Rio Tinto and Japan
Japan is an important strategic market for Rio Tinto as a customer, supplier
and business and innovation partner. We are the largest supplier of raw
materials to Japan and are proud to have been supporting Japanese industry
for over 50 years. 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of Rio Tinto’s first
shipment of iron ore from the Pilbara region in Western Australia to Japan;
the Japanese steel mills underwrote the development of our first iron ore
mines in the 1960s and without Japan we would not have the business we
do today.
Rio Tinto
Japan’s
office in
Tokyo has 26
employees
who handle
all aspects of
Rio Tinto’s
business
with Japan
A long history
Rio Tinto has long-standing, strong relationships
with our Japanese business partners and is proud
to have supported Japanese industry for more
than 50 years.
Rio Tinto-related entities have been doing
business with Japan since at least 1961 with
Comalco’s first trial shipment of bauxite from
Australia to Japan; RTZ Japan was established in
1966, and the various entities came together as
RTZ-CRA Japan in 1996, which then in 1997
became Rio Tinto Japan.
The Japanese steel mills underwrote the
development of Rio Tinto’s iron ore operations in
the Pilbara, Western Australian in the 1960s
through long-term offtake contracts, which were
the largest sales contracts written in Australia at
the time. 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the
first shipment of iron ore from Rio Tinto’s first
mine in the Pilbara, Mount Tom Price, to Japan, in
August 1966.
April 2016
First official train departing Tom Price, 1966
Houn Maru being loaded with first contracted
iron ore at Dampier port, 1966
Page 1
An important customer
In 2015 Rio Tinto sold $4.1 billion worth of products into Japan, representing 11.2% of global revenue. As
well as being Japan’s largest iron ore supplier, Rio Tinto’s sales today span the breadth of our product
groups: aluminium, thermal and coking coal, copper, molybdenum, industrial minerals, uranium and
diamonds.
Rio Tinto supplies to over 100 Japanese customers, including steel mills, power utilities, trading
companies, manufacturers, and chemical companies. Japanese steel mill Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal
Corporation is the Rio Tinto Group’s largest customer globally.
Iron Ore
Copper
Rio Tinto is the largest
supplier of iron ore to Japan,
selling to all four of Japan’s
integrated steel mills. The vast
majority of sales are from the
Pilbara, although Japan also
imports smaller quantities
from Rio Tinto’s majority-owned Canadian operation,
Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC). Nippon Steel &
Sumitomo Metal Corporation and Mitsui & Co. are also
partners with Rio Tinto in Pilbara operations while
Mitsubishi Corp. is a partner in IOC.
Rio Tinto has been
supplying Japan with
copper since the 1970s. The
Japan Bank for
International Cooperation
(JBIC) and Japanese lenders have provided several
project finance facilities to the Escondida copper mine in
Chile, in which Rio Tinto owns 30 per cent, including
US$600 million in project finance in 2012 to support a
US$1.02 billion expansion project.
Coal
Kennecott Utah Copper molybdenum is sold to Japanese
customers through Mitsubishi Corporation, our
distributor and business partner. Japan has historically
been the third largest market for Kennecott Moly after
North America and Europe.
Rio Tinto sells coal from its
Australian operations to
Japan: both thermal coal
for power utilities, and
coking coal, an essential
ingredient in the steel
production process. A
number of Japanese companies are joint venture
partners in Rio Tinto’s coal operations.
Molybdenum
Diamonds & Minerals
Japan is a major market for Rio
Tinto’s industrial minerals
portfolio, including titanium
dioxide for paint, paper, plastics
and titanium metal; metal
Aluminium
powders and high purity iron for
Japan imports all of its
automotive castings; zircon for
primary aluminium
specialty refractories, glass and ceramics;
requirements, and is a major salt for industrial chemicals; and borates
investor in overseas
for insulation fibreglass and the glass
operations because there are used in smartphone, tablet and TC
no domestic smelters in
screens.
Japan. Rio Tinto is one of Japan’s largest suppliers of
Japan also routinely figures as one of the
aluminium, mainly from its smelters in New Zealand
top three customers by value for Rio
(NZAS) and Canada (Kitimat), as well as Australia.
Japanese companies are joint venture partners in NZAS, Tinto’s Argyle Pink Diamonds.
BSL and Gladstone.
