Smurfit-Stone Expects Lower Fourth Quarter Earnings

Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. has announced 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 press release says. 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, Ariz., and its hardwood pulp mill in Portage du Fort, Quebec in October.