2026 New Year’s Message from the President

UACJ President Shinji Tanaka gave the following New Year’s message to employees of the UACJ Group on January 5, 2026:

Happy New Year. I am deeply delighted to welcome the arrival of 2026 with all of you. I hope you and your families had a wonderful holiday. For those of you who went to work during the holiday to handle things like installing, operating, and starting up equipment, I would like to express my sincere appreciation.

Now that 2026 has begun, I would like to reflect on the previous year and talk about our objectives for this year.

Looking back on 2025, global markets and trends grew increasingly unpredictable, and the UACJ Group’s operating environment changed dramatically. In Japan, the government declared its intention to facilitate the recycling of aluminum as part of its national policy. In fact, our efforts to recycle aluminum were widely recognized last year as aluminum attracted more and more attention amid efforts to promote a green transformation and build a circular economy.

Against that backdrop, the entire Group worked in unison to carry out forward-looking sustainable environmental initiatives based on a vision of passing down a better world over the next 100 years. Among these initiatives, in October of last year, UACJ began selling general-purpose thin aluminum sheets made entirely of aluminum that was produced using renewable energy—a first in Japan. Meanwhile, more subsidiaries and factories acquired certification from the Aluminum Stewardship Initiative (ASI) in 2025, including Tri-Arrows Aluminum Inc. in the United States and Whitehall Industries de Mexico S de RL de CV in Mexico. I am confident that these accomplishments will contribute to the Group’s growth going forward.

In September of last year, we announced the UACJ Group People Statement with a view to developing and bringing people together to create a brighter future. The statement will serve as a general framework for our human capital management, which aims to contribute to people’s well-being on a broad scale.

Meanwhile, we continued executing our current mid-term management plan, which is designed to create earnings, build partnerships, and promote the environmental benefits of aluminum, on our path toward realizing our long-term roadmap, UACJ Vision 2030. Under the plan, we have set four key strategies for adding more value to materials: promote recycling, expand fabricated material businesses, contribute to supply chain stability in advanced fields, and create and grow new businesses. In each of these areas, our goal is to maximize revenues. Based on an interim review, we expect to achieve our targets for fiscal 2025, the plan’s second year.

In addition, UACJ’s stock price reached a record high last year. I believe that the hard work of all of the Group’s members is reflected in this result and has helped build even stronger bonds with stakeholders.

Next, I would like to talk about our outlook and basic objectives for 2026.

The global economy is projected to return to a growth track this year, but we expect to face many challenges, including labor shortages and steeply rising raw materials prices in Japan. Nevertheless, we can look forward to rising demand for aluminum products amid growing needs for environmental solutions.

I want us to begin the New Year by deepening our commitment to safety, compliance, and quality, which are basic principles for the UACJ Group. To make our workplaces safe and secure, steps must be taken every year to prevent accidents. At the same time, we must ensure compliance with laws, customer agreements, and our own rules and codes of conduct. Finally, we should aim to ensure that customers are satisfied with and can depend on our products and services.

To achieve the goals of our mid-term management plan, I would like all of you to work toward the following three basic objectives.

The first is to continue carrying out measures for strengthening operations and improving our abilities to grow and create value, which are vital for realizing UACJ Vision 2030. In areas covered by our strategies for adding more value to materials, we must leverage our skills and technologies to expand our capacity to generate added value. Furthermore, we must continue automating operations while ensuring safety at manufacturing facilities, and shift to high value-added work procedures in back-office departments so that they can create value and increase earnings.

The second objective is to execute measures for achieving the goals of the mid-term management plan as well as our plan for this fiscal year. We continue to see increases in capital expenditures and working capital due to steeply rising raw material prices and the depreciation of the yen. While identifying risks associated with these factors, we should also take steps to seize opportunities. As we work to realize UACJ Vision 2030, we must maintain our focus on generating cash flow and improving capital efficiency in order to ensure sustainable growth.

Our third objective is to ensure that all members of the Group become aware of the UACJ Group People Statement and help carry out measures for enhancing well-being. Based on the statement, we want to encourage employees to work actively and with enthusiasm, ensure that everyone in our diverse workplaces can play an active role, and maintain a workplace environment in which all members can work safely, securely, comfortably, and in good health. Our human resources management must make progress in attracting and developing talent while bringing out the best in every employee. We want to generate and accelerate a virtuous cycle of enhancing the well-being of all employees while improving the capabilities of our people and organizations.

Each and every one of us can get involved in the UACJ Group’s creation of new value. I hope that you play an active role in this, and deal with changes in our operating environment while always keeping the UACJ Way in mind. Let’s work together to create earnings, build partnerships, and promote the environmental benefits of aluminum.

Once again, I would like to wish a happy New Year to all members of the UACJ Group. I sincerely hope that you and your families stay safe and healthy in 2026.