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The Nordic mass– Paper companies are in free fall Thursday with the sharp decline of Metsä Board. The Finnish company made profits in the morning of the fourth quarter due to lower mass prices and production problems.
Stora Enso is leading the slowdown in the Stockholm Stock Exchange and is supporting 5.8%. At the same time, SCA lost 4.3%, Holmen 2.3% and Billerud Korsnäs 2%. Metsä Board is down 10.1% on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.
According to Mikael JåfsSwedish director of research at Kepler Cheuvreux, however, the profit warning is mainly related to internal difficulties.
"It seems that it is mainly business-specific problems and, to a lesser extent, a weaker mass market. The integrated use of Husum, converted from paper to cardboard, has long irritated the company, "he told the Direkt news agency.
According to Metsä Board Husum's pulp mill machine problems resulted in a decline in pulp and paperboard production as well as repair costs.
The company also mentions the weakening of the Chinese mass market compared to previous forecasts, although demand is expected to remain good worldwide in the near future.
"It is well known that the Chinese market has weakened and that this should not surprise anyone," notes Mikael Jåfs, who believes that the strong reaction of the stock markets is also linked to the general nervousness of the end of the year. 39; fall.
Nordic price list The long fiber mass, NBSK, has been on an upward trend since the beginning of 2017, when a ton of mass cost about $ 820. Since then, the curve has steadily increased to $ 1,230 per tonne this summer, at the time of stabilization. Recently, signs of a beginning of decline have been shown.
Metsä Board now estimates that comparable operating income for the fourth quarter of 2018 will be approximately the same as in the third quarter of 2018. Based on previous forecasts, fourth quarter comparable operating income would improve. compared to the third, where it amounted to 63.7 million euros.
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