Business News

Smurfit-Stone Expects Lower Fourth Quarter Earnings Due to Weakening Market Conditions and Production Downtime

Friday 19. December 2008 - Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation (NASDAQ:SSCC) announced today that it expects its fourth quarter earnings excluding unusual items will be significantly lower compared to third quarter 2008 results.

North American packaging demand has deteriorated rapidly in the past several weeks and containerboard and pulp export markets have weakened even more dramatically. The company has been required to take significant market-related mill downtime to balance its supply with available demand. Smurfit-Stone presently expects to reduce containerboard and kraft paper production by up to 255,000 tons and softwood pulp production by up to 35,000 tons in the fourth quarter. These reductions are in addition to the previously announced permanent closures of the company’s corrugated medium machine in Snowflake, Arizona and its hardwood pulp mill in Portage du Fort, Quebec in October.