The Company's paper segment results decreased $1.1 million from the previous quarter, reflecting higher costs for slush pulp and lower sales realizations, mitigated slightly by higher shipment levels.
The Company ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $16.5 million and $108 million available under its operating loans.
Commenting on the first quarter's results, CPPI's CEO, Don Kayne, said, "Global pulp markets improved slightly as we saw some modest upward movement in prices ahead of the seasonally stronger spring period. We are encouraged by continued operating rate improvements at our facilities through the quarter as well as progress made around investments in our energy business." Kayne added, "We continue to advance our energy business and will be investing in upgrades to support incremental electricity generation that will move our facilities closer to self sufficiency while diversifying the Company's earnings profile." Investments include upgrades to two existing turbines and a new precipitator that will be completed in 2013.
NBSK pulp markets are projected to remain fairly challenging through the second quarter of 2013, but annual spring maintenance downtime should allow for modest price increases. The outlook for the second half of the year is more uncertain given the new hardwood and softwood pulp capacity projected to come online. For the month of April, the Company announced an increase in the North American NBSK pulp list price of US$30 to US$930 per tonne. Maintenance outages are planned at the Intercontinental and Northwood Pulp Mills during the second quarter of 2013. The Intercontinental outage will result in approximately 6,000 tonnes of reduced production. The Northwood outage will be extended to complete upgrades to the recovery boiler with an estimated 40,000 tonnes of reduced production, of which approximately 15,000 tonnes will fall in the second quarter with the balance in the third quarter.
On April 30, 2013, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.05 per share, payable on May 21, 2013 to the shareholders of record on May 13, 2013.
(1) Certain prior period amounts have been restated due to the adoption ofamended IAS 19, Employee Benefits. Further details can be found in theCompany's unaudited interim consolidated financial statements.
Additional Information and Conference Call
A conference call to discuss the first quarter's financial and operating results will be held on Thursday, May 2, 2013 at 8:00 AM Pacific time. To participate in the call, please dial 416-340-2218 or Toll-Free 866-226-1793. For instant replay access until May 31, 2013, please dial 800-408-3053 and enter participant pass code 7426712#. The conference call will be webcast live and will be available at www.canforpulp.com. This news release, the attached financial statements and a presentation used during the conference call can be accessed via the Company's website at http://www.canforpulp.com/investors/webcasts.
Forward Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Words such as "expects", "anticipates", "projects", "intends", "plans", "will", "believes", "seeks", "estimates", "should", "may", "could", and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and actual events or results may differ materially. There are many factors that could cause such actual events or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by such statements. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and the Company assumes no obligation to update such information to reflect later events or developments, except as required by law.
