US Steel acquired by Nippon Steel for $14.9B
December 18, 2023 8:00 AM Subscribe
Announced today, the American company founded in 1901 by some of the original American oligarchs -- Charles Schwab, Andrew Carnegie, and J. P. Morgan among them -- intends to sell itself to the Japanese company for $14.9 billion including the assumption of debt.
“The transaction builds on our presence in the United States and we are committed to honoring all of U. S. Steel’s existing union contracts,” Nippon President Eiji Hashimoto said in a prepared statement.
This deal ends a three-way race to acquire the company, after another steel-making rival unveiled a $35-per-share cash-and-stock bid back in August. Nippon Steel's offer values the stock at $55-per-share. It will still require approval by shareholders and scrutiny from CFIUS (The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) before being finalized sometime in the fall of 2024.
“The transaction builds on our presence in the United States and we are committed to honoring all of U. S. Steel’s existing union contracts,” Nippon President Eiji Hashimoto said in a prepared statement.
This deal ends a three-way race to acquire the company, after another steel-making rival unveiled a $35-per-share cash-and-stock bid back in August. Nippon Steel's offer values the stock at $55-per-share. It will still require approval by shareholders and scrutiny from CFIUS (The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) before being finalized sometime in the fall of 2024.
Charles Schwab?
posted by lothar at 8:14 AM on December 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by lothar at 8:14 AM on December 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
Nippon says that it will keep the name and the Pittsburgh headquarters.
(They also say they will support the Big River 2 plant (Arkansas Talk Business & Politics), which may mean closing plants elsewhere.)
The United Steelworkers International union says US Steel is greedy and shortsighted (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).
posted by box at 8:17 AM on December 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
(They also say they will support the Big River 2 plant (Arkansas Talk Business & Politics), which may mean closing plants elsewhere.)
The United Steelworkers International union says US Steel is greedy and shortsighted (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).
posted by box at 8:17 AM on December 18, 2023 [2 favorites]
That NIIP thing again.
The Japanese have taken billions of dollars out of this country and now they must put it back!
For the interest on their US Treasury holdings Japan, Inc can make one acquisition on this scale per quarter.
Once the FDR admin had had enough of Japan's expansionism into E Asia (their move into Vichy-held Hanoi was the trigger), they cut off scrap steel and copper sales to Japan, which was the great majority of their supply.
People think the Japanese are broke or something after their 1990s "Lost Decade" but what really happened is they just cut taxes to run big deficits and called it domestic savings.
On a per-capita basis their NIIP is $22k, in line with Germany, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Belgium . . .
posted by torokunai at 8:19 AM on December 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
The Japanese have taken billions of dollars out of this country and now they must put it back!
For the interest on their US Treasury holdings Japan, Inc can make one acquisition on this scale per quarter.
Once the FDR admin had had enough of Japan's expansionism into E Asia (their move into Vichy-held Hanoi was the trigger), they cut off scrap steel and copper sales to Japan, which was the great majority of their supply.
People think the Japanese are broke or something after their 1990s "Lost Decade" but what really happened is they just cut taxes to run big deficits and called it domestic savings.
On a per-capita basis their NIIP is $22k, in line with Germany, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Belgium . . .
posted by torokunai at 8:19 AM on December 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
[Charles Schwab (steel) is no relation to Charles Schwab (stockbroker).]
posted by zaixfeep at 8:20 AM on December 18, 2023 [18 favorites]
posted by zaixfeep at 8:20 AM on December 18, 2023 [18 favorites]
US Steel has been poorly run for decades, so hopefully this will get their ass in gear. They completely biffed the transition to the EAF process, repeatedly, to the extent that they're a literal case study in how to fuck up your core business.
posted by aramaic at 8:29 AM on December 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by aramaic at 8:29 AM on December 18, 2023 [7 favorites]
I uh don't know how I feel about the finance term NIIP being applied to Japan
posted by thecjm at 8:37 AM on December 18, 2023 [15 favorites]
posted by thecjm at 8:37 AM on December 18, 2023 [15 favorites]
This Hamilton boy is just going to sit back, relax, and see if Nippon Steel does to US Steel what US Steel did to Stelco.
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:52 AM on December 18, 2023 [10 favorites]
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:52 AM on December 18, 2023 [10 favorites]
People think the Japanese are broke or something after their 1990s "Lost Decade" but what really happened is they just cut taxes to run big deficits and called it domestic savings.
