Stora Enso Oyj

Thank you for joining us today. I'm Hans Solström, the President and CEO of Stora Enso. I'm here with our CFO, Seppo Parvi, to walk you through our performance and provide insights into our future outlook. We will also address any questions you might have towards the end. Let's begin by directing our attention to this striking image. This is an image from the interior of our new head office, soon to be a prominent landmark in the main harbour of Helsinki. We have just started to move in. This building not only represents our commitment to sustainable development, but also stands as a testament to the innovative use of wood in modern architecture. For every ton of wood utilized in constructions like this, we are able to sequester one ton of carbon while simultaneously avoiding the emissions of at least another ton of CO2 compared to traditional construction materials. Today's presentation is headlined Continued Profit Improvement with Strengthened Leverage Ratio. I will explain further what this means to Reinsa and how we have achieved these results as we move through the presentation. Now, let's shift our focus to the key highlights of the quarter. These highlights not only showcase our strategic progress, but also emphasizes our dedication to sustainable growth and financial stability. Firstly, I'm encouraged to report that our Q2 2024 adjusted EBIT more than quadrupled year on year with an enhanced EBIT margin, marking our third consecutive quarter of sequential adjusted EBIT growth. This performance aligns with our expectation and reinforces our upgraded full year 2024 adjusted EBIT guidance announced on the 15th of May to be significantly higher than last year's 342 million euros. Our value creation and profit improvement programs are progressively contributing to our earnings growth. Through targeted value creation efforts, we are reducing variable costs, optimizing sourcing and enhancing efficiencies across all divisions. Concurrently, our profit improvement program, initiated in February this year, is advancing successfully to deliver an additional €120 million in adjusted EBIT by lowering fixed costs with full impact from 2025. Our financial position has also strengthened, as indicated by an improved net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio quarter on quarter. We have also managed to significantly reduce our operating working capital to an all-time low, which has enhanced our liquidity and financial flexibility. These achievements are testament to our commitment to operational excellence and financial prudence, highlighting our ability to deliver sustainable value and setting the stage for continuous success. Let's now take a look at our result and the contributing factors in more detail. Group sales decreased slightly by 3%, reaching 2.3 billion euro, mainly due to structural changes, including site divestments and closures throughout 2023. While on the other hand, sales from the continuing operations grew by 1%. We had higher deliveries across all divisions alongside increased prices in our biomaterials and forest division. Although prices in the packaging material division started to increase, they still remained below the level from a year ago. The adjusted EBIT rose significantly to 161 million euro from 37 million euro a year ago. with the margin improving to 7% from 1.6%. This positive result was primarily driven by higher volumes and a decrease in many variable cost categories. However, the raised fiber costs continued to create challenges and squeeze our margins. Additionally, fixed costs decreased mainly due to implemented cost saving actions. The restructuring efforts from the previous year alongside this year's value creation and profit improvement improving our profitability and competitiveness on a sustained basis. Our cash flow from operations reached 323 million euro bolstered by a reduction in our operating working capital by 576 million euro a year on year achieving an all-time low. This success is a result of our continuous efforts to enhance working capital efficiency and release capital, ensuring a robust financial position for the future. Let's dwell deeper into the development of the adjusted EBIT. As previously noted, the group adjusted EBIT rose significantly to €161 million from €37 million a year ago. A key contributor to this increase was higher volumes in our continuing operations, particularly in the packaging materials division, which improved profitability by 79 million euros. However, we also continued to face upward pressure on fiber costs, primarily wood, which negatively impacted our margins and decreased profitability by 64 million euros. On a positive note, apart from fiber costs, many other variable cost categories, such as chemicals, continue to decline, contributing an improvement of €56 million to adjusted EBIT. The value creation programs, which focus on sourcing, operational and commercial efficiencies, are progressing well across all divisions. Additionally, fixed cost saw a reduction of 53 million euro, primarily due to cost reduction actions. These programs employ an analytical and structured approach, significantly enhancing both our profits and cost competitiveness, and are integral to our ongoing financial health and competitive positioning in the market. Now, if we look at our divisions more in depth, let me begin with an overview of the Packaging Materials Division. Demand for