Establishment of Joint Study Committee among Nippon Steel Corporation， Sumitomo Metal Industries， Lt

Nippon Steel Corporation， Sumitomo Metal Industries， Ltd. and Kobe Steel， Ltd. have each signed bilateral agreements with the other two companies concerning bipartite collaboration measures and cross share holding. While each company will accelerate the collaboration measures under those agreements， the three companies have decided to set up Joint Study Committee among them to study items which would further improve business efficiency of each company than under those bilateral agreements.

The three companies will continue to compete against each other while studying and implementing the collaboration measures to enhance their respective competitiveness.

For more information， please contact:
Nippon Steel Corporation
Public Relations Center， Corporate Secretariat Div.
Tel 81-3-3275-5022
Sumitomo Metal Industries， Ltd.
Public Relations Group， PR & IR Div.
Tel 81-3-4416-6115
Kobe Steel， Ltd.
Communication Center
Tel 81-3-5739-6010