U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday threw his support behind a new "partnership" between U.S. Steel and Japan's Nippon Steel, sending the American firm's share price skyrocketing on hopes of an end to the long-running saga over foreign ownership of a key national asset.
While the details of the deal remained unclear, the Pennsylvania-headquartered firm's share price popped after Trump took to Truth Social to hail the new arrangement, closing up more than 21 percent and then rising further in after-hours trading.
"US Steel will REMAIN in America, and keep its Headquarters in the Great City of Pittsburgh," Trump said in his social media post.
He added that the new "planned partnership" between U.S. Steel and Japan's Nippon Steel would create at least 70,000 jobs and add $14 billion to the U.S. economy.
Trump's remarks are the latest in a long saga which began in December 2023, when U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel announced plans for a $14.9 billion merger.
That deal was bitterly opposed by unions in part because it would have transferred ownership of the critical asset to a foreign company.
In a statement, Nippon Steel said it "applauds" the bold action taken by Trump, adding it shared the administration’s "commitment to protecting American workers, the American steel industry, and America's national security."
U.S. Steel praised Trump's "bold" leadership on the deal, noting that it would "remain American" and expand in size due to the "massive investment" that Nippon would make over the next four years as part of the deal.
Neither the White House nor the two companies, have so far published the details of the new partnership.
The United Steelworkers' union (USW), which represents U.S. Steel employees and has long opposed the deal, said on Friday that it could not "speculate" on the impact of Trump's announcement without more information about the deal.
"Our concern remains that Nippon, a foreign corporation with a long and proven track record of violating our trade laws, will further erode domestic steelmaking capacity and jeopardize thousands of good, union jobs," USW International President David McCall said in a statement shared with AFP.
Nippon's acquisition of U.S. Steel was originally meant to close by the end of 2024's third financial quarter, but was then held up by former President Joe Biden, who blocked it in his last weeks in office on national security grounds.
The two firms then filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration's "illegal interference" in the transaction.
Trump previously opposed Nippon Steel's takeover plan, calling for U.S. Steel to remain domestically owned. But he has since softened his tone and has suggested he is open to some form of investment from Nippon.
The U.S. president recently ordered his own review of the existing deal, directing the government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to look into the proposed acquisition.
CFIUS, tasked with analyzing the national security implications of foreign takeovers of U.S. companies, was given 45 days to submit its recommendations to Trump.
© 2025 AFP
30 Comments
Login to comment
HopeSpringsEternal
Great news and the logical outcome, as US Steel remains independent as Trump promised, while Nippon Steel can together with US Steel co-produce, receiving lower tax rates, energy costs and ZERO tariffs.
Trump wants NEW $investment, not zero-sum M&A, this deal does exactly that, increasing US steel production!
wallace
What happened to Trump's "it will never happen?"
nishikat
Wait! This is NOT America first. A foreign country owning the steel works in the USA? What's next? BYD buying GM?
justasking
We all know why. Ka-ching-ka-ching! $$$$
wtfjapan
What happened to Trump's "it will never happen?"
seems anybody can be bought for the right money,
Trump is holding cyrto dinners to his biggest investors, all the while standing behind the presidential seal.
explain to us how this is part of the presidents office
grc
Wallace. - I don’t know whether you know this but Trump is becoming known for not always telling the truth
HopeSpringsEternal
Trump delivered on his promise, as US Steel remains US based and independent. But working together with Nippon Steel in a JV to invest in steel production, jobs and US National Security an obvious no brainer!
HopeSpringsEternal
Nippon Steel had no choice in reality, as without a US Steel JV, they'd have to start from scratch to avoid the US 25% tariffs. This way JV can be up and running far faster
John-San
No It does not remain in the USA. In the first deal it was 5 years before they move all plant to India. The second deal was to move all plant to India between 5 to 10 Years. Nilppon would not allow any more concession because the deal won't work for Nippon steel. So it seems USS will. end up in India by 2035. Nippon steel as A grade coal mines in Australia and long term contract of Iron ore also with Australia. The coal mines in Ohio have little life and B grade at the best that good for nothing but the Auto industry. Those thinking that USS is going to remain in the US don,t know nothing about the Industry. I assume that presser call from Japan yesterday told trump if you don,'t want those Trillion worth bonds dumb on the market you better make the deal. So much for his dealing making skills. Trump just didn't blink he was asleep.
HopeSpringsEternal
Trump and Republicans took ZERO $money from US Steel or Nippon Steel, rather this JV is purely about aligning with Trump's economic and trade policies, that are encouraging reshoring and investment into the US to facilitate job creation and national security.
It's the obvious outcome, only the M&A which started in late 2023, became a political hand grenade for Democrats and Trump exploited it perfectly, thus no surprise he won in Nov. the union vote, PA, etc.
HopeSpringsEternal
Trump's not being bribed, because his economic policies are targeting the working, union, youth and middle class, not special interests backing the elite. This US Steel deal a perfect example, union voters ONLY gave their votes.
Making money legitimately in real estate and crypto is perfectly legal and many give gifts to the US Govt. Everyone understands Trump's rich, he's been rich his entire life, why he's not for sale and why he was elected.
