President Donald Trump announced a $14 billion deal between U.S. Steel and Nippon on Friday as well an increase on steel tariffs to bolster the investment.
He called the investment the “single-largest investment” of any kind in any industry.
In a speech from West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, on Friday carried live by Newsmax, Trump announced that additional investment will also result in state-of-the art facilities in four other states.
In all, Trump said that 100,000 American jobs will be created or saved with the deal, including 14,000 in Pennsylvania.
“We don't want America's future to be built with shoddy steel from Shanghai. We want it built with the strength and the pride of Pittsburgh,” Trump said. “It's Pittsburgh steel, it's U.S. Steel, and it's going to be something even more special when you get all that billions of dollars of new equipment that they're going to be investing right here.”
In addition, Trump announced the following aspects of Nippon’s investment:
- $2.2 billion to increase steel production in the Mon Valley Works specifically allocated to Mon Valley
- $200 million for the Advanced Technology Research and Development Center that's being built already in Pennsylvania
- $7 billion to modernize steel mills, expand ore mines, and build state-of-the-art facilities in Indiana, Minnesota, Alabama and Arkansas
- $5,000 bonus for every steel worker
And securing the investment is a doubling of tariffs on steel imports.
“We are going to be imposing a 25% increase. We're going to bring it from 25% to 50% the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry in the United States. Nobody's going to get around that,” Trump said. “Nobody’s gonna be able to steal your industry. At 25%, they can sort of get over that fence. At 50% they can no longer get over the fence.”
Trump’s speech came as investors sought clarity as to how the merger between Nippon and U.S. Steel would be constructed since he cleared the way for the deal to go through last week.
In a May 23 post to Truth Social, Trump positioned the deal as a “partnership,” adding that U.S. Steel headquarters would remain in Pittsburgh and that Nippon would invest $14 billion over 14 months in U.S. Steel.
Trump on Sunday told reporters that the deal is an “investment,” a partial ownership, but it will be controlled by the USA.” But until Friday, the White House had shed little light on the structure of the deal.
In an April 8 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Steel described the deal as a merger.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer told Newsmax on Friday that the president's agreement protects workers in the United States.
"When I found out this deal was done and inked, I couldn't be more excited to go down and start to visit with those steelworkers as we create these 70,000 new jobs," Chavez-DeRemer told Newsmax on Friday. "This is important for the economy, this is important for America, and this is a historic deal that the president has made with U.S. Steel.”
CNBC reported that Nippon is expected to close the acquisition at $55 per share, the same offer that was on the table when former President Joe Biden nixed the deal citing national security issues.
But Trump revived the efforts when he ordered a new review of the deal in April.
Sen. David McCormick, R-Pa., told CNBC this week that the federal government will have a “golden share” in the “national security agreement” that will allow the U.S. to determine the number of board seats. U.S. Steel will have an American CEO and the majority of the board will be Americans, McCormick said.
Rather than an equity stake, the government’s “golden share” would likely give it power to veto certain actions in the name of national security, CNBC reported.
The merger would create the world's third-largest steel producer by volume, following China's Baowu Steel Group and Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, according to World Steel Association data.
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Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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