Trust Recovery Growth Vitalization - Marubeni

Strategy by Business Segment
Forest Products &
General Merchandise Division
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A dominant presence backed by a positive cycle
The division’s value chain, encompassing upstream fields to those
downstream, allows each operating company along the chain to
accentuate its presence. In fact, our comprehensive capability is
giving rise to a true positive cycle for the division. Building on
these strengths, we are focusing attention on wood chips, pulp,
and wastepaper, while sufficiently appealing to our trading
company functions in Asia, and China in particular. Specifically,
the division is focusing on importing finished products from
China, while supplying China with raw materials and expanding
operations within the country.
Division Strategies and Strengths
Pulp and paper: In this field, one of the division’s strengths is
its ability to organically link business operations and trading
throughout the entire cycle surrounding the use of paper and
paperboard made from wood chips, pulp and wastepaper, to
the reuse of wastepaper resources.
Regarding wood chips, the division has a well-balanced mix
of regional supply sources including South Africa, South America
and Western Australia, enabling it to claim a leading share of
Japan’s wood chip imports. The Marubeni Group has two pulp
producers—Daishowa-Marubeni International Ltd., located in
Canada, and P.T. Tanjungenim Lestari, based in Indonesia—that
together have a remarkable production capacity of 1.25 million
tons of pulp per year. Synergies from the handling of products
from not only these two suppliers but other companies, makes
for another advantage in this field.
In printing paper, Marubeni is the only Sogo Shosha (trading
company) fully engaged in this field. The division leverages a
unique sales strategy underpinned by its three different supply
sources: major domestic paper manufacturers, imported paper,
and paper manufacturers from the Marubeni Group. The division
also operates its own network of sales agents, logistics
Toshinori Umezawa
Corporate Vice President, COO
companies, and online sales companies. Unparalleled initiatives
in handling printing paper are a key element of Marubeni’s comprehensive
capabilities spanning all aspects of pulp and paper.
General merchandise: In this field, the division handles a variety
of different products, including rubber products, natural rubber,
leather, footwear, sporting goods, timber and plywood. The division
identifies those commercial goods and business formats
best able to exemplify the company’s strengths, while striving
to maximize PATRAC, Marubeni’s key risk-return indicator.
In housing and construction materials, the division seeks to
grow earnings by securing increasingly vital wood resources
upstream, while reinforcing sales through Marubeni Building
Materials Co., Ltd. in downstream areas.
In footwear, the division has the sourcing functions of
Marubeni Footwear Resources Limited (MFR), OEM transactions
and the wholesale function of Marubeni Footwear Inc.
(MFI), conducted by MFR. These operations from upstream
to downstream areas enable the division to access operations
at a number of different stages, another of Marubeni’s
strong points. Looking ahead, the division intends to
upgrade MFR’s sourcing functions and MFI’s proposaloriented
planning capabilities.