Nippon Steel : Sustainability Report 2021

2021) March to 2020 (April 2021 Report Sustainability Corporation Steel Nippon

Nippon Steel Sustainability Report

2021

Printed in Japan

Make Our Earth Green

Corporate Philosophy

Nippon Steel adopts our own new initiative "Nippon Steel Carbon

Neutral Vision 2050 - A Challenge of Zero-Carbon Steel", as a part of

our widespread efforts toward achieving a decarbonized society. we will consider and implement various measures as a top priority management issue in order to continue to lead the world's steel industry.

Nippon Steel Corporation Group will pursue world-leading technologies and manufacturing capabilities, and contribute to society by providing excellent products and services.

Management Principles

1 We continue to emphasize the importance of integrity and reliability in our actions.

2 We provide products and services that benefit society, and grow in partnership with our customers.

3 We pursue world-leading technologies and manufacturing capabilities.

4 We continually anticipate and address future changes, innovate from within, and pursue unending progress.

5 We develop and bring out the best in our people to make our Group rich with energy and enthusiasm.

Editorial policy

This Sustainability Report is the 24th since the former Nippon Steel Corporation issued what is the first sustainability report by a Japanese steel manufacturer, in 1998. We believe it is extremely important to promote business activities that contribute to the realization of a sustainable society. We are therefore committed to diverse initiatives based on this idea.

In this report, in order to clearly express our approach toward helping realize a sustainable society, we present our Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives, which we consider to form the basis for supporting our sustainable growth. To augment the details, we added representative examples. Please use the link to the relevant website URL on each page to see more details.

Period covered

The period covered in the report is fiscal 2020 (from April 2020 to March 2021). For some activities, the period from April 2021 to June 2021 is included.

Boundary of report

• Environmental and social aspects: Activities of Nippon Steel and its group companies in Japan and overseas
• Economic aspects: The Integrated Report 2021 of Nippon Steel (issued in August 2021) also covers the contents of the economic report.

Reference for guidelines

• GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) Standards
• "Environmental Reporting Guidelines 2018" by the Ministry of the Environment
• Final Report: Recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), established by the Financial Stability Board

CONTENTS

01 Introduction

1. Corporate Philosophy, Management Principles

1. Message from the President

1. Attractiveness of Steel

1. Nippon Steel Group's Businesses

1. Nippon Steel Group's Contribution to SDGs

11 Nippon Steel's ESG Materiality

13 Environmental Initiatives

1. Nippon Steel's Environmental Management

1. Coping with Climate Change

1. Contributing to Creation of a Circular Economy

1. Promotion of Environmental Risk Management

1. Initiatives on Conservation of Biodiversity

1. Promotion and Enhancement of Environmental Management

1. Energy Material Balance

45 Social Initiatives

1. Safety, Disaster Prevention and Quality

1. Respect for Human Rights

1. Diversity & Inclusion

1. Initiatives for Human Resources Development

1. Supply Chain Management

1. Together with Local Communities

61 Corporate Governance

1. Independent Assurance Report
2. Awards Received in FY2020

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NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION

Message from the President

Message from the President

Towards the Realization

of a Sustainable Society,

and the SDGs

30% compared to 2013 in 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality in 2050. Zero-carbon steel, however, cannot be achieved by the challenge of the steel industry alone. It is indispensable for the entire society to make efforts toward carbon neutrality. In addition to the steel industry's efforts on R&D and equipment installation concerning zero-carbon steel, the society's efforts at the establishment of an infrastructure capable of supplying abundant, inexpensive hydrogen as well as the realization of a low-cost, stable carbon- free power supply are needed. We also need a system for society as a whole to bear the enormous costs associated with these efforts toward

Social initiatives

We declare in our Corporate Philosophy to pursue world-leading technologies and manufacturing capabilities, and contribute to society by providing excellent products and services. This resonates with the concept of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our Eco Products initiatives can be regarded as representative examples. We are eager to continue to prevail as a company that helps solve diverse social issues through its business activities.

Introduction

Materiality ESG Steel's Nippon

I would like to thank our shareholders and all other stakeholders for your understanding and support to the Nippon Steel Group.

In March of this year, we announced a new medium- to long-term management plan, with the aim of continuing to grow to "become the best steelmaker with world-leading capabilities," that supports Japan's industrial competitiveness. One affirmative policy in the plan is our approach to the "Challenge to Zero-Carbon Steel." We have identified the challenge as being to radically reduce CO2 emissions through the development of breakthrough technologies and believe this to be our greatest priority issue. Our basic approach is to win the development competition with other countries and continue to lead the world's steel industry. Through these efforts, we are committed to establishing a virtuous cycle of environmental sustainability and corporate growth and improving corporate value.