consumer board remained solid and demand for container board improved throughout recovery, though recovery remained hampered by sluggish retail trade growth. Sales decreased marginally by 1% to 1.1 billion euro. The decline is mainly due to the impact of the production unit and line closures from the previous year, which adversely affected sales volumes. Despite this, the negative impact was largely offset by a steady recovery in volumes for both consumer and container board continued operations. Political strikes in Finland during the early part of the second quarter led to production curtailments and subsequently delayed shipments and the implementation of price increases during the quarter. Adjusted EBIT increased by €82 million to €60 million. This improvement in profitability was observed across all segments and was supported by structural changes, lower depreciation costs and higher operating rates. Although good costs continued to rise, placing pressure on our margins, we mitigated this impact through a reduction in other cost categories, including energy, chemicals and fixed costs. Continuing with the packaging solution division, where we continue to navigate through challenging market conditions. There were some indications of a gradual market recovery, yet the division's performance remains adversely impacted by industrial capacity. Additionally, poor weather conditions in the Benelux area negatively affected the key fresh product segments, leading to reduced deliveries. Consequently, sales decreased by 12% to €254 million, largely attributed to lower pricing levels. The lower selling prices seen in the first quarter of 2024 adversely influenced the second quarter sales. This was a result of previous declines in container board prices, which is the main input material for the division. Adjusted EBIT decreased by €60 million, resulting in a negative €1 million for the quarter. The division's profitability was heavily impacted by high margin pressure, resulting from a contractual lag in passing the sequential increased container board costs on to our customers. Moreover, increased depreciation costs associated with the startup of the Delir production plant in the Netherlands also contributed negatively to the results. These factors collectively highlight the significant challenge the division faces in maintaining profitability amidst the current market dynamics. Let's now focus on the biomaterials division, which saw positive developments in both sales and adjusted EBIT. Fault demand remained stable and we observed sequential increases in fault prices across all grades and markets. The global inventory stayed below the five-year average. In the first quarter, supply disruptions led to tightened pulp availability in Europe during the second quarter. As a result, sales in the division rose by 9% to 413 million euro. Although deliveries fell lower due to the closure of the Sunila pulp mill in Finland, higher sales prices contributed to the increase. Adjusted EBIT saw a substantial rise, increasing by €76 million to €63 million. This improvement was primarily driven by higher sales prices coupled with internal actions aimed at reducing costs and enhancing competitiveness. Shifting focus to the wood products division, we observed a continuation of low demand, although there were signs of seasonal improvement. Notably, we saw an increase in volumes, particularly for sawn wood. Despite the volume increases, sales in the division decreased by 5% to 414 million euro, primarily due to lower sales prices. The low level of building activity remained a significant factor suppressing demand for cross-laminated timber and laminated veneer lumber. Encouragingly, the division returned to a positive adjusted EBIT after six consecutive negative quarters. This was supported by several internal actions aimed at reducing fixed costs. Adjusted EBIT increased by €13 million to €7 million by reductions in both fixed and variable costs. This demonstrates a robust response to cost management and operational adjustments in the face of ongoing demand challenges. Now, take a look at the forest division, which continued its strong performance this quarter. Sales saw a significant increase of 11% to a total of 690 million euro. Demand continued to be strong in the Nordics, with both volumes and wood prices experiencing an upward trend. This resulted in price increasing both year on year and quarter on quarter. Adjusted EBIT rose by 23% to 76 million euros, and the adjusted EBIT margin improved to 11% from 10% the previous year. This record high result for a second quarter was primarily driven by increased wood prices, favorable harvesting conditions, and strong operational performance across the group's forest assets. So, let's take a look at the robust valuation of our forest assets in more detail. We are pleased to report a continuous stable forest valuation of 8.7 billion euros, which translates into 11.06 euros per share. This stability underscores the strength and enduring value and potential of our forest assets. The year-on-year increase of 660 million euro was primarily attributed to the positive changes in the fair value of our biological assets. Additionally, our quarter-and-quarter growth of 99 million euro was mainly influenced by favorable forex exchange rates, particularly with a stronger Swedish krona. I will now hand over to Seppo to go through details of some key financials.

