Rottneros CEO comments on Q2

Photo: Rottneros (Ole Terland) [4]

"Profit was SEK 50 million in the second quarter, representing a clear improvement on the first quarter (SEK 11 million). Return on capital employed for the quarter amounted to 17% and operating cash flow amounted to SEK 44 million. These are welcome figures after the major redeployment work we were obliged to implement in recent years. As previously reported, we were compelled to stop work at our sulphate factory in Vallvik late May/early June on account of the old part of the evaporation plant – which is being replaced in the autumn – getting clogged up. The cost of this amounted to almost SEK 15 million, primarily owing to production losses."

"The strong improvement to our result is of course mainly attributable to the favourable pulp market. However, as is often the case, when the price of pulp increases the price of wood also drifts upwards, restricting the increase in profit. It has been possible to implement successive pulp price increases the price of pulp over the year and we are now at a historically high level. Demand has been strong up until now, both in North America and Europe, with increases of almost 15% compared to the weak start last year. On the other hand, the relatively firm trend in 2009 for supplies to China saw a strong reversal (down approximately 20%). Certain Chinese macro indicators are pointing downwards and importers- trade prices for pulp in China have fallen over the past few weeks."

"We have low sales volumes in China and have not felt any adverse effects of this slowdown. We note that stock levels are low; that customers want to buy more than we can manufacture and all of our price increases during the year, including those for June, have been accepted. We remain optimistic, despite certain warning signals. Both the American and European paper mills have good order books. If the improvement of the business cycle continues, also the weakest part of the paper market, namely printing paper, continues to recover underpinned by the advertising market, in spite of the continual growth of the Internet."