Bob Tita of The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. Steel warns of plant closings if the sale to Nippon Steel collapses. He writes:
U.S. Steel’s chief executive said the company would close steel mills if its planned sale to Nippon Steel 5401 -0.38%decrease; red down pointing triangle collapses, as the Biden administration is moving closer to blocking the deal.
CEO David Burritt said the nearly $3 billion that Japan-based Nippon Steel has pledged to invest in the Pittsburgh company’s older mills is critical to keeping them competitive and maintaining workers’ jobs.
“We wouldn’t do that if the deal falls through,” Burritt said in an interview. “I don’t have the money.”
President Biden, who earlier this year said that U.S. Steel should remain domestically owned and operated, is planning to block the deal, though the final signoff hasn’t yet happened, according to a person familiar with the matter. […]
U.S. Steel has been a corporate bedrock of Pittsburgh since 1901. The company said it accounts for 11,417 jobs directly and from service providers and suppliers in Pennsylvania, generating a combined $138.2 million a year in state and local taxes.
Nippon Steel executives have said that under their ownership, U.S. Steel would maintain its headquarters in Pittsburgh. That helped give Nippon an advantage over other bidders that already had corporate offices elsewhere in the U.S., Burritt said.
Nippon Steel’s offer of $55-a-share in cash for U.S. Steel’s stock edged out rival bidder Cleveland-Cliffs’ offer of cash and stock. U.S. Steel shareholders approved the Nippon Steel offer this spring.
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