President Trump announced on Friday what appeared to be a go-ahead for a long contemplated tie-up between U.S. Steel and its Japanese rival, Nippon Steel.
“This will be a planned partnership between United States Steel and Nippon Steel, which will create at least 70,000 jobs, and add $14 Billion Dollars to the U.S. Economy,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media. “The bulk of that Investment will occur in the next 14 months.”
No terms of the deal were included in Mr. Trump’s statement, nor was there an explanation for the numbers of new jobs he projected. U.S. Steel currently employs 22,000 people, about 14,000 of them in North America.
Nippon had sought to acquire U.S. Steel for $14 billion, but in January the Biden administration formally blocked the deal under national security grounds. The potential deal, and the idea that a prominent U.S. industrial giant would be acquired by a Japanese company, became an issue in last year’s presidential campaign and, at times, threatened to complicate U.S. trade relations with Japan.
Mr. Trump said in February that, while he opposed Nippon’s outright acquisition of U.S. Steel, he found the prospect of an investment “very exciting.”
Mr. Trump had said last year that U.S. Steel needed to remain American owned and operated, and it was not immediately clear whether the arrangement announced Friday would maintain that pledge. Mr. Trump’s post seemed to suggest an investment by Nippon rather than an outright acquisition, though the ownership structure of the deal was not clear.
A spokesperson for the White House declined to comment beyond Mr. Trump’s post. Representatives for U.S. Steel and Nippon did not immediately provide comment.
The United Steelworkers union has been adamantly opposed to a deal, arguing that American jobs would not be secure under Nippon Steel.
“We cannot speculate about the impact of today’s announcement without more information,” David McCall, the union president, said Friday. “Our concern remains that Nippon, a foreign corporation with a long and proven track record of violating our trade laws, will further erode domestic steel-making capacity and jeopardize thousands of good union jobs.”
Kim Ward, a high-ranking Republican state senator in Pennsylvania, applauded the news, posting on social media that the deal would “position the American steel industry to dominate the global marketplace through innovation.”
Mr. Trump said in his post that U.S. Steel would keep its headquarters in Pittsburgh.
Lauren Hirsch is a Times reporter who covers deals and dealmakers in Wall Street and Washington.
Alan Rappeport is an economic policy reporter for The Times, based in Washington. He covers the Treasury Department and writes about taxes, trade and fiscal matters.
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