Japan's Nippon Steel said on Thursday that it had extended the closing period for its planned purchase of U.S. Steel, worth nearly $15 billion. The company expressed confidence that the acquisition will protect and grow the American company despite the impasse in the United States.
The estimated closing date was revised to the first quarter of 2025 from the third or fourth quarter of 2024 previously, a Reuters report said.
On Monday, a U.S. foreign investment committee referred the decision whether to approve or block the deal to U.S. President Joe Biden, who has 15 days to decide.
A powerful government panel, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., known as CFIUS, after failing to reach a consensus on the deal, sent its long-awaited report on the merger to Biden, who formally came out against the deal in March.
Biden and his incoming successor, Donald Trump, have both expressed opposition to the purchase.
"Nippon Steel hopes that the President will use this time to conduct a fair and fact-based evaluation of the acquisition. We remain confident that the acquisition will protect and grow U.S. Steel," Nippon Steel said on Thursday.
It added that the review process of the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) was also underway, without specifying when it may end.
Under the terms of the proposed $14.9 billion all-cash deal, U.S. Steel would keep its name and its headquarters in Pittsburgh, where it was founded in 1901 by J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie. It would become a subsidiary of Nippon Steel, and the combined company would be among the top three steelmakers in the world, according to 2023 figures from the World Steel Association.
Biden, backed by the United Steelworkers, said earlier this year that it was “vital for (U.S. Steel) to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated.”
Trump has also opposed the acquisition and vowed earlier this month on his Truth Social platform to “block this deal from happening.” He proposed reviving U.S. Steel’s flagging fortunes “through a series of Tax Incentives and Tariffs.”
The steelworkers' union questions whether Nippon Steel would keep jobs at unionized plants, make good on collectively bargained benefits and protect American steel production from cheap imports.
“Our union has been calling for strict government scrutiny of the sale since it was announced. Now it’s up to President Biden to determine the best path forward,” David McCall, the steelworkers’ President, said in a statement Monday. “We continue to believe that means keeping U.S. Steel domestically owned and operated.”
Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel have waged a public relations campaign to win over skeptics.
U.S. Steel said in a statement Monday that the deal “is the best way, by far, to ensure that U.S. Steel, including its employees, communities and customers, will thrive well into the future.”
Nippon Steel said Tuesday that it had been informed by CFIUS that it had referred the case to Biden and urged him to “reflect on the great lengths that we have gone to address any national security concerns that have been raised and the significant commitments we have made to grow U. S. Steel, protect American jobs and strengthen the entire American steel industry, which will enhance American national security.”
“We are confident that our transaction should and will be approved if it is fairly evaluated on its merits,” it said in a statement.
