26 October – Helsinki (FIN): UPM-Kymmene has posted "unsatisfactory" profit for its Q3, due to pricing pressures, but a marked improvement on its Q3 of 2003.
Net profit for the quarter was at €168 million ($215 million), or EPS of €0.32, up from €57 million, or EPS of €0.11, in the same period in 2003.
But the figure was down from the Q2 of 2004, which posted net profit of €297 million, or EPS of €0.57.
Sales during Q3 were at €2.449 billion, up from €2.400 billion in the Q3 of 2003, but down from €2.497 in the Q2 of 2004.
President and CEO Jussi Pesonen said: "The brisk increase in paper demand continued. Order books are strong and the capacity utilisation rate is very high. Because of low prices and cost pressures profitability was again unsatisfactory, but improved year-on-year. For the first time in three years, our result showed an improvement on the corresponding quarter the previous year."
