“It was as though the year ended in October,” said Södra president Leif Brodén while announcing his company’s annual results.
The company managed to post operating profits of SKr762m in 2008, down from SKr1.6bn a year ago, but its timber division suffered greatly, with operating profits of SKr586m in 2007 turning into a loss of SKr49m last year.
Overall sales totalled SKr16.8bn, compared with SKr17.7bn in 2007.
Despite the profits decline, Södra is still proposing a SKr328m dividend – reflecting its ambition to distribute one-third of profits.
“The start of 2009 has been weak and we are not ruling out further production stops,” said Mr Brodén.
“Södra is not prepared to increase inventory levels as we do not believe that to be the correct strategy to meet poor demand.
“We believe volumes will gradually improve during the year. The widespread production shutdowns taken by a number of companies in the industry will have an effect.”