Thank you, Hans. In 2024, our capex level is expected to remain at about 1 to 1.1 billion euros. The consumer body investment at the Oulu site in Finland is progressing on schedule and budget. This is our main project running currently. And production is expected to start in the first half of 2025, with full capacity estimated to be reached during 2027. Long term, we keep CAPEX at or below depreciation over the cycle. After the whole investment, the aim is now to quickly revert to the average CAPEX level of 600 to 800 million euros. Due to the current business environment and to protect our balance sheet and cash flow, we are continuing to be restrictive on any new major CAPEX initiatives. Moving to the next important topic, our cash flow. we have achieved a significant reduction in operating working capital. The profit improvement program initiated in the first quarter this year, with an adjusted EBIT target of 120 million euros, and the value creation program started, for example, on efficiency improvements and the reduction of variable costs, have both, as previously mentioned, continued to progress well. They have significantly contributed to an improved earnings trend through enhanced efficiencies and improved cash flow, which in turn has strengthened our leverage ratio. We have successfully managed to improve our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio to 3.5, down from 4.0 in the first quarter of this year. However, it remains above our targeted ratio of 2.0 and has increased compared to the 1.7 recorded in the second quarter of last year. This underlines the ongoing necessity for profitability improvements and actions to reduce working capital. This continues to be our top priority. In addition, We have, as mentioned earlier, achieved a significant reduction in operating working capital by 576 million euro year on year, reaching an all-time low level. This success is driven by ongoing efforts to enhance working capital efficiency and to release capital. Maintaining and improving this efficiency remains a focal point for us moving forward. Let's also take a look at our liquidity position next. We are committed to maintaining a strong liquidity position, which is crucial in today's volatile business environment for supporting our growth investment plans. Cardio Cash and Cash Equivalent stand at approximately 2.1 billion euros. Additionally, we have access to unused credit facilities totalling up to 1.9 billion euros. In further support of our financing strategy, in July, we secured a new €435 million bilateral loan from the European Investment Bank, EIP. This loan, which is currently totally undrawn, will partially fund the significant Oulu milk investment. Additionally, it is important to highlight that we have no financial governance and maintain an investment grade rating from both bids and moods. Let's now shift our focus to the development of our long-term financial targets. Despite the changing business environment impacting our ability to meet our long-term financial targets, we are seeing some segments starting to recover. As Hans mentioned, we are taking targeted actions to strengthen our business for immediate needs, while also planning strategically for sustained improvements and competitiveness in the future. We have improved our net debt to access the GDP ratio from 4.0 to 3.5, since the first goal was mentioned already. And except for the forest division, all divisions are below our return on capital targets currently. I will now pass back to you, Hans, for an overview of sustainability goals and market outlook.