An Australian economic commentator pointed out recently that Japan has bucked economic orthodoxy to become "a model of Modern Monetary Theory":
Japan is the crazy uncle at the economic Christmas barbecue, laughed at pityingly and ignored, while we all get on with discussing serious matters, like the Taylor Rule, which is the theoretical formula central banks use to calculate what interest rates should be for a given inflation and growth rate.
But the truth is Japan’s doing fine, and is not crazy at all. Everyone’s happy, unemployment is 2.5 per cent and has been under 3 per cent for five years, politics is stable and polite and there’s no shortage of infrastructure or housing – house prices have been fairly stable for 30 years...
The Japanese government has owed more than 200 per cent of GDP for more [than] a decade but has been happily running massive budget deficits the whole time, no pressure to balance the books, either politically or economically ... because the Bank of Japan buys most of [that debt], using freshly created money, to keep the interest rate low.
posted by rory at 8:55 AM on December 18, 2023 [22 favorites]
An Australian economic commentator pointed out recently that Japan has bucked economic orthodoxy to become "a model of Modern Monetary Theory":
Japan is the crazy uncle at the economic Christmas barbecue, laughed at pityingly and ignored, while we all get on with discussing serious matters, like the Taylor Rule, which is the theoretical formula central banks use to calculate what interest rates should be for a given inflation and growth rate.
But the truth is Japan’s doing fine, and is not crazy at all. Everyone’s happy, unemployment is 2.5 per cent and has been under 3 per cent for five years, politics is stable and polite and there’s no shortage of infrastructure or housing – house prices have been fairly stable for 30 years...
The Japanese government has owed more than 200 per cent of GDP for more [than] a decade but has been happily running massive budget deficits the whole time, no pressure to balance the books, either politically or economically ... because the Bank of Japan buys most of [that debt], using freshly created money, to keep the interest rate low.
posted by rory at 8:55 AM on December 18, 2023 [22 favorites]
Steel is a keystone industry. This should not be allowed to go through on national security and industrial policy grounds.
posted by interogative mood at 9:05 AM on December 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by interogative mood at 9:05 AM on December 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
Why not a cooperative run by the union?
posted by kokaku at 9:11 AM on December 18, 2023 [12 favorites]
posted by kokaku at 9:11 AM on December 18, 2023 [12 favorites]
So cyberpunk.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 9:14 AM on December 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 9:14 AM on December 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
What's American for Nigel?
We're onlymaking plans for him delaying the inevitable.
posted by tommasz at 9:38 AM on December 18, 2023 [12 favorites]
We're only
posted by tommasz at 9:38 AM on December 18, 2023 [12 favorites]
The 80s are BACK, baby!
posted by snwod at 9:51 AM on December 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by snwod at 9:51 AM on December 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
But the truth is Japan’s doing fine, and is not crazy at all. Everyone’s happy, unemployment is 2.5 per cent and has been under 3 per cent for five years, politics is stable and polite and there’s no shortage of infrastructure or housing – house prices have been fairly stable for 30 years...
The politics being stable and polite would be more believable if Shinzo Abe hadn't been assassinated.
posted by srboisvert at 9:56 AM on December 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
The politics being stable and polite would be more believable if Shinzo Abe hadn't been assassinated.
posted by srboisvert at 9:56 AM on December 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
The politics being stable and polite would be more believable if Shinzo Abe hadn't been assassinated.
If anything, his assassination has made Japan more stable and polite.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 10:11 AM on December 18, 2023 [12 favorites]
If anything, his assassination has made Japan more stable and polite.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 10:11 AM on December 18, 2023 [12 favorites]
This Hamilton boy is just going to sit back, relax, and see if Nippon Steel does to US Steel what US Steel did to Stelco.
I once worked as a temp for a shady Stelco company back in the eighties. It was shell company set up to stockpile steel to weaken the steelworker union's bargaining position by allowing them to continue to deliver rolled steel while the plant was shut down.
I set them up with an inventory tracking database system using dBase, the time limited freeware version though. The time limit would expire after I left but before the strike. I only realized what they were doing and what I was doing about half-way into my temp job when the guy running show bragged about how they were illegally hiding the stockpile from the union.
Now I live in Chicago and our drinking water is routinely polluted by the US Steel plant in Indiana so I guess they're getting me back.
posted by srboisvert at 10:12 AM on December 18, 2023 [12 favorites]
I once worked as a temp for a shady Stelco company back in the eighties. It was shell company set up to stockpile steel to weaken the steelworker union's bargaining position by allowing them to continue to deliver rolled steel while the plant was shut down.
