August 6, 2002
The Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.(sales of its light metals group: 103billion yen), SKY Aluminium Co., Ltd.(sales;55billion) , Showa Denko K.K. (SKY Aluminium's major shareholder), and Nippon Steel Corporation are investigating the possibility of integrating the business activities of SKY Aluminium with a company to be created by the spinning off of the light metals division of Furukawa Electric.
The four companies formed an alliance to operate in the aluminum business in January 1998. This alliance established Alfus Co., Ltd. in October of the same year, and Unifus Aluminum Co., Ltd. in April 2000. These moves integrated the companies' respective sales divisions. In this manner, the companies have continued to work towards ever more complete integration of their aluminum business activities. The details of the latest agreement are outlined below.
- Furukawa Electric will spin off its light metals group. The new company will then integrate its operations with SKY Aluminium.
- The business integration will cover all aspects of the aluminum business.
- The commencement date for the integration will be October 1, 2003.
Through completely integrating all aspects of the aluminum business, including manufacturing, the four companies will place a new emphasis on speedily responding to wide-ranging and rapidly changing customer needs. They will work to improve product quality, further enhance important technologies, and develop new products to achieve this goal. In addition, the alliance will put in place a new production structure, consisting of plants for flat-rolled materials in Fukui, Nikko and Fukaya, to ensure a stable supply of products. Acting in conjunction with the aluminum alloy shapes and casting divisions, the new company will aim to lead the domestic aluminum manufacturing industry while developing the ability to respond appropriately to global changes.
The four companies of the alliance intend to exhaustively investigate the full range of issues relevant to the proposed integration. As such, they would like to take this opportunity to ask for the continued support and understanding of their customers and other stakeholders.