Things are looking up for
NewPage Corporation; the company announced its first quarter results for 2011.
So far, sales show an 11 percent increase over last year's first quarter, with $904 million this quarter and $817 million in the first quarter of 2010.
George Martin, NewPage president and CEO, says that was mostly because of a higher sales volume of the company's core paper products, and higher average prices for core paper this year.
Demand, however, was fairly flat this quarter in comparison to the first quarter of 2010.
"Overall our mill operations ran very well during the first quarter of 2011, and volume was in line with our seasonal expectations. We also saw continued price improvement in our core paper products during the quarter," says Martin.
Adjusted earnings were significantly better than last year, at $85 million for the quarter, versus $15 million in the first quarter of 2010. However, net income was negative, with a loss of $88 million this quarter. That's still better than the $175 million loss the company charted in the first quarter of 2010. Martin says the figures are due to high costs.
"Our business also experienced significant increases in our input costs during the first quarter of 2011 due to higher prices for wood, purchased pulp, certain petroleum-based chemicals and transportation, and we expect this trend to continue throughout 2011," he says.
This quarter saw NewPage's Whiting, Wisconsin mill closed permanently, but no other mills, including Escanaba's, took market-related downtime.
Writer: Sam EgglestonSource: George Martin, NewPage Corporation
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