Itochu to Expand Coal Portfolio

Itochu Corporation’s chief operating officer of New Energy & Coal division, Harutoshi Okita said the division tries to increase interest of resources including metallurgical coal along with trade expansion. The division expended around 28 billion yen to get 15% interest in Maules Creek coal mine in New South Wales of Australia. The division got 20% interest of coal mine in Colombia for 126.5 billion yen. Mr. Okita said the division tries to seek additional investment opportunity in competitive assets.

Mr. Okita said the Colombian coal mine will expand the output to annual 35 million tonnes in future. The division launches Maules Creek’s commercial operation in fiscal 2013 ending in March 2014 to secure annual 10.8 million tonnes of coal output.

Mr. Okita said the division adds annual 7 million tonnes of captive coal output when the Colombian mine’s output reaches 35 million tonnes while the division’s captive coal was 8 million tonnes before the investment. He said the division tries to increase the captive coal output to 20 million tonnes in 2015 as original target. He said the division tries to develop Tavan Tolgoi coking coal project in Mongolia through international joint project to meet growing demand while the project scheme could take more time to finalize.

Mr. Okita said the division improves the coal assets portfolio while the division is more cautious for investment under the coal price adjustment. He said the division tries to increase interest of metallurgical coal from current annual 3 million tonnes.

Mr. Okita said the division also tries to increase coal trading volume especially for China, India and other countries with growing demand. He said the division targets the trading volume from current annual 12 million tonnes to 20 million tonnes by 2015.