NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION

Since October 2012, when the former Nippon Steel and the former Sumitomo Metal Industries merged to become Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, we have promoted business development aggressively and implemented restructuring in Japan and abroad. Recently, we have made Nippon Steel Nisshin our wholly-owned subsidiary. In the case of Sanyo Special Steel which also became our subsidiary, acquisition of Ovako in Sweden was included in the arrangement. Jointly with ArcelorMittal, we are now engaged in the process of acquiring Essar Steel, an integrated blast furnace steelmaker in India. At this important time, we renamed ourselves as “Nippon Steel Corporation”, as inheriting what biologists call “hybrid vigor,” to move forward and grow in the world market, as a global steelmaker with origins in Japan.We must appropriately address social and industrial megatrends. This includes our response to structural changes in society and industries, such as rapid progress in advanced information technology, and electrification of automobiles, and autonomous driving. In addition, we must make our contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – or more specifically, reduction of greenhouse gas, formation of a recycling-oriented society, and other measures aimed at realizing a sustainable society. Even in the midst of such a changing environment, steel remains a basic material with outstanding properties, which cannot be replaced by alternative materials, and will continue to be widely used in society, especially as the global economy continues to grow.