TOKYO -- Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal intends to hold talks on dividing the production assets of struggling Brazilian affiliate Usiminas with Ternium, a fellow shareholder with which the Japanese steelmaker disagrees over plans for turning the unit around.
Negotiations on a split could prove as tortured as other management issues, such as Usiminas' recent appointment of a new chief executive. But Nippon Steel is intent on overhauling the Brazilian steel producer's operations its own way, seeing them as an important foothold in Latin America.
