Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd has introduced a tailored welded blank facility at SSC Kyushu Co. Ltd (location: Fukuoka; hereinafter KSSC), a coil center based in the Kyushu region that Sumitomo Metals operates in cooperation with Kanpoh Steel Co. Ltd, Sumitomo Corp., and Sumikin Bussan Corp. The facility entered operation on 1 October 2009. Tailored welded blanks (TWB) are a technology used to manufacture automobile parts by welding steel sheets with varied thickness and strength and then by forming into a part by only one blanking. The TWB technology enables to achieve both vehicle collision safety and the reduction of body weight, and contributes to automakers’ development of environmentally friendly vehicles. The TWB facility that recently entered operation at KSSC is a fiber laser system. As a result, there are now six TWB supply bases operated by Sumitomo Metals and Sumitomo Corp., which represents the largest TWB supply capacity in Japan.