Biden Blocks Japanese Acquisition of U.S. Steel

President Joe Biden has blocked an attempt by the Japanese company Nippon Steel to acquire Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel for $15 billion dollars. 

“This acquisition would place one of America’s largest steel producers under foreign control and create risk for our national security and our critical supply chains,” Biden said Friday morning. “That is why I am taking action to block this deal. It is my solemn responsibility as President to ensure that, now and long into the future, America has a strong domestically owned and operated steel industry that can continue to power our national sources of strength at home and abroad.”

Both Biden and President-elect Donald Trump expressed their opposition to the deal during the 2024 presidential campaign. Biden said in March that “U.S. Steel has been an iconic American steel company for more than a century, and it is vital for it to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated.” Trump asserted in December that “Through a series of Tax Incentives and Tariffs, we will make U.S. Steel Strong and Great Again, and it will happen FAST!”

The decision by the president to block the deal is a victory for American union workers and advocates for domestic industry, who argued that maintaining U.S. Steel as an American-owned company was a matter of national security. Supporters of the deal argued that the purchase would result in the modernization of U.S. Steel–owned plants and increased competitiveness for American steel production.