Itochu to join paper venture

Japanese trading house Itochu Corp will produce paper bags in Shanghai in partnership with a company in the New Oji Paper Co group of Japan, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun says.

A joint company to be set up by the two firms and a local concern would build a factory in the suburbs of Shanghai, the business daily said yesterday.

From October, the factory would manufacture 50 million paper bags and three million carrier bags a year for supply to Japanese food makers and retail companies operating in Shanghai and its vicinity, the daily said.

It said the joint company would be capitalised at 160 million yen (about HK$11.52 million) with 46 per cent invested by the New Oji Paper group firm and 25 per cent by Itochu.