Desert Tortoise
Absent details of what this claimed "partnership" constitutes one cannot make an informed statement about who the ultimate ownes of this "partnership" are.
Desert Tortoise
Aside from being pure speculation Nippon Steel has an interest in building it's steel making business in the US. USS is one of two firms that manufacture over 90% of the rolled steel sheet used by auto makers to build car bodies. Moving USS abroad would abandon that business to its only major competitor. I don't foresee this happening. I rather suspect Nippon Steel wants to supply rolled steel sheet to Toyota, Nissan and Honda plants in the US.
wtfjapan
Trump's not being bribed,
making billions from foreign governments while youre a sitting president , using your position as leverage , is the clear definition of bribery, seriously maga should just give up on the excuses and admit you dont care if your cult leader is compromised, at least youd be honest about it
fxgai
I don't think Biden decided that, someone else decided that and somehow manipulated Biden or exercised their power over him to get what they wanted.
Perhaps these union people involved had someone's ear, but come on - Biden didn't have a clue about anything. I feel sorry for him that people drag his name through the mud now just because he was gone.
Blacklabel
great news!
fxgai
Sorry to rain on your speculation but no one knows how the broad markets will react.
Good example was last year, when the FOMC slashed their short term policy rate, the long term market rates went in the opposite direction.
Knowing what the FOMC was going to do wasn't the same thing as knowing what the world's investors were going to do.
Knowing what Trump is going to say isn't much good either, people are already used to the fact that he says a lot of stuff and we don't know how the dust is going to settle.
Cephus
Great news, and let the ships building start, more jobs and better wages for the people.
HopeSpringsEternal
Finally, really worth pointing out, Trump does not want zero sum M&A to escape US tariffs, but rather deals like this NS & USS to build US 'capacity', create incremental jobs, drive innovation, tax revenues and national security
With M&A as originally proposed, it's usually a case where jobs are lost due to 'synergies' and very little in the way of new US production capacity = NOT Good
Wesley
To be honest, if US Steel is going to partner with a foreign Asian country, Japan is a better choice than china.
There are so many horror stories of American companies "partnering" with china-nese state-backed companies....only for the American workers to be replaced by an invasion of thousands of china-nese laborers. They built entire housing complexes for them to come into US and take-over Americans' jobs.
Nippon steel is a safer bet.
Japanese efficiency + American Industrial might = Awesome!
Fighto!
Nippon Steel ultimately prevailed, as we all knew it would.
Hopefully Nippon Steel can revive the once strong US Steel industry, which is now on life support. The US Steelworker unions had better realize : they no longer are calling the shots. They need to adapt to world competition, accept new conditions, or perish.
bass4funk
Things are definitely looking brighter that’s for sure.
TaiwanIsNotChina
It would be nice if we could believe anything that comes out of Trump.
bass4funk
Libs will never, but that’s ok, the voters are happy. The main thing is, he focuses on the U.S., as long as he does that, he will always win.
OssanAmerica
Whatever the fine details of the arrangement is, it will assure that US Steel will not go extinct in the face of Chinese competition, which is real and big. People like the USW's leaders and that Brazilian immigrant at Cleveland Cliffs are self serving and extremely short sighted.
wallace
bass4funk
Just like you did with Obama, then Biden. Gosh, how many Obama posts did you make?
bass4funk
If Obama policies were that good, we would have never had Trump twice. Elections have their results
wallace
Obama served two straight terms but inherited a failed economy from Bush and the 2008 bank collapse, when millions lost their trust savings, pensions, and even homes.
Trump ranks among the worst U.S. presidents, as Obama moves into the top 10, according to a new historian survey
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/survey-ranks-trump-among-worst-u-s-presidents-obama-moves-into-top-10-11625156722
Trump has the lowest first 100 days rating of any president in 82 years.
You continued to post numerous Obama comments long after he was no longer president.
You didn't get Trump for a straight two terms. He had a historical defeat against Biden.
Agent_Neo
In fact, this acquisition will benefit America.
Firstly, US Steel's competitiveness has been declining year by year, its facilities remain old, and there was a high risk of it going bankrupt if things continued this way.
Secondly, labor and management unions had also supported the merger beforehand, and it was only politicians who were opposed. Naturally, employee salaries will rise, and there will be no reductions in workforce.
If tariffs were imposed on Japanese steel, the price of electrical steel sheets produced by Japanese manufacturers would inevitably rise, and there were concerns that this would lead to higher prices for vehicles like Tesla and a decline in quality due to substitutes.
This would allow Nippon Steel to produce steel within America, and it would be able to avoid tariffs.
It would be a win-win situation for both sides.
bass4funk
And look at the Obama legacy later, even most Blacks felt he didn’t do enough for Black people. This was the beginning of the awakening of Blacks realizing that they had been pawns for the DNC and nothing more
https://www.youtube.com/live/8ClrfQBHzqo?si=rHuRvvnyTCEodo4w
Yeah, whatever, the polls also said Trump would never win a second term. I’m just happy we now have an American president and not a globalist one
Good, that means he’s doing his job and not trying to appease the msm
The damage was extensive, yes and we are still reeling from those disastrous policies
Uh-huh, but now he’s back, and that’s historic so called defeat, Dems need to be very careful about that one. Their shenanigans are catching up to them very fast.