SMURFIT Kappa yesterday said that a decline in demand for its boxes slowed further in the third quarter, while it saw tentative improvements in its German order books that could bode well for a return to volume growth.

The Irish group, which is Europe's largest paper packaging producer, benefited from a boom in demand for packaging goods and e-commerce during Covid-19 lockdowns.

But a fall in volumes when economies reopened and consumers spent more on travel and other services contributed to an eight per cent decline in core profit in the first nine months of 2023.

Smurfit Kappa, which agreed an $11bn deal to buy US rival Westrock in September, said in a trading update that it expects full-year core profit to fall by almost 13 per cent to around €2.05bn (£1.78bn).

That would still be up sharply on the €1.7bn recorded in 2021.

It said demand from its customers was around two per cent behind 2022 levels in the third quarter versus minus seven per cent and minus five per cent in the first and second quarters, respectively.

(c) 2023 City A.M., source Newspaper