Stora Enso’s sales 2010 were 10.2 billion euros, compared to 8.9 billion 2009. The operating profit, excluding non-recurring items and fair valuations, amounted at 754.1 million Euros (320.5). Result before tax was 925.9 million Euros (-886.8), and the net result for 2010 was 769.3 million Euros (-878.2).Stora Enso expects the operating profit to be sequentially higher in the first quarter of 2011.The Board proposes a dividend of 0.25 Euro per share.Commenting the result, Stora Eno’s CEO, Jouko Karvinen, said: “We at Stora Enso finished 2010 with a positive tone. Product pricing continued to improve and we beat the run-rate improvement target for fixed costs set in our Next Step program announced in spring 2009.”“The accelerating variable cost inflation was a focus point for us and will remain so in 2011. The hard work to improve our productivity and our accomplishments in recent years have made us stronger and confident to tackle the challenges in 2011 and beyond. We also see continuing momentum to improved pricing during the first quarter of 2011, especially in newsprint and magazine paper,” Karvinen added.