In this Sustainability Report 2021 we are pleased to present to you a description of our "Challenge toward Zero-Carbon Steel" and other wide- ranging initiatives in regard to the Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues we face as we advance toward realizing a sustainable society.

Environmental initiatives

Having positioned environmental matters as priority issues that underlie our corporate management as stated in our Basic Environmental Policy, we have pledged to contribute to the creation of a society oriented toward environmental preservation and with low environmental impact. We continue to proactively undertake diverse environmental issues concerning wide- ranging areas of concern, from local communities to the entire planet,

Eiji Hashimoto

Representative Director and President

including climate change issues, creation of a circular economy, and maintenance and enhancement of a favorable living environment.

While we are advancing initiatives for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations, we recognize climate change issues as a priority problem that may threaten survival of the human race.

The Challenge to Zero-Carbon Steel has two aspects. The first aspect is our action to contribute widely to the realization of a green society through providing users with our technology and products in Japan and overseas. This also a business opportunity for us. As an upfront investment in this effort, we have decided to make investment in improving the capacity and quality of electrical steel sheets, and in building a next-generationhot-rolling mill at the Nagoya Works.

The second aspect is a challenge to develop a new production process aimed at radically reducing CO2 emissions in the manufacturing process. This requires a challenging advanced technical development, including in unexplored areas. This is by far the most difficult challenge in the history of the steel industry. We are taking this dramatic change in the business environment as a great opportunity to reestablish our overwhelming superiority in the world steel industry, and we are determined to actively address it as a top management issue. By taking advantage of our world's best technology development capabilities, we will take on the challenge to develop a zero-carbon steel manufacturing process ahead of other countries and start actual use of it by 2050. Further, we intend to provide zero-carbon steel and thereby contribute to our customers' reduction of CO2 emissions.

Through the development and practical implementation of breakthrough technologies ahead of other countries, we aim to reduce CO2 emissions by

decarbonization. Various difficulties and issues will be ahead of us but, in collaboration with the government, this including the utilization of the Green Innovation Fund, we will boldly take up the challenge toward the realization of zero-carbon steel.

From the viewpoint of promoting economic growth while building a sustainable society, the right response to the imperatives of a circular economy is essential. Steel is a material which can be easily taken out of a present use and endlessly recycled without causing deterioration in quality. Steel can be described as a perfect embodiment of a circular economy. Nippon Steel is also actively engaged in use of by-product generated in steelmaking for achieving zero emission. We also recycle 100% of plastic containers and packaging generated in society and collected by us. In addition, in accordance with the Law for Promoting the Recycling of Plastic Resources enacted this year, we are considering to expand the amount of plastic waste processing we do, by including general waste plastics. We are committed to contributing to the realization of a circular economy by means of further technological innovations.

Concerning maintenance and improvement of the living environment in our communities, what we focus on is environmental risk management, including prevention of accidents and undesirable conditions or events. This is our priority issue for continuing business, along with safety and disaster prevention. In addition to compliance with laws and regulations, we strictly adhere to the ordinances and standards of municipalities, and give due consideration to the conditions of each base of operations, thoroughly taking measures from both hard and soft aspects to reduce environmental burden.

With regard to biodiversity preservation, we have long been involved in the "Creation of a Hometown Forest" at each steelworks, and "blue carbon" activities designed to create seaweed beds and absorb CO2 in coastal waters. We have developed various initiatives that harmonize nature protection and production activities. Also, we formally expressed our support to Keidanren's Declaration of Biodiversity and Action Policy and are promoting its activities in accordance with our policy of action based on this. As initiatives to establish a society co-existing with nature are both regional and global issues, we intend to incorporate them in our business activities and to execute environmentally integrated management, with the aim of realizing a sustainable society.

In this report, we are presenting our engagement with various stakeholders as well as our response to social issues. Specific themes include the safety, disaster prevention, and quality, respect for human rights, diversity and inclusion, supply chain management, and coexistence with the community and society. Compared to the report of last year, we have enhanced the introduction of business activities that respect diverse values and human rights issues, and of diversity and inclusion.

In order to live up to our Corporate Philosophy of contributing to the development of society and to be continually trusted by everyone, we are committed to fulfilling our social responsibility.

