By fiscal 2030, Nippon Steel aims to raise its consolidated business profit, excluding items such as inventory valuation differences, to at least 1 trillion yen from the average of 770 billion yen projected for fiscal 2021-2025.

The new plan sets overseas business as the core of growth amid a prolonged steel market slump caused by falling demand in Japan and overproduction by **Chinese **steelmakers.

Of the total five-year investment, about 4 trillion yen will be allocated mainly to facilities and equipment at US Steel and the expansion of production capacity in India.

Nippon Steel hopes to increase its overseas business profit to 500 billion yen or more from 115 billion yen projected for fiscal 2025, including about 300 billion yen from US operations, primarily US Steel.

"We will focus on growth investments (abroad)," Nippon Steel President Tadashi Imai told a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.

"We hope to come back as the world’s No. 1 steelmaker and contribute to the revival of the Japanese economy" by expanding profits in Europe, India, Thailand and North America, he also said.

He predicted that domestic steel demand would "inevitably decline by several million tons over the next five years."

The company aims to consolidate its manufacturing bases for each steel product type to improve efficiency and strengthen its supply capacity for steel for automobiles and other products.

The number of Nippon Steel’s blast furnaces in Japan has been reduced from 15 to 10 by fiscal 2025. "Additional shutdowns are not factored into the new management plan," Imai said.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]