Posted on 05 Jun 2024
A Nippon Steel executive says a political decision to block his company’s takeover of US Steel would be a “nightmare” for unionized workers, leaving them vulnerable to a takeover by an American rival that would “slice down” the faded giant.
“I don’t think it’s going to be happy for US Steel and happy for its workers and happy for the United States as a whole,” Takahiro Mori said this week in an exclusive interview with Semafor in Washington, where he is pushing a $15 billion merger that faces dimming odds as the presidential election heats up.
Back in the US for the second time in three weeks, Mori is meeting with lawmakers and community groups in Washington, DC and Pennsylvania to talk up the economic and security benefits of a deal that he says will create a stronger competitor to China, which has flooded global markets with less expensive steel.
“The biggest risk in the steel industry today is an oversupply from China,” he said. A leaner and better-capitalized US Steel, “under the control of the US and Japan,” will be more competitive against Beijing, he said, urging a broader view of national security that prioritizes strategic realignment over stubborn retrenchment.
He also carried a veiled warning about the bipartisan turn in Washington (and Brussels, New Delhi and elsewhere) toward protectionism. “Business is business and politics is politics, and Japan’s government is watching this deal,” he said. “Many business leaders are watching this deal, and many allied countries are watching also.”
He stopped short of confirming that Nippon, a national champion in Japan, has asked Tokyo to apply diplomatic pressure, adding only that “we have some communication networks with the government. It’s a natural thing.”
He dismissed a split-the-baby idea where US Steel might be broken up, with Nippon taking its electric furnaces and mining assets and its blast furnaces being sold to Cleveland-Cliffs, which had submitted a rival bid last fall. “I don’t have any intention to negotiate with the other company,” he said.
Source:Semafor
