Though state and federal lawmakers continue to oppose the sale of U.S. Steel to a Japanese company, a Pennsylvania trade group says the foreign investment would be a boon to the region.
Former President Donald Trump last week renewed a pledge to block a merger between Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel if reelected. The comment, which Trump made during an economy-themed appearance in York, drew the ire of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association.
David Taylor, the group’s president and CEO, was in attendance for the speech. He said Japan is one of the U.S.’s closest allies and called Trump’s remarks “wrong-headed.”
“Nippon Steel essentially wants to be an American company,” he said, adding a Nippon representative has said the $14 billion deal would help the firm bid on domestic infrastructure projects. The acquisition, which Nippon has said would bring its North American headquarters from Texas to Pittsburgh, is still under review by a federal agency, the same one investigating TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
Taylor said the interest from a Japanese company shows “mutual strength on the part of our two countries… and so I just think that to dismiss this out of nativism is a mistake. Pittsburgh will hurt if this deal doesn't go through.”
Opposition to Nippon’s purchase appears to be bipartisan: President Joe Biden has also spoken against it, as have other Democrats. The party's presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, has yet to weigh in on the deal.
The United Steelworkers union, which has endorsed Harris, said last year they’d support the sale of U.S. Steel to Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs. The union opposes the merger with Nippon, saying it prioritizes shareholder profits. The USW also cites national security concerns and the potential for job cuts.
The Japanese firm has pledged to honor existing collective bargaining agreements, but the USW has said those promises aren’t reassuring.
If a Cleveland-Cliffs offer is accepted, Taylor said, Pittsburgh likely loses out on its connection with an iconic American company.
“They'd lower the flag and play ‘Taps,’” he said, “and U.S. Steel would simply cease to be.”
In his Aug. 19 speech, Trump focused on immigration, domestic energy production and the economy before referring to the U.S. Steel buyout.
“We have a foreign country that wants to purchase one of our greatest — if you go back 70 years — one of our greatest companies by far,” Trump said. The company was founded in 1901 and at one point was the largest employer in the country.
Allegheny County GOP Chair Sam DeMarco also expressed disappointment in Trump’s position, saying he worried that without investment in western Pennsylvania, the steel industry would lose more jobs.
Nippon leaders have said the company could improve U.S. Steel's Mon Valley facilities to make them more efficient and more environmentally compliant, Taylor added. The Pittsburgh-based company recently unveiled an electric arc furnace in Arkansas. And Nippon recently invested billions into similar electric and hydrogen-based steel tech, considered safer and cleaner than traditional blast furnaces.
The Japanese company already owns several U.S. companies, including Standard Steel in Burnham, Pa. and others in West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Alabama and Washington.
