Laakirchen Papier: New Head of Sales for publication paper

The Navigator Company announced today that it will be increasing prices our Uncoated Woodfree Papers by 7 to 8 % in Europe, in all products and markets. This increase will be effective from 1st July dispatches and this decision was taken following the continuous increase in our key production costs.

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.

Koehler has joined the World BioEconomy Circle, a communication platform for stakeholders who have dedicated themselves to the subject of the bioeconomy. The objective of the BioEconomy Circle is to enable discussion of and improve on the latest developments, ideas, and visions in the circular bioeconomy, and to facilitate mutual learning. The BioEconomy Circle has grown substantially since it was introduced by the World BioEconomy Forum™, which was founded in 2018 by Jukka Kantola. The forum brings together a global community of stakeholders, who can use the platform to find out about a broad range of events and other activities in the field of the bioeconomy. It was set up in response to the increasing importance of this field.