Trader Mitsubishi Sets Up Firm to Make Wood-Based Biofuels

Tokyo, Aug 20, 2007 (Jiji Press) - Major Japanese trader Mitsubishi Corp. <8058> said Monday that it has established a manufacturing and sales firm for wood-based biofuels in southwestern Japan.

The company, based in Hita, Oita Prefecture, plans to install facilities to manufacture pellets made mainly of cedar bark with a maximum annual output of 25,000 tons, the largest in Japan. The biofuels will be mixed with coal in order to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by coal-burning boilers.

The new company is owned 70 pct by Mitsubishi and the rest by a local lumbermill cooperative and another firm. Forestry is the main industry of Hita.

For the time being, the company will sell the waste wood-made pellets to small firms in Oita that own coal boilers.

Mitsubishi is currently in negotiations to build similar production facilities in other parts of Japan and it is looking to launch the business overseas, mainly in Asia, in the future. The company hopes to attain global biofuel pellet production of one million tons in 2010.