Specialized trading house Chori Co. plans to set up an office next year in China's troubled Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region as a gateway to central Asia.
The office, to be situated in the regional capital Urumqi, will start operations in January, the company said Thursday.
It will handle fiber and building materials in addition to aluminum foil that Chori, an Osaka-based subsidiary of Toray Industries Inc., procures in the region as a material for condensers.
It will be the firm's 17th base in China and is expected "also to be a gateway to Europe," Chori President Shuji Yamazaki said, adding the company would like to branch out into other fields in Urumqi.