A Japan firm’s move from steel plates to fancy phone screens

A customer holds an Apple Inc. iPhone X smartphone during the sales launch at a store in New York, U.S., on Friday, Nov. 3, 2017. The $1,000 price tag on Apple Inc.'s new iPhone X didn't deter throngs of enthusiasts around the world who waited -- sometimes overnight -- in long lines with no guarantee they would walk out of the store with one of the coveted devices. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

It calls itself a steelmaker, but don’t be misled by the name. 

Japan Steel Works Ltd is no longer just the old-world metals firm that it started life as more than a century ago. These days, the Tokyo-based company is more a technology play, supplying machinery to the makers of everything from high-end phone screens to lithium-ion batteries. So much so, in fact, that the steel and energy products business makes up less than a quarter of sales.