Finnish utility Fortum warns of lower power output as profit misses forecast

HELSINKI (Reuters) -Finnish utility Fortum on Friday posted a bigger than expected drop in second-quarter profit amid a decline in electricity generation from its hydro and nuclear plants, and warned of lower power output for the rest of year.

Fortum's April-June comparable operating profit fell to 115 million euros ($134.21 million) from 233 million a year ago, missing a mean estimate of 133 million in a poll provided by the company.

Fortum's shares fell to a three-month low and were 3.4% lower by 0731 GMT.

Earnings were affected by lower volumes and prices in its Power Generation unit, with hydroelectric and nuclear output in the second quarter down 2.2 terawatt hours (TWh) year on year, CEO Markus Rauramo said in a statement.

This was mainly due to lower hydro inflows and an extended outage at the Oskarshamn nuclear plant in Sweden, which Fortum owns together with Germany's Uniper.

Hydropower generation volumes fell by 31% year on year and nuclear generation by 11% in the second quarter, the earnings report showed.

"In 2025, the total generation volumes are expected to be clearly below the normal level," Fortum warned, pegging nuclear output to drop by 2.9 TWh.

Of this, 1.3 TWh were already realised in the first half of 2025 with most of the expected future shortcomings seen in the third quarter, it said.

Annual hydropower volumes this year will be below that of a normal year, when output typically reaches 20-20.5 TWh, it added.

The demand outlook is also uncertain, with several power-intensive hydrogen projects in the region cancelled or delayed, but demand from data centres rising.

"Uncertainty in the operating environment has remained strong due to ongoing geopolitical conflicts and U.S. tariff plans and may pose challenges to major industrial investments in the Nordics," Rauramo said.

($1 = 0.8569 euros)

(Reporting by Essi Lehto, editing by Nora Buli, Terje Solsvik and Christina Fincher)