WASHINGTON
President Joe Biden blocked Friday the $14 billion sale of US Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel, citing “critical” national security concerns and the need to maintain “resilient supply chains.”
Biden had long vocally opposed the sale, and said it “would place one of America’s largest steel producers under foreign control and create risk for our national security and our critical supply chains.”
“It is my solemn responsibility as President to ensure that, now and long into the future, America has a strong domestically owned and operated steel industry that can continue to power our national sources of strength at home and abroad; and it is a fulfillment of that responsibility to block foreign ownership of this vital American company,” he said in a statement.
“U.S. Steel will remain a proud American company – one that’s American-owned, American-operated, by American union steelworkers – the best in the world,” he added.
The president’s decision came after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) failed in mid-December to reach consensus on whether the proposed sale posed a national security risk, giving Biden 15 days to act.
President-elect Donald Trump has also opposed the sale.
Neither US Steel nor the United Steelworkers labor union had an immediate comment on Biden’s decision.
