With about 40 days until President-elect Donald Trump takes office, President Joe Biden is expected to block a Japanese company’s acquisition of U.S. Steel.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Biden plans to block the $1.4 billion sale. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States panel must refer its decision to Biden by Dec. 22 or 23, according to Bloomberg.
If CFIUS finds national security risks with the deal, members could either negotiate mitigation terms between the two parties or recommend the president block the deal, Sarah Bauerle Danzman, an associate professor of international studies at Indiana University-Bloomington, told the Post-Tribune.
Biden had shared in March that he opposed the sale, and Trump had vowed during his campaign that he would block the deal.
“U.S. Steel has been an iconic American steel company for more than a century, and it is vital for it to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated,” Biden said in a March statement.
In December 2023, it was announced that Nippon Steel would acquire the American company, according to U.S. Steel’s website. If the deal passed, Nippon Steel plans to invest about $300 million into the local Gary Works facility, which would’ve been invested into the blast furnace.
Gary Mayor Eddie Melton in a Dec. 3 statement said that he supports the deal because Nippon has committed to modernizing U.S. Steel’s plants, relining the blast furnaces and deploying modern technology. Nippon also planned to maintain current union employment levels and honor the bargaining agreement with United Steelworkers.
“The CEO of U.S. Steel has stated publicly that there will be plant closures should this deal fail,” Melton said. “This will clearly hurt communities like Gary, who hosts the most productive plant in the U.S. portfolio.”
Melton and Takahiro Mori, vice chairman of Nippon Steel, on Thursday are set to host a news conference at Gary City Hall, according to a Tuesday news release.
In a Dec. 3 statement, a U.S. Steel spokesman said the deal provides the brightest future for the American steel company. The spokesman didn’t address whether they believed Biden would approve the deal before Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
Nippon Steel planned to preserve U.S. Steel as an American company and keep it headquartered in Pennsylvania, the statement said. The Japanese company planned to invest nearly $3 billion into its union-represented facilities.
U.S. Steel employs about 4,500 steelworkers at both Gary Works and its Midwest plant in Portage.
“The transaction should be approved on its merits,” U.S. Steel’s statement said. “The benefits are overwhelmingly clear. Our communities, customers, investors and employees strongly support this transaction, and we will continue to advocate for them and adherence to the rule of law.”
mwilkins@chicagotribune.com