ITOCHU Announces Bio-ethanol Production Business in Binh Phuoc Province of Southern Vietnam

December 6, 2010

ITOCHU Corporation (headquarter in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) will participate in a fuel bio-ethanol production business in Binh Phuoc Province of Southern Vietnam with PetroVietnam Oil Corporation (headquarter in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam; Nguyen Xuan Son, CEO; hereinafter “PetroVietnam Oil”), a subsidiary of Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (hereinafter “PetroVietnam”). This would be ITOCHU’s participation for the project producing fuel bio-ethanol, after similar projects in Brazil and Philippine.

ITOCHU has decided to invest in the Joint Venture Company, Orient Bio-Fuels Company Limited (hereinafter “Oriental Bio-Fuels”). The Project plans to start commercial operation from spring 2012 using cassava, a well-grown crop in the region as feedstock, aiming production of around 100,000kiloliters per year.　The bio-ethanol produced by Orient Bio-Fuels is expected to be sold to the market through gas stations under PetroVietnam Oil.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (hereinafter “MOIT”) is currently formulating a legal system to introduce fuel ethanol to Vietnam. PetroVietnam, an affiliate of MOIT takes role in the actual implementation, starting trial sales of gasoline mixed with 5% ethanol (E5) from August 2010 in 5 cities in Vietnam. With a big potential demand with the population of roughly 86 million people, production and supply of gasoline mixed with ethanol is expected to accelerate to replace domestically produced gasoline.

Reference

Company Name Orient Bio Fuels Company Limited
Business Outline Producer and seller of bio-ethanol (schedule to commence commercial operation from April 2012)
Representative Mr. Pham Anh Tuan
Headquarters Dong Xoai Town, Binh Phuoc Province Vietnam
Date Established May 14, 2009