Operational EBIT decreased year-on-year to 147 million Euros (258) in the first quarter, mainly due to lower prices in Printing and Reading and Biomaterials, and lower volumes in Renewable Packaging. Operational EBIT was similar to the fourth quarter of 2011.Cash flow from operations swas 224 million Euros (163). Liquidity improved to 1,251 million Euros (1,108) year-on-year.“Our first quarter earnings performance was overall in line with our guidance in February. However, the return on capital employed was below cost of capital, which shows the never-ending need to improve our cost position and operational performance,” said Jouko Karvinen, CEO of Stora Enso.”In addition to the expected price pressures and variable cost reductions only slowly improving our profit, we also had operational issues in several of our mills, for instance the Nordic mills of the Biomaterials Business Area. The good thing is that we can tackle these challenges ourselves instead of just waiting for external conditions to improve,” Karvinen said.Stora Enso estimates the second quarter sales to be slightly higher and operational EBIT approximately in the range of the first quarter, as there will be maintenance stoppages in several European mills, and the benefits of improving variable costs are expected to become only slowly apparent in the results.