Stora Enso’s quarterly figures show a continued fall in timber sales, mainly due to the weak market.
Sales were down 2.6% between January and March to €307.3m, while operating profit was cut by 50% to €5.6m.
The Finnish company, which deals mainly in paper and packaging boards, said the global oversupply of timber was especially severe in commodity construction, packaging grades and some speciality interior decoration areas.
The firm’s UK timber sales are about 8% of total timber sales but managing director of Stora Enso Timber UK Ltd, Eero Larvio said the problems here were the same as abroad.
Stora Enso predicts global demand to remain flat, with oversupply persisting through the first half of 2001.
