(The Center Square)–Six months ago, the mood in the Pittsburgh region was somber: after a year of waffling, former President Joe Biden dealt the final blow to U.S. Steel’s lucrative merger with a Japanese competitor, Nippon Steel.
After blocking the $14 billion deal over national security concerns, namely unfair trade practices on the foreign market, state and federal lawmakers from Pennsylvania had only one hope left: a change of heart from newly re-elected President Donald Trump.
Long opposed to the merger, the 47th president said Friday that Nippon agreed to make the largest investment in steel in history, while keeping the company under U.S. control.
It’s a triumphant moment for thousands of steel workers who fretted about the future of their jobs since 2023. In the intervening 18 months, labor unions and domestic competitors ratcheted up their own attempts to thwart the Nippon deal, alleging that the company would relocate Arkansas to avoid collective bargaining.
Late last year, U.S. Steel and Nippon filed joint lawsuits that claimed political influence tipped the scales against the merger.
In his comments Friday, Trump referenced decades of federal policy that contributed to the industry’s decline.
