Forestry firm Stora Enso sees gradual market recovery in 2024
Adds UPM results, comments, shares
By Reporting by Boleslaw Lasocki
April 25 (Reuters) - Finnish forestry firmsStora Enso STERV.HE and UPM-KymmeneUPM.HE reported first-quarter earnings clearly above expectations on Thursday as clients finished trimming their inventories.
"The destocking that characterised last year was over for all our businesses," UPM CEO Massimo Reynaudo said about the first-quarter results that were boosted by recovering demand and successful margin management.
However, Stora Enso saidhigh costs and market uncertainty were still affecting results, and would also weigh on second-quarter earnings.
"Cost inflation pressure has started to come down in general, but wood cost increases, especially on the Finnish market, continue to challenge profitability also this year," Stora Enso CEO Hans Sohlstrom said.
High wood expenses and low pulp prices have put pressure on Nordic forestry firms, prompting StoraEnso'sdecision to cut around1,000 positionsearlier this year.
Stora Enso posteda 33% drop in operational earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to 156 million euros ($167 million) in the first quarter, beating analysts' consensus of105 million euros cited by Inderes.
UPM's comparable EBIT slid 6% to 333 million euros in the quarter, while analysts were expecting 277 million euros.
Shares in UPM were trading nearly 4% higher at 0739 GMT, while Stora Enso's shares were down 1% after rising initially.
UPM confirmed its operating profit in the first half of 2024 would be lower than in the second half of 2023 due to planned maintenance shutdowns.
Stora Enso also said a recent political strike in Finland had hit its quarterly results by25 million euros, while UPM said the impact on its business was modest.
Finnish labour unions in early April suspended a four-week strike that had paralysed imports and exports and triggered widespread factory shutdowns, including several mills for Stora Enso and UPM.
($1 = 0.9338 euros)
Reporting by Boleslaw Lasocki in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi and Peter Graff
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