In the second quarter the wood products business division of Stora Enso sold approximately 1.174m m³ lumber and further processed wood products. This represents a 9.0% decline vis à vis the second quarter of 2019. According to the quarterly report published on 21 July, turnover decreased by 15.8% to €342m. The EBITDA dropped by 21.3% to €37m and the EBITDA margin by 0.7 percentage points to 10.8%. The EBIT declined by 25.7% to €26m, the EBIT margin, at 7.4%, shrunk by 1.2 percentage points. Already in the first quarter declines in the EBITDA (-25.0%) as well as the EBIT (-37.9%) had been recorded.
Costs in connection with closure of the Kitee spruce sawmill, as well as lower sales volumes and a drop in lumber prices due to the corona crisis imposed an additional burden on the development of results. The sale of the Pfarrkirchen facilities of Stora Enso Timber, which was concluded in March, as well as the sale of Thermowood production assets at the Uimaharju sawmill led to a €36m decline in turnover.
In the forest business division the 8.5% decline to 2.814m m³ in sales volume led to a 13.9% decline in turnover to €519m. The EBITDA more than doubled to €54m and the EBIT almost quadrupled to €41m. This improvement in results is due mainly to the restructuring of forestry activities following takeover of Bergvik Skog Väst as of 1 June 2019.
In the period covered by the report, group turnover decreased by 18.9% to €2.114bn. The EBITDA and EBIT declined by 27.0% to €332m and 40.5% to €178m respectively. Increases, in contrast, were recorded in operating profit (+59.2% to €226m), pre-tax profit (+104.3% to €190m) and net profit (+176.9% to €144m). The improvement in results ensued from a re-assessment of group forests (+€69m). Last year the re-assessment had resulted in a depreciation (-€11m).