I set them up with an inventory tracking database system using dBase, the time limited freeware version though. The time limit would expire after I left but before the strike. I only realized what they were doing and what I was doing about half-way into my temp job when the guy running show bragged about how they were illegally hiding the stockpile from the union.
Now I live in Chicago and our drinking water is routinely polluted by the US Steel plant in Indiana so I guess they're getting me back.
posted by srboisvert at 10:12 AM on December 18, 2023 [12 favorites]
> house prices have been fairly stable for 30 years...
That is to say, buying a house is not an investment that you will one day cash out to move to The Villages. Americans would have a hard time calling that a "good economy."
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 10:17 AM on December 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
That is to say, buying a house is not an investment that you will one day cash out to move to The Villages. Americans would have a hard time calling that a "good economy."
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 10:17 AM on December 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
Some Americans would! Possibly a plurality!
posted by clew at 10:31 AM on December 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by clew at 10:31 AM on December 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1cTcT
^ Why Canada's RE market is really screwed up, and Japan's is also kinda screwed, but in a different direction.
All of Japan's baby boomers hit 30 right in 1978-1980 and just crushed the supply of housing, sending valuations up up & up until it all crashed when the BoJ started raising rates to normalize the USD -> JPY post-Accord monetary regime, after the yen was pushed from 240 to 120.
posted by torokunai at 10:35 AM on December 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
^ Why Canada's RE market is really screwed up, and Japan's is also kinda screwed, but in a different direction.
All of Japan's baby boomers hit 30 right in 1978-1980 and just crushed the supply of housing, sending valuations up up & up until it all crashed when the BoJ started raising rates to normalize the USD -> JPY post-Accord monetary regime, after the yen was pushed from 240 to 120.
posted by torokunai at 10:35 AM on December 18, 2023 [1 favorite]
(part of the reason the saying "Japan has been living in the year 2000 since 1980" works is that the center of mass of their baby boom came 10 years before the US's, so they were able to produce a lot of "Gross National Cool" in the 1970s, when the median US boomer born in 1957 was still in college in 1979)
posted by torokunai at 10:42 AM on December 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by torokunai at 10:42 AM on December 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
The most important part of this development is that US Steel's stock ticker symbol is 'X'. With this acquisition, the publicly-traded corporation will go away, freeing up that symbol for someone else who might want to take his company public under that symbol.
posted by Hatashran at 10:46 AM on December 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by Hatashran at 10:46 AM on December 18, 2023 [6 favorites]
This observation made me wonder what the oldest single-letter NYSE symbol in current use is.
Citigroup (well, the Bank of New York) was founded in 1812, but they only started using C after the Daimler-Chrysler merger.
Maybe M for Macy's, or T for AT&T, or F for Ford?
Ford went public in 1956. AT&T has been T since 1930 (that press release says that, as of 2021, only eleven companies have been listed on the NYSE for longer). Macy's went public in 1922...
(US Steel went public in 1901. It was the biggest IPO in history at the time.)
posted by box at 11:50 AM on December 18, 2023
Citigroup (well, the Bank of New York) was founded in 1812, but they only started using C after the Daimler-Chrysler merger.
Maybe M for Macy's, or T for AT&T, or F for Ford?
Ford went public in 1956. AT&T has been T since 1930 (that press release says that, as of 2021, only eleven companies have been listed on the NYSE for longer). Macy's went public in 1922...
(US Steel went public in 1901. It was the biggest IPO in history at the time.)
posted by box at 11:50 AM on December 18, 2023
I wish Nippon Steel the best of luck.
My experience with consumer products, Nissan thermoses for example, is that acquiring the American company, Thermos in my example, causes the heretofore superior Japanese products to degrade to American levels, and lose rank in the market.
This kind of degradation happens even within the US. Boeing was a good airplane manufacturer until they they took over McDonell-Douglas and made the incredible blunder of retaining and promoting M-D's board. After that, they completely went to Hell.
posted by jamjam at 12:13 PM on December 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
My experience with consumer products, Nissan thermoses for example, is that acquiring the American company, Thermos in my example, causes the heretofore superior Japanese products to degrade to American levels, and lose rank in the market.
This kind of degradation happens even within the US. Boeing was a good airplane manufacturer until they they took over McDonell-Douglas and made the incredible blunder of retaining and promoting M-D's board. After that, they completely went to Hell.
posted by jamjam at 12:13 PM on December 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
...house prices have been fairly stable for 30 years...
