UPM's H1 cash flow from ongoing businesses improved; balance sheet strengthened further: Jussi Pesonen, President and CEO, comments on the result: “The profitability of UPM’s businesses improved in the first half of the year 2012 compared to the second half of 2011. We achieved this by continuing our consistent work to reduce fixed costs. Furthermore, sales prices and raw material costs developed favourably.
In the second quarter, our growth businesses – Energy, Pulp, Asian Paper and Label - maintained strong profitability. However, the Group’s operating profit was affected by the exceptional quarter in Other operations, mainly due to fair value losses in currency hedges.
In Paper, deliveries recovered somewhat from the previous quarter, although this was offset by seasonally higher fixed costs. Myllykoski cost synergies were well on track with two thirds of planned benefits already realised. Despite this, Paper’s profitability level remains unacceptable.
