ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”), in cooperation with the Korean engineering company, SK Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Seoul; Yoon, Suk-Kyoung, CEO, hereinafter “SK E&C”), part of the major South Korean conglomerate SK Group, has received around 80 billion-yen EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract from the Turkish power generating company, Enerjisa Enerji Uretim A.S., for a coal fired power plant in Tufanbeyli.

For this project, scheduled for completion by February, 2015, ITOCHU/SK E&C consortium will construct a coal fired power generation facility with a 450MW capacity (three units of 150MW each) in Tufanbeyli in southeast Turkey. The unique feature of this project is that it will utilize a low environmental-impact circulating fluidized bed boiler (CFB boiler) that will use Turkish mined lignite for fuel. Turkey has a rich reservation in lignite, and hopes to effectively utilize this resource as a major fuel for power generation.

ITOCHU has experience with the power infrastructure industry in Turkey, having executed a construction contract for the Bursa combined-cycle power plant, and SK E&C is increasing its experience in power generation based on its abundant oil and gas plant construction experience. The experience and combination of these two companies, particularly in combustion technology for lignite, considered a complex power generation fuel, greatly impressed Enerjisa, and led to the awarding of this contract.

Enerjisa, the company behind this project, is a jointly run subsidiary of the prominent Turkish conglomerate Sabanci Holding, and the major Austrian power company Verbund. This project is one part of its plans to expand its energy production capacity to more than 5,000MW by 2015, with the aim of acquiring a 10% share of Turkey’s power generation market.

The power market in Turkey is burgeoning thanks to economic growth there. Demand for power has increased rapidly, with a need for 195 million MWh in 2009, and is expected to increase at a rate of average 7% per year until 2015. ITOCHU will continue to make extensive efforts to provide infrastructure projects that address Turkey’s power and energy needs.