Finnish pulp and paper manufacturer Stora Enso has reported a decline in its sales in the second quarter (Q2) of financial year 2023 (FY23), as weak demand persists.

Sales at Enso dropped by 22% to €2.37bn ($2.63bn) in Q2 FY23, from €3.05bn in the prior year’s same quarter.

During the quarter, the company saw its operational earnings before income and taxes (EBIT) decline by 93% to €37m while its operational EBIT margin fell by 1.6%.

Its operational earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation were €198m in Q2 FY23, down 70.1% from €663m in the corresponding period a year ago.

Enso also reported a loss per share of €0.29 in Q2 FY23 against earnings per share of €0.38 in the same period a year ago.

Enso's president and CEO Annica Bresky said: “The weak market demand further worsened in the second quarter.”

Bresky added: “Unfortunately, we see no imminent signs of improved market demand and we expect destocking to persist for most of our segments also in the second half of 2023. In this turbulent market we must adapt.

“We continue to focus on what we can impact and control: investing and restructuring to improve our future business profitability, cost-competitiveness and asset footprint, controlling our costs, and curtailing production to manage our own and customer inventories.”

Enso expects its operational EBIT to be significantly lower than the FY22 figure of €1.89bn.