Nippon Steel to invest ¥6 tril over next 5 years, to upgrade U.S. Steel

TOKYO — Nippon Steel Corp said it aims to invest around $6 trillion yen ($39 billion) over the next five years domestically and globally, including upgrading the facilities of the recently acquired United States Steel Corp.

The Japanese steelmaker's new medium- to long-term management plan unveiled Friday underscored its focus on strengthening its international competitiveness, with overseas investment accounting for around 4 trillion yen of the total, as the domestic iron and steel market is expected to shrink.

Nippon Steel, which sees the United States as one of its key growth markets, acquired U.S. Steel in June following approval from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, pledging to invest around $11 billion in the company through 2028.

"We will concentrate our management resources through investments that will strengthen integrated production," President Tadashi Imai said at a press conference in Tokyo.

Nippon Steel did not include any new plans to shut down its blast furnaces in Japan, having already closed some in recent years to streamline its business operations.

It is looking to shift a furnace in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, to a smaller, more environmentally friendly model, reducing the number of operational blast furnaces from 10 to nine by fiscal 2030.

"We have been able to realize increased competitiveness in domestic production sites," Imai said.

To improve the efficiency of its domestic sites, the company said it will focus on the manufacture of automotive steel sheets in areas close to the Nagoya and Kyushu areas where some automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp, hold production bases.

© KYODO