Reports say Biden will block Nippon Steel’s acquisition of US Steel | Business and economics

The US President is expected to announce a decision to block the proposed sale of the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker as early as Friday.

US media reported that US President Joe Biden decided to block the proposed acquisition of US Steel by the Japanese company Nippon Steel.

Biden is expected to announce his decision to abort the $14.9 billion sale on national security grounds as early as Friday, the New York Times, Washington Post and Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Biden’s decision comes after Last month, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States failed to reach consensus on the potential national security risks of the dealThis was just weeks before he handed over control of the White House to US President-elect Donald Trump.

Biden was widely expected to block the sale of the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker to Japan’s largest steel producer after opposing the proposal during his ill-fated re-election campaign.

Trump, who takes office on January 20, also opposed the deal, calling the proposed sale a “terrible thing.”

The proposed sale was seen as an important election issue in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, which flipped from Trump to Biden in 2020 and then back to Trump in November.

The United Steelworkers union lobbied strongly against the sale, calling it “nothing more than corporate greed, selling out American workers, and endangering the long-term future of the domestic steel industry and our national security.”

Under the proposed sale, which received significant support from US Steel shareholders, the combined company would become one of the world’s largest steel producers.

US Steel would have become a subsidiary of Nippon Steel but kept its name and headquarters in Pittsburgh.

Biden’s decision could strain relations with Japan, one of the United States’ closest allies in Asia and a key partner in Washington’s efforts to confront China.

Reuters news agency, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba wrote in November to Biden asking him to approve the deal to avoid harming relations between the two sides.