Three Nordic forestry companies are planning a joint newsprint company, according to reports in Finnish national daily Helsingin Sanomat on Thursday.

The paper reported that Finnish-Swedish paper maker Stora Enso, Swedish Holmen and Norwegian Norske Skog are planning to unite their newsprint production either completely or in part.

The aim of joint operations is to cut down the overcapacity of newsprint and bring up prices.

Producing newsprint is currently either unprofitable of only weakly profitable. Factories across Europe have been closed down due to this.

Contracts for founding the joint company are expected to be signed during the autumn. This way the company could be involved in negotiating the prices of newsprint already next year. Newsprint prices are fixed once a year.

STT