Jun. 29, 1998
Toyota to Establish Afforestation Company with Nippon Paper Industries Co. and Mitsui & Co.
Tokyo―TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC; president: Hiroshi Okuda) today announced that it has decided to embark on an afforestation joint venture business with Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (president: Masao Kobayashi) and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (president: Shigeji Ueshima). As the first step in these operations, TMC and Mitsui will jointly establish a new company, Australian Afforestation Pty. Ltd., on August 3rd. The new company will be located in Melbourne City, Victoria, Australia and will carry out afforestation operations for trees to be used for pulp and paper.
In anticipation of intensified environmental and food problems in the coming century, TMC established a special group within the Business Development Division in January this year to explore the future of agricultural biotechnology and environmental afforestation. Through joint research with Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd., which has a track record of afforestation and research in biotechnology throughout the world, TMC has made further advances, including developing trees with exceptional growth capacity and resistance to drying; TMC also plans to carry out afforestation through the new joint venture with Mitsui & Co., Ltd.
Environmental issues have come to the fore since the recent Kyoto Conference on global warming affirmed international commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The fixation of carbon dioxide resulting from the new company's tree planting operations is expected to contribute to and improve the global environment.
The new company will plant approximately 500 hectares of eucalyptus trees annually in Australia (a total of 5,000 hectare over ten years)*. In the 11th year, the company will harvest the trees, and process them to raw material for paper. They will then sell the material to Nippon Paper Industries, via a joint venture afforestation company of Nippon Paper Industries and Mitsui & Co., which is already expanding afforestation operations in Australia.
*Currently awaiting approval from Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB)
The current operation represents a meeting of the minds for these three companies―TMC, which intends to contribute to an improved global environment and to develop this joint venture into a successful business; Nippon Paper Industries, which is already developing its concept of "Tree Farms" worldwide to ensure future sources of pulp and paper materials; and Mitsui & Co., Ltd., which has experience in afforestation operations in Australia. This is the culmination of a successful cooperative effort among three companies from widely-differing fields.
The new joint venture company will start with capital of AUS$250,000 (approximately 20 million yen), with plans to gradually increase the figure as operations expand. At the outset, TMC's investment will be 90%, while the remaining 10% will be made by Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (7%) and Mitsui & Co. (Australia) Ltd. (3%).
In the future, the three companies expect to expand areas of afforestation in regions such as Asia and Latin America, using current operations in Australia as a foundation.
Outline of New Company