For the Tokyo area this is generally true, but steadily rising. In the late 90s after the mid-90s crash, Japan real estate was at an all time low. But since then housing prices, depending on the area, have easily doubled. It's a different story out of the city, but unless you're at least out in the suburbs, where the commute into the center is at least an hour, housing still isn't cheap.
posted by zardoz at 12:16 PM on December 18, 2023
For the Tokyo area this is generally true, but steadily rising. In the late 90s after the mid-90s crash, Japan real estate was at an all time low. But since then housing prices, depending on the area, have easily doubled. It's a different story out of the city, but unless you're at least out in the suburbs, where the commute into the center is at least an hour, housing still isn't cheap.
posted by zardoz at 12:16 PM on December 18, 2023
Ah yes, another perfect example of a corporation buying another that will totally not be a risk of monopoloy or market consolidation or anything else and will definitely work out best for everyone.
posted by sotonohito at 12:54 PM on December 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by sotonohito at 12:54 PM on December 18, 2023 [3 favorites]
The 80s are BACK, baby!
Gung Ho (1986) When a Japanese car company buys an American plant, the American liaison must mediate the clash of work attitudes between the foreign management and native labor.
posted by achrise at 4:25 PM on December 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
Gung Ho (1986) When a Japanese car company buys an American plant, the American liaison must mediate the clash of work attitudes between the foreign management and native labor.
posted by achrise at 4:25 PM on December 18, 2023 [4 favorites]
Ah, yes, Gung Ho, a movie about a Japanese takeover of American industry, titled with an American bastardization of a Chinese word. I mean, Hollywood in the 80s, when “Asian #2” was a perfectly acceptable role to cast.
I remember liking the movie as a kid, but I can’t imagine how bad it would be on a rewatch.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:56 PM on December 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
I remember liking the movie as a kid, but I can’t imagine how bad it would be on a rewatch.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:56 PM on December 18, 2023 [8 favorites]
As far as market consolidation goes, Nippon Steel produces on the order of 45-49 million tons of steel annually; US Steel only does 14-16 million tons because, as I mentioned previously, their management has been terrible for decades.
...meanwhile, Baowu (China) is 131 million tons. ArcelorMittal (EU) is 69-79 million tons, Ansteel (China) is 55 million tons, Shagang (China) is 41-44 million tons, HBIS (China) is 41 million tons, and so on.
Roughly half of the top fifty steel companies in the world are Chinese, which is a problem for NIS. This would push NIS up into the top 3, and potentially allow them to challenge Arcelor for #2. Meanwhile, Cleveland-Cliffs is 17-18 million tons, and losing this deal is kind of a kick in the teeth for them, as if they'd pulled it off they could perhaps have gotten into the top ten (currently #20-22 depending on year).
Disclaimer: a lot of these tonnages are from sheet/bar production, whereas I'm more familiar with structural sections, so the market dynamics could be different than I'm used to (although my numbers above are correct approximations in terms of tonnage; I'm just saying scale could be more or less important than I expect although if I'm honest I suspect it's probably MORE important given how sheet/coil products tend to be used).
posted by aramaic at 5:10 PM on December 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
...meanwhile, Baowu (China) is 131 million tons. ArcelorMittal (EU) is 69-79 million tons, Ansteel (China) is 55 million tons, Shagang (China) is 41-44 million tons, HBIS (China) is 41 million tons, and so on.
Roughly half of the top fifty steel companies in the world are Chinese, which is a problem for NIS. This would push NIS up into the top 3, and potentially allow them to challenge Arcelor for #2. Meanwhile, Cleveland-Cliffs is 17-18 million tons, and losing this deal is kind of a kick in the teeth for them, as if they'd pulled it off they could perhaps have gotten into the top ten (currently #20-22 depending on year).
Disclaimer: a lot of these tonnages are from sheet/bar production, whereas I'm more familiar with structural sections, so the market dynamics could be different than I'm used to (although my numbers above are correct approximations in terms of tonnage; I'm just saying scale could be more or less important than I expect although if I'm honest I suspect it's probably MORE important given how sheet/coil products tend to be used).
posted by aramaic at 5:10 PM on December 18, 2023 [5 favorites]
This article explains how US Steel is basically 'old steel', using older blast furnace technology, having been surpassed by, and trying to catch up with, the now larger, more modern steel company Nucor.
posted by eye of newt at 1:03 AM on December 19, 2023
posted by eye of newt at 1:03 AM on December 19, 2023
how accurate is this youtube video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1qgNaYzQTU
Because it looks like every other country is just a side show to china.
posted by Iax at 10:02 AM on December 19, 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1qgNaYzQTU
Because it looks like every other country is just a side show to china.
posted by Iax at 10:02 AM on December 19, 2023
This article explains how US Steel is basically 'old steel', using older blast furnace technology, having been surpassed by, and trying to catch up with, the now larger, more modern steel company Nucor.
