Aug 05, 2010. /Lesprom Network/. Schweitzer-Mauduit International's net sales were $182.9 million in the 2Q 2010, a 0.2% decrease versus the prior-year quarter, the company said in a statement received by Lesprom Network. Net sales decreased $0.4 million as a result of a $6.9 million sales decrease at Malaucene facility which is no longer operating and $0.6 million in unfavorable foreign currency exchange rate impacts. These negatives were mostly offset by a $3.8 million increase in volume and $3.3 million improvement primarily from increased sales of higher priced LIP product. Operating profit was $23.6 million in the 2Q 2010 versus an operating profit of $12.0 million in the prior-year quarter. Excluding pre-tax restructuring and impairment expenses, operating profit would have been $27.6 million during the 2Q 2010 compared with $25.3 million during the 2Q 2009. The higher operating profit was primarily due to $8.5 million of benefits from cost savings programs and lower manufacturing costs, including the benefits of restructuring actions, and $1.2 million from lower nonmanufacturing expenses. These improvements were partially offset by $4.7 million in inflationary cost increases, primarily from higher wood pulp costs, $2.1 million from a less favorable product mix and $0.9 million from unfavorable currency impacts. Frederic Villoutreix, Chairman of the Board and CEO, commented, "We remain confident in and focused upon successfully executing our strategy to grow the high-value RTL and LIP franchises while sustaining the profitability of our base paper business. We made progress throughout the second quarter in advancing the initiatives underway to expand capacity to meet expected new demand for high-value products in Asia and Europe. Further, several important business fundamentals improved during the second quarter, including strong operating cash flow generation, total SWM sales volume growth, CTM profitability, cost reductions from operational performance improvement initiatives and nonmanufacturing expense reductions." Mr. Villoutreix continued, "While we remain committed to and confident in creating value for our shareholders through the growth of our high-value products and expanding our geographic reach to meet our customers' needs, for the balance of 2010 our overall financial results are difficult to project due to the uncertainties associated with pulp prices and the volatility of the U.S. dollar to euro relationship. Additionally, we continue to have a full agenda of major initiatives to execute, including both expansion projects and completion of restructuring actions. We are redoubling our efforts to successfully manage the full range of issues impacting our business and foresee improvement over the balance of 2010 in the unfavorable volume, pulp price and currency impacts that affected 2Q results. However, several operational challenges will continue into the third quarter in addition to realizing increasing start-up expenses with our new European LIP facilities. For these reasons, coupled with the lower level of earnings per share generation during the second quarter, achievement of our previous earnings guidance of at least $4.60 per share is now unlikely. We now estimate that 2010 earnings, excluding restructuring and impairment expenses, will be at least $4.25 per share." Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc. is a diversified producer of premium specialty papers for the tobacco industry. It also manufactures specialty papers for other applications.