(The Center Square) – U.S. Steel will officially remain a Pittsburgh icon after the president said Friday he approves of its $14.9 billion merger with a Japanese competitor.
The announcement reverses the Biden administration’s decision to block the sale earlier this year due to national security concerns, pressure from labor unions, and competing offers from domestic bidders.
“For many years, the name, ‘United States Steel’ was synonymous with Greatness, and now, it will be again,” Donald Trump said on TruthSocial. “This will be a planned partnership between United States Steel and Nippon Steel, which will create at least 70,000 jobs, and add $14 Billion Dollars to the U.S. Economy.”
Trump said the bulk of Nippon’s investment will occur over the next 14 months, including $2.4 billion for the commonwealth alone. He also announced a visit to the Steel City planned for May 30.
“Steel will once again be, forever, MADE IN AMERICA,” he said. “From Pennsylvania to Arkansas, and from Minnesota to Indiana, AMERICAN MADE is BACK.”
Nippon proposed the merger in December 2023, promising to invest billions into southwestern Pennsylvania and northern Indiana steel mills. At the time, Trump opposed the deal. However, he reversed course soon into his second term at the pleading of state leaders worried about the economic and psychological fallout of losing its Pittsburgh headquarters.
During a February meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the president expressed similar sentiments.
Minutes after Trump’s announcement Friday, Sen. Kim Ward, who leads Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate, called it a “great day” for the region and celebrated the anticipated 25,500 jobs it will support.
“President Trump has always fought for America, so I had no doubt when he decided to review this deal after the Biden administration blocked it that he would fight for the steelworkers and their families here in Pennsylvania and across our country,” she said. “I am proud of our Pennsylvania heritage that has helped build this county and the grace and grit of the people who have fought and worked hard to keep America great.”
Ward stood out among state lawmakers in her advocacy for the merger, knowing firsthand what the steel industry’s decline in the 1970s and 1980s meant for her family and others in southwestern Pennsylvania.
“My father, a skilled machinist in the specialty steel sector, lost both his job and his pension,” she said in an op-ed for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on Wednesday. “He never recovered financially — and neither did many others.”
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., likewise praised the development.
“I told him what I have said all along,” he said in a statement emailed to The Center Square. “My priorities are preserving and expanding jobs and investment in the Mon Valley. This partnership gets it done.”
Not everyone will be happy, however. On Thursday, the United Steelworkers Union urged Trump to block the deal, calling Nippon a “serial trade cheater.” As of publication, an updated comment has not yet been released.
“For decades, Nippon has been dumping its products into our markets, costing us thousands of good, community-supporting jobs and undermining our steelmaking capabilities,” said David McCall, USW international president. “Now, as it continues to make flashy promises about proposed investments, it remains clear Nippon is simply seeking to undercut our domestic industry from the inside.”
The union represents 850,000 workers across the country, including some from Nippon, of which 4,000 work in Pennsylvania, Alabama, Virginia and West Virginia. Nonetheless, the company’s promises to upgrade facilities and keep U.S. Steel’s Pittsburgh headquarters rang untrue for union leaders, who alleged it would eventually move operations south to avoid collective bargaining.