Please. Thank you, Seppo. Our growth is underpinned by sustainability, which serves as both a strategic enabler and a competitive edge. We are committed to achieving our ambitious sustainability goals concerning climate change, circularity and biodiversity. In our climate change initiatives, we are enhancing energy efficiency, transitioning to renewable energy sources and increasing our use of non-fossil electricity. These efforts have led to a 46% reduction in production emissions since 2019. Building on this progress, we are targeting net zero carbon emissions by 2040. In circularity, we have reached 94% recyclability of our products and are aiming for 100% by 2030. We are also committed to a net positive impact on biodiversity in our forests by 2050. Our dedication to this principle has earned us the highest EcoVadis rating for the eighth year, affirming our commitment to environmental responsibility, labor and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement. Now moving on to the sequential market demand outlook. Stora Enso anticipates a gradual market recovery in 2024, so let's examine the outlook from Q2 to Q3 for our products across our divisions. Starting with the consumer board, demand in Europe remains stable, with a slight uptick expected in China. For container board and corrugated packaging, we expect stable demand across Europe. Paper demand is also expected to remain stable, but at a low level. In terms of raw materials, demand for both softwood and hardwood pulp is expected to remain stable in Europe and China, alongside stable demand for pulp. A seasonal decline in sawn wood demand is expected during the summer holiday period. At the same time, the construction segment continues to experience weak demand for building solutions. In our forest division, we see a rise in industrial wood demand across all markets due to seasonality, leading to continued tight conditions in Finland, Sweden and the Baltics. Lastly, demand for pulpwood for energy usage maintains its stability. These continuous insights not only reflect the current market demand development, but also contribute to our strategic discussions on a longer term horizon. So in our next topic, building a more profitable and competitive company, I will cover how our strategic initiatives and capital allocation are aimed at enhancing our market positions and strengthening our competitiveness for sustainable growth in the coming years. Our actions to build a more profitable and competitive company is to deliver on our long-term strategy to position Stora Enso for current and future growth opportunities. We have already discussed elements of this today, but let's deep dive to see the full scope of how we are enhancing profitability and competitiveness through a mix of strategic initiatives and various restructuring and improvement actions. We are also enhancing our financial position by optimizing commercial and asset strategies, reducing working capital and divesting non-core businesses. At the beginning of last year, we discontinued our structurally declining paper division. and the plan to divest the Beihai site in China is proceeding. Although the process is lengthy, securing the right value for our assets is crucial. Ultimately, the value of the deal is prioritized over timing. This is nothing new, and we now focus on expanding our business in growing segments of renewable and recyclable packaging, where we already have leading market positions and good access to input material. In 2023, we also completed the acquisition of the Dutch corrugated packaging company, the Young Packaging Group, valued at around 1 billion euro. Additionally, our new corrugated packaging site in Western Europe is enhancing our position and is expected to be fully operational by 2026, increasing capacity by approximately 20%. Our ongoing investment of 1 billion euro in consumer packaging at our Oulu mill in Finland is progressing well. We anticipate production startup in the first half of 2025 with full capacity projected by 2027. Once fully ramped up, we expect annual sales from Oulu to reach approximately 800 million euros. To enhance our long-term competitiveness and profitability, we initiated a restructuring program in 2023. This includes redundancies and the closure of several production units with limited long-term viability. Through these actions, we achieved an annual adjusted EBIT improvement of 110 million euro, with full impact from the beginning of this year. Our value creation programs are driven by a structured analytical approach, targeting variable cost reductions through sourcing, operational and commercial efficiencies, such as pricing. We have now identified and are implementing about 1,900 improvement initiatives, spearheaded by around 500 project owners. These programs are advancing well across all divisions and significantly contribute to our operational and financial performance. Moreover, our profit improvement program aimed at reducing fixed costs and achieving a target of 120 million euro has been progressing successfully since its launch in February. We are now moving into the implementation phase of the finalizing the change negotiations with the Unips. Full impact is expected from the beginning of next year. Together these initiatives are contributing to our sustained profitability and competitive edge. In addition to these successful programs, we now operate with a decentralized model with P&L responsible divisions and business units within them. This means that we're also adapting to the completely new way of working. Let's now turn our attention to the recent appointments to our group leadership team. I'm delighted to welcome Niklas Rosenlev, CEPO's successor, and Stora Enso's new CFO. Niklas currently holds the position of Group CFO at the Swedish stock-listed industrial company SKF, a role he has occupied since 2019. Prior to this, from 2014 to 2019, he served as CFO at Busware and senior finance positions at Microsoft and Nokia before. Niklas holds a Master of Science degree in finance. His solid background in CFO and other senior positions in listed companies will be immensely valuable in Stora Enso's continued growth, transition, value creation and in reaching our financial targets. I'm also delighted to welcome Caroline Wagner as our new head of packaging solutions. She will replace Ab Smith, who will be retiring. Caroline is currently divisional CEO of the packaging division at the German Klingele Papier & Packaging Group, a position she has held since 2021. She has been with the company since 2019, occupying various managerial roles. Prior to that, she has held senior positions at other European corrugated packaging companies, including DS Smith and SEA. Caroline holds a degree of graduate engineer packaging technology. Her strong packaging industry insight will be important in developing and advancing our packaging solutions business. Both Niklas and Caroline will join Stora Enso latest in January 2025 and be members of Stora Enso's group leadership team. I will now end the presentation with the key takes from the quarter and how we are building a stronger future. To summarize, we are powering ahead to build a more profitable and competitive store for a stronger future. Our actions are focused on improving profits, competitiveness and cash flow. Our value creation programs have driven significant variable cost reductions, contributing to operational and financial performance across divisions. Additionally, our focused profit improvement efforts to reduce fixed costs have meaningfully enhanced our earnings and cash flow, reflecting our commitment to financial stability. And based on our performance analysis and market trends, we expect our full year 2024 adjusted EBIT to be significantly higher, meaning plus 50% and above than the €342 million in 2023. Looking ahead, we anticipate further progress and remain dedicated to investing in resources that deliver exceptional service to our customers and robust returns to our shareholders. Thank you for your attention, and now we are ready to take your questions.

