Arctic Paper expects 70 pct paper mills capacity utilisation in Q3 2024

Listed packaging manufacturer Arctic Paper expects the paper mills capacity utilisation to stabilise quarter on quarter at 70 percent and for it to grow to nearly 86 percent reached in the first quarter, in the fourth quarter of 2024, Michal Jarczynski company's CEO told a press conference.

"I think that the third quarter should be close to, or slightly better than the second quarter as the holiday season is in full swing. (...) September should be good as always, but it will be impacted by a weak July and August," Jarczynski said when asked about a capacity utilisation in the paper segment in the third quarter.

"I think that we will reach around 70 percent of capacity utilisation volume wise," he added.

The CEO said that he expects a paper segment capacity utilisation growth in the fourth quarter, close to the one seen in the first quarter of 2024.

The paper segment capacity utilisation amounted to 86 percent in the first quarter of 2024, and approximately 70 percent in the second quarter of this year. The capacity reached 66 percent in the third quarter of 2023.

As part of the new strategy implemented from 2021 the group is growing the packaging and energy segment.

The CEO informed that a 17 MWh photovoltaic farm was commissioned in June, with an expansion planned by an extra 9 MWh in the first quarter of 2025.

epo/ mik/ han/