A further joint venture was entered into with Tamsa, in Mexico, and a controlling stake was purchased in Sidor (the leading steelmaker in Venezuela) in 1998, Confab (Brazil), in 1999, and in NKK (Japan), in 2000, making it the first Japanese steel company in foreign majority ownership.
Sidor Belarsky, born Isidor Livshitz (February 12, 1898 – June 7, 1975), was a Ukrainian-American singer born to a Jewish family in Kryzhopol, Ukraine.