TOP INTERVIEW
Joint Venture with the Largest Steel Producer in America
Nucor Steel Berkeley
Jon Witherow
Vice president & General Manager
（Former Nucor-Yamato Steel Company
Vice president & General Manager）
Nucor-Yamato Steel Company（NYS）
Nucor-Yamato Steel Company (NYS) is located in Blytheville, in the state of Arkansas. As indicated by the name, this is a joint venture between Yamato Kogyo(YKC) and Nucor, the steel company with the highest market capitalization in the world.
In the 1980s, then-President Hiroyuki Inoue (now Chairman) was exploring possibilities for overseas expansion. He visited the United States on his own in a direct approach to Nucor which at that time was not producing H-beams, and after repeated negotiations NYS was established in 1987.
Yamato Kogyo as a Partner
Yamato Kogyo is a wonderful partner and we've enjoyed and built that strong relationship over 35 plus years of operations here at Nucor-Yamato. What really comes to mind for me when I think about our partnership is trust, open communication, collaboration, sharing of ideas, and innovation. If you look back to where we started 35 years ago to where we are today, Nucor-Yamato has grown tremendously and it's really due to our partnership over that time. We have an incredible history of working together and we have built an amazing relationship. It's something that we at Nucor very much value and appreciate and I know it's the same for Yamato Kogyo.
Growth Generated by Joint Ventures First
Here at Nucor-Yamato, we appreciate the philosophy of joint ventures first. NYS is a great example of a very successful history and a story of incredible growth. We have grown from a melt shop with a single rolling mill that could produce 600,000 or 700,000 tons per year, to now a much larger facility with two furnaces, two casters, and two rolling mills that can produce over 2.3 million tons per year.
Our history with that level of growth wouldn't be possible without the trust and the confidence of our shareholders to reinvest back into our operations and our team. That is something that we very much appreciate at Nucor-Yamato. Our team takes very seriously the capital that's approved and invested by our shareholders at Yamato Kogyo and Nucor. We work very hard to create returns with the investments made into our company. We've seen a lot of growth over 35 years and that wouldn't be possible without the YKC focus on joint ventures and the investments and confidence of our shareholders, at Yamato Kogyo and Nucor.
What are the Strengths of Yamato Kogyo?
Bigger picture, strengths I see in our YKC partners are integrity, open communication, collaboration, and trust. These are great strengths of Yamato Kogyo, and again, that's why we're partnered together, and that's why we will be for a long time. Those are strengths I think of when I think of Yamato Kogyo. My three plus years working here at Nucor-Yamato have been a great experience. I’m fortunate and very proud to be part of the team. I have made a lot of friends at Yamato Kogyo and I have learned a lot by working with our YKC partners.
The other thing I'll add is team development. I see that as a focus for Yamato Kogyo, the focus on team, the movement of people across the company working with different assignments, whether in America or in another country, and then moving on to new and additional responsibilities. This focus on people and their development at Yamato Kogyo is something that I find to be very impressive.