Itochu to invest US$90 million for ethanol plants

PT Itochu Indonesia, the Indonesian subsidiary of Japan's major trading house Itochu Corp, will invest around US$90 to develop alternative energy particularly ethanol, Investor Daily reported Tuesday.

The company's chairman and CEO Yasuo Ichimora said in Jakarta on Monday that as part of the program, the company would build a number of ethanol plants in Lampung and Kediri in East Java and Central Java in cooperation with local companies.

He said that the local companies would provide cassava plantations of up to 20,000 hectares to provide the raw materials for the ethanol plants. "The ethanol plants which will have capacity to produce about 50,000 litters a year would use cassava and sugarcane as its raw materials. Investment for the construction of the ethanol plants would reach $90 million " he said.

According to him, the memorandum of understanding (MoU)for the development of the ethanol plants will be signed in October. (*)