President-elect Donald Trump’s comments Tuesday touting a UAE company’s planned $20 billion investment in U.S. data centers raise hopes for Japan’s Nippon Steel’s planned takeover of U.S. Steel. may evoke.
Trump has previously said he is not in favor of foreign companies taking ownership of major American steel companies, but experts say he has a history of changing his mind on certain political issues. I am doing it.
“This would not be the first time President Trump has reversed his position on a sensitive issue on which he has expressed strong views in the other direction,” said U.N. Council Distinguished Fellow and director of the Greenberg Center for Geoeconomics Research. said Matthew Goodman. diplomatic relations.
President Joe Biden last week invoked the Defense Production Act to block the sale, calling it a potential threat to national security.
“Oddly enough, I think the fact that Biden blocked this deal could force Trump to say, ‘Well, he did it, but I’m going to do the opposite,'” Goodman said. .
U.S. Steel CEO David Britt appealed to President Trump in an interview with NBC News on Tuesday, expressing hope for a change of heart, calling the president-elect a “smart guy” and saying, He asked for cooperation in “making it great again.”
Trump’s transition team declined to comment, referring TribLive to the president’s limited past statements on the issue.
Whether Trump can legally reverse Biden’s move is a separate matter and will likely depend on the outcome of two lawsuits filed by U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel after the president’s decision.
Some have accused the Biden administration of orchestrating a bogus national security review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, egging him on to block the deal and gain support from labor allies.
The other alleges that David McCall, president of United Steelworkers International, and Lorenco Goncalves, CEO of rival manufacturer Cleveland Cliffs, conspired to sink the deal on anticompetitive grounds, amounting to extortion. It is the act of doing.
Both companies asked the court to request a reexamination by the National Security Commission, including compensation for damages.
This is not the first lawsuit of this kind.
Related:
• Podcast: Biden blocks U.S. Steel sale, litigation continues.
• Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel file two lawsuits after Biden administration blocks $15 billion deal
• ‘Steel is all around us’: Pittsburghers reflect on region’s industrial belt after U.S. Steel deal blockade
• Devastated and mixed emotions among those involved in U.S. Steel sale after Biden’s block
• US Steel and Made in Japan say Biden’s decision to block the sale was ‘political’
• U.S. Steel deal scrapped, economic experts question future of Mon Valley steelmaking
• What they’re saying about it: U.S. steel and Japanese deals blocked.
A Chinese company sued the commission on similar grounds in 2014. The company ultimately settled out of court, but a ruling known as the Ralls decision gives foreign companies the right to due process in national security reviews, despite provisions of the Defense Production Act that protect the president’s powers. Established. Decision by judicial review.
Law firm partner Steven Heifetz said the committee would reconsider and pass its findings to President Trump if a similar ruling was reached in this latest case, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Wilson Sonsini, a national security expert, believes such a scenario is unlikely.
“I predict that the courts will say, ‘Hey, is it our role to second-guess the executive branch in these types of matters?'” And what exactly does a do-over mean? ” Heifetz said.
If another buyer emerges, the Trump administration could have a say in U.S. Steel’s future.
The Cleveland-Cliffs made a $7.3 billion offer for U.S. Steel in 2023, and Gonsalves said in a September statement that the company would “acquire any union-represented assets that U.S. Steel closes,” including the aging Mon Valley plant. And we are ready to invest.” It works.
Laura Hodges, a steel industry analyst at MEPS International, is unconvinced that Cleveland-Cliffs has the resources to make a realistic offer similar to Japan’s.
The Ohio-based manufacturer was the only one of the country’s four major steelmakers, including U.S. Steel, to post a loss in the third quarter of last year, and its acquisition of Canadian flat-rolled steel in November led to Reserves were further depleted, he noted. Acquired by steelmaker Stelco for $2.8 billion.
Cleveland-Cliffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hodges said the U.S. Steel acquisition would likely be subject to antitrust review by the Justice Department if the company were to scrape together the funds.
Jack Troy is a TribLive reporter covering the Freeport and Kiski area school districts and their communities. He also reports on Penn Hills city government. The Pittsburgh native joined the Tribe in January 2024 after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh. Please contact us at jtroy@triblive.com.
