The UACJ Group’s Long-term Roadmap, UACJ Vision 2030
Aiming to put its corporate philosophy into practice, UACJ has formulated a long-term management vision that outlines the contributions for the UACJ Group to make through to 2030. Guided by this roadmap, the Group will bring together the skills and expertise it has honed over the last 100 years to expand the possibilities of aluminum and contribute to the realization of a sustainable and prosperous society.
- Approach and Objectives
- Four Ways of Contributing
- Materiality Issues
- Financial and Non-Financial Targets
Approach and Objectives
Aiming to help build a sustainable world by utilizing the benefits of aluminum, UACJ has specified four ways for the Group to contribute in new business sectors.
Building a sustainable world by utilizing the benefits of aluminum
Four Ways of Contributing
1. Focus on Growth Sectors and Markets
Expand in scale, primarily in growth markets (North America, Southeast Asia) and growth sectors (can stock, the automotive industry)
We have enhanced production capabilities by carrying out focused advance investment in TAA*1 and UWH*2 in North America and in UATH*3 in Thailand. We will fully utilize these capabilities by positioning can stock, where a huge rise in global demand is anticipated, and automobile materials, which is expecting a shift to aluminum products in accordance with the electrification of vehicles and an increasing need for lighter vehicle bodies, as growth sectors. We will expand the scale of our business in these sectors with a focus on markets in North America and Asia, where growth is anticipated.
- *1 Tri-Arrows Aluminum Inc.
- *2 UACJ Automotive Whitehall Industries, Inc.
- *3 UACJ (Thailand) Co., Ltd.
Demand for can stock (Thousands of tons)
- Source: Aluminum Rolled Products Market Outlook published in May 2020 by CRU International Limited
2. Increase the Added Value of Enhanced Material
Increase earning power by attaching new value to materials (plasticity processing, recycling, modules, services, etc.)
We are engaged in a wide variety of businesses, including flat-rolled aluminum, automotive parts, extruded products, aluminum foil, cast and forged products, and precision-machined components, and we have built a robust customer base. Therefore, one of our strengths is the ability to accurately and deeply understand market needs based on wide-ranging contact with these markets and then shape materials that meet these needs. We will fully leverage our technological advantage and business base to provide enhanced materials that create new environmental value, such as completely new processes, the use of big data related to industrial processes, and recycling. In this way, we will grow sales and our customer base.
Examples of strengths and value delivered
3. Creation and Expansion of New Business Domains
Expand business in the three domains of lifestyles and healthcare, mobility, and environment and energy
Aluminum has a variety of characteristics. Combining these characteristics with basic technologies such as material, design, functional design, and production technologies and practical technologies such as joining and bonding technology and heat management technology, enables the creation of a wide range of products. At UACJ, we are refining these basic and practical technologies with the aim of expanding our business into new sectors.
Also, in the same way as we developed our automotive parts business by interlinking the flat-rolled aluminum, extruded products, and precision-machined components businesses, we will leverage all six of our businesses to use the expertise gained from domains connected to each business and synergies among businesses as a platform for creating new business domains.
Leveraging technological expertise to expand business areas
4. Reduce Environmental Impact
Reduce environmental impact across the entire supply chain through measures such as raising recycling rates
In regard to aluminum product lifecycles, manufacturing products from new aluminum results in the most CO2 emissions while manufacturing from recycled aluminum can cut these emissions by 97%.
At UACJ, we are promoting recycling in addition to efforts such as reducing CO2 emissions in our internal manufacturing processes and supplying aluminum components that help make products lighter and more heat efficient. The UACJ Group is aiming to become carbon neutral (in terms of Scope 1 and 2 emissions) by 2050.
Reducing environmental impact across the entire value chain
Materiality Issues
Under its UACJ Vision 2030, UACJ has established the UACJ Group Sustainability Policy with a view to help build a sustainable world. In accordance with this policy, the Group has specified six materiality issues that it will work to address on a priority basis going forward. All of the Group’s members are working towards goals related to these issues, which are linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The UACJ Group’s Materiality Issues
- Response to climate change
- Product quality assurance
- Occupational health and safety
- Respect for human rights
- Diversity and equal opportunity
- Human resources development
Financial and Non-Financial Targets
Financial targets
| Fiscal 2030 | |
|---|---|
| Net sales | ¥800.0 billion |
| Operating income margin | 6.0% |
| Return on equity | 10.0% |
| Return on invested capital | 10.0% |
Non-financial targets
| Six materiality issues | Performance indicators | Fiscal 2030 goals |
|---|---|---|
| Response to climate change | Reduction of CO2 emissions across the Group’s supply chain |
|
| Product quality assurance | Number of serious quality defects | Zero |
| Number of customer complaints related to quality | 50% fewer complaints than in fiscal 2020 | |
| Occupational health and safety | Number of serious workplace accidents | Zero |
| Frequency of workplace accidents resulting in injury or death per million work hours*1 | No more than 0.08 | |
| Respect for human rights | Goals to be set based on results of due diligence, and an action plan to be carried out | Execution of due diligence at the Group’s main workplaces in and outside Japan |
| Percentage of employees and officers that participate in a training program covering codes of conduct and human rights, and a training program on harassment | 100% for both programs | |
| Diversity and equal opportunity | Percentage of women in management positions (including directors and officers) | At least 15% (but whenever possible, aim for the target of 30% set by the Japanese government) |
| Human resources development | Percent of successor candidates appointed to management positions | 100% |
| Number of people who participate in educational events held by UACJ | 1,000 per year*2 |
- *1 The frequency of workplace accidents is calculated by multiplying the combined number of serious workplace injuries and deaths (including those that did not result in a suspension of operations) by one million and dividing the resultant amount by the total hours worked in the fiscal year.
- *2 The target has been upwardly revised due to changes in the method for calculating the number of participants following a review of events to be held