The company has made cost and capacity cuts, increased its focused on pricing quality, improved Finnish wood sourcing and strengthened its balance sheets through divestment.

Chief executive Jouko Karvinen said such actions have been "critically important".

The company recorded sales for January to September 2008 of €2.72bn (£2.15bn) compared with €2.88bn the same time a year earlier.

It reported an operating profit loss of €138m compared with a loss of €305m from last year, and a profit before tax loss of €161m compared with a loss of €329m in 2007.

Karvinen said the strengthening of the US dollar and weakening of the Swedish Krona had "clearly helped" the company, and he added that there was a downward trend in fuel-based energy costs.

"However, we now also face accelerating softening in market demand in most grades," he said.

The company has informed customers in segments such as newsprint and magazine paper that it intends to increase prices at the start of 2009.

It has already achieved "meaningful and necessary" price increases in local currencies, compared to the same period in the year previous.

"Persistent oversupply of wood products is likely to keep prices under pressure in many markets," Karvinen said.

In September, Stora Enso announced plans for permanent closures of assets with poor profitability, totalling 600,000 tonnes of paper and board.

Around 1,700 staff will be affected by the permanent capacity reduction and restructuring plans.