If you would like to ask a question, please use the raise hand function at the bottom of your Zoom screen. Or if you've dialed in, please press star nine. Please only ask a maximum of two questions at a time. If you wish to ask more than two questions, please rejoin the queue. We will pause for a moment to allow questioners to enter the queue. Our first question comes from Efrem Ravi at Citigroup. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Thank you. My question, sort of twofold question. Firstly, the general tone of the guidance is stable. Does this mean that the second quarter volumes are the new normal after the destocking last year and nearly most of the near term increases in revenue and profitability will come mainly from price and mix? That's the first question. And secondly, on CapEx, on your CapEx indication for next year of 600 to 800 million, does that include the disposal of BHI and the reduction of maintenance CapEx associated with that asset? And also, Olu conversion, how much of the 1 billion CapEx has already been spent by end of 2021? 2024, first half 2024 and end of 2024 expected? And also, can you remind us why the ramp up of Oulu is so slow, almost two years to 2027? And if anything can be done to accelerate that? Thank you.

Thank you, Efrem. I'll take the first question and Seppo will handle the second question. So, first of all, regarding our outlook for the third quarter, yes, you're right. I mean, we see stable volume development in general on a slightly better level than where we were last year. So, yes, you are right that prices are moving up and therefore we will also enjoy better pricing especially in our board grades throughout the third quarter.

Then it comes to CAPEX guidance and the raise of 600-800 million euros and the pay high divestment process. As you know, the process is continuing and the timing is still open. But this is, of course, a general guidance and range that you can also see from the history. And as you know, Peha is a relatively new site. So CAPEX speakers for Peha are not that large in the larger scale of things. Then it comes to Oulu. Oulu CAPEX this year, last year, we don't specifically go into facing as such many to CAPEX expenditure, which we have to say that this is This is the CAPEX heavy year in Oulu. Roughly, you could say that half of the budget is spent this year. And then, of course, there is some carryovers to next year when it comes to commissioning of the machinery and buildings, et cetera, that is then still to be part of the CAPEX for next year. Ramp up of the site, I think it's, I wouldn't say that it's slow. You have to remember that it is a billion euro investment. It is about the pulp mill ramp up, about the converted machine ramp up, and also being able to open some bottlenecks in order to reach the full capacity. Of course, we expect to reach market demand, or the quality market demands, for the product already significantly earlier than that.

Our next question is from Charlie Muir Sands at BNP Paribas Exxon. Please unmute your line and ask your question. Charlie, please go ahead. We'll move on to our next question from Patrick Mann at Bank of America. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Thank you very much. And thanks for the call. I just wanted to ask a little bit how you are thinking about fiber costs, particularly in Finland, because it does seem that now this is a structural issue. So everybody that's consuming fiber from Finland has moved up the cost curve. I mean, what can you do to manage that or should we expect that it should ease over time or is this the new normal and everyone's going to have to learn how to live with it and how to adapt? Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Patrik. Yes, you're right. I mean, wood costs in Finland are record high. and also the wood cost in Sweden have been increasing. They are lower than in Finland, but also on a relatively high level. And the best way to cope in this type of a high-cost environment is that you produce the highest added value products with the best wood-pane capability in efficient integrates. And that is exactly what we do. I mean, consumer board, Consumer board grades are, you know, priced almost, you know, over the cycle. They have a price point about twice the level of, for instance, paper and pulp. So it means that the cost of wood in the total cost structure of consumer board is clearly lower. And we produce also a board, consumer board and efficient integrates where we have In most cases, we have integrated board and pulp production on the same site, which brings efficiencies. And in addition to that, we have the mechanical woodworking industry, which is supporting also efficiencies. So when we buy wood, we get an assortment of logs and pulp wood. part of the logs goes into wood products, but then, you know, the chips and the sawdust, plus also the smaller, you know, the tops of the trees is very good and competitive raw material for board making. So it's really about producing the highest added value products with the best woodpain capability in efficient integrates. And that is exactly what we do. and of course you know this this high good costs emphasizes the importance to address the the topics you can address which is improving efficiency improving cost efficiency reducing costs wherever you can and so that's what we are doing another thing i would like to highlight here is that if we look at for instance consumer board which is our main product segment About 70% of all the European consumer board capacity is located in Finland and Sweden. So in the areas with these high wood costs. And the rest, 30%, is mainly unintegrated capacity, so relying on sourced pulp. market and paying market pulp prices. And that means that, you know, when speaking about pricing, there is also a cost push on prices, especially in consumer board, which is supporting, let's say, the price increases. So those are the two aspects I wanted to bring up here. We are well placed to operate in a high wood cost environment. And also when we look at the market dynamics and pricing, it actually concerns almost the whole industry directly and indirectly.

Maybe one more point to be added. That is one reason why wood cost has been increasing so much and that has been increasing demand on energy. side, and that has been increasing the demand, because they don't get chips from Russia anymore, and also domestic sawmilling has been down, so less chips available from the domestic sawmills. And assuming when the sawmilling situation gets normal, that would improve the availability of chips to the energy industry, that should give some relief at some stage. And also, as we know, the energy industry is also in some cases moving from biopoilers to electricity boilers, and that should also give relief. But that will take some time before those give some relief to the market. But those are also drivers to keep in mind.

