Nippon Steel and Marubeni Itochu Steel to Merge Plate Processors

Fuji Steel Center, the subsidiary of Nippon Steel, and Aoyagi Kozai Kogyo, the subsidiary of Marubeni Itochu Steel, announced on Monday both companies arrived in a basic agreement on November 30 that Fuji Steel Center succeeds plate processing business from Aoyagi Kozai Kogyo effective on February 1, 2012.

This is the first reorganization of Nippon Steel Group’s plate processors since the previous merger between Nippon Steel Group’s and Kobe Steel Group’s shearing processers in 2003. Current operating rate has been around 70% at Fuji Steel Center and Aoyagi Kozai Kogyo due to weak demand in domestic construction market and negative impact of Lehman’s fall and the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Other steel plate processors may enter next mergers involving subsidiaries of integrated steel makers and steel trading houses as well as self-funding companies.