Japanese company wants to complete acquisition by the end of the year
Nippon Steel considers the role played by US politics in the US Steel affair to be “inappropriate”, after Bloomberg News reported that President Joe Biden would have decided to formally block the proposed $14.1 billion acquisition for national security reasons, by the end of the month.
“It is inappropriate for politics to continue to prevail over true national security interests, especially when the essential alliance between the United States and Japan is an important basis for any agreement,” Nippon Steel said in a statement. The proposed deal is currently under review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), chaired by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, which is tasked with examining whether international transactions involving domestic businesses could have an adverse impact on national security of the country. The trial is expected to conclude at the end of December. The president-elect, Donald Trump, is of the same opinion – who has declared that he will block the agreement in line with his “America First” platform. Separately, Nippon Steel said it would pay $5,000 to each US Steel employee as a one-time “closing bonus” if the Japanese steelmaker is allowed to complete its acquisition of the American company. “We hope this award demonstrates Nippon Steel’s long-term commitment to sharing US Steel’s success, and providing a more secure future for employees, their families and communities,” Takahiro Mori, director, said in a statement. and vice president of Nippon Steel.
The shareholders of the American company have in the past supported the offer, which on paper aims to make the company more competitive on a global level, creating the third largest steel producer in the world by volume. The proposed merger, however, was opposed by the powerful United Steelworkers union, based in Pennsylvania, the key state in the presidential election. US Steel, founded in 1901, once a symbol of American economic competitiveness, has struggled to keep up with competition from foreign rivals, ranking 24th in 2023 globally, according to data from the World Steel Association.
