Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (新日鐵住金株式会社, Shinnittetsu Sumikin Kabushiki-gaisha) (TYO: 5401), was formed in 2012 with the merger of Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal. Nippon Steel was formed in 1970 with the merger of Fuji Iron & Steel and Yawata Iron & Steel. Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation is the world's 2nd largest steel producer by volume as of 2012.

Early years

Nippon Steel was created by the merger of two giants, Yawata Iron & Steel (八幡製鉄 Yawata Seitetsu) and Fuji Iron & Steel (富士製鉄 Fuji Seitetsu). Beginning in early 1981, however, the company cut production and saw a sharp decline in profit that fiscal year. Forced to close furnaces, the company exhibited a typical Japanese economic aversion to layoffs, opting instead to offer standard early retirement enticements but also less conventional schemes such as a mushroom cultivation venture that used the surplus heat created by steel furnaces to temperature control a fecund fungi complex.