 2009 - Stora Enso expects its operating result excluding non-recurring items (NRI) and fair valuations for the first quarter of 2009 to be clearly down on the fourth quarter of 2008 due to customer destocking and underlying weakness in demand, especially for wood products and fine paper. Stora Enso's operating profit excluding NRI and fair valuations was EUR 28.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Stora Enso remains committed to preserving cash flow through large production curtailments, stringent working capital management and other means, even though curtailments (forecast to total about 20% of paper and board production capacity in the first quarter) have a negative impact on earnings, The Group has also decided to reduce the target capital expenditure for the full year 2009 from EUR 500 million to EUR 400 million.

In addition, Stora Enso and its partner Aracruz have decided to delay the Veracel II project by at least a year and to reduce 2009 capital expenditure by the joint venture on land purchases, plantations and the feasibility study due to the current and near-term outlook for markets.

When announcing its full year 2008 financial results, Stora Enso said the operating environment during at least the early part of 2009 would be as challenging as at the end of 2008. In Europe market demand is expected to remain weak and clearly less than a year earlier for all of the Group’s products throughout at least the first half of 2009 due to the current economic downturn.