We hired national staff for the pivotal Human Resources & General Affairs, Finance, and Business Departments immediately after establishing the company. Along with the urgent task of hiring trainees (plant workers) who would be sent to Japan, we steadily took on national staff. A second Japanese employee on loan from Japan took up the post of vice president and factory manager in October of that year.
Our kind-hearted and talented national staff, whom we are confident are the best in not just China but also the world, constantly support the few Japanese staff on loan in terms of operations, of course, and with respect to our unfamiliarity with life in China. The vice president temporarily returned to Japan for surgery this spring and was met at the airport by more than 10 national staff volunteers when he returned to Hangzhou three weeks later. I was as overwhelmed by emotion as the vice president was when he accepted a bouquet that was presented to him in congratulations for his recovery.
Japanese and national staff mutually trust and respect each other and cooperate together for the benefit of HMOP's development, and our days are fulfilling. We await your visit.

Most of the plates that HMOP purchases are made by Chinese mills, primarily Baosteel Group Corporation and the Jiangsu Shagang Group, and a portion is imported from Kobe Steel, Ltd. The quality of the plates manufactured by Chinese mills has improved markedly in recent years, and the results are generally good aside from certain issues concerning flatness and surface scale. Distribution, however—particularly product handling—is proving to be a headache. The problem of products being bent and scratched by the rough handling of distribution companies is unending. When plates are delivered, they arrive dented by pebbles and gravel; sometimes, they even have straw and weeds stuck to them. This is why even plates imported from Japan are bent and scratched while being off-loaded from ships and transported within China. Naturally, steel manufacturers issue instructions and requests to distribution companies, but they are slow to make improvements. This is a source of concern to Japanese customers and, I think, will be an issue for Chinese steel manufacturers from now on.