Nippon Steel and US Steel said on Wednesday that they had put the finishing touches on their “historical partnership”, a deal that gives the US government an opinion on some matters and comes for a year and a half after the Japanese company suggested for the first time its purchase of $ 15 billion to the iconic American steel maker.
Permanent before Nippon steel For the company that is based in Pittsburgh, it is equipped with national security concerns Presidential policy In the state of the battlefield, pulled the treatment for more than a year after the US shareholders agreed to this.
Nippon Steel was also forced to expand the deal, including adding A. The so -called “golden participation” This gives the federal government the authority to appoint a member of the Board of Directors and say in the decisions of the company that affects local steel production and competing with producers abroad.
The companies said: “Nippon Steel and US Steel will become steel globally, with the best technologies and manufacturing capabilities in its class.”
The joint company will become the fourth largest Follower in the world in a Chinese -dominated industry, and brings what analysts say is the first -class Nipon Steel technology for the old steel industry in the United States, as well as an obligation to invest $ 11 billion to upgrade US steel facilities.
On the other hand, Nippon Steel is getting a strong market for the United States, and in recent years is enhanced by the customs tariff during President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden, analysts say.
Anthony Raba, the empty lawyer of Rome in Washington, who advises companies in trade, operations and investments, said that the government’s interference in the Niabon Steel Steel deal is another sign that the United States is increasingly equivalent to national security.
He does not see that the government’s intervention is a chilling foreign investment and said that the mechanism of a “golden share” – to the extent that the United States uses again to alleviate national security fears – is likely to appear only in sensitive and complex cases.
However, this episode may make investors more strategic in how they deal with transactions.
Anil Khourana, Executive Director of the BArata International Business Center at Georgetown University, said that the US government’s interest in the deal is a sign of the increasing importance it places in economic competition with China.
Khourana said: “It is clear that the definition of national security has expanded to include national economic security, and it is the place that I think this comes.”
Nippon Steel and US Steel did not issue a copy of The National Security Agreement struck With the Trump administration.
But in a statement on Wednesday, companies said that the federal government will have the right to appoint an independent manager and obtain “approval rights” in specific issues.
These cuts include capital obligations in Nippon Steel in the National Security Agreement; Change the name and headquarters of the steel; Close or infection of American steel plant; Transfer production or jobs outside the United States; Buy competing companies in the United States; And some decisions related to trade, work and sources outside the United States
Nippon steel In December 2023 it announced that it had planned to buy a steel product for $ 14.9 billion in cash and debt, and is committed to keeping the American steel name and Pittsburgh headquarters.
The United Steelworsers, which represents some Steel employees in the United States, opposed the deal, and Biden and Trump pledged to the campaign’s path to prevent it.
Biden used his authority The acquisition of Nippon Steel We are steel on his way out of the White House after reviewing the foreign investment committee in the United States.
After his election, Trump changed the path, Expressing openness To put an order and request another review by the committee.
This is when the idea of the “golden session” appeared as a means of solving national security concerns and protecting American interests in the production of local steel.
It also sought to beat US officials, Nippon Steel I started adding obligations. Among them is our steel place under a plate consisting of most Americans and a management team of Americans.
She pledged not to perform workers ’layoffs or closing plants as a result of treatment or importing steel panels to compete with melting ovens in the United States in Pradock, Pennsylvania and Gary, Indiana.
In the final agreement, it pledged to produce and provide American steel from local sources – such as mining operations in Minnesota – and allow us to follow up on commercial procedures under American law.
It also made a series of greater capital obligations in US steel facilities, achieving $ 11 billion until 2028.
Nippon Steel said its annual annual steel production capacity is expected to reach 86 million tons, closer to its goal of 100 million tons.
United Nations on Wednesday indicated that the current work agreement with the United States ends in 2026.
“Be reassuring, if job security, pensions, health care of retirees, or other advantages that have been threatened with hard -people are threatened, then we are ready to respond with full strength and solidarity of our membership,” said its international president, David McCall, in a statement.
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