In This Article:
President Joe Biden has blocked the proposed $14.9 billion acquisition of United States Steel (X) by Nippon Steel (NPSCY), citing national security concerns.
CRU Principal consultant and North American Steel analyst Josh Spoores joins Morning Brief to examine the implications of the President's decision.
Spoores characterizes the decision as "interesting," noting that US Steel is not the nation's largest steel producer and describing the decision-making process as "highly politicized." He points out that Nippon Steel, recognized as one of the "most technologically advanced steelmakers in the world," was prepared to invest billions in the US. Instead, US Steel, which is struggling to maintain capacity, may proceed with facility closure plans if the block remains final.
"Very likely this ends up to cut out some union jobs instead of investing in them," Spoores explains, suggesting thousands of jobs could be affected. However, Spoores indicates this might not be "the end of the chapter" for this deal with the upcoming administration change.
Related Videos
"You have President Trump, just a couple weeks ago, said that anybody investing a billion dollars will get expedited. So it just gets a little bit odd when the government's invested billions of dollars in foreign chip producers to come to the United States to bring their technology here that we're not doing that same for steel," he tells Yahoo Finance.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief here.
This post was written by Angel Smith