Deals in the paper industry have been infrequent over the past few years, despite the market being hit hard by energy and raw material hikes, as well as overcapacity.

Reports from the Reuters Paper and Packaging Summit held last month in Helsinki claimed that manufacturers UPM, M-real and Norske Skog would also “support the transformation” of the sector.

However, Stora Enso has said that consolidation is only one option and that it believed it can do a lot by restructuring its assets.

Juha Vanhainen, Stora Enso’s executive vice-president of publication paper and country manager for Finland, said: “We are open and welcome for all kind of industry consolidation suggestions.

“However, we do not necessarily believe that the mega-mergers or big consolidations would produce significant synergies that we could not achieve by ourselves. Consolidation is not the only option.”

In the past two years, Stora Enso has made substantial changes to its company and recently announced plans to close another raft of mills that could affect the jobs of some 1100 staff.

The company has cut costs by €276 million ($A468m) year-on-year and continued cost reduction efforts, as well as claiming a strong focus on its future projects in Uruguay, Brazil and China.  

In July, Stora Enso posted a second-quarter operating profit of €49m ($A85m) – down from €94m at the same time last year.

Read the original article at www.printweek.com.

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