WEST MIFFLIN, Pennsylvania, May 30 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday lauded an "agreement" between Nippon Steel (5401.T), opens new tab and U.S. Steel (X.N)
, opens new tab at a political rally but stopped short of approving the companies' diplomatically sensitive merger.
On a stage near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, decorated with signs celebrating "American steel," Trump declared the American steel company would remain American, while extolling its prospective new Japanese partner.
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"We're here today to celebrate a blockbuster agreement that will ensure this storied American company stays an American company," Trump told more than 1,600 people, including hard hat-wearing workers. "You're going to stay an American company, you know that, right? But we're going to have a great partner."
Later, though, he said the deal still needed his final go-ahead, leaving unresolved whether he would allow Nippon Steel to take ownership, as they had proposed.
"I have to approve the final deal with Nippon, and we haven't seen that final deal yet," Trump told reporters when he returned from Pennsylvania.
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The Japanese firm's planned acquisition of U.S. Steel, initially floated in 2023, divided the politically important state of Pennsylvania and its heavily unionized blue-collar workforce. It also introduced tension into normally friendly relations between Tokyo and Washington.
Proponents of the transaction had hoped Trump's visit would end a tumultuous 18-month effort by Nippon Steel (5401.T)
, opens new tab to buy the iconic American company, beset by opposition from union leadership and two national security reviews.
Trump's remarks on Friday shed little light on the contours of a deal that he would approve or whether a formal green light was in the offing.
He vowed to workers that U.S. Steel would be "controlled by the USA," no layoffs would occur, and that Nippon would invest billions of dollars to modernize U.S. steel mills to increase production. He later suggested to reporters that the company's board would be U.S.-"controlled."
He made the announcement at a Pennsylvania steel plant, raising the pressure on global steel producers and deepening his trade war.
The president also announced a plan, to be implemented on Wednesday, to double tariffs on imported steel to 50%, from 25%.
"I have to tell you about Nippon, they kept asking me over and I kept rejecting - no way," Trump said, adding "I'm going to be watching over it."
The White House and the companies have not responded to requests for comment on the status of deal talks.
Trump announced the rally and appeared to endorse the merger last Friday in a social media post, sending U.S. Steel's share price up over 20% as investors bet he would soon give it the go-ahead.
On Sunday, he sowed doubt, describing the deal to reporters not as the full takeover Nippon is seeking but as an investment with "partial ownership."
U.S. Steel is headquartered near Pittsburgh, which symbolized both the erstwhile strength and more recent decline of U.S. manufacturing as the Rust Belt's steel plants and factories lost business to international rivals. Trump won closely contested Pennsylvania in 2024.
"We would not be here today without President Trump, who has secured the company's future by approving our partnership," said Nippon Vice-Chair Takahiro Mori, who spoke before Trump.
In a sign of the many open questions that remain, Japan's top trade negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, told reporters on Friday he could not yet comment on the tie-up.
"I am aware of the various reports and posts by President Trump on social media. However, there has not yet been an official announcement from the U.S. government," Akazawa, in Washington for tariff negotiations, said at a briefing at the Japanese Embassy in Washington.
Trump technically has until Thursday to decide whether to formally approve or scuttle the deal, after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. last week completed a second review of the merger. But the timeline could slip.
The road to Friday's rally has been a bumpy one.
Nippon Steel offered $14.9 billion for U.S. Steel in December 2023, seeking to capitalize on an expected ramp-up in steel purchases, thanks to a bipartisan infrastructure law.
But the tie-up faced headwinds from the start, with then-President Joe Biden and Trump both asserting U.S. Steel should remain American-owned as they sought to woo voters ahead of November's election.
Following the previous review, Biden blocked the deal in January on national security grounds. The companies sued, arguing they did not receive a fair review process, a charge the Biden White House disputed.
The steel giants saw a new opportunity in the Trump administration, which opened a fresh 45-day national security review into the proposed merger last month.
But Trump's public comments, ranging from welcoming a simple "investment" in U.S. Steel by the Japanese firm to suggesting a minority stake for Nippon Steel, did little to shore up investor confidence.
Reuters reported last week that Nippon Steel floated plans to invest $14 billion in U.S. Steel's operations, including up to $4 billion in a new steel mill if the deal wins Trump's approval.
Reporting by Jeff Mason, Alexandra Alper; Writing by Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo and Nathan Layne in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Alistair Bell and Chris Reese
REUTERS