SAO PAULO, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Brazilian pulp maker Suzano SA on Tuesday said its fourth-quarter profit more than tripled from a year earlier, helped mainly by favorable exchange rates and better pulp prices.

Suzano reported a quarterly net profit of 7.46 billion reais ($1.42 billion), beating the estimate of 5.94 billion reais from analysts polled by Refinitiv.

Sales volume of pulp, its main business, grew by 1% year-on-year. The average realized price of the product, however, rose 31% from the end of 2021 to $826 per tonne.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) came in at 8.17 billion reais, up 29% from the year-ago quarter.

The firm said results were helped by a 1.59 billion real increase as a consequence of the 3.5% appreciation of the Brazilian real against the dollar in the quarter.

"The result of the cash flow hedge operations again showed the consistency in the long term of the financial policy in the management of exchange rate risk," Suzano said in a statement. ($1 = 5.2407 reais) (Reporting by Peter Frontini Editing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio)