Itochu Enex Co., Ltd. (President: Kenji Okada, at Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo) of ITOCHU’s affiliate which engages in sales of LPG for household use, gasoline station and energy trade business has announced that it will advance into Karawang International Industrial City to be developed by ITOCHU Corporation and Sinar Mas in Indonesia to fill and sell industrial gases for Japanese companies incorporated locally. In last October it procured a land of about 4000 m2 in the industrial complex, established a local corporation and is now constructing a filling plant for a scheduled completion in July of this year.

On October 21 of last year, PT・ITC Enex Indonesia of the locally-incorporated company completed its registration for establishment in the Karawang International Industrial City complex situated at a place 56km southeast from the central part of Jakarta. The capital investment amounts to 6,654.50 million rupiah equivalent to JPY65 million (51% by Itochu Enex and 49% by Itochu Industrial Gas) and the company appointed as representative director Mr. Shinichi Saito who has long been serving as a temporary director dispatched by Itochu Enex and backed home in last May to prepare for the establishment of the new local company.

Since three years ago the Itochu Group has been keeping an eye on the booming economic growth of the Asian and other developing countries, and planning to develop locally some business that excel in Japan making the most of synergy of Group’s expertise with the title of “Philippines Project”, “Guam/Saipan Project” and “Palau Project”. Now, the “Indonesia Project” is one of such projects.

The selection of region is based upon the possibility of land procurement out of a few candidates in Southeast Asia. The company will first build up filling plants and then start with oxygen and carbon dioxide for which the local corporation got license of production business. As ITOCHU Corporation has acquired a local license to sell general industrial gases, if the new company increases the lineup of gases, its sales will be carried out through ITOCHU Corporation. As for the source of liquid, negotiations with local manufacturers is under way now. The company started with three Japanese including staff employed locally. After the filling station is completed, about 10 delivery staff will be employed locally. The designing knowhow for the filling facilities and training of local employees will be provided by the Technical and Safety Dept. of Itochu Industrial Gas on an official trip basis. Getting started with supplying to the customers related to the Group, the company aims for a sales amount of 3000 million yen in 5 years.