Our next question is from Pallav Mittal at Barclays. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Hi, good morning. A couple of questions. Following up on the guidance for the full year, so it seems that demand is stable and it is mainly going to be pricing going into the second half. Can you quantify how much incremental benefit do you see from the value creation and profit initiative in H2 versus H1? So that's the first one. And secondly, in the other segment, you reported a loss of around 30 million euros.

which was i would say much worse than what people were expecting can you help us understand how we think about this uh going into h2 yes thank you very much paula i will take the first question and set for the second question uh yes i mean uh it's public information there has been uh pricing several across the board for both container board and consumer board. And also, as we know, the pulp prices are on a historical high level and stock levels were still below five-year average levels. uh so uh so that uh will contribute positively uh on the other hand we have also the the higher fiber costs uh especially so that emphasizes the importance to to work on our value creation plans value value creation programs as well as our fixed cost related profit improvement programs uh we are not disclosing any the exact target figures for the value creation programs. Regarding the fixed cost reduction profit improvement program, we have said that we will achieve the 120 million euro impact in reduced fixed costs next year. And a part of that impact will come also during the second half of this year. However, the value creation programs are significant. They are focusing on sourcing, operational efficiency and commercial excellence. As mentioned before, we have about 2,000 identified initiatives in all our mills, divisions and functions. We have about 500 initiative leaders working on executing on these programs. We see already a significant impact, but there will be more coming from these programs. Then the second question, I hand over to Seppo.

Yeah, thanks. Related to segment other, there are a couple of things to keep in mind and remember. First of all, last year we had divested paper assets still recorded in segment other, and that has an effect if you compare to the result compared to the year before. Another driver is that we have some legacy coasts included there from the sites that we have closed. You know that we have closed production in Veitsiluoto, Sunila, Teho, and we have some maintenance energy related coasts for those sites as we are in a process to find new use for those, so we keep them up for the time being. And the third reason relates to energy market and energy coasts. There was a long maintenance stop at Olkiluoto nuclear power station, reducing the volumes and adding to the costs. And those had a bit of extraordinary effect in the quarter.

Our next question is from James Perry at Citi. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Hi, thanks for the presentation. So I'd like to ask about packaging solutions. You mentioned stronger demand for corrugated packaging in the report, but a lag in pricing from Container Board, as well as overcapacity. How significantly do you see this overcapacity persisting into H2 and 2025, particularly with your recent expansions in Delia and Ellesmere Port? And so on balance, how closely would you expect a recovery in packaging solutions to follow a recovery in packaging materials? And what will it take for the business to eventually provide meaningful EBIT contribution? Thanks.

Yeah, thank you very much, James. Yeah, exactly as you state. I mean, the corrugated demand is huge. is stable and it's on a better level than where we were last year. But there is also lots of capacity expansion, including ourselves. Our Delir site is adding about 20% to our corrugated capacity in total. However, we have seen historically that there are strong fundamental demand drivers for corrugated packaging. We also see that the European Union packaging waste regulation is... driving further demand growth for corrugated packaging, so renewable, recyclable packaging materials, replacing plastic type of packaging with the more sustainable solutions. So there are clearly positive demand drivers here, but we are still suffering from the overcapacity situation. However, historically, we have seen that what is happening now has happened before. So when container board prices start moving up, corrugated box prices also move up, but with a time lag. But longer term, we have seen that with higher container board prices, Also, the packaging solution business is gaining and improving margins. So we are experiencing a kind of a pricing time lag situation here. But we think that for the packaging solution business also longer term, the higher container prices will be good for pricing of corrugated boxes.

And additionally, we have to remember that the retail market is still soft, and of course that has an effect in the demand of packaging as well. And I think that is important not only for our port business, but also corrugated. It's important that the market and people's purchasing power comes back, and that way the volumes in the retail will go up. One thing to add to my answer earlier on electricity market and segmentality, Of course, one more reason is that electricity prices have been unusually low this summer and spring, and typically we would expect those to go up towards the winter months when the colder weather comes.

Our next question is from Cole Hawthorne at Jefferies. Please unmute your line by pressing star six and ask your question.

