OREANDA-NEWS. Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC) announces that it has accepted the third-party allocation of treasury stock from Unipres Corporation, and will additionally acquire 5.6% of Unipres shares.

Unipres, in which NSSMC currently possesses 10.9% of its issued stock, is a leading Japanese manufacturer of automotive press-formed products and transmission components that has manufacturing and sales operations throughout the world.

In recent years, global automotive industry has grown rapidly and the need of weight reduction of automobile body has also increasingly grown in order to meet stringent environmental regulations. To realize further weight reduction of automobile body, it is necessary to maximize the potential of steel materials.

NSSMC will continuously endeavor to strengthen its collaboration with Unipres through this additional acquisition, through which NSSMC will increase global competitiveness of press-formed products for automobiles made from steel materials, and meet the requirement of global automobile manufacturers to reduce vehicle weight.