Forestry company M-real's President and CEO Hannu Anttila believes the paper industry labour dispute has had some positive effects as well.
In M-real's April-June interim report, Anttila asserts that owing to the industrial action the market for most paper types is now more balanced, which in turn may contribute to a price increase in the latter part of the year.
By a more balanced market situation Anttila refers to the fact that the production interruption had a favourable impact on the oversupply of some paper types.
Anttila believes that the present situation supports the marking up of the price for glossy magazine paper in particular, but M-real plans to continue to advocate price increases for coated fine paper as well. The outlook is slightly brighter even for uncoated fine paper, Anttila says.
Fine paper production is the backbone of M-real's business. As a result of this summer's lengthy paper industry labour dispute, M-real recorded a loss of EUR 124 million before tax for the period April-June.
Despite the more promising prospects for the rest of the year, Anttila predicts that M-real's annual result will remain slightly negative.
M-real's parent organisation Metsäliitto Group also published its interim report on Friday. Its result was also weakened by the labour dispute but remained profitable.
