Canfor Announces Production Curtailment in Canada

Blackstone announced that funds managed by its Blackstone Tactical Opportunities business have acquired Sustana Group, a leading manufacturer of premium, sustainable recycled fiber, paper and packaging products, from an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital (“H.I.G.”). Headquartered in De Pere, Wisconsin, Sustana uses post-consumer materials and the high standards for environmental sustainability to produce a comprehensive suite of recycled fiber, paper and packaging solutions for customers throughout North America. It services a diversified customer base through four facilities, all of which have leading energy efficiency, water conservation systems, wastewater treatment technology and recycling of process by-products.

The second quarter was challenging with all-time low sales volumes and with currency-neutral net sales declining by 18% compared to the same period last year. The largest sales decline was in North America due to the continued inventory destocking resulting in production curtailments. This, in combination with historically high fiber costs in Europe led to a weak result. By all indications, the blastomycosis outbreak at the Escanaba mill is behind us. Following a three-week idling and deep cleaning of the facilities, operations were successfully resumed on the 8th of May. We continue to work closely with local, state and federal health experts as they complete their analysis of the testing and sample collection at the mill. Results will be made publicly available in due course. The negative financial impact of the outage and the deep clean was SEK 85 million in the quarter. From the 1st of April, our financial results are reported according to a regional structure. Business conditions differ vastly between Europe and North America, even if the current situation of high inventories and destocking applies to both regions. Region Europe’s profitability deterioration in the second quarter was primarily due to all-time-high fiber cost and soft volumes. Region North America on the other hand delivered a comparatively healthy margin, despite an operating rate of 50-60%, thanks to our cost-leadership and tight cost control.

⚫ Revenue increased by 7.1% year-on-year to a historical high of RMB 30.9 billion ⚫ Sales volume achieved record high of 8.6 million tonnes ⚫ Net profit1 was RMB 4.0 billion; a year-on-year increase of 75.6% ⚫ Gross profit margin of 20.9%; a year-on-year increase of 3.8 percentage points ⚫ Net profit margin of 13.0%; a year-on-year increase of 5.1 percentage points