OREANDA-NEWS. Competition in the East Asian market, where Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (“NSSMC”) mainly operates, is expected to intensify. While the global steel demand is forecast to grow at a modest rate, newly constructed steelworks are scheduled to begin operation in South China and the ASEAN region in the first half of 2015, and Japan’s domestic steel demand is likely to stay at around 60 million tons per year.

To respond to the business environment as described above and to become at an early stage the “Best Steelmaker with World-Leading Capabilities”, a company with higher standards in all areas including scale, cost, technology and customer service, the NSSMC Group has developed the Mid-Term Management Plan (the “Plan”). The Plan sets forth the NSSMC Group’s management policy from fiscal year 2013 for a period of approximately three years.

The Plan is aimed at building an organization with world-leading competitive strength by 2015, when newly emerging steel mills in East Asia are expected to go into full-scale operation, through the early realization of maximum synergies made available uniquely to NSSMC by the business integration of the former Nippon Steel Corporation and the former Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd. (the “Business Integration”) in terms of technology and cost and on a global basis.