STINNES, SEINO SET UP SECOND JOINT VENTURE

STINNES, SEINO SET UP SECOND JOINT VENTURE    Stinnes AG, the parent company of the Schenker forwarding group, and Japan’s Seino Transportation Co. Ltd., have established a second joint venture in Japan.
   At the beginning of 2000, Stinnes’ subsidiary Schenker had already forged a strategic alliance with Seino. The first joint venture — Schenker-Seino Logistics — has provided logistics services for the Japanese market.
   With the second venture, Stinnes and Seino will also contribute their air and sea freight activities to the new company, called Schenker-Seino Co. Ltd.
   Stinnes holds a 60-percent stake in the new venture, and Seino 40 percent. The company will become operational on April 1. It will have a workforce of approximately 200 employees at 11 locations.
   The joint venture will offer customers international transportation and logistics services. In addition, all the business operations of the first joint venture will be incorporated into the new alliance.
   “The joint venture with Seino will help us to attain our strategic objective of substantially increasing our market shares on the transpacific route between Asia and the United States,” said Wulf H. Bernotat, chief executive officer of Stinnes. Bernotat added that the alliance would give Stinnes access to the important Japanese market and its key industrial accounts.
'    Schenker-Seino Co. Ltd. will market services in Japan covering the transpacific trade. Stinnes will continue to market its services independently for other trades.
   Stinnes said that the new joint venture is expected to generate sales of 125 million euro ($112 million) during its nine months of operation in 2002. In the following year, sales revenues are expected to increase to approximately 175 million euro ($156 million).