Valmet recently announced its financial performance for the first quarter of 2015. The company’s net sales increased 8 percent to EUR 561 million as compared to EUR 519 million in the first quarter of 2014.
This increase in net sales is primarily driven by the Services and, Pulp and Energy divisions. The Services division posted net sales of EUR 242 million, up 8 percent compared to the same period a year ago. The Pulp and Energy division’s net sales increased 23 percent to EUR 222 million while the Paper division’s net sales dipped 15 percent to EUR 97 million.
“Even if profitability increased in the first quarter of 2015 compared with the first quarter of 2014, the profitability is below our targeted range. We have successfully developed our business model to be more flexible and we will continue to focus on controlling costs,” said, Pasi Laine, President and CEO, Valmet.
Valmet posted an operating profit of EUR 13 million and net profit of EUR 8 million for the first quarter.
The short-term market outlook for pulp has increased to a good level as a result of increased customer activity in the pulp market. Valmet reiterates the good short-term market outlook for board and paper, and the satisfactory short-term market outlook for services, and tissue.
