"I am impressed by the commitment to health and safety being shown by all our employees every single day," comments CEO Jan Oksum. A safe working environment is essential if we are to achieve our goals, and we give the highest priority to health and safety. But accidents can nevertheless occur, he acknowledges. An employee at the Norske Skog Bio Bio mill in Chile died earlier this year.

 

"I deeply regret this fatality," says Mr Oksum. "It encourages us to work even more systematically and purposefully to prevent accidents at all our facilities."

 

The good health and safety figures show that the company's mills had an average lost-time injury frequency per million working hours of 2.5 in the 12 months to 30 September.

 

"That's a world-class result," says Jens Borge, vice president health and safety. Giving a high priority to this area calls for long-term, purposeful and systematic work. Our performance also benefits from the fact that mills can draw on the experience and knowledge of the facilities with the best results.

 

Minimising injuries and keeping sickness absence low, help to maintain stable, high-quality production as well as cutting the cost of sick pay, overtime and hire of temporary staff. Good results for health and safety also reduce insurance premiums.

 

Further information about the quarterly report can be found on Norske Skog's web site at www.norske-skog.com.

 

Oxenøen 3 November 2004

 

Norske Skog

Corporate communication

 

Media contact:

Hanne Aaberg, senior vice president, tel: +47 67 59 90 29 or mob: +47 91 35 16 81