Towards enhancement of governance and sustainable growth of the company

We have developed a corporate governance system suitable for the Group's business in order to promote sound and sustainable growth and to improve medium- to long-term corporate value. Since 2020, we have changed our corporate structure to that of a Company with an Audit & Supervisory Committee, etc. and have been working to speed up management decision- making and strengthen the supervisory function of the Board of Directors.

ESG initiatives are considered as one of our priority management issues, which form the base that supports sustainable corporate growth. We have identified key ESG challenges (materiality) that should be addressed in a focused manner, with due consideration to our corporate principles, values, stakeholders' expectation, and our growth strategy. We intend to steadily promote its execution and follow-up by checking Key Performance Indicators to assess outcomes.

We hope that you take a look of this report and let us know your feedback.

Initiatives Environmental

Initiatives Social

Governance Corporate

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NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION

Attractiveness of Steel

Attractiveness of Steel

Introduction

Steel is one of the most familiar materials and is indispensable for our daily lives. Thanks to its diverse properties and infinite potential, steel will continually contribute to a sustainable society.

Steel is an abundant, sustainable material that can be reborn endlessly

Steel is an outstanding material from the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) perspective

Steel's Nippon

Iron is believed to constitute

one-third of the Earth's weight.

1

3

Steel is an affordable material

and is cheaper than water in a plastic bottle

(in comparing price per unit weight).

	Steel
Water	1 kg

1 kg

Price

Steel represents 90% or more of metal products, as steel being abundant, cheap, and having good workability, and has a wide range of applications.

Other				Steel 90%
				or more
	Metal products

Some materials have low environmental impact in use but may have

high environmental impact in the overall life cycle.

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is therefore important.

High	Environmental impact highlighted in	LCA-based assessment
	comparison to other materials		BAD
		BAD
			GOOD

	Environmental impact that		GOOD
			Environmental impact
	is often overlooked
			that is often overlooked
Environmentalimpact
+		weight than steel	+	=	Lighter weight materialsthan steel
weight thansteel	Steel	weight steel	Steel

Let's consider the overall life cycle

The Life Cycle Assessment method (LCA) is a way of thinking to evaluate environmental impact of a product over its entire life cycle. While many aspects of environmental impact cannot be seen, the LCA is an attempt to visualize the impact over the life cycle of a product, from production of its raw material to use, disposal and recycling of the end product.

From the LCA perspective, steel's environmental impact can be said to be very low relative to other materials. In order to continue to supply steel as a sustainable material, while taking advantage of its excellent LCA characteristics, we aim to realize zero-carbon steel.

Materiality ESG

Initiatives Environmental

Steel is a sustainable material to be reborn in new steel products endlessly

Lighter

Lighter materials

than

Environmental impacts of steel made via the BF

Steel is easily sorted from a mixture with other materials and can be endlessly recycled without causing deterioration in quality - quite a unique characteristic. Steel is a perfect material for recycling as it can be recycled endlessly into all kinds of steel products after the end of its product life.

Iron ore
Coal	Converter
Blast	Processing and	Used as various types of
	furnace
Resources	production	products by people
	Electric
	furnace	Industrial
	Infinite recycling of steel	product life
		Iron scrap

Steel	materials	Recycling	Lighter materials
effects
		Steel

	Impact in		Impact in use		Impact when		LCA overall impact
	manufacturing				disposed or recycled
						(Impact of waste disposal
Low					and recycling effect)
		Comparing product materials...

Comparison of CO2 emission in producing an automotive part that has the

same strength as conventional steel (kg-CO2)

1,106 990

and EAF routes, using an LCA approach

The blast furnace (BF) route to reduce iron ore to make steel may appear to generate a higher environmental impact than the method that melts steel scrap in an electric arc furnace (EAF) to make steel. However, the BF route creates steel products that generate scrap that, through recycling, has an effect of CO2 emission reduction. As that scrap recycling effect offsets the CO2 emissions in the BF process, environ-mental impacts of the BF and EAF routes in total terms are the same as steel is repeatedly recycled.

This approach is recognized in the ISO 20915 and the JIS Q 20915 and is becoming a global standard.

Diverse properties and a wide range of applications

Due to diverse advantages such as strength and easiness to work, steel has been used in a wide range of applications and deserves recognition as the most outstanding material for the infrastructure of society, a material that supports people's lives and overall economic development.

Steel is close to us and we cannot live without steel products. Steel is for here for all of us now and will be with us in the future.

Diverse properties that support a wide range of applications

Strength	Weldability	Heat resistance
Toughness	Paintability	Cold resistance
Robustness	Magnetism
Workability	Corrosion resistance	Weather resistance

Infinite potential

Steel is a material with great potential due, in part, to its having a much higher theoretical strength than other materials.

