Steel Executives should Prepare for Hostile TOB, Mr. Bada

Japan Iron and Steel Federation’s chairman Hajime Bada warned at monthly press conference on Friday steel executives should prepare for potential mega funded hostile take over bid when Mittal Steel almost finished acquisition of Arcelor to become 120 million tonnes of commodity and high valued steel supplier based mainly in USA and Europe after the hostile TOB launch. The president of JFE Steel said the Mittal’s move doesn’t impact on Japanese steel makers when Japanese steels establish the positions as high valued steel suppliers in Asia. Mr. Bada said the creation of mega steel firm could make steel market more stable in better production adjustment. He said Arcelor can utilize Mittal’s iron ore resources in Eastern Europe and Russia improving international supply balance of raw materials. Mr. Bada said as the private opinion that Murakami fund and other issues revealed defects of Japanese law. He emphasized Japanese government should improve the law for equal footing with laws in Europe and USA. Mr. Bada also warned work accident has increased in Japanese steel industry since 2002 and significant accidents occurred in 2006. He said Japan Iron and Steel Federation decided to combine traditional related units and to launch safety and health task force on August 1 trying to improve the working environment. He said the task force tries to expand the activity to services suppliers for steel makers while the unit improves the information exchange, joint study and support for training to improve working conditions.