Finnish paper maker Stora Enso made a statement on Thursday denying reports that that it is planning a joint venture with two other Nordic forestry companies.

According to Stora Enso, no talks about creating a joint Nordic newsprint company have taken place.

The statement came in response to reports by Finnish national daily Helsingin Sanomat, earlier the same day, that Stora Enso was planning a joint newsprint company with two other Nordic forestry companies, Swedish Holmen and Norwegian Norske Skog.

According to Helsingin Sanomat, the companies wanted to combine production of newsprint because of its current weak profitability. The report told that papers were to be signed this autumn, so that the new company could take part in next year's annual newsprint price fixing negotiations.

STT

Both the economy and employment have taken a turn for the better, according to a report published on Thursday by the Finnish employment and the economy ministry and the Centres for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment.

Depite the positive results, growth is expected to remain moderate and pre-recession levels are not to be reached for some time.

Construction and retail sectors have survived the recession better than expected. Big investments are expected in the capital city region, Kouvola, Pori and Kuopio. In southeastern and eastern Finland, the significance of Russian buyers is rising.

Construction has remained above the surface through repairs and stimulus projects. New building is also picking up.

The gloomiest clouds overshadow areas around Turku and Varkaus.

STT

Three Nordic forestry companies are planning a joint newsprint company, according to reports in Finnish national daily Helsingin Sanomat on Thursday.

The paper reported that Finnish-Swedish paper maker Stora Enso, Swedish Holmen and Norwegian Norske Skog are planning to unite their newsprint production either completely or in part.

The aim of joint operations is to cut down the overcapacity of newsprint and bring up prices.

Producing newsprint is currently either unprofitable of only weakly profitable. Factories across Europe have been closed down due to this.

Contracts for founding the joint company are expected to be signed during the autumn. This way the company could be involved in negotiating the prices of newsprint already next year. Newsprint prices are fixed once a year.

STT

The rapid increase in car sales continued in August, according to a statement by the Finnish Information Centre of Automoblile Sector (AuT) on Wednesday.

According to AuT, just over 8,500 new cars were registered in August, which is an increase of around 40 per cent from the year-ago period. New car registrations have increased by a fifth during the beginning of this year.

The automobile sector is confident that the improved sales figures that began during the winter are to continue rising during the end of the year. Demand that was stunted by the recession is beginning to grow again.

Finnish energy company Fortum made a statement on Wednesday that it is to buy 40 per cent of the Blaiken wind farm which is to be built in northern Sweden. The other owner is Swedish energy firm Skellefteå Kraft.

Blaiken is to become one of Europe's largest wind farms built on land. The wind farm is to consist of as many as 100 windmills and the combined total output from the generators is to be 250 megawatts. The estimated annual output is 600-720 gigawatt hours, which corresponds to the yearly electricity consumption of 150 000 households.

The construction of the farm is to start next year and is expected to be completed in 2015. The costs of the project are expected to rise to 400 million euros at the most, of which Fortum is to cover 40 per cent.

STT

The Finnish National Board of Customs on Tuesday reported that the value of both exports and imports has increased by a quarter in June, compared to figures from the previous year.

Exports increased to 4.7 billion euros while imports increased to 4.4 billion.

The metal and forestry industries boosted exports, even though figures in the electricity and electronics industries continued to fall.

The value of metal industry products exported rose by 42 per cent compared to the corresponding period one year ago.

Crude oil and metals, in addition to the basic chemical industry products caused imports to increase.

Compared to last year, the number of imported cars also increased.

Sweden has become Finland's most important export country while Russia has become the most important import country.

STT

The number of bankruptcies in Finland decreased in the first half of the year, Statistics Finland said in a statement Tuesday.

Compared to the corresponding period last year, the number of bankruptcies filed by companies was down by 15 per cent in January-July.

However the total number of bankruptcies was still at a higher level than in 2008.

STT