In addition to adjusting carbon and other content to give a certain steel product specific desired characteristics, steel's properties can be finely controlled to meet function and performance requirements, including requirements that did not exist in the past. We do this by controlling the combination of its temperature and rolling at the manufacturing stage or by adding alloys. Further development in steel and its usage will push the potential horizon further outward.

Potential capacity and present application level of material strength

			Present application level	Strength of sheet materials for			Theoretical strength1
				automobiles
Tensile strength (GPa2)	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	10

Iron and steel	(10.4GPa)
Aluminum and alloy	(3.5GPa)
Concrete (compressive strength)
CFRP

1 Theoretical strength is said to be 1/5 to 1/7.5 of the modulus of rigidity. The above data uses 1/7.5. 2 Gigapascal (GPa) is a unit to measure tensile strength. Giga denotes a factor of one billion (109 ).

	230	173
	Conventional	High-tensile		Carbon fiber
	Aluminum	reinforced
	steel materials	steel
		plastics
Functional equivalent	100	75	67	45
weight (kg)
CO2 emissions per unit	2.3	2.3	16.5	22.0
(kg, CO2/kg)

Based on the public data of WorldAutoSteel

Steel's environmental impact in production is extremely lower than other materials, some of which are lighter than steel.

Note: Moreover, high-tensile steel is about 25% lighter than conventional steel and has a lower environmental impact.

Going forward, with the aim to further reduce environmental impact on climate change, Nippon Steel will make development toward carbon neutrality in steelmaking process.

Acquisition of the "Eco-Leaf" environmental label

Nippon Steel has obtained the 'Eco-Leaf' - an ecolabel certified by the Sustainable Management Promotion Organization (SuMPO), in compliance with the ISO 14025 international standards, for 15 of its products.

The Eco-Leaf is an EPD3 certification program in use in Japan to disclose quantitative environmental information about the entire life cycle of a product,

from resource mining and manufacturing to disposal and recycling. This allows customers to assess the environmental impact of the products they use.

3 EPD (Environment Product Declaration): The type III environmental label specified in the ISO 14025 international standard, which is designed to disclose quantitative environmental data certified by a third-party organization.

Initiatives Social

Governance Corporate

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Nippon Steel Group's Businesses

Nippon Steel Group's Businesses

Domestic Manufacturing and R&D Bases (Nippon Steel)

Nippon Steel is engaged in production at six steelworks - Muroran, East Nippon, Nagoya, Kansai, Setouchi and Kyushu - and R&D activities in three centers in Futtsu, Hasaki, and Amagasaki.

The Nippon Steel Group's main business is in steelmaking with annual crude steel production capacity of approximately

54 million in Japan and 16 million tons overseas, and overseas annual steel processing capacity of 34 million. The Group is promoting business in four segments, including steelmaking.

Business segments

Based on the long accumulation of technology through steelmaking, the Nippon Steel Group operates businesses in four areas: steelmaking and fabrication, engineering and construction, chemicals and materials, and system solutions, with the core business being steelmaking.

Introduction

ESG Steel's Nippon

Muroran Works*

* Reorganized to the North Nippon Works

in April 2022

Amagasaki R&D Center

East Nippon Works

Setouchi Works

Kamaishi Area*

Hirohata Area

Naoetsu Area

Kure Area

Kashima Area

Hanshin Area (Toyo, Osaka, Kanzaki, Sakai)

Kimitsu Area

Kyushu Works

Hasaki R&D Center

Yawata Area (Yahata, Tobata, Kokura)

Research & Engineering Center (Futtsu)

Oita Area (Oita, Hikari)

Nagoya Works

Kansai Works

Wakayama Area (Wakayama, Kainan, Sakai)

Amagasaki Area

Osaka Area

Chemicals and Materials Business

¥ 178.6 bn

Nippon Steel Chemical & Material Co., Ltd.

Nippon Steel Chemical & Material aims to contribute to society by combining chemical and material operations and utilizing its original material technologies. With coal chemicals, chemicals, functional materials and composite materials as its four main operating sectors, the company pursues sustainable growth by creation of new businesses, overseas expansion of its core opera- tions, and the further promotion of global operations.

Engineering and construction business

¥ 324.4 bn

Nippon Steel Engineering Co., Ltd.

Nippon Steel Engineering undertakes numerous projects worldwide in various fields: the environment and energy-related facilities (i.e., waste, offshore wind, biomass, and geothermal power generation); various pipelines; building construction and large steel structures (i.e., offshore steel structures, port construction), and steelmaking plants.

