Mitsui & Co. to Secure More Metals Resource Supply

Mitsui & Co.’s mineral & metal resources business unit expands the supply capacity of minerals including iron ore and nickel steadily. The unit tries to find the chance to get resource assets in accordance with the long term strategy, under which the unit secures competitive metal resources to meet growing demand, while the unit focuses on expansion of iron ore and existing assets in fiscal 2009 started April. The unit also tries to expand the recycling and environmental solution business as the second core for the unit.

The unit plans to invest 50-60 billion yen in fiscal 2009 mainly for iron ore expansion while the unit invested 160 billion yen in fiscal 2008 including 78 billion yen of additional indirect equity in Vale of Brazil and 42.4 billion yen for iron ore expansion. The unit also tries to stabilize the second phase operation of joint venture, Coral Bay Nickel in Philippines, which started commercial operation in April, while the unit launches joint venture, Goro Nickel in New Caledonia in 2009. The unit would expand the investment in opportunity to get strategic assets including copper, aluminium and rare metals.

Mr. Masayuki Kinoshita, who is head of the unit and managing officer of Mitsui & Co., expects world demand for metal resources will increase mainly in developing countries in long term while the pace could be a couple of years behind expectation before. The unit expands the equity iron ore to 64 million tonnes in fiscal 2015, which is 1.4 times of fiscal 2008 while the unit expands the equity to 1.3 times at 41,000 tonnes for nickel, 2.8 times at 170,000 tonnes for copper and 2.7 times at 340,000 tonnes for aluminium.

The unit tries to establish new business models to enforce recycling of valuable metals from appliances and wastes while the unit expands the recycling business of ferrous and nonferrous metal scrap. The unit also expands the commitment for storage battery business to meet growing demand in electric vehicle era.