As part of a settlement entered into by Verso with two Canadian producers of supercalendered papers, Verso today requested that the U.S. Department of Commerce revoke its order imposing duties on supercalendered papers made by those Canadian producers and imported into the U.S. The SC paper tariffs were intended to offset the impact of Canadian subsidies paid to Canadian producers of SC paper in order to help U.S. producers who were injured by the subsidized imports. However, injurious Canadian SC imports continue to enter the United States even with the tariffs, and imports from other non-U.S. SC producers which are not subject to the tariffs have increased. These factors offset the benefits of the tariffs to Verso. If the Department of Commerce grants Verso’s request to revoke the tariffs, it could provide Verso with a meaningful amount of cash over time, which we will evaluate how to use to best benefit our company and make us an even healthier supplier. However, there is no assurance that the Department of Commerce will grant our request to revoke the tariffs or that such funds will be provided to Verso. Be assured that we continue to make supercalendered paper at the Duluth Mill. Verso’s decision to settle the trade case is unrelated to any decisions about potential changes to Verso’s production assets at the Duluth Mill or to the types of products we make there.

Given the current global situation driving rapid escalation of raw material costs along with the sharp rise in crude oil resulting from the U.S. and U.K. governments’ decision to ban the purchase of Russian oil derivatives, Solenis is experiencing unprecedented weekly volatility in our cost to serve our customers. As a result, Solenis will move to monthly pricing on all product lines effective April 1, 2022. All product lines and market segments are being severely impacted by these world events. We continue to focus our team on mitigating the impact of this situation on our customers’ operations by exhausting every pathway to procure raw materials to support customer demand and avoid run outs. However, these volumes are coming at an extremely high cost which requires our temporary shift to a monthly pricing structure. We consider this a temporary situation, and we will continue to monitor this volatile situation and will keep lines of communication open to allow de-escalation of monthly pricing as energy pricing and other raw material feedstocks normalize.

Net sales for the second quarter declined by 2% to SEK 6 156 million (6 293). Higher sales volumes were primarily offset by significantly lower sales prices compared to last year in Division Paper. Net sales for the quarter were positively impacted by currency effects by 1%. Adjusted EBITDA increased to SEK 774 million (539), mainly as a result of lower maintenance costs compared with last year, lower fibre costs, reduced KM7 start-up impact and cost savings.