UACJ to Establish Business Development and Support Center for North America

UACJ Corporation (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Mitsuru Okada; hereinafter, “UACJ”) has decided to establish UACJ North America Inc. as a business development and support center in response to its growing North American operations in line with the Company’s global business development.

As part of UACJ’s efforts to develop its global operations, to date the Company has expanded overseas business and extended its fields of business, centered on North America and Asia. In North America, via Tri-Arrows Aluminum Inc. (Headquarters: Louisville, Kentucky, United States; CEO: Shigekazu Shiraishi) UACJ has invested in Logan Aluminum Inc. We have established an aluminum Body-in-White (“BiW”) business as a joint venture with Constellium N.V., and have also expanded our business through UACJ Trading (America) Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: California, United States; President: Ryoji Takagi). In Mexico, we have established and commenced operations at IWAI METAL CENTRAL MEXICO, S.A. DE C.V. (Headquarters: Guanajuato, Mexico; President: Kunihiko Kishino), which manufactures and sells automotive parts.

Going forward, the North American market is expected to experience rapid growth in demand for BiW products. Accordingly, we aim to gather information related to automotive components and other automotive aluminum products, strengthen our information-gathering function related to the market environment and trends involving new products and technologies using aluminum, consider business strategies and reflect these in new product development, and consider the possibilities for future business development.

In addition, UACJ already operates at multiple locations in North America, and the Company plans to further expand its activities in the region. The new company will support the corporate operations of UACJ Group companies in North America, as well as working to strengthen them and enhance their efficiency.

Overview of the New Company