White House Delays Order for Japan’s Nippon Steel to Abandon Its Bid for US Steel
WASHINGTON – The White House has postponed an order forcing Nippon Steel to terminate its $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel, the Japanese company and American steelmaker revealed on Saturday.
The decision extends the deadline by which the firms must unwind the transaction, after President Joe Biden blocked the proposed acquisition on January 3 for national security grounds. The change gives the judicial system time to review a pending legal challenge led by the two steel companies to Biden’s edict.
On January 16, U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel submitted their bid, requesting an extension that would allow an interagency team, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), to complete the review process instead of forcing Nippon Steel to abandon its plans.
US Steel and its Japanese counterpart expect the review time to conclude later this year or in early January.