Washington (Reuters) -US President Donald Trump sowed confusion on Friday by saying that Nippon Steel would invest in his US Steel US rival instead of acquiring it, while two sources close to the case said the Japanese group had not given up on his buyout project.
The rapprochement, announced a year ago for an amount of $ 14.9 billion (14.4 billion euros), was blocked last month by former president Joe Biden. He came up against strong opposition in the United States and was a major subject in the 2024 presidential campaign in Pennsylvania, where US Steel sits.
None of the two groups made a comment.
At a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House, Donald Trump said he would meet the boss of Japanese Steel next week to “arbitrate”.
The American president spoke on Thursday at the White House with the general manager of US Steel, David Burritt.
“They are considering an investment rather than a takeover,” he said alongside Shigeru Ishiba, after having mistakenly mentioned the name Nissan instead of Japanese Steel.
The president of the United Steelworkers Steelworkers (USW) Syndicate David McCall, who opposed the merger, said that his concerns were unchanged about the project.
During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump as Joe Biden said that the company should remain the property of the Americans, even after Nippon Steel proposed to transfer its American headquarters to Pittsburgh and promised to honor all the agreements in force between US Steel and the USW union.
In a joint declaration released after their interview in Washington, Donald Trump and Shigeru Ishiba also announced on Friday that Japan would soon increase its imports of American liquefied natural gas, and that the two countries were going to work for the creation of A joint venture on hydrocarbons in Alaska and strengthen their military cooperation.
Donald Trump assured that the United States and Japan would work to erase the American trade deficit with Japan, which the White House tenant estimated at $ 100 billion.
(Trevor Hunnicutt, Nandita Bose and Alexandra Alper; Jean-Stéphane Brosse for the )
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