OUTOKUMPU RESTRUCTURES COPPER DIVISION

  Finland's mining and metals group
  Outokumpu Oy &lt;OUTO.HE>, which last week reported a 1986 loss of
  83 mln markka after three successive years of profits, said it
  restructured its key copper processing division in an attempt
  to rationalize production and improve profitability.
      Outokumpu's Managing Director Pertti Voutilainen told a
  news conference the reorganization involved a split of the
  division into a new independent division with six profit
  centres.
      Outokumpu group had a 1986 loss before appropriations and
  taxes of 83 mln markka after a profit of 355 mln in 1985. It
  had profits in 1984 and 1983 but a loss, 171.2 mln, in 1982.
      Outokumpu acquired two Swedish copper manufacturers in
  January 1986, &lt;Metallverken Ab> and &lt;Wirsbo Bruks Ab>, that
  were merged into its copper processing division.
      The division had a turnover of 3.2 billion markka last
  year, 42 pct of Outokumpu's group turnover of 7.58 billion.
      The new Outokumpu division, called Copper Products
  Industry, is to incorporate Outokumpu's copper production
  plants, including its two U.S. Subsidiaries &lt;Nippert Co> and
  &lt;Valleycast Inc>, as well as Metallverken and part of Wirsbo.
      Outokumpu is planning to make Wirsbo an independent
  division in the Outokumpu group and transfer only Wirsbo's
  copper tube production into one of the new division's profit
  centres. A definite decision on Wirsbo will be taken later this
  year.
      The new division will have production plants in Finland,
  Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and the U.S.
  

