Upm Kymmene Corp (UPMKF) Q1 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Hello, everyone. Welcome to UPM's Quarter 1, 2025 results webcast. My name is Massimo Reinaudo. I'm the CEO of UPM. I'm here with Tapio Korpainen, the CFO of UPM. Today, we will share the main facts and figures of our business during the past months, and we will share some views about how we have prepared to deal with the uncertainty in the current global economic and trading environment. But let's start with quarter one. We had a good start of the year and improved our business performance compared to the previous quarter. Markets improved in pulp and advanced materials, whereas they continue to be challenging in communication papers and decarbonisation solutions. Our actions to sharpen competitiveness initiated last year started to bear visible fruits in several areas. Quarter one sales were on the same level as last year. Comparable EBIT totaled 287 millions or 10.8% of sales, which is 14% lower than in quarter one last year. In the quarter, we continue to take actions to improve performance and advance growth. In Uruguay, we have now the whole platform fully operational, including the railway connection from Paso de los Toros to the port terminal in Montevideo. In Rafletec, we continue to measure the measures to improve competitiveness, while the acquisition of Metamark in the UK adds to our growth. In communication papers, we announced further capacity adjustments and streamlining to ensure continued performance. And finally, we completed our first share buyback program by early April, having repurchased 6 million shares for 160 million euros. So let's move now to the situation in the different markets. The pulp market gradually improved during quarter one, particularly in China. Market shipments grew from last year, and market prices increased during quarter on...