Thanks for taking my question. Just to follow up on how you're thinking about the business going forward from here, because you've done a lot of restructuring on your sourcing and the variable costs. But ultimately, how do you think about your asset base? When are you going to be in a position to start the process to do a detailed review of which asset base you're keeping now that wood costs are going to be higher for longer in the Nordics? And how do you think about that as you ramp up new Olu capacity into next year? Is it not better to close capacity sooner so that your operating rates improve faster? Thank you.

Yeah, thank you very much, Cole. We actually did an extensive asset strategy review last autumn together with our management and the board of directors. So we have a very clear view and plan for how to develop the competitiveness and how to develop our asset base. And you are right, of course, that with several mills, we have also optimization opportunities, but we don't have any, let's say, now plans that we can disclose or go into at this stage.

And just to remind all that we have actually last year, closed some container port capacity, already so many capacity and Sunila Paltville exactly addressing longer term profitability of the assets we have in our portfolio.

And then maybe just following up on biomaterials, earnings were fairly stable quarter on quarter, despite coal prices going up. As we go into the third quarter, do you think we're going to see better pulp deliveries, higher price realization that should improve the profitability of the biomaterials division into Q3? I'm just wondering, should Q3 be the significantly stronger earnings division from a pulp perspective?

Yeah, thank you, Cole. Well, first of all, I think we need to also remember the maintenance shots and how they impact our earnings, because, you know, the fault mills are big operations. So the annual maintenance shots have a significant impact. And we had maintenance shots in the second quarter, where we'll also have some in the third quarter. So they have a significant influence also on the biomaterials. EBIT generation.

Our next question is from Detlef Winkelmann at JPMorgan. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Morning, everyone. Just a quick one. I know you touched on it a little bit on the segment other. When we start to look at those legacy costs, and I get the principle behind it, but I wasn't quite clear as to whether we should be expecting these legacy costs to continue going forward into Q3, Q4. And then my second question still relates to segment other in terms of, I understand there's lower energy prices, I understand there was downtime at OL3. Can you give us some kind of guidance on a quarter-on-quarter basis, I suppose, from Q1-24 to Q2-24? What's the split between the increased legacy costs and what's energy related? Thank you.

Well, when it comes to legacy costs, of course, we are in a process in Veitsiluoto and other places to find new use for the assets we have already rented, for example, in Veitsiluoto, some buildings, some parts of the site as well as are divested. But the work continues. It's difficult to give you very clear pacing how those will start to go down, but absolutely we are working on reducing them and also cleaning the site. When it comes to electricity cost development and such, we are not giving guidance. We give guidance only on group level, and the same goes for all divisions and segment other. I of course understand your challenge of looking at the segment other development, because it is a bit bumpy sometimes because of the things mentioned earlier. But if you want to model something, I think the best advice is to take an average of some past three to four quarters and use that as your guesstimate in the modeling.

Our next question is from Robin Santoverta at Carnegie. Please unmute your line by pressing star six and ask your question.

yes good morning and thank you very much for taking my questions first of all hans you know we've been in the company for soon one year and you are launched some fixed cost reduction programs and other profitability improvement programs um how long uh sort of uh In the time span, will it take before all of that is realized in the P&L? So where are we now? Is it like 50% already visible or more or less? So if you just could expand a little bit on that topic.

Yeah, thank you, Robin. Well, yes, I mean, what we are doing here is extensive. I mean, we have, in addition to the profit improvement, so the fixed cost programs that we have announced and where we have also published the cost saving target of 120 million euro, which will be fully in our P&L next year, we have the value creation programs. And as I mentioned before, we have close to 2,000 initiatives now identified And we have 500 initiative owners. And as we have a very structured, very analytical process, these programs concern all the mills, all the divisions and businesses, all the functions. And as we said towards the end of last year, I mean, we have really been turning every stone to improve the efficiencies. And these efficiencies are found in many different areas. They are sourcing related. So by changing recipes, we can reduce costs and improve our efficiency. They are They are operational efficiency related by operating our mills in different ways. We can save energy, we can optimize energy usage, we can also improve wood yields and utilize in a more efficient way the wood that we are using for manufacturing. And we can, for instance, optimize logistics. And there are also commercial related, for instance, pricing related, how we can price in a better, more analytical, more professional way and achieve improved margins through that. So really cross the board. And we are in an acceleration phase. So already in Q1 and Q2 of this year, we have some impact of these programs, but they are impacting our result increasingly. And if we look at those 2000 initiatives to get the full impact of those which have been so far identified and put into projects with clear project leaders, with a clear program, with a timeline to get the full impact, we need to go into 2026. So basically, they are gradually impacting our margins and profitability as from this year throughout next year until 2026. But I want to emphasize that this is a cultural change. It's a new way of working. And what is really important here is the continuous improvement. So this is not like a project which we start and we end by 2026. No, this is the new way of working in Stora Enissa, where we continuously, in a systematic, analytical way, you know, identify improvement opportunities, we put them into projects, we put responsible persons in place, and we implement those, and we execute, and we measure what we get, what we really get into our bottom line. You know, you get what you measure, so Having clear measurements and follow-up is really essential.

