Jul 28, 2009. /Lesprom Network/. Metso's Board of Directors has decided that Metso will not pay any additional dividend for 2008 in addition to the ordinary dividend of 0.70 euro per share that was distributed in April 2009, the company reported. Metso's financial performance and financial position are stable and have developed according to management expectations, but the market visibility for 2010 continues to be weak. The importance of strong balance sheet increases in an uncertain economic climate. "The overall cautious market sentiment in our customer industries has continued - with the positive exception of the paper and board industry in Asia, where we have seen improvement in the past few months. The recovery in China is partly due to the implemented stimulus measures. So far it has resulted in several sizable orders for us, one of which has been included in our second quarter orders received and the rest are to be included later this year," says Jorma Eloranta, President and CEO of Metso Corporation. "The order intake for our equipment and project business in the first half of the year was low, while the services demand remained reasonably stable and satisfactory. Our profitability also remained satisfactory. Our overall financial development for January-June as well as our updated estimates for the second half of the year support our earlier guidance for this year. Our financial position is also solid." Eloranta notes that the overall market visibility for 2010 is weak. "We are prepared to take additional capacity adjustment measures when needed. Our Board has today decided not to pay any additional dividend for 2008. This is mainly due to the continuing general uncertainty on the markets. Our financial performance and financial position are stable and have developed according to our expectations. The importance of strong balance sheet increases in an uncertain economic climate." Fibre producers continue to postpone investment decisions due to low capacity utilisation rates and uncertainty related to demand development. Metso has launched many measures to adjust to the rapidly changing operating environment. “We are adjusting our capacity as well as cost and operational structure to correspond with the demand, in order to maintain our competitiveness. As a result of the global recession, the markets for our products are decreasing, leading to tightening cost competition.” The company estimates that the demand for power plants utilizing renewable energy sources will be satisfactory in Europe and North America in 2009. Many countries have initiated plans to increase the use of renewable energy sources. This is expected to support the demand for power plants utilising biomass and waste. However, limited availability of financing may delay decision making in these projects.