The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.
(Questions from industry analysts are provided in full, but answers are omitted - download the transcript to see the full question-and-answer session)
Question: Antti Koskivuori - Danske Bank A/S, Research Division - Analyst
: Congratulations on a strong start to the year. I have 2 questions, and first one is on Communication Papers. I think it was quite remarkable achievement
to kind of have flat sales prices versus the kind of meaningful drop in the European paper prices in the start of the year.
If you talk a little bit about the positive mix impact, is it coming from the customer mix or product mix or both? And should we anticipate the
change in the mix to be kind of permanent in the nature? Or is it more realistic to assume that your average sales price will take more of the direction
of the market prices in the coming months? That would be the first question. I'll come back to the second one later on.
Question: Antti Koskivuori - Danske Bank A/S, Research Division - Analyst
: Okay. Great. Then second question is on the variable cost side. You used -- a lot of the cost items increasing over the 2021. I was just wondering if
you could elaborate a bit on which cost items you are seeing the biggest pressure at the moment. Also, if you could give a sense of what is the
level of the increase you expect to see in variable cost in '21 would be very helpful. And maybe finally, is the kind of cost increase that you expect,
do you see it more like a gradual coming to the numbers over the course of the year? Or is it more tilted towards the closest quarters?
Question: Linus Larsson - SEB, Research Division - Analyst
: A couple of follow-up questions on Commercial Paper to start with because you outperformed the market not only in terms of price/mix, like we
already talked about, but also on the volume side.
So maybe if you could talk a bit more about your commercial strategy, how you managed to do this outperformance in both price and volume?
And also on that note, if you care to share some insight as to your current operating rates. I understand there's overcapacity in the industry overall,
but are you operating in your own [system]?
Question: Linus Larsson - SEB, Research Division - Analyst
: It's Linus Larsson with SEB. I lost the line previously, but I think I got a question, Jussi. And if I may, just one more question now on Specialty Papers.
You had positive price/mix realization sequentially in the first quarter. And now with costs continuing upwards, presumably in the second quarter,
I wonder if you could share your thoughts on the price direction for Specialty Paper sequentially in the second quarter, please.
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