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Society
- Shareholders and
Investors - Employees
- Business Partners
- Local Communities
- Safety / Environment /
Disaster Prevention / Product Quality
Shareholders and Investors
We disclose important information for investment decisions in a timely and appropriate manner, and promote understanding of Nippon Denko Group through various engagement activities. In addition to 1-on-1 meetings with institutional investors and securities analysts (29 times in 2023) held on a regular basis, President and CEO Aoki appeared as a speaker at financial results briefing sessions held in February and August, and provided explanations to institutional investors and securities analysts. From 2023, archived videos and transcripts of the briefing sessions have become available for those who were unable to attend the session, as well as for individual investors. In addition, we focus on information dissemination on our website, which was selected as an excellent website in the section of the iron and steel industry in the “All Japanese Listed Companies' Website Ranking in 2023” conducted by Nikko Investor Relations Co., Ltd.
In the Medium/Long-Term Business Plan announced in November 2023, the company set the goal of achieving an ROE of 10% or higher, exceeding cost of shareholder’s equity, and announced that we aim to improve corporate value through continuous efforts as a response to action to implement management that is conscious of cost of capital and stock price.
Employees
Human resources are the source of our competitiveness and we promote initiatives in human capital management. As employee engagement improvement measures, we conducted an engagement survey for all employees in 2023, and we interviewed with employees at the Tokushima Plant and Chuo Denki Kogyo based on the results. In addition, we have been improving working conditions and in the spring labor offensive in 2024, we realized a uniform base pay increase for all employees, fully satisfying the labor union’s request.
We are also putting our efforts into creating a secure and safe working environment. At our plant, we installed a virtual reality (VR)-based risk experience device to maintain and improve risk sensitivity and to ensure employees’ safety. For mental and physical health, we provide allowances for medical checkups, physical examinations, and vaccinations, as well as mental care measures such as consultations with industrial physicians and a consultation desk consisting of external specialists.
We are also working on the career development of employees to realize growth strategies, and are providing growth opportunities through level-based training, DC&M activities, venture collaboration study teams, and other programs.
Business Partners
The Group promotes collaboration, coexistence, and mutual prosperity throughout its supply chains based on the “Partnership- Building Declaration,” and engages in fair and equitable trade based on its management philosophy. Additionally, based on our basic policy for procurement, we work with our suppliers to engage in procurement activities that account for compliance, reducing environmental impact, respecting human rights, standards, and other social responsibilities, and to promote efforts to combat climate change and other environmental issues, respect human rights, and resolve other social issues.
| 1 | Rigorous compliance | We have established systems for rigorous compliance and make efforts to observe laws, regulations, and social norms. |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Consideration for reducing the environmental impact (global environment) of procurement activities |
We make efforts to reduce the impact of our procurement activities on the global environment. |
| 3 | Respecting human rights, consideration for work environments | We respect the human rights of each and every individual in our supply chains in accordance with the Nippon Denko Group Basic Policy on Human Rights. |
| 4 | Providing opportunities for competition through fair and equitable trade | We comply with Antimonopoly Act and other laws and regulations for fair trade and engage in procurement activities in accordance with wholesome commercial customs and social norms. We do not engage in unfair trade that exploits our superior position. |
| 5 | Ensuring the safety and competitiveness of our products and services | We place the utmost priority on ensuring the safety of our products and services and take steps to improve competitiveness in terms of quality, price, and turnaround. |
| 6 | Response mineral procurement | We promote the establishment of supply chains free of minerals mined from regions under conflict or plagued with human rights violations. |
| 7 | Establishing trust-based relationships | We establish trust-based relationships with our suppliers through the aforementioned activities in an effort toward coexistence and mutual prosperity. |
Local Communities
Ocean liner excursion for elementary school students who live near the Tokushima Plant
Ocean liner excursion for local elementary school students
Each year, our Tokushima Plant provides local elementary school students with the opportunity to go on an excursion to see the ocean liners that carry manganese ore from mines. On these excursions, we not only allow the students to board the ocean liners, but also set up events for them to interact with the foreign crewmembers, prepare samples of our ores and ferroalloy products, and more.
Participating in the Awa Odori Festival under the name “Denko-ren”
Participation in local events
In an effort to foster deeper communication with the local community, we actively participate in various local events and activities. One such event is Awa Odori, a dance festival held in Tokushima Prefecture every August. For more than 30 years, we have participated in Awa Odori under the name “Denko-ren.”We also participate in the Kashima Festival held in October in Ibaraki Prefecture by displaying our exhibition booth.
