Phynart Studio
US Steel (NYSE:X) rose 3.4% as a Nippon Steel (OTCPK:NPSCY) executive was reportedly in Washington to meet with U.S. officials in an effort to salvage its planned $14 billion purchase of US Steel.
Multiple media reports indicated that Nippon Steel Vice Chairman Takahiro Mori on Wednesday was scheduled to with meet several deputy cabinet secretaries who are involved with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, the agency that was reportedly preparing to block the deal.
Mori, a top Nippon Steel negotiator on the deal and US Steel (X) CEO David Burritt were expected to meet with Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo and Commerce Deputy Secretary Don Graves among other officials, according to a Reuters report on Wednesday, which cited a person familiar with the matter.
The meeting comes amid reports a week ago that the Biden administration was preparing to block the US Steel (X) deal. Reuters reported last week that CFIUS sent a letter to Nippon Steel saying that the combination would pose a national security risk by hurting the US steel industry.
A number of U.S. business groups on Wednesday sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that the claimed the Biden administration’s review of the transaction is being unduly influenced by political pressure.
“We fear that the CFIUS process is being used to further political agendas that are outside the committee’s purview and putting the U.S. economy and workers at risk,” the business groups wrote in the letter to Yellen on Wednesday. “It is critical that CFIUS remain solely focused on defending U.S. national security while championing economic openness.”
