The Japanese division of South Korea’s biggest steelmaker has been accepted into the Kyohokai, the elite grouping which comprises the top one percent of Toyota suppliers.
Posco has been supplying steel for Toyota’s Indian and Indonesian plants since 2003 as well as to certain facilities in Japan for the last three years, Kyohokai spokesman Nakaji Honda told Bloomberg. The weakening of the won versus major currencies has given the Korean firm an advantage against Toyota’s long time preferred partner Nippon Steel.
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Kyohokai already contains several major foreign suppliers such as Robert Bosch and Delphi but Posco is the group’s first South Korean firm. Toyota is said to source parts from around 40,000 suppliers.
Nippon Steel President Shoji Muneoka recently called on the government to take steps to enable domestic manufacturers to compete with global rivals “on an equal footing.” The strength of the yen, rising energy and labour costs plus taxes are hindering the competitiveness of Japanese companies, he said.
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