The fight over US Steel enters a new round
Marketplace All-in-One
Marketplace
4.5 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2024
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nippon Steel is racing to finalize its deal to purchase U.S. Steel before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. But the Biden administration just threw a wrench in that plan, imposing higher tariffs on the Japanese company, despite Nippon’s promise not to import foreign-made steel into the U.S. Also: we discuss market reactions to rising Ukraine-Russia tensions and speak with Rosina Samadani, CEO of Oculogica, a medical device company that has developed a new method of diagnosing concussions.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The fight over U.S. steel has entered a new round. From Marketplace, I'm Sabri Benishore in for David Brancaccio. |
| 0:09.4 | The Japanese company, Nippon Steel, is trying to close its deal to purchase U.S. steel of Pittsburgh |
| 0:14.8 | before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. But the Biden administration just threw a wrench in that plan, imposing higher tariffs on Nippon, even though that company is promising not to import foreign made steel into the U.S. Marketplace's Nova Sappho is here with the details. Hi, Nova. |
| 0:31.8 | Good morning, Sabri. So this fight has been going on for almost a year. Nepon wants to buy this U.S. Steel company. The Biden administration is opposed to that. It seems like there is very little trust between the two here. |
| 0:43.6 | It certainly seems that way. There's been generally a hostile political response ever since Nippon Steel announced its $15 billion deal to buy U.S. deal. As you mentioned, that was in December of last year. It's faced an uphill |
| 0:54.3 | struggle ever since. How does this latest tariff announcement fit into that picture? |
| 1:00.1 | Well, it establishes a record of Nippon Steel's behavior in the U.S. market before it announced |
| 1:05.7 | its deal to buy U.S. Steel. And the Commerce Department says Nippon dumped artificially cheap steel into the U.S., a type of |
| 1:12.1 | steel used for things like auto manufacturing. And based on that finding, the administration is imposing |
| 1:17.5 | a new tariff on Nippon steel of 29%. And if you were trying to find reasons, Sabri, not to approve |
| 1:24.2 | this merger, this finding would certainly help you on that front. |
| 1:28.0 | How is Nippon still responding? |
| 1:29.8 | Well, they're not giving up. |
| 1:31.2 | They're still trying to get this merger approved before Donald Trump is back in the White House |
| 1:35.2 | because he's promised to block it. |
| 1:36.9 | Right now, it's in regulatory review and has been for some time. |
| 1:40.2 | One of Nippon's top executives yesterday promised that going forward, |
| 1:43.3 | Nippon would not import foreign mate's deal into the U.S. |
| 1:45.9 | That promise is aimed straight at U.S. Steel's unionized workforce, |
| 1:51.0 | which has, in large part, opposed the proposed merger. |
| 1:54.5 | And that same executive, Sabri, is headed to the U.S. next week, |
| 1:57.7 | including to Pittsburgh, U.S. Steel's headquarters, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Marketplace, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Marketplace and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.