Fun Fact: The pink diamond jewellery phenomenon
Uranium
started in Japan in the late 1980s when Japanese
designers were bold enough to embrace Argyle’s pink
Rio Tinto is the longest supplier of uranium to Japan,
diamonds and incorporate them in beautiful and
through its Rössing and ERA mines.
innovative designs
April 2016
Page 2
Supporting the supply chain
Japanese suppliers make a vital contribution right across Rio Tinto’s global supply chain, as they have
done since the earliest days of the Pilbara operations. In 2014, Rio Tinto procured approximately $1.3BN
in various machinery, equipment, products and services from Japanese suppliers.
Rio Tinto’s operations use haul trucks and wheel loaders from Komatsu; excavators and
haul trucks from Hitachi Construction Machinery; OTR tires and conveyer belts from
Bridgestone; gas turbines from IHI; high voltage transformers from Fuji Electric; a fleet
of 5000 light vehicles from Toyota.
Two Japanese steel mills, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation and JFE Steel,
supply all of the steel for Rio Tinto’s 1700 km railway in the Pilbara region in Australia.,
while Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation also supplies some rail steel to our
Canadian iron ore operations.
Japanese-built vessels from Namura and Oshima are part of the Rio Tinto marine fleet,
and Rio Tinto often uses Japanese shipping owners/operators such as MOL, NYK,
Kawasaki, Daiichi and Santoku for the seaborne trade. Niigata Power Systems supplies
tug boat propulsion systems.
Rio Tinto also procures caustic soda from Tosoh.
A virtuous cycle: Iron ore journeys from Rio Tinto’s mines to Japan, to be
forged into steel. This steel is then transformed into buildings and bridges
and cars, with the help of Japanese innovation and expertise But the
steel also finds its way back to the mines as haul trucks, excavators, tires,
rail, ships and more, to mine and transport more iron ore back to Japan.
Thus the cycle continues.
15
Japanese
companies
are
joint
venture
partners
19
Innovation partners
Strategic innovation partnerships with Japanese companies continue to deliver enhanced
safety and efficiency throughout our operations.
Our Mine of the Future™ program is supported by Japanese technology (for example,
autonomous / driverless technology from our partnership with Komatsu) and approaches
to business improvement (e.g. “Kaizen”, lean). AutoHaul® technology used in the Pilbara is
supplied by Ansaldo STS, which is now under the Hitachi Limited umbrella.
in
of
Rio Tinto’s
operations
and projects
around the
world
(L to R) Autonomous Haulage System driverless truck on site in the Pilbara; Control room at Operation
Centre in Perth; AutoHaul® driverless train in the Pilbara
April 2016
Page 3
A historic visit
In July 2014 Rio Tinto was honoured to welcome Japanese Prime Minister Abe together with thenAustralian Prime Minister Abbott to our West Angelas Iron Ore Mine in the Pilbara, Western Australia,
which is part of the Robe River Joint Venture with Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC)
and Mitsui & Co. This was the first time a Japanese Prime Minister had visited a Rio Tinto mine.
(L to R) Rio Tinto CEO Sam Walsh, Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe, then-Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott,
Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Andrew Harding
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at West Angelas Mine
Contributing to the community
Rio Tinto is committed to supporting the Tohoku region of Japan, which
was devastated by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and
Tsunami. In May 2011, we established a JPY 400 million, 10-year
scholarship with Komatsu for students at Tohoku University who would
not have been able to continue their studies otherwise.
We also support the organization “ARTS for HOPE” which helps children
and others in Tohoku overcome the trauma of the disaster through arts
activities, through donations and volunteering by RTJ employees.
In summer 2015, Rio Tinto collaborated with several Japanese partners to host an exhibit at the 23rd
World Scout Jamboree held in Yamaguchi Prefecture, “From the Earth to My Life”, to help educate these
future leaders about the importance of natural resources in our daily lives. The exhibit showcased
important minerals (iron ore, bauxite and copper) that are transformed into the steel, aluminium and
copper metal that are further processed to become an automobile.
Above: Children at ARTS for
HOPE summer camp
Far Left: View of the “From
the Earth to My Life” exhibit
at the 23rd World Scout
Jamboree
Near Left: Scouts check out
the amount of steel needed
to build a 4WD vehicle
April 2016
Page 4