On November 27th 2011, Nippon Steel Corporation executed an agreement between it and Caixa dos Empregados da Usiminas to purchase part of Usiminas ordinary shares subject to the then existing shareholders agreement of Usinas Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais SA held by CEU and a new shareholders agreement of Usiminas.
NSC announced that on January 16th 2012, it completed the purchase of such Usiminas ordinary shares from CEU and the New SHA took effect. Usiminas is an equity method affiliate of NSC.
Usiminas will be managed by new controlling shareholders holding approximately 63.86% of its ordinary shares which consist of Nippon Group and Mitsubishi Group and CEU.
After the New SHA took effect, the meeting of the board of directors of Usiminas was held on January 17th 2012. The board appointed three individuals as its new' members and Ms Julian Alberto Eguren, who had served as CEO of Ternium Mexico SA de CV, was appointed as the new CEO of Usiminas, replacing Mr Wilson Nelio Brumer.
Usiminas will celebrate its 50 years' anniversary this year since its commencement of operation in 1962 with financial and technical cooperation from Japan. During this period, Usiminas has grown to be a foremost steel company in South America in terms of production scale and technological level. In recent years, Usiminas is expected to have further development through its investment such as high quality thick plate production facilities for capturing growing steel demand in energy industry, expansion of production capacity of steel sheets for automotive industry and new hot strip mill in Cubatao. Moreover, Usiminas will increase its competitiveness and expand its production capacity through plans for expanding iron ore mining business and improvement of its energy efficiency, which are now under planning phases.
Business environment surrounding Usiminas continues to be severe, due to increased prices of raw materials, more global competition, and appreciation of the currency. Under the new management structure, in cooperation with Ternium Group, global leading steel companies, NSC will work for even higher competitiveness and corporate values of Usiminas, as an important base for NSC's global strategy, together with its employees, represented by CEU, through the combination of supports by both NSC and Ternium in respective expertise.
