Nippon Metal’s US Metal takeover plan has assist in steelmaking areas, government says

By Yuka Obayashi

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s Nippon Metal is seeing assist for its proposal to accumulate U.S. Metal within the areas of the USA the place metal mills are situated, Nippon Metal’s President Tadashi Imai instructed reporters on Wednesday.

On Monday, a U.S. international funding committee referred the choice whether or not to approve or block the $15 billion deal to U.S. President Joe Biden, who has 15 days to determine.

Biden and his incoming successor, Donald Trump, have each expressed opposition to the acquisition.

On Wednesday, Imai reiterated that Nippon Metal has made numerous commitments to deal with nationwide safety issues of the Committee on International Funding in the USA, including he believed there was ‘progress in understanding’.

“Within the communities of the varied areas the place the metal mills are situated, there’s a appreciable quantity of assist for this acquisition,” Imai stated. “I hope that President Biden will perceive…the worth of this acquisition to the U.S. economic system.”

Each corporations have beforehand stated that they had deliberate to shut the deal, which has additionally confronted opposition from a robust the United Steelworkers labor union (USW), earlier than the tip of 2024.

On Wednesday, Nippon Metal shared a letter to Biden dated Dec. 23 and signed by two dozen U.S. municipality officers in areas the place U.S. Metal mills are situated, asking the U.S. president to approve the takeover deal.

“We respectfully urge you to hearken to the voices of the steelworkers and everybody else whose financial safety is tied to U.S. Metal – they’re talking loudly in unison that this deal should be accepted,” the letter stated.

USW stated in a separate assertion that it met Nippon Metal officers twice final week. It repeated its view that the Japanese steelmaker had little interest in the long-term safety of U.S. Metal vegetation or blast furnace operations and urged Biden to maintain the corporate domestically owned and operated.

In an effort to win assist for the acquisition, Nippon Metal has beforehand stated it is not going to use the deal as cowl to import metal and has made a collection of pledges to guard jobs and put money into U.S. services it sees as key to its future development.