OREANDA-NEWS. August 20, 2012. Mitsui & Co., Ltd. ("Mitsui", Head Office: Chiyoda-ku,Tokyo, President and CEO: Masami Iijima) has recently acquired an additional 3,205,000 shares of Yamato Kogyo Co., Ltd. ("Yamato Kogyo") at a cost of approximately J?7 billion, which increased its ownership share to 6.56% from 1.96%.

Yamato Kogyo is a holding company of one of the largest independent EAF (electric arc furnace) steel manufacturers in Japan, mainly producing large-size structural steel. The company is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Osaka Securities Exchange. Yamato Kogyo has been widely recognized as a global steel supplier expanding its business into overseas markets, including the United States, Thailand and the Republic of Korea, and it is now aggressively promoting new business in the Middle East.

Mitsui and Yamato Kogyo have built a strong and longstanding partnership over many years, not only through supply of steel raw materials and sales of its steel products, but also through the formation of Siam Yamato Steel Co., Ltd., a steel-making joint venture in Thailand in 1992. Under the recent globalization of the steel industry, Mitsui's acquisition of additional shares this time makes the partnership more robust and enhances our strategic expansion initiatives in the global steel market.