More Top Picks Viper Vs Arachnid Electronic Dartboards
player ready...U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, D-Highland, voiced concerns about the potential acquisition of the United States Steel Corporation by a foreign competitor as the company mulls “multiple unsolicited proposals” from prospective buyers.
“I remain gravely concerned that our nation’s security is lessened when we allow foreign entities to have an outsized influence in America’s critical industries, whether it be in iron and steel, semiconductors, or other essential commodities, products, and technologies,” Mrvan, who serves as the Congressional Steel Caucus vice president, wrote in a Wednesday statement.
“We must not ignore the lesson that COVID taught us about how our supply chains must have domestic capacity to meet the needs of our nation’s consumers and security.”
U.S. Steel is the third largest employer in Porter County and the eighth largest in Lake County, according to data from the commercial directory service Data Axle. The company employs over 4,300 workers at its Gary Works steel mill, according to its website.
On Aug. 13, the Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel rejected a $7.3 billion cash and stock buyout proposal from rival Cleveland-Cliffs. Its president wrote that the company “has decided to initiate a formal review process to evaluate strategic alternatives.”
The Cleveland-Cliffs proposal has the backing of the United Steelworkers (USW), who have as part of their collective bargaining agreement the right to counter any proposal to acquire a controlling interest in U.S. Steel.
In an Aug. 3 letter, USW International President Thomas Conway wrote that the union would “unequivocally endorse” the deal, and “will not endorse anyone other than Cliffs for such a transaction.” On Aug. 17, Cleveland-Cliffs released another letter from Conway announcing that the union had transferred its right to bid on U.S. Steel to Cleveland-Cliffs, a move allowed under the USW’s collective bargaining