STOCKHOLM, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Swedish firm Sapa AB, a leading maker of aluminium profiles and aluminium heat exchanger strip for car radiators, said on Friday it was worried about the strengthening of the euro .
"The demand for extruded profiles still does not show any sign of improvement, despite some positive economic data and at the same time the strengthened euro gives cause for some concern," Sapa said in its third-quarter report.
The currency effect chopped nine percent off Sapa's July-September operating profit, which nevertheless increased by one third to 151 million Swedish ($19.63 million).
The dollar's slide reduced the aluminium metal price by 15 percent, said the company, whose deliveries totalled 240,390 tonnes in the January-September period, up from 215,150 tonnes in the firest nine months of 2002.
Turnover increased 15 percent, partly as a result of an acquisition, to 3.03 billion crowns. Currency effects dented net sales by five percent, Sapa said.
"No improvement in the business climate has been experienced in Europe during the third quarter...the economic situation in the United States is hesitant," Sapa said.
"There is a large degree of uncertainty and an upturn in the short term does not seem likely," it said.
Sapa shares traded 2.1 percent higher at 0810 GMT, outpacing the EuroStoxx industrials index , which was 0.5 percent higher.