ANNUAL REPORT ARCELOR 2003 - paperJam

The Arcelor/Nippon Steel Corporation (NSC) AllianceArcelor and NSC work together very closely withinthe framework of an agreement called the “GlobalStrategic Alliance”, signed between NSC and Usinoron January 22, 2001 and confirmed by Arcelor and NSCon April 22, 2002.The Alliance was created in response to a request fromcustomers of the two groups for assistance in theirglobal expansion and to accelerate improvements inperformance for the steel products offered. The twopartners are well known for their technological expertise,their innovations and their ability to offer a wide varietyof products. The Alliance thus makes it possible tooffer customers a wide range of “equivalent” high-techproducts from production sites located in the sameregion as their factories, creating more value for thecustomer thanks to the optimal utilisation of resources.The cooperation is basically technical. In other areas,even though the product lines for global customers havebeen made technically “equivalent”, the two groupsremain competitors at the sales level.This Alliance has made great progress in the automotivesector.• A joint catalogue of “equivalent” products is availablefor customers.• At the same time, licences have been exchangedbetween the two to broaden the product lines of bothcompanies.• R&D projects are being carried out for the jointdevelopment of new products, including new hightensilesheet grades.• Technical studies are being undertaken in partnershipwith manufacturers to design new vehicles, in particularto develop innovative solutions for vehicle weightreduction. For this reason, the alliance has been chosenas a partner for the Toyota project aimed at reducing theweight of some of its vehicles.• Finally, a joint venture agreement was signed onDecember 23, 2003 with Bao Steel, the largestChinese steel producer. This joint venture will producethe “equivalent” products of the alliance, notably forEuropean and Japanese manufacturers with operationsin China, in a new plant located in Shanghai.In addition to the automotive industry, the target industryof this alliance, there are other cooperation agreementsfor stainless steels and for products for the constructionindustry.12ANNUAL REPORT ARCELOR 2003