The Canadian paper products company recorded earnings of 1 million Canadian dollars (US$727,000), or C$0.01 a share, down from C$22 million, or C$0.22 a share, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, per-share earnings came in at C$0.08, beating the C$0.06 expected by analysts polled by FactSet.

Sales for the quarter edged up 1% to C$1.18 billion, just ahead of the C$1.17 billion analysts expected.

Tissue papers sales were 4.6% lower than a year earlier at C$397 million, while containerboard sales were up 4.1% to C$585 million and specialty products sales increased 1.8%

Hugues Simon, who took over as president and chief executive in June, forecast third-quarter results would be stronger sequentially, driven by improved containerboard results as price increases are implemented and production efficiency levels are normalized following planned maintenance in the recent quarter as well as an unplanned extended downtime at the Bear Island and Greenpac operations.

Results are also expected to benefit from stable results in the company's specialty packaging business, though higher pulp prices and softer pricing are expected to mean lower results from the tissue papers segment, Simon said.