Iconic US Steel now 100% owned by Japan’s Nippon Steel, despite past Trump opposition
Steel coils at the US Steel Irvin Works facility in West Mifflin
By Chris Isidore, CNN
(CNN) — Nippon Steel has finalized its deal to buy 100% of US Steel, the iconic steelmaker that was once the world’s most valuable company and a cornerstone of American industrial might.
The companies announced Wednesday that the two had completed the partnership. Under the terms of the deal, Nippon will buy US steel for $55 per share, a 40% premium on the share price when the deal was announced in December 2023 at $14.9 billion. The company will also retain its name and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania headquarters.
But while Nippon is buying the entirety of US Steel, under the final deal the US government will gain a say in many key decisions on how the company is run. That includes giving President Donald Trump veto power over any decision to idle plants, reduce production or staffing levels.
Despite the terms disclosed Tuesday, the acquisition comes despite Trump’s past opposition the deal, saying he would only allow it because it was an “investment” by Nippon, not an outright purchase.
“It’s an investment, and it’ll be a partial ownership (by Nippon),” Trump said last month, days after announcing he would approve the deal. “It will be controlled by the United States, otherwise I wouldn’t make the deal.”
The deal was previously blocked by President Joe Biden in his final weeks in office, citing national security grounds, and it was opposed by Trump when he was on the campaign trail. But once Trump took office, he said Nippon improved the deal and promised additional investment totaling $14 billion in the company’s facilities, although only $11 billion in investment through 2028 is in the agreement Nippon and US Steel signed with the US government.
At a rally at US Steel facility outside of Pittsburgh a week after saying he would allow the deal, Trump told a crowd of cheering steelworkers that it would be a good one for them.
“They kept asking me over and over, and I kept rejecting it, no way, no way, no way,” he said. “The deal got better and better and better for the workers,” Trump said. “I’m going to be watching over it. It’s going to be great.”
Trump went on to say that US would keep its blast furnaces operating at full capacity for at least the next decade, and there would be “no layoffs and no outsourcing whatsoever.”
But while some local union officials were at the rally and praised the deal, the United Steelworkers union continued to oppose it. In a statement Sunday it questioned the promises and protections that the deal provides, even with Trump and future presidents having veto power over some moves.
“Perhaps the historic “USS” logo will remain, but it seems it will be no more than a smoke screen to allow a wholly-owned privately held subsidiary of a Japanese corporation to be called ‘American.’”
US Steel was once a symbol of American industrial dominance. It was the most valuable company in the world and the first to be worth $1 billion, soon after its creation in 1901. It was also crucial to the US economy throughout much of the 20th century providing the steel needed to build cars, appliances, bridges and skyscrapers, as well as weapons that helped win War War II.
But it has suffered through decades of decline since its post-World War II height. It is no longer even the largest US steelmaker, and a relatively minor employer, with 14,000 US employees — 11,000 of whom are members of the USW.
This is story has been updated with additional reporting and context.
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