No. 29: Kobe Steel

Current BW Magazine Table of Contents

October 24, 2005 BW Magazine Table of Contents

October 24, 2005 Asia BW 50 Table of Contents

Asia's BW50

2005 Rankings

1	PTT
2	PetroChina
3	Oil and Natural Gas
4	S-Oil
5	Tata Steel
6	POSCO
7	Shinhan Financial Group
8	LG Corp.
9	Samsung Electronics
10	MISC (Malaysia IntÕl. Shipping)
11	Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg.
12	Hon Hai Precision Industry
13	AU Optronics
14	Formosa Chemicals & Fibre
15	Mitsui OSK Lines
16	Reliance Industries
17	CNOOC
18	Tata Motors
19	Hyundai Mobis
20	Komatsu
21	LG Electronics
22	China Petroleum & Chemical
23	Philippine Long Distance Telephone
24	PT BUMI Resources
25	Shell Refining (Federation of Malaya)
26	Sumitomo Metal Industries
27	PT Astra International
28	Thai Petrochemical Industry
29	Kobe Steel
30	Aluminum Corporation of China
31	High Tech Computer
32	Toyota Tsusho
33	Nippon Mining Holdings
34	Formosa Plastics
35	Jilin Chemical Industrial
36	Larsen & Toubro
37	China Steel
38	Esprit Holdings
39	Infosys Technologies
40	LG.Philips LCD
41	China Mobile (Hong Kong)
42	Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical
43	ICICI Bank
44	Siam Cement Group
45	Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical
46	Matsui Securities
47	Yamada-Denki
48	Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha
49	Orix
50	Nippon Steel

Data: Standard & Poor's Compustat

OCTOBER 24, 2005

STORY TOOLS

MICHAEL CARONNA/
BLOOMBERG NEWS

If you think all steelmakers are Old Economy behemoths, Yasuo Inubushi has news for you. Since becoming president and CEO of Kobe Steel Ltd. in early 2004, Inubushi has nudged the company toward making more customized steel alloys for clients in the auto and electronics industries. That has allowed the company to reap higher margins at a time when prices even for low grades are soaring. Kobe is a specialty-metals producer of things like collapsible hoods for cars and titanium parts for airplanes, not a commodity giant like Arcelor of Europe and Nippon Steel or JFE Holdings of Japan. ``If we went up against Nippon Steel or JFE, it would be like a child facing a sumo wrestler,'' Inubushi says.

Sticking to a niche business seems to be paying off. Japan's fourth-largest steelmaker has bounced back from a string of losses in the late 1990s to report profits three years running. But with concerns that China's growing steel output may lead to a global glut, Inubushi is eager to diversify. Sales of wholesale electricity to Japanese utilities now account for 4.1% of revenue, up from zero in 2003. For Inubushi, staying indispensable to Japan's auto exporters and utility suppliers is key.

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