On October 1, 2018, Nippon Steel & Sumikin Chemical Co., Ltd. (hereafter “Nippon Steel & Sumikin Chemical”) and Nippon Steel & Sumikin Materials Co., Ltd. (hereafter “Nippon Steel & Sumikin Materials”) will merge management and take the first step toward creating new values.   Through this business merger between the two companies, we will strengthen our core coal-chemical and chemical product businesses. Furthermore, we will integrate Nippon Steel & Sumikin Chemical’s material design and production technologies in such fields as aromatic chemical synthesis, refining and mixing and Nippon Steel & Sumikin Materials’ technologies for such materials as thin foils, fine wire and microparticles. In this way, we will establish a system to play a part in achieving the NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION Group’s goal of strengthening the overall responsiveness to demand for materials.