Jul 26, 2005. /Lesprom Network/. International Paper reported on Tuesday second quarter net earnings of $77 million ($0.16 per share), unchanged from $77 million ($0.16 per share) in the first quarter of 2005 and down from $193 million ($0.40 per share) in the 2004 second quarter, which included $131 million ($0.27 per share) of earnings from discontinued operations. Excluding these amounts, earnings from continuing operations totaled $62 million ($0.13 per share) in the second quarter 2004. Amounts included special items in all periods. Earnings from continuing operations and before special items in the second quarter of 2005 were $150 million ($0.31 per share), compared with $165 million ($0.34 per share) in the first-quarter of 2005 and $159 million ($0.33 per share) in the second quarter of 2004. Second-quarter 2005 net sales fell slightly to $6.5 billion versus $6.6 billion in the first quarter of 2005, due to lower volumes. Sales in the second quarter of 2004 were $6.2 billion. Operating profits of $501 million for the 2005 second quarter were lower compared with first-quarter 2005 operating profits of $551 million due to lower volumes in packaging and printing papers, higher input costs, and $31 million of organizational restructuring charges in the Printing Papers and Forest Products segments. "We anticipated some modest improvement in the second quarter following our strongest first quarter in years," said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Faraci. "However, while pricing was up slightly from the first quarter, sales volumes in our printing papers and industrial packaging businesses were lower than we expected. As a result, we took more lack-of-order downtime, including the indefinite shutdowns of uncoated printing papers machines in Jay, Maine, Pensacola, Florida, and Bastrop, Louisiana, bringing our total capacity closure through second quarter 2005 to 430,000 tonnes annually. These factors, combined with the higher input costs we've been experiencing for wood, chemicals and energy, impacted our margins."