Blast furnaces and Nucor-style mills aren't replacements for each other, and Nucor mills don't do what blast furnaces do but better.
Blast furnaces make steel.
Nucor-style electric mills recycle existing steel.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:17 AM on December 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
Blast furnaces and Nucor-style mills aren't replacements for each other, and Nucor mills don't do what blast furnaces do but better.
Blast furnaces make steel.
Nucor-style electric mills recycle existing steel.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 10:17 AM on December 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
Blast furnaces make steel.
Nucor-style electric mills recycle existing steel.
This is broadly correct, but there is an additional detail: Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) mills can create new steel using Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) pellets. This allows them to use lower grades of scrap material for the remaining chemistry (depending on what type of steel they're making). DRI production has been skyrocketing since around 2015 or so.
posted by aramaic at 11:08 AM on December 19, 2023
Nucor-style electric mills recycle existing steel.
This is broadly correct, but there is an additional detail: Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) mills can create new steel using Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) pellets. This allows them to use lower grades of scrap material for the remaining chemistry (depending on what type of steel they're making). DRI production has been skyrocketing since around 2015 or so.
posted by aramaic at 11:08 AM on December 19, 2023
Looks like Senator Fetterman agrees with you, interogative mood:
Senator John Fetterman vows to block ‘outrageous’ $14.9bn US Steel sale, Gloria Oladipo, Guardian:
posted by kristi at 11:39 AM on December 19, 2023
Senator John Fetterman vows to block ‘outrageous’ $14.9bn US Steel sale, Gloria Oladipo, Guardian:
In the video posted to X and taken from the roof of his house in Braddock, which overlooks the plant, Fetterman criticized the proposed $14.9bn sale, decrying US Steel for selling themselves “to a foreign nation and company”.I am curious what recourse or enforcement options the union has, and I'm also curious what US government agencies, if any, have to approve the deal.
“Steel is always about security,” Fetterman said. “And I am committed to anything I can do, from using my platform or my position, in order to block this.
...
The United Steelworkers (USW) union, meanwhile, denounced Nippon Steel for agreeing to an acquisition deal without prior approval from the union, Axios reported.
David McCall, the president, called the deal “greedy” and a “violation” of a union agreement that requires any buyer of US Steel to agree to a new labor agreement prior to any sale.
posted by kristi at 11:39 AM on December 19, 2023
This is broadly correct, but there is an additional detail: Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) mills can create new steel using Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) pellets.
Thank you!
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 12:19 PM on December 19, 2023
Thank you!
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 12:19 PM on December 19, 2023
I am curious what recourse or enforcement options the union has, and I'm also curious what US government agencies, if any, have to approve the deal.
I was curious too: Per this article:
In a letter sent Tuesday to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Republican senators said the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) should block the sale.
“[CFIUS] can and should block the acquisition of U.S. Steel by NSC, a company whose allegiances clearly lie with a foreign state and whose record in the United States is deeply flawed,” Sens. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wrote.
The CFIUS is a panel chaired by the Treasury secretary that has the power to block the sale of U.S. businesses to foreign firms if the acquisition would threaten national security.
So, it looks like its up to the Treasury Department. My guess is nothing gets done and this is just grandstanding.
posted by eagles123 at 8:16 PM on December 20, 2023
I was curious too: Per this article:
In a letter sent Tuesday to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Republican senators said the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) should block the sale.
“[CFIUS] can and should block the acquisition of U.S. Steel by NSC, a company whose allegiances clearly lie with a foreign state and whose record in the United States is deeply flawed,” Sens. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wrote.
The CFIUS is a panel chaired by the Treasury secretary that has the power to block the sale of U.S. businesses to foreign firms if the acquisition would threaten national security.
So, it looks like its up to the Treasury Department. My guess is nothing gets done and this is just grandstanding.
posted by eagles123 at 8:16 PM on December 20, 2023
Huh, is that just Republican racism overcoming Republican desires to toady and support all concentrations of power? Or is it just bullshitting because they think it'll look good?
Either way, I'm put in the horrible position of agreeing with Rubio and Hawley on anything at all.
