Message from the President

Our group has been promoting our “Resilience Rasa 2024: Re-start to Leap Forward” three-year medium-term business plan since the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023. We have now completed the second year of our efforts under this plan.

We have positioned the completion of group governance as our top priority in this plan. We are striving to steadily accumulate results with a focus on paving the way to re-start to leap forward in addition to improving our business results.

As a result, our business results have been sluggish in part because we have been operating with a restriction on accepting orders in the industrial plants and equipment business. Nevertheless, we intend to continue taking measures which prioritize evolving an organizational structure under appropriate governance.

Consolidated business results in this fiscal year fell short of those in the previous fiscal year partly due to a decline in earnings in the resources and metallic materials business because of sluggish demand for the raw materials we handle. The environment surrounding our business is expected to be tough again in the next fiscal year. Nevertheless, we will aim for business results which exceed, if only slightly, our targets of the final fiscal year of our medium-term business plan. At the same time, we will build the management foundations to lead us onto our next medium-term business plan with a recognition that the final fiscal year of our current medium-term business plan will be a year for completion of paving the way to re-start to leap forward.

We sincerely ask our shareholders to continue your support for the management of our group.

June 2024