Biden Blocks U.S. Steel Acquistion By Nippon Steel

PITTSBURGH, PA — Citing national security reasons, President Joe Biden on Friday blocked the $14.9 billion takeover of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel by Japan's Nippon Steel.

Biden made the decision after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States on Dec. 23 failed to reach a consensus on whether to let the deal proceed. Biden had 15 days to approve or block the deal once he received the committee's evaluation.

The decision on whether to let the deal proceed was referred to Biden on Dec. 23 after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States failed to reach a consensus, said U.S. Steel.Biden had 15 days to approve or block the deal after the CFIUS evaluation reached his desk,

"We need major U.S. companies representing the major share of US steelmaking capacity to keep leading the fight on behalf of America’s national interests," Biden said in a statement released by the White House.

"As a committee of national security and trade experts across the executive branch determined, this acquisition would place one of America’s largest steel producers under foreign control and create risk for our national security and our critical supply chains.

So, that is why I am taking action to block this deal."

Biden nixing the deal raises questions of the Pittsburgh future of U.S. Steel, whose shareholders in April approved the transaction.

But that was not enough to assuage the concerns of both Biden and President-elect Donald Trump, who last month voiced strong opposition to the deal.

“I am totally against the once great and powerful U.S. Steel being bought by a foreign company, in this case Nippon Steel of Japan,” Trump stated in a post on his Truth Social social media platform.