One of the worlds leading papermakers has had an angry dig at European firms for blasting out full capacity and dropping prices.


Jorma Vaajoki, president and chief executive of M-real, launched his tirade after announcing his companys interim results.


"M-real is committed to bringing production in-line with the weak market, and it is up to the whole industry to act responsibly," he said.


"But there are some southern European producers running at full capacity and lowering prices."


M-real was taking "aggressive measures" to balance production and demand and had chopped output by 245,000 tonnes from April to June, he said.


The Finnish companys turnover rose 62% to 2.2bn in the first six months, while operating profit jumped 13% to 139m.


But profit before extraordinary items fell nearly 30% to 65m. M-real would continue to cut fine paper production in the third quarter, following the earlier massive downtime measures to support fine paper prices, said Vaajoki.


However, he said prices had not fallen by as much as in the past. Paper prices were separate from pulp prices and the cost of the end-product had not changed as much as raw material prices.


Mill deliveries of coated magazine paper in Western Europe fell 3% during the period, while mill deliveries of coated fine paper in the same region dropped by 8%.


Story by Jez Abbott