Smurfit Kappa, the largest paper packaging company in Europe, has said that it expects demand to improve this year, with the company’s chief executive indicating that supply chain woes could be approaching an end.

The company reported a 13 per cent rise in core profit for the first quarter of 2023 to €579 million, with higher margins making up for a third successive quarter of lower volumes.

Speaking following the results release, chief executive Tony Smurfit said that recent services-focussed consumption habits should return to normal having hit the sector harder than expected.

He explained that order intakes are improving, which “doesn’t necessarily” translate into shipments improving but indicates positive momentum for the supply chain.

Smurfit added: "We would see that the world will become more normal as all the supply chains ease, people get back to stocking again normally and people's consumption habits go back to normal. I hope so."

The company has raised box prices by up to 40 per cent over the last two years, but sharp falls in containerboard prices has led to a small downward move on prices in the first quarter of the year.

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