Of course, I think ALL mergers, acquisitions, purchases, and so on between corporations should be banned so I'm not exactly in their camp anyway but still it's weird to be on side with them even on the smallest scale.
posted by sotonohito at 9:17 AM on December 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
Either way, I'm put in the horrible position of agreeing with Rubio and Hawley on anything at all.
Of course, I think ALL mergers, acquisitions, purchases, and so on between corporations should be banned so I'm not exactly in their camp anyway but still it's weird to be on side with them even on the smallest scale.
posted by sotonohito at 9:17 AM on December 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
If the acquisition is blocked, then what? The national security angle seems like something thrown out without much in the way of citation. I'm not convinced the sale should be nixed because something something national security (or mergers, acquisitions, purchases, and so on between corporations).
If JD Vance, Marco Rubio and Josh Hawley are against it, I've got a really strong feeling "the acquisition would threaten national security" story they're pushing is pure bullshit. It looks like domestic steel production has been falling for decades, largely because of declining demand. The US just doesn't manufacture lots of steel objects like it did in the middle of the 20th century. Also, falling competitiveness in US steelmaking. I'm thinking it would be wise to not make steel the new coal.
posted by 2N2222 at 6:48 PM on December 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
If JD Vance, Marco Rubio and Josh Hawley are against it, I've got a really strong feeling "the acquisition would threaten national security" story they're pushing is pure bullshit. It looks like domestic steel production has been falling for decades, largely because of declining demand. The US just doesn't manufacture lots of steel objects like it did in the middle of the 20th century. Also, falling competitiveness in US steelmaking. I'm thinking it would be wise to not make steel the new coal.
posted by 2N2222 at 6:48 PM on December 22, 2023 [1 favorite]
If the acquisition is blocked, then what?
In my ideal world? If the ruling class can't make it work at a profit and it is failing then they can sell out (at a significant loss for the shareholders) to the government which will then sell it back to the workers at a long term zero interest loan so it can become a worker owned company as all companies should be.
Or, if it is found that there is no way for it to actually work economically the government spins it down as gracefully as possible and with maximum cushion and soft landing for the workers while giving the middle finger and nothing at all to management and the shareholders.
The executives and other capitalist parasites kept the profits when the company was profitable, they shouldn't be permitted to socialize the losses.
Of course what WILL happen is that after some grandstanding mostly by Republicans the sale will go through with a few laughable conditions that mean nothing attached as a means of pretending that the government was concerned about and took action about the issues surrounding the sale.
posted by sotonohito at 6:18 AM on December 23, 2023
In my ideal world? If the ruling class can't make it work at a profit and it is failing then they can sell out (at a significant loss for the shareholders) to the government which will then sell it back to the workers at a long term zero interest loan so it can become a worker owned company as all companies should be.
Or, if it is found that there is no way for it to actually work economically the government spins it down as gracefully as possible and with maximum cushion and soft landing for the workers while giving the middle finger and nothing at all to management and the shareholders.
The executives and other capitalist parasites kept the profits when the company was profitable, they shouldn't be permitted to socialize the losses.
Of course what WILL happen is that after some grandstanding mostly by Republicans the sale will go through with a few laughable conditions that mean nothing attached as a means of pretending that the government was concerned about and took action about the issues surrounding the sale.
posted by sotonohito at 6:18 AM on December 23, 2023
I can't muster the energy to conjure up an alternative reality where the workers can successfully turn around a failing company that's been snatched from the clutches of moustache twirling capitalists by an improbably wise and benevolent government.
The big problem I see is that US Steel has a symbolic value for too many Americans (shades of coal, Harley Davidson, etc). Far more than it deserves, and are willing to get the government to butt into a business transaction, in which the losses will be socialized anyways. Which is a kind of nostalgia that appeals to working classes on left and right, while feeding ongoing angles for their favorite elected leaders to exploit. Wash, rinse, repeat.
posted by 2N2222 at 7:38 AM on December 23, 2023
The big problem I see is that US Steel has a symbolic value for too many Americans (shades of coal, Harley Davidson, etc). Far more than it deserves, and are willing to get the government to butt into a business transaction, in which the losses will be socialized anyways. Which is a kind of nostalgia that appeals to working classes on left and right, while feeding ongoing angles for their favorite elected leaders to exploit. Wash, rinse, repeat.
posted by 2N2222 at 7:38 AM on December 23, 2023
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posted by chavenet at 8:12 AM on December 18, 2023 [5 favorites]