Outokumpu's Capital Markets Day - strategic pri...

STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE
September 22, 2010 9.00 am EET


Today Outokumpu's Capital Markets Day for investors and analysts is held in
London. The programme includes a review of Outokumpu's strategy, presentations
on Outokumpu's latest investments and an external presentation on the
ferrochrome markets. Outokumpu's strategic direction remains the same, but there
are some adjustments in priorities of the strategy and its implementation.

The company's vision 'to be the undisputed number one in stainless steel'
remains unchanged. The number one position means, first-of-all, the best
financial performance in the industry. This is targeted by becoming the industry
leader in customer satisfaction, the most efficient and environmentally friendly
in operations and the most attractive employer.

CEO Juha Rantanen: "Outokumpu's strategy is targeting better and more stable
profitability and good customer satisfaction. The adjustments in our priorities
emphasise utilisation of Tornio's cost competitiveness in high-volume products
as well as fast transformation to special grades and products. Our short-term
focus is on efficient and speedy strategy execution followed up by certain key
performance indicators. The long-term growth in demand for stainless steel is
supported by several global trends - urbanisation and need for clean energy and
water - which makes this a fascinating business."

The adjusted strategic priorities are focusing on improving the performance of
the current operations as well as putting more effort on developing future
growth. The priorities on improving the performance are:

Loading Tornio with high-volume products
Due to its size, sufficient capacity utilisation is critical for sustainable
profitability at Outokumpu's biggest production site in Tornio, Finland. Tight
focus on high-volume products, utilising the plants cost-leadership in Europe
and increasing productivity are key development areas in returning capacity
utilisation to pre-crisis levels.

Fast transformation to special grades and products
Increasing sales of special grades and products continues to be in the core of
Outokumpu's strategy. Special grades and products offer high growth potential
and provide significant value for customers. Outokumpu's efforts to develop the
market for duplex and other special grades will be accelerated and co-operation
with end-user and project customers intensified.

Excel in sales and customer service
Increasing end-user and project sales, building stable relations with key
distributors and processors and further investing in sales skills and own global
service network are critical for the transformation to special grades and
products as well as for Tornio's capacity utilisation.

Excel in operations
Safe working conditions and reliable production demonstrate the quality of
operations. Outokumpu will continue its focus on operational excellence and
long-term improvement work, which leads to less variability in production, cost
savings in raw materials and procurement, lower inventory levels and safe and
clean working environments.

The priorities developing future growth are:

Ferrochrome expansion
Outokumpu differentiates from its competitors by having its own chromium mine
and ferrochrome production.  The ability to source ferrochrome, an important
stainless raw material, internally, brings Outokumpu unique cost savings in raw
materials, energy and logistics. The doubling of the ferrochrome production will
provide Outokumpu an attractive growth business as the company becomes a
significant supplier for the external markets as well.

Growth outside Europe
The most attractive growth markets for stainless steel are outside Outokumpu's
traditional home market in Europe. Outokumpu will continue to strengthen its
global sales network and aims for the leading position in the global
project-based, industrial applications. Longer term, the target is to increase
Outokumpu's presence in high-growth markets and attractive opportunities will be
considered.

Outokumpu's strategic direction is supported by the people strategy, which aims
to attract, retain and develop the company's employees globally as well as to
enhance the desire and capability to support Outokumpu in becoming the
undisputed number one in stainless steel. The key development areas in the
people strategy focus on leadership skills, execution capability and competence
renewal.

Outokumpu's progress in the implementation of the strategy will be followed by
strategic key performance indicators. They are in the areas of safety (lost-time
injuries), profitability (EBIT), customer satisfaction (net-promoter score),
delivery performance (on-time deliveries %) and inventory turnover.

Outokumpu's financial targets will remain unchanged. The main target is to
generate maximum sustainable economic value added, and more specifically:

- Grow faster than markets
- Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) more than 13% and always the best among
peers
- Gearing below 75%

The detailed program and all presentation material are available on Outokumpu's
website before 12.00 EET at www.outokumpu.com/Investors/CMD 2010. Videos of the
presentations will become available later tonight.

For further comments, please contact:

Päivi Lindqvist, SVP - Communications and IR
tel. [phone], mobile [phone]
[e-mail]

Ingela Ulfves, VP - Investor Relations and Financial Communications
tel. [phone], mobile [phone]
[e-mail]



Outokumpu is a global leader in stainless steel with the vision to be the
undisputed number one. Customers in a wide range of industries use our stainless
steel and services worldwide. Being fully recyclable, maintenance-free, as well
as very strong and durable material, stainless steel is one of the key building
blocks for sustainable future. Outokumpu employs some 7 500 people in more than
30 countries. The Group's head office is located in Espoo, Finland. Outokumpu is
listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki.
www.outokumpu.com


[HUG#1445758]





ENG CMD strategy 22092010: 


http://hugin.info/3010/R/1445758/388930.pdf




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