Net sales/Revenue (consolidated basis)

FY2020

consolidated revenue

¥ 4,829.2 bn

(Elimination of intra-company transactions, etc. −¥154.7 bn)

Ordinary profit/Business profit (consolidated basis)

System solutions business

¥ 252.4 bn

NS Solutions Corporation

In keeping with the advent of widespread use of digital innovations in IT for business, NS Solutions provides IT business solutions, including uses of the cloud, IoT, and AI, to a wide range of sectors by applying its extensive insight and advanced practical IT capabilities acquired in the steel manufacturing business.

Steelmaking and steel fabrication business

¥ 4,228.4 bn

Nippon Steel Corporation

Enhancing technological superiority, Nippon Steel provides a variety of high-grade steel products (i.e., steel plates; flat products; bars & wire rods; construction products; pipes & tubes; railway, automotive & machinery parts; and titanium stainless steel) to many customers in Japan and overseas.

Net income/Profit attributable to owners of the parent (consolidated basis)

Materiality

Initiatives Environmental

Overseas Manufacturing Bases

The Nippon Steel Group has established a global supply network of 34 million tons in steel processing capacity, mainly for use of automobiles, resources and energy, infrastructure, and electric appliances, containers, etc.

							China
				3.6 (995)
						mln tons/year
Ovako (Sweden)		BNA (China)
	Europe
1.1 (140.6)			India
mln tons/year			10.5 (88.5)
				mln tons/year
								ASEAN
			Middle East	4.7 (68.7)
							mln tons/year
		0.8 (46.0)
			mln tons/year

		Sales composition by region	Crude steel production capacity
					66%		by sector1
Region		Japan				(mln tons/year)
NS Group's								Integrated steel mills	18.0
				34%
capacity		Overseas			Downstream process bases2	16.0
(Regional demand)		Regional	Asia		60%		Automobiles3	12.8
				Resources and energy	0.5
		composition:	North America	12%
As of March 2021			Infrastructure	1.4
		South America	11%
			Middle East	9%		Electric appliances, containers, etc.	1.3
			Europe		6%
			Africa		3%
			Pacific		1%

		North and
		Central America
		6.2 (114.0)
		mln tons/year
		South America
AM/NS Calvert (USA)
6.9 (38.6)
		mln tons/year

(¥ billion)
8,000
6,000	5,668.6	5,712.9	6,177.9	5,921.5
4,632.8				4,829.2
4,000
2,000
0
2016	2017	2017	2018	2019	2020	(FY)
JGAAP		IFRS

Number of employees (consolidated basis)

120,000	106,599
100,000	92,309 93,55797,996105,796	106,226
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
0

(¥ billion)
400				336.9
		297.5	288.7
200	174.5
						110.0
0
-200
-400					-284.4
	2016	2017	2017	2018	2019	2020	(FY)
	JGAAP		IFRS

Crude steel production volume (non-consolidated basis)

(million tons)
50	45.56
45.31	43.73
40	43.45	41.85
30			33.00
20
10
0

(¥ billion)
300				251.1
200		195.0	180.8
100	130.9
0
-100						-32.4
-200
-300
-400
-500					-431.5
	2016	2017	2017	2018	2019	2020	(FY)
	JGAAP		IFRS

R&D expenditures (consolidated basis)

(¥ billion)
80		74.0	77.6
	73.0
69.1	72.0
		65.3
60
40
20
0

Initiatives Social

Governance Corporate

AM/NS India (India)

NS BlueScope (Thailand/others) Usiminas (Brazil)

1 In addition to companies with an equity stake of 30% or higher (including USIMINAS), which are included in crude steel production data compiled by the World Steel Association, the capacity of our equity-method affiliates with an equity stake of less than 30% in which Nippon Steel plays a significant role in the supply of materials, as well as the capacity of a company whose products are sold by Nippon Steel (AGIS) are fully included.

2 Excluding overlap with the integrated steel mills (Mahindra Sanyo, Standard Steel, and Ovako) and with a company (STP) which receives raw sheet supplies from other operating companies 3 Steel conversion value (converted to per-ton of crude steel)

07

2016	2017	2017	2018	2019	2020	(FY)
JGAAP			IFRS

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

(FY)

Past figures are retrospectively revised by adding the amount generated by Nippon Steel Nisshin, which was absorbed in April 2020.

2016	2017	2017	2018	2019	2020	(FY)
JGAAP			IFRS

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