* Sticks to outlook
* Says sees gradual market upturn
* Expects no surprises in annual goodwill impairment review
By Brett Young
HELSINKI, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Finnish engineerMetso believes the market has troughed and is now recovering, although challenges remain, especially in customer financing, its chief executive said on Wednesday.
"We believe we have reached the bottom and we are now going upwards gradually," Metso CEO Jorma Eloranta told Reuters in an interview.
"(But) there are still lots of uncertainties about the timing of various decisions within the customer, and even if the customer makes the decision, they are not always able to finance the project according to their plans," he said.
Like other engineering firms, Metso, which makes machinery for the mining, construction and forestry industries, has suffered in the downturn as cash-strapped customers delay or cancel orders due to flaccid demand.
Metso said in July that sales this year would top five billion euros ($7.3 billion), down sharply from 6.4 billion a year ago, with "satisfactory" profit - an outlook reiterated by Eloranta on Wednesday.
"Although there are challenges, everything has gone more or less as planned," he said. "(The order book) has stabilised, no major new issues have come up there."
Given that tough markets persist, Eloranta said he did not expect 2010 capital expenditure to exceed the level of this year, which the company has pegged at below 150 million euros.
He added he did not expect any major news from the firm's annual test for possible goodwill impairments. Metso had 787 million euros of goodwill on its balance sheet at end-June.
"I don't expect that there will be surprises in that regard," Eloranta said. ($1=.6819 Euro) (Reporting by Brett Young; editing by Simon Jessop)