Nippon Steel Unveils Medium to Long term Management Plan
Japanese steel giant Nippon Steel has developed its new medium to long term management plan to become the best steelmaker with world leading capabilities that contributes to Japan’s industrial competitiveness from the present and into the future. Nippon Steel said “Steel demand in Japan is expected to decrease due to its declining population, the expansion of overseas local production by Japanese customers, and other reasons. Global steel demand is expected to continue to grow steadily, particularly in Asia, and notably including India. In Japan where demand is shrinking, we have maintained our domestic production capacity by raising our export ratio. However, it is now necessary to assume that the current business model will be difficult to sustain because competition in the overseas market is expected to intensify, mainly as demand in China, which represents 60% of the world's steel production, seems to have already peaked, while we are entering a period which will require our main steelworks to provide large-scale investments for renewal of their aging facilities. In order to appropriately respond to these circumstances, in the domestic steel business we will thoroughly promote the strengthening of operations, notably by concentrated production through selection of products and facilities, thereby building a strong framework enabling us to manufacture products of the highest grade, in the form of mother mills which play a key role in our global steelmaking strategy. In the overseas steel business, we will expand our integrated production framework in the center of demand, such as by capacity expansion of AM/NS India, and ensure that local demand is captured in growing markets. By implementing these strategies, our plan is to achieve 100 million tons of global crude steel capacity per annum for the Nippon Steel Group by combining the efforts of our mother mills in Japan and local mills located overseas.”
Nippon Steel said “In addition, we will continue to respond to climate change. In exerting our efforts toward a decarbonized society, we are taking on the bold challenge of developing and industrializing new CO2 reduction technologies, in cooperation with various measures taken by the Japanese government, and aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 in order to win competitions on the development of new CO2 reduction technologies with Europe, the United States and China and to continue to lead the world's steel industry. We will also contribute to the realization of carbon neutrality in Japan by utilizing our technological and In order to appropriately respond to these circumstances, in the domestic steel business we will thoroughly promote the strengthening of operations, notably by concentrated production through selection of products and facilities, thereby building a strong framework enabling us to manufacture products of the highest grade, in the form of mother mills which play a key role in our global steelmaking strategy. In the overseas steel business, we will expand our integrated production framework in the center of demand, such as by capacity expansion of AM/NS India, and ensure that local demand is captured in growing markets. By implementing these strategies, our plan is to achieve 100 million tons of global crude steel capacity per annum for the Nippon Steel Group by combining the efforts of our mother mills in Japan and local mills located overseas.”
It said “In addition, we will continue to respond to climate change. In exerting our efforts toward a decarbonized society, we are taking on the bold challenge of developing and industrializing new CO2 reduction technologies, in cooperation with various measures taken by the Japanese government, and aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 in order to win competitions on the development of new CO2 reduction technologies with Europe, the United States and China and to continue to lead the world's steel industry. We will also contribute to the realization of carbon neutrality in Japan by utilizing our technological and product capabilities through development of and supply capacity increase of our high-performance products, such as ultra-high-tensile steel sheets for vehicle weight reduction, and high-performance electrical steel sheets for drive motors used in electric vehicles.”
It added “Moreover, we will push hard for digital transformation. We aim to become a digitally advanced company in the steel industry, and we will work on production and business process innovations and promote measures that contribute to the fundamental strengthening of decision-making and problem-solving capabilities through full use of digital transformation technologies and data.”
Four Pillars of the Medium to Long term Management Plan
1. Rebuilding domestic steel business and strengthening group’s management
2. Promoting a global strategy to deepen and expand overseas business
3. Taking on the challenge of zero-carbon steel
4. Promoting digital transformation strategies
Measures for all four pillars will be implemented according to roadmap. Particularly, with regard to pillar 1 Rebuilding domestic steel business and strengthening group’s management, plan is to complete the relevant measures by the end of fiscal 2025 in order to establish an efficient and strong production framework at an early stage, and to rebuild the earnings base of domestic mother mills.
Source - Strategic Research Institute