Sandvik Q4 pretax lags consensus

STOCKHOLM, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Engineering firm Sandvik (SAND.ST) posted fourth-quarterl pretax earnings below market expectations on Thursday, hit by higher than anticipated write-downs of inventories, but said demand had remained firm.

The firm reported a pretax profit 2.73 billion Swedish crowns ($428 million) versus a year-ago 3.15 billion and a mean forecast of 3.18 billion seen in a Reuters poll of analysts.

The earnings were stung by an inventory write-down due to falling nickel prices of 575 million crowns, above the top end of the 400-500 million range estimated by the firm in November as well as the 463 million seen by analysts.

The firm said lower nickel prices would also have bearing on the Swedish group's earnings in 2008. If nickel prices at the turn of the year remained, this would results in a negative earnings impact of about 600 million crowns during the first half of the year, it said.

(Reporting by Niklas Pollard and Johannes Hellstrom)