The bid by Japan's Nippon Steel to buy US Steel may have a new lease on life after the Biden Administration extended a deadline for the Japanese steelmaker to abandon plans to acquire the storied Pittsburgh company after President Joe Biden blocked the deal.
The new deadline, now in mid-June, was viewed by US Steel — and investors — as an opportunity for the companies to complete the acquisition, even though President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office in a week, also opposes the deal.
Biden nixed the acquisition this month citing a potential threat to national security, though the US Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS, failed to reach a consensus on the security issue.
“We are pleased that CFIUS has granted an extension to June 18, 2025 of the requirement in President Biden's Executive Order that the parties permanently abandon the transaction," US Steel said in a statement Sunday. "We look forward to completing the transaction, which secures the best future for the American steel industry and all our stakeholders.” Shares of US Steel rose almost 7 per cent when markets opened Monday.
The proposed deal kicked up an election year political maelstrom across America's industrial heartland and quickly drew vows by Biden and Trump from the campaign trail in a critical battleground state to block the deal.
Even after the election, Trump wrote on social media in December that he is “totally against” US Steel being bought by a foreign company and said he would block the deal as president. He reiterated that stance this month after it was blocked by Biden.
However, a CFIUS composed of Trump appointees and Trump himself may be free to allow the deal to go through, or negotiate new terms.
Dennis Unkovic, a Pittsburgh lawyer who works on international business transactions, including deals in which CFIUS approval was required, said a new CFIUS and a new president are not legally bound by Biden's decision.
CFIUS giving the parties an extra six months to unwind the deal is unusual, Unkovic said. It wasn't immediately clear why CFIUS extended the deadline, but Unkovic pointed to reports that Biden's CFIUS was divided over whether it was a security threat.
“Extending this from the 30 days to the 180 days was a sign that there were people in the Biden administration that would like somebody to take a second look at this,” Unkovic said.
CFIUS' job is to see if there are workarounds or modifications to a deal to allow it to go through, and rarely is a deal turned down, Unkovic said. After CFIUS takes another look at it, it could still be up to Trump to decide.
“Now how he comes down on it, who knows?” Unkovic said.
Nippon Steel and US Steel have insisted that the deal presents no national security problem for the US, said Biden's decision to block it was a violation of legal due process and a political calculation.
The two steel companies sued in federal court three days after Biden announcement and accused the head of the Steelworkers union and a rival steelmaker of working together to scuttle the buyout in a separate lawsuit.
The United Steelworkers have opposed the deal, concerned over whether the company would honor existing labor agreements or slash jobs, and questioned Nippon Steel's status as an honest broker for US national trade interests.
However, some union members have come out in favour of the deal. Nippon Steel — the world's fourth-largest steelmaker — says its ability to invest in US Steel's aging blast furnace plants in Pennsylvania and Indiana will boost the ability of the US to compete in an industry dominated by China.
US Steel has warned that, without Nippon Steel's cash, it will shift production away from the blast furnaces to cheaper non-union electric arc furnaces and move its headquarters out of Pittsburgh.
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