It said 372 employees in Finland would be temporarily laid off and the layoff programme would run until the end of April.

In October, Valmet forecast an improvement in its underlying operating profit in 2020 and said it expecnted sales to remain flat at last year's level of 3.55 billion euros ($4.28 billion).

Valmet, which owns nearly 30% of peer Neles, opposed a takeover bid by Sweden's Alfa Laval for valves maker Neles, forcing Alfa Laval to drop its bid in November.

(Reporting by Anne Kauranen; Editing by Edmund Blair)