Posted on 01/03/2025 8:06:28 AM PST by dennisw
President Joe Biden on Friday moved to block the multi-billion-dollar sale of US Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel, citing national security concerns.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the US has been reviewing the $14.1 billion deal on whether it poses security risks for months. On Dec. 23, CFIUS said it was at a standstill, leaving the issue up to Biden.
The president’s decision is a major use of executive power on a heavily-politicized election year issue. His announcement comes with just over two weeks left in his term. President-elect Donald Trump had vowed to crush the deal when he returns to office for his second term.
US Steel shares plunged 8% premarket on Friday. US Steel did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Nippon declined to comment.
CFIUS had reached a stalemate on its review of the deal on concerns that Nippon’s large size and overseas mills might threaten US Steel’s own output, according to correspondence between the committee and Nippon Steel viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Japan evidently hasn’t given Biden enough grift money like China has.
Thank God. He did one decent thing before he left.
I usually have an opinion about most things. Here, I am agnostic. I’m interested in the view of Freepers, especially any that have personal knowledge of the steel industry.
UnAmerican Dems sat on their azz and did nothing. But once Trump said he would kill this Big Steel sellout deal, the Dems decided to steal the credit.
Potato Joe was out of the decision loop. He just had to say some words off a teleprompter, and not screw that up.
They got this one right, probably for the wrong reasons.
No more can you call him Tokyo Joe.
Meanwhile, South Korea is in chaos. Spurred on by pro-CCP politicians. Since year 2000, Korea has been trading more and more with China, than with the USA. This gap only gets wider every year.
This crucial China trade allows CCP to extend its influence and reach, to subvert the Korean government. To make it more CCP compliant.
After he cripples them with higher energy expenses.
“I’m interested in the view of Freepers, especially any that have personal knowledge of the steel industry.”
This will now be the decision of President Trump. He will make the right decision. I as you do not know the right decision.
Why should we care whether the fatcats who own the company are American or Japanese? What matters is where the factories are located.
Having said that, I’d say this whole story is a lot of overblown nonsense. I thought for sure that Biden would cave on this and approve the sale. That’s because the unanimous opposition by both Biden and Trump to the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon was nothing more than political grandstanding designed to curry favor with Pennsylvania voters.
Nobody was complaining about foreign ownership in the steel industry when German steel giant ThyssenKrupp AG spent $4.6 billion to build a new steel plant in Alabama in 2010, or when they sold it off a few years later to a joint venture of Nippon (Japan) and ArcelorMittal (UK).
Wait. Biden did something sane on the way out?
China threatened Biden or else...crimes exposed.
What matters is that the new owners would be Japanese and NOT CHINESE!!!!!!
Brandon’s record of being on the WRONG SIDE of decisions for the last 50+ years is still intact.
So after outsource vital US defense tech to China suppliers for the last 4 year NOW Biden want to protect US National Instrests”?
That the whole Biden legacy in a nut shell. Since he came to DC in 1972 he never saw an ally he would not abandon or a enemy he would not appease.
It became a campaign issue. We need a strong and prosperous Japan to counter the PRC. My prediction is that Trump will negotiate some more concessions from NS and permit the transaction to go forward eventually.
Exactly
Apparently a lot of people do not understand that for a foreign business to operate in the US that have to have a US subsidiary to run the business.
You want allies to invest in your infrastructure to keep the jobs and facilities IN THE US. Now it will probably go under and be outsourced to China.
Trump should reverse, not just for the companies but for the steel workers. Their steel workers union - against the meger - is not working in the interest of its members. Lack of the merger will likely result in a single American big steel company, which the steel workers union would love to see - less room for the company to negotiate.
Without the merger, no new industrial blood will be brought to American big steek production, the winners will be foreign steel makers and their workers (even with tariffs) and the losers will be American steel workers. Many steel workers union members know this and are saying it.
Someone should find out who’s doing this Insanity because Biden is not doing this crap
This is how the CCP will take Taiwan, in my opinion. It will take years or even decades, but they have always played the long game.
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