Smurfit Westrock, the world's largest cardboard box maker, has reported second quarter net sales of $7.940 billion, after what it called a strong performance.

The company said its net loss for the quarter came to $26m due to the costs associated with previously announced closures and other restructuring actions totaling $280m.

Ireland-headquartered Smurfit Westrock was formed when Smurfit Kappa, the largest paper packaging producer in Europe, completed its $11 billion acquisition of US rival WestRock last July.

Smurfit Westrock said that its Board had approved a quarterly dividend of $0.4308 per share.

Tony Smurfit, President and CEO, said the company's second quarter performance was driven by the significant improvement in its North American business and continued "excellent" results from its Latin American operations, somewhat offset by a resilient performance from its EMEA and APAC businesses.

"With our geographic reach, unrivalled product portfolio and most importantly our people, we see extensive opportunities across all our regions," the CEO said.

"In North America, we believe the implementation of our operating model will drive continued significant improvement. In our EMEA and APAC region, we have a well invested asset base and strong market positions, primed to take advantage of an improved demand environment. Latin America remains a region of substantial growth opportunities, both organic and inorganic," he added.