Support for victims of the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake
We donated 10 million yen through the Japanese Red Cross Society to provide assistance for the relief efforts in the entire disaster-stricken area and to the locations of our plants (Toyama and Niigata prefectures)
Book donation ceremony
Donation of books to elementary schools in Kashima City and Kamisu City
The Incineration Ash Recycling business was featured in a book published by Gakken, entitled “Study of Garbage and the Environment Starting with ‘Why?,’ Vol. 3: ‘Incineration Plants.’” And we took this opportunity to present the books to Kashima City and Kamisu City, where our Kashima Plant is located, and they were donated to elementary schools and public libraries in the cities.
Emblem of Kashima Antlers
Club partner of Kashima Antlers FC
We became a club partner of Kashima Antlers FC in September 2023. We have a plant in Kashima City, the home of the Kashima Antlers, and have decided to be a club partner to contribute to the community through the team. In December, we also set an exhibition booth at the KASHIMA SOCCER STADIUM alongside the final home match. We will continue to engage with local residents actively and contribute to the community.
Safety / Environment / Disaster Prevention / Product Quality
Safety and Health
The Nippon Denko Group is augmenting its occupational safety and health management system and engaging in activities to ensure the safety and health of its employees under the safety and health basic policy.
Basic Policy
- Respect human life in the execution of all operations under the assumption that ensuring safety and health is the utmost priority
- Strive to prevent work-related accidents under the belief that prevention is the foundation of safety and health management activities
Creating Safe, Secure Workplace
Experience-based education about the electric shock of a power panel
We believe that it is important to predict and mitigate risks in order to prevent work-related accidents, and considers “reliably predicting hazards” and “identifying and addressing risks” as important measures for safety activities.
In 2023, in addition to the regular safety activities, we installed a virtual reality (VR)-based risk experience device to maintain and improve risk sensitivity of employees who work at plants, so that workers can experience and learn danger through more realistic sensations. We will continue measures for securing the safety of employees by adopting new educational content.
Furthermore, we conduct internal safety audits to further improve our safety activities and promptly share and disseminate examples of accidents at other companies to prevent similar accidents from occurring within our group.
In 2023, we experienced two work-related accidents that forced the injured employees to take days off. In 2024, we will promote initiatives with the goal of decreasing the number of such work-related accidents to zero.
| Target | |
|---|---|
| Number of disaster response incidents | 0 |
Acquiring Certification from Third-Party Organizations
The Group uses its ISO 45001 management system to create a structure for eliminating work-related accidents and other forms of risk with the aim of creating work environments where employees can work with a sense of safety and security.
We obtained the certification for the Myoko Plant in August 2023 and for the Toyama Plant in April 2024 for a total of 4 plants including the already certified the Tokushima Plant and the Kashima Plant. We will make continuous efforts to get the certification for all of our plants.
Creating Comfortable Workplaces and Promoting Physical and Mental Health
The Group promotes new 5S training and makes other efforts to ensure and maintain comfortable work environments, and steadily implements measures to improve facilities with the aim of preventing occupational diseases. We also promote employee health care through measures such as coordinating with industrial physicians to accommodate work style reform, conducting stress checks and promoting measures for mental health, and raising awareness about the many ways to prevent lifestyle-related illnesses, lower back pain syndrome, and the loss of physical capacity.
Disaster Prevention
The Group has established systems for disaster prevention management and disaster response and banded together to engage in other disaster prevention activities to enhance each and every employee’s capacity for disaster prevention with the aim of eliminating disaster response incidents.
Disaster Risk Prevention Activities
The Group has established manuals and conducts drills for responding to typhoons, earthquakes, tsunami, and other natural disasters, and also takes steps to reduce risk in responding to fires, explosions, and other plant disasters, specifically by conducting risk assessments in each location to identify disaster risks, deploying technical and organizational measures to reduce the risks and managing any residual risks, and conducting various drills (e.g. general disaster prevention drills, first-response drills for fires).
| Target | |
|---|---|
| Number of disaster response incidents | 0 |
Product Quality
The Group promotes activities to improve quality with the aim of providing products and services that satisfy customers under our Basic Quality Policy.
Basic Policy
- Comply with laws and regulations
- Consistently provide products and services satisfying each customers’ requirements
- Reduce risks of improper cases regarding quality assurance
- Continuously improve quality management systems
Quality Management
Under our quality management system, which we established based on ISO 9001, engineers, sales personnel, and plant workers unite to implement quality activities with the aim of ensuring and further improving quality to be worthy of our customers’ trust. The product quality assurance departments at our plants take the lead in maintaining and managing quality management systems, and work with head-office divisions to resolve quality-related issues. We also promote education on quality compliance, basic quality rules, and other efforts to increase employees’ awareness of quality and prevent quality-related incidents, and conduct internal quality audits and quality evaluation to identify and prevent quality-related risks.
Furthermore, we are steadily implementing standardization and systematization to improve the reliability of our tests and inspections of outgoing products.
