Domtar managed to finish in the black in the first quarter despite COVID-19 challenges.
The company is reporting net earnings of $5-million compared to a net loss of $34-million for the fourth quarter of 2019.
Net earnings of $80-million were reported in the first quarter last year.
Sales for Q1 in 2020 were $1.3-billion.
President and Chief Executive Officer John Williams says despite their paper volumes increases, they experience a significant reduction of orders in April due to the health crisis and the resulting lockdown of schools, offices, retailers and other business sectors.
“As a result, we are taking the appropriate steps to optimize our operations and to remain an agile, reliable partner to our customers. We continue to closely monitor customer orders and backlogs, and will adjust capacity accordingly, but we anticipate inventory to be at appropriate levels as a result of our recently-announced capacity reduction plan.”
Williams adds their pulp shipments were stable despite some logistical challenges and a major shutdown of operations in China due to the coronavirus.
He says “We did see good demand from our North American tissue customers, and we expect overall demand for pulp in the second quarter to remain strong.”
