Establishment of Steel Building Materials Joint Venture

Sumitomo Corporation (Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Susumu Kato), Sumisho Tekko Hanbai Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Haya Otsuka; hereinafter "STH"), a subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation, and SMC Trading Investment Joint Stock Company (Head Office: Ho Chi Minh City; President: Nguyen Ngoc Anh; hereinafter "SMC"), Vietnam's largest steel products distributor, have agreed to establish SMC-Summit Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Ba Ria-Vung Taul Province; President: Pham Duc Thang; hereinafter "SMC-Summit"), a joint venture that engages in the processing, distribution and sale of steel building materials.

【Establishment of joint venture】
In Vietnam in recent years, investment in construction has been steadily growing, mainly driven by the attraction of foreign capital by the country's burgeoning economy. The current focus of this construction boom is on high-rise buildings as a part of large-scale development projects in urban areas. The boom is expected to expand to include full-scale infrastructure development of sewerage, subway, expressway and other fundamental systems in the coming years.

Against this background, Sumitomo Corporation and SMC agreed to establish SMC-Summit, a joint venture that will primarily engage in the processing, distribution and sales of steel building materials, in order to effectively position itself in this promising market to meet potentially souring demand. (See below for the company profiles of SMC and SMC-Summit.)

【Business outline of the joint venture】
Under this recent agreement, SMC-Summit will engage in processing, distribution and sales of reinforcing bars, screw rebars, pile foundation pipes and other steel building materials. To this end, the new venture will rent an office, warehouse and plant from SMC starting in April 2012. The company will endeavor to supply quality building materials throughout the Vietnamese market, mainly for large-scale engineering and construction projects for tall structures, by conducting sales activities that are finely-tuned to meet individual customer needs. In addition, by launching new materials in a timely manner, SMC-Summit aims to become a leading comprehensive building materials supplier that can respond effectively to the future arrival of a steel structure age in Vietnam.

<Company profile>
■SMC-Summit

■SMC Trading Investment Joint Stock Company (Listed on HCMC, Code: SMC）