Nippon Steel Corp and Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd will seek to combine under a new legal framework designed to make merger screenings faster and more transparent, the Nikkei business daily reported. The two steelmakers will call on the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) next month to apply the law to their planned merger -- likely to be the first major merger review under this framework, the paper said. The revised law, passed last month, on industrial revitalization is aimed at promoting large-scale consolidations and is slated to take effect in July, the daily reported. Currently, METI chiefs simply convey their opinions on merger proposals to the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC), which conducts the reviews, Nikkei said. But once the revision takes effect, the commission will have to respond to these opinions, the daily reported.
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