sumitomo's strategy focused on natural resources through 2014, when the company booked hundreds of billions of yen in losses on tight oil (shale oil) and other energy-related investments. the company's president, kuniharu nakamura, attributed these losses to both adverse market factors and sumitomo's relative inexperience in the field. as a result of these setbacks, sumitomo was overtaken by itochu as japan's third-largest general trading company. sumitomo announced in 2015 that it would refocus its business on the automotive and infrastructure industries and other non-resource businesses.