"Stora Enso finished the fourth quarter with continued strong cash flow and operating earnings slightly up year-on-year, but slightly down on the previous quarter. This is the result of our ever-continuing focus on improving costs and working capital, and it demonstrates that we can and will continue on this path into the future as well. I want to give full credit for this to the Stora Enso people throughout the world. "I also want to highlight that the first two of our growth investments – the investments at Skoghall and the new board machine at Ostrołęka – have been completed on time. In fact Ostrołęka's new light-weight container board machine started up six weeks ahead of schedule and the focus is now on successful ramp up, which is expected to take couple of months. In Uruguay everybody from Stora Enso and our partners is fully focused on hitting our mid 2013 start-up target and, even more important, a successful ramp-up after that. "The darker side of our news today is that the decline in consumer demand in paper-based media in Europe has continued in the fourth quarter. Whereas the structural trend in total paper demand has been about -5% per year since 2007, we now read the demand in the two largest media-driven segments, newsprint and coated magazine paper, decreased in 2012 by about 9%. As before, the unfavourable supply and demand balance has led to further pressure on margins.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Stora-Strong Cash Flow-Weak Demand In Paper
http://www.stockhouse.com/news/usreleasesdetail.aspx?n=8728827
"Stora Enso finished the fourth quarter with continued strong cash flow and operating earnings slightly up year-on-year, but slightly down on the previous quarter. This is the result of our ever-continuing focus on improving costs and working capital, and it demonstrates that we can and will continue on this path into the future as well. I want to give full credit for this to the Stora Enso people throughout the world. "I also want to highlight that the first two of our growth investments – the investments at Skoghall and the new board machine at Ostrołęka – have been completed on time. In fact Ostrołęka's new light-weight container board machine started up six weeks ahead of schedule and the focus is now on successful ramp up, which is expected to take couple of months. In Uruguay everybody from Stora Enso and our partners is fully focused on hitting our mid 2013 start-up target and, even more important, a successful ramp-up after that. "The darker side of our news today is that the decline in consumer demand in paper-based media in Europe has continued in the fourth quarter. Whereas the structural trend in total paper demand has been about -5% per year since 2007, we now read the demand in the two largest media-driven segments, newsprint and coated magazine paper, decreased in 2012 by about 9%. As before, the unfavourable supply and demand balance has led to further pressure on margins.
"Stora Enso finished the fourth quarter with continued strong cash flow and operating earnings slightly up year-on-year, but slightly down on the previous quarter. This is the result of our ever-continuing focus on improving costs and working capital, and it demonstrates that we can and will continue on this path into the future as well. I want to give full credit for this to the Stora Enso people throughout the world. "I also want to highlight that the first two of our growth investments – the investments at Skoghall and the new board machine at Ostrołęka – have been completed on time. In fact Ostrołęka's new light-weight container board machine started up six weeks ahead of schedule and the focus is now on successful ramp up, which is expected to take couple of months. In Uruguay everybody from Stora Enso and our partners is fully focused on hitting our mid 2013 start-up target and, even more important, a successful ramp-up after that. "The darker side of our news today is that the decline in consumer demand in paper-based media in Europe has continued in the fourth quarter. Whereas the structural trend in total paper demand has been about -5% per year since 2007, we now read the demand in the two largest media-driven segments, newsprint and coated magazine paper, decreased in 2012 by about 9%. As before, the unfavourable supply and demand balance has led to further pressure on margins.
