The Finnish firm made a profit of 128m (E207m) before extraordinary items for the first quarter. Turnover inched up to nearly 1.6bn against a year ago. The US economy showed signs of strengthening, and confidence has also grown in Europe that economic activity is picking up, it said.

Prices for uncoated fine and speciality papers were expected to improve slightly, but magazine paper and newsprint were in a rut.

The firm, which employs 36,000 staff, recently embarked on one of its biggest expansion drives totalling around 115m.

This included a 35m spend at its Steyrermhl plant in Austria to improve efficiency, which came on-stream in April.

Nearly 80m went on Wales Shotton mill in January. New equipment comes into action next autumn to make newsprint from recycled fibre (PrintWeek, 26 April).

In magazine papers, operating profit excluding amortisation of goodwill for magazines fell 38% to 66m, but deliveries rose 8% to 1.1m tonnes.

Newsprint operating profits dropped 18% to 26m, but deliveries went up a third to 577,000 tonnes. Fine and speciality papers operating profit fell 2% to 59m with deliveries climbing 14% to 535,000 tonnes.

Story by Jez Abbott