ARAUCO’s intense week of activities in Shanghai is coming to an end

Santiago, June 3, 2010. ARAUCO is finishing an intense week of activities in the city of Shanghai. On Monday, May 31, the company officially inaugurated its ninth office outside Chile and later held meetings with Chinese pulp and sawn timber customers. On that same day, and as an Araucaria Platinum sponsor of Shanghai Expo 2010, ARAUCO participated in the inauguration of Chile’s week titled “Chile, Food and Forestry Power”. ARAUCO was highlighted during this event and also celebrated it’s own week at the Chilean Pavilion.

ARAUCO CEO Matías Domeyko headed these numerous activities, which he said, “reflect the maturity of our business relations and our expectations for growth in China, and in Asia in general”. Mr. Domeyko recalled that the company has maintained a business relationship with China for the last 33 years, totaling more than 300 customers. “China is ARAUCO’s primary pulp market and ARAUCO is currently China’s major pulp supplier. China accounts for 45% of the company’s income for the sale of pulp, and 40% of our total sales are derived from the Asian market, with broad product diversification” he explained.

Regarding the possibilities of continued growth in Asia, Matías Domeyko said that these expectations are based on the size of the Asian market and its growing demand, as well as on ARAUCO’s consolidated investments in Latin America and “the new projects we will be developing in the next few years to respond to current and future demand, baseing this growth on our forestry assets”.

Heading this office is Mr. José Miguel Barros, who worked for ARAUCO in Holland, where he has been responsible for the sale of panels in the European market during the last five years. Now, in Shanghai, his job is to collaborate with pulp Sales Management, finding solutions for logistics, technical support and market intelligence.

During his stay at Shanghai, Matías Domeyko met with pulp and sawn timber customers in China. At these meetings he personally thanked them for their support following the forced shutdown of ARAUCO’s operations after the earthquake and tidal wave hit Chile on February 27. He also informed customers that the company’s production units have currently resumed normal operation, allowing ARAUCO to fulfill all of the company's business commitments.