The Metals Division views steel and non-ferrous metals as products with unique properties and functions rather than simple materials. This approach allows us to provide optimal products and logistics matching the needs of both suppliers and users. Furthermore, through restructuring our SBUs* into four—Automotive Metal Sheet Products, Metal Products, Non-ferrous Metals, and Resources Recycling—we have made possible swift and specialized responses to a broad range of customer needs from both the "arteries" and the "veins," with such responses being suited to each industry and product.

Specifically, to respond to the drastic changes in the world, the division continues to create and offer new business values in both automotive and non-automotive industries, synergizing functions, technologies, and markets, as well as procurement capabilities with the global network we have developed and our diverse processing and logistics functions available on a global basis.

In its mainstay automotive-related field, the division is developing its existing functionalities in response to the changing needs of this era of profound transformation in the automotive industry, and it is striving to create new functions and businesses to lead the revolution in vehicle weight reduction and electrification. Armed with these functionalities, the division is also taking an expansive view of the mobility society of the future and actively addressing the new needs of customers and tomorrow's society to further grow business.

In its non-automotive businesses, the division is generating synergies with its automotive-related businesses. At the same time, because of the breadth of the non-automotive business field, the division is developing new markets and businesses in areas in which Toyota Tsusho is strong, such as recycling and materials development, focused on areas that lead to the solution of social issues, including the transition to a carbon neutral society and recycling resources.

Furthermore, initiatives targeting the division's management base include more than just the introduction of digital tools in the DX field. We are also focusing on measures that lead to new value creation through the leveraging of digital technologies. The division has been significantly advancing its efforts to implement work-style reforms in this era of coexistence with COVID-19 pandemic and is striving to create work environments receptive to flexible work modes and diverse ways of thinking.

Through these wide-ranging initiatives, the division is developing existing businesses while exploring new businesses and has established a well-balanced business structure that is resilient to change to achieve its mid- to long-term goals.