Iconic American industrial company US Steel is set to be purchased by the Japanese Nippon Steel Corporation or NSC, after a merger agreement was reached today between the two companies.
According to the official release as detailed on US Steel's website, all collective bargaining agreements will be respected, and the company will retain its iconic name and headquarters in Pennsylvania. The release also mentioned how the merger of the two companies would combine the best of both companies to create a truly global company meeting the needs of a competitive economy.
The buyout marks the end of a long and often acrimonious struggle between US Steel and its efforts to shield itself against foreign competition. Once the biggest or one of the biggest steel companies in the world after being formed in 1901 - so iconically that Hyman Roth says his crime operation is "bigger than US Steel" in the Godfather Part II - the company continued to seek protection from competition, especially from Japan, from the 1970s onward.
While Milton Friedman argued in the 1980s that US Steel had nothing to fear from such competition in his landmark series Free to Choose, many others disagreed - including the current frontrunner for the Republican Presidential nomination, Donald Trump, who imposed tariffs on Japanese steel when President, tariffs which the Biden administration has since removed.
The NSC said that the deal is expected to close by the middle of 2024, with the funding for the buyout coming primarily from Japanese banks.