Production stopped at Mitsubishi Paper Mills' paper mills in Hachinohe, Kitakami, Shirakawa, Japan, in aftermath of earthquake, as company assesses damage; financial performances of European operations not immediately affected

Kendall Sinclair

DUSSELDORF, Germany , March 14, 2011 (press release) – A massive 8.9 earthquake struck Japan last Friday, whose epicenter was in Miyagi prefecture north of Tokyo, and sparked a huge tsunami that caused devastation across much of the country's north­eastern seaboard, and is estimated to have killed several thousand people.

The current situation at Mitsubishi Paper Mills Ltd. is as follows.

1.    Summary of damage
Hachinohe mill (Hachinohe city, Aomori prefecture)

• Regarding the personnel accidents, 6 employees have been injured and sent to hospitals, and no other personnel accidents have been reported.
• Currently, operation has been stopped.
• The ground floor has been under water due to tsunami.
• We are assessing the damage at this point.

Kitakami mill (Kitakami city, Iwate prefecture)

• No personnel incidents have been reported including subsidiaries such as Kitakami High Tech Paper and others.
• Operation has been halted at this point.
• Currently, we are estimating the damage.

• No personnel injury has been reported.
• Operation has been shut down at this moment.
• We are currently checking the damage.

The Headquarters in Tokyo, Kyoto mill, Takasago mill and Tsukuba R&D laboratory have not been affected by earth quake and tsunami and are still running.

2.    Mitsubishi Paper Mills’ damage situation is not immediately affecting Mitsubishi Paper Holding (Europe) GmbH and its related companies (Mitsubishi HiTec Paper Europe GmbH, Bielefeld and Mitsubishi Paper GmbH, Düsseldorf). In case there is an impact on the companies’ financial performance, we will make a further announcement.

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