PROGRAMME OF MEASURES AT UTANSJÖ MILL

Staff cut by 36

Utansjö Mill, which forms part of the Rottneros Group, has given 36 staff notice of re-dundancy. The job cuts – which form part of the programme of measures announced in October – are planned to take effect in the first half of 2003.

Utansjö Mill has been operating at a loss for some time, partly because the necessary meas-ures to make the mill fit for the future were not taken fast enough and partly because of qual-ity problems in production and the fact that the market for some of the products produced at Utansjö has been weak.

In Rottneros’ interim report for the period January-September 2002 provision of SEK 20 mil-lion was made for a restructuring fund to cover the estimated costs of restructuring the busi-ness at Utansjö. This provision includes estimated costs of redundancies and other necessary adjustments.

“The programme of measures also includes investment in high product quality, which will result in increased productivity and allow us to customise the pulp qualities produced at Utan-sjö to the niche strategy that we have adopted. We expect forthcoming marketing offensives to increase sales of Utansjö’s pulp to long-term customers – both old and new,” says Rott-neros’ President and CEO Lars Blecko.

13.12.2002

For further information, please contact: Lars Blecko, President and CEO, +46 (0)612-716200 or +46 (0)70-6414910.

Rottneros is one of the world’s leading independent manufacturers of market pulp. The Group consists of the parent company, Rottneros AB, which is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, along with its subsidiaries of Rottneros Rockhammar AB, Utansjö Bruk AB and Vallviks Bruk in Sweden as well as Rottneros Miranda, S.A. in Spain, with activities involving production and sales of market pulp, Rockhammar Timber AB, which pro-duces and sells sawn timber, plus the raw materials purchasing company of Rottneros Baltic SIA in Latvia. The Group has a total of 878 employees and a turnover of approximately SEK 2.7 billion.