Thank you very much for that extensive answer. The second question I have is related to the forest assets. They're quite valuable and now make up for a large part of your market value and enterprise value. Is there any way for you guys to better monetize in a way the value of that asset to get better sort of alcohol for the shareholders. Now it's not fully reflected, I would say, in the enterprise value. Anything you can do on that front?

Well, if I can start first more on transparency on that side and then then Hans can fill in. But, you know, over the years, we have already, first of all, started to report forest division separately in order to be more transparent and show the profitability generation capabilities, cash flow generation capabilities. We also moved to market price based valuation method first in Sweden later in Finland in order also to reflect better the true price and as you have seen it's holding well even in the current current economical environment which I think shows the shows the stability of the assets and growth potential of the asset and Additionally, if you look at the current wood market situation, I think more and more people can also understand the strategic importance of having a forest asset in our port. It has been an important instrument when it comes to ensuring wood availability for our mills in Finland and Sweden, as well as our farm operations in Uruguay and Brazil. So that is something we have done, and we continue to be transparent, and that way open the figures. And I think over time, that should, of course, build also confidence on the market participants like yourself on the value potential of the asset.

Yeah, and I think that we can only say that we agree with your analysis, that it's not the value of our forest holding is not really reflected in its full value in a company. But, you know, the market is always right. So that's how it works.

Our next question is from Lars Kjellberg at Stifel. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Thank you for taking my question. I just want to come back to the wood cost situation again. I appreciate, Hans, you made the comment that a very significant part of the consumer board is produced in the Nordic region. There's another aspect, of course, that is a very significant part of that capacity that is exported out of Europe and where your competition doesn't have the same sort of issue. So how do you think about that board market in terms of risk to repatriating overseas tons, because Europe cannot compete or can you compete in global markets That is my first question. The second question, which I just wanted to hear you maybe elaborate a bit about the, as you mentioned in your statement today, we're intensifying our focus on capital allocation and asset strategy. What does that really mean? Because you're also talking about reducing CapEx while you're trying to improve the business. Wouldn't it make sense to maybe think about capital allocation, less growth and more internally, and not necessarily bring it down, but clearly spending it on, you know, asset improvements and efficiency, because it seems difficult from my vantage point, at least, just to save yourself into a good profitable business. Those were my questions.

Yeah, thank you, Lars. What a question. Well, first, about the consumer board, or let's say the board and the exports from Europe overseas. Well, first of all, I think it's really a question about product specialization. We are producing folded box board products, and we will produce in our new Oulu consumer board line, folded box board qualities, grades, that basically there is nothing exactly similar, for instance, in the USA. These folded box fort grades, thanks to the product properties, the customers can achieve 20% to 30% yield advantage because they can go down in basis weight and still get the same properties as the locally US-produced corresponding grades. So it's really about product differentiation and quality differentiation. That's the way how to manage and to get pricing power. And then when it comes to the capital allocation, I said we went through an extensive asset strategy, asset review and created an asset strategy. And strategy is really about choices. So we have a we have a clear plan now where to allocate our resources in order to create really the the you know, the. the most cost competitive integrates and also at the same time we're not to allocate capital because perhaps some meals are then more in a run for cash mode. So we have that clear strategy in mind and we will allocate capital accordingly.

We are now at time. I will hand back to Hann Solström and Seppo Parvi for closing remarks.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your attention. We are moving in the right direction. As you can see, we more than quadrupled our EBIT in the second quarter, and this was the third consequent quarter of EBIT improvement. We are focusing on strengthening our balance sheet, and I'm happy that in this quarter we made the turnaround in net debt to EBITDA, moving down from 4.0 to 3.5. Both when it comes to EBIT, of course, our ambition is much, much higher, and we are systematically working towards improved profitability to achieve our long-term financial targets. And the same applies also for our indebtedness. We are committed to move our net debt to EBITDA below our target of 2.0. Thank you very much for your attention, and we are continuing to execute on the path with speed and determination. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.