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NIPPON STEEL Chemical & Material is the chemicals and advanced-materials arm of the Nippon Steel group. It combines aromatic chemistry, which comes from the coal tar that steelmaking leaves behind, with precision-metal technologies: ultra-thin foil, fine wire and micro-particles. Its consolidated sales of about JPY 260–275 billion come from three reporting segments: Coal Chemicals, Chemicals and Functional Materials. Functional Materials is now the largest and fastest-growing segment, at 44.6% of FY2025 sales. For the semiconductor supply chain, the most important asset is Nippon Micrometal. NMC commercialised the world's first practical palladium-coated copper (PCC) bonding wire, the EX1, and is consistently ranked among the top five bonding-wire makers worldwide. Other semiconductor-adjacent businesses include micro solder balls, spherical silica and alumina fillers for epoxy mould compounds, adhesive-free flexible copper-clad laminates (Espanex), low-dielectric vinyl resins for high-speed server and AI boards, and OLED and LCD display materials. Under Nippon Steel's 2030 Mid-Term Management Plan, the company is the core of the parent's non-steel segment. Its targets are a company-wide ROS above 10% and substantial profit growth to FY2030. --- **What the company does.** NSCM makes and sells three groups of products: **Coal chemicals:** Products made from coal tar and light oil recovered from Nippon Steel's coke ovens: pitch coke, needle coke, pitch, carbon black feedstock oil, 95% naphthalene, phthalic anhydride, carbon black and industrial gases (hydrogen, argon, oxygen, nitrogen). **Basic and specialty chemicals:** Styrene monomer (through NS Styrene Monomer Co., Ltd.), benzene, toluene, xylene, methanol, divinylbenzene, cyclohexane, specialty solvents, ammonium sulphate, lubricants and lubricant condition monitoring. Bisphenol A was also made until the Kyushu plant was suspended. **Functional materials:** Circuit-board materials (Espanex adhesive-free FCCL, functional resins including low-dielectric vinyl resins and epoxy resins), LCD and OLED display materials, UV- and thermosetting resin materials, rolled metal foil, metal carriers for exhaust catalysts, spherical silica and alumina micro-particles, semiconductor interconnect materials (bonding wire and micro solder balls through Nippon Micrometal), pitch-based carbon fibre (Nippon Graphite Fiber), carbon-fibre composites such as TEPreg and NS-TEPreg, and porous carbon (MCND) used as a fuel-cell catalyst support. **Company's own description.** NSCM describes its mission as "Mastering materials, opening the future" (素材を極め、未来を拓く). Its basic principle is "For Your Dream & Happiness": to support society and enrich the world through highly distinctive businesses. The company says the 2018 integration was meant to strengthen the core coal chemicals and chemicals businesses. It also aimed to fuse Nippon Steel & Sumikin Chemical's synthesis, purification and formulation know-how with Nippon Steel & Sumikin Materials' thin-foil, fine-wire and fine-particle technologies, so that the group could serve customers as a comprehensive materials supplier. **Independent characterisation.** NSCM is best understood as two businesses under one corporate shell: 1. **A cyclical, by-product commodity chemicals business** (Coal Chemicals and Chemicals). Its earnings depend on naphtha and aromatics spreads, carbon black and needle-coke demand, and the parent's coke-oven throughput. It made up 55% of FY2025 sales, down from 77% in FY2022. It has been the focus of capacity rationalisation: the Kashima Works was suspended, Kyushu bisphenol A production was halted, and the NS Epoxy Mita plant was closed. 2. **A portfolio of niche, high-share electronic and advanced materials** (Functional Materials). Many of its products are, in the company's words, "only-one" businesses. Demand is now driven by semiconductors, AI data centres, high-speed communications, displays and automotive electrification. This segment grew from JPY 77.0 billion in FY2020 to JPY 115.0 billion in FY2025. It is the main reason underlying profit roughly doubled between FY2023 and FY2025. **Business and revenue model.** Almost all revenue comes from selling products under supply agreements and spot orders. Over time NSCM has also licensed intellectual property, most notably the EX1 copper bonding-wire patents licensed to Tanaka Denshi Kogyo in 2011 and Heraeus in 2012. Royalty income is not reported separately. NSCM sells no subscription or software products. **Value-chain position.** **Upstream:** Coal tar, crude benzene and coke-oven gas by-products from Nippon Steel's steelworks; naphtha-derived aromatics; and precious and base metals (gold, silver, palladium, copper, aluminium) for bonding wire. **Midstream (NSCM):** Distillation, synthesis, polymerisation, fine-wire drawing and coating, foil rolling and particle spheroidisation. **Downstream customers:** OSATs and IDMs (bonding wire, solder balls); epoxy mould compound makers (fillers); FPC and CCL laminators and PCB fabricators (Espanex, low-Dk resins); display panel makers (OLED and LCD materials); tyre and rubber makers (carbon black); graphite-electrode and anode producers (needle coke); styrenics and resin producers (styrene monomer, DVB); automotive Tier-1s (metal carriers, composites); and fuel-cell vehicle makers (MCND). **End markets.** Semiconductors and electronics, AI and data centres, high-speed communications (5G and beyond), smartphones and PCs, displays, automotive (exhaust treatment, fuel cells, power devices, battery modules), steel and electrodes, tyres and rubber, infrastructure repair (carbon-fibre sheet reinforcement of tunnels and bridges), aerospace (satellite films) and general chemicals. **Nippon Micrometal in detail.** NMC develops, makes and sells semiconductor interconnect materials. It is one of the few companies that make both bonding wire and solder micro-balls. Its bonding-wire range covers copper (including PCC, the EX series), silver, gold and aluminium wire. NMC says it was the first company in the world to mass-produce palladium-coated copper bonding wire as a substitute for gold. It operates the Iruma plant and the Yorii works in Saitama, a manufacturing plant in Batangas (Philippines), a manufacturing affiliate in Hangzhou (China) and a sales company in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). Its stated new-market goals are power devices and automotive applications, beyond its traditional LSI and memory packaging customers. The aluminium wire NL1 targets power modules and lithium-ion battery-module interconnects. Wantstats' Bonding Wire and Copper Pillars research names NMC as a participant. NMC's publicly disclosed portfolio is bonding wire and micro solder balls; it has not publicly disclosed a copper-pillar bump product line.