Last year was characterised by significant fluctuations for Moelven. This is evident from the preliminary operating result for the group. Moelven had sales of NOK 10,297.5 million in 2019, and delivered a operating result of NOK 335.4 million.
“The first half of the year was very good, while the second half was characterised by uncertainty in the world economy due to the trade war between China and the US, Brexit and surplus timber in the market as a result of bark beetle attacks and storm fellings in Europe. This challenged market activity and profitability for Moelven towards the end of the year,” says CEO Morten Kristiansen of Moelven Industrier ASA.
While 2018 was one of the strongest years in the history of Moelven, in 2019 it was back to normal. Sales in 2019 decreased by NOK 723.3 million compared to the previous year, and the operating result was NOK 250.8 million lower.
“Our industry is not unfamiliar with such fluctuations, and this shows how important it is with constant focus on cost-effective operations and a sustainable corporate structure,” Kristiansen says.
More stable going forward
“We are seeing positive tendencies towards better market balance for the Timber division, which supplies wood products and components to the domestic and international industrial markets. Moelven’s Wood division, which targets the building materials trade and building market, has seen strong developments in interiors, while building wood deliveries are affected by a decline in new building activity in both Norway and Sweden. For the Building Systems division, with glulam, office solutions and building modules, 2019 was characterised by somewhat reduced activity. This particularly applies to building modules, where we had to reduce capacity for parts of the year. This now seems to be improving, and we believe in a more stable 2020 for this part of the business as well,” Kristiansen explains.
Intensifying HSE work
2019 was characterised by a number of new measures in Moelven’s HSE work. The group has a vision of zero injuries, and last year even more effort was applied to reducing the number of injuries.
“We have put into place a more systematic follow-up system for injuries with subsequent learning measures that are shared throughout the group. This, combined with new systems and solutions, allows us to intensify HSE work. Every injury is one too many,” Kristiansen says.
For further information please contact:
CEO Morten Kristiansen, mobile +47 911 18 250
Chief Communications Officer Magne Vikøren, mobile +47 928 27 108
The future is built with wood
Sustainability is crucial to our competitiveness. Therefore, we have set ambitious and concrete sustainability goals within four main areas. For one thing we can state for years to come: We will contribute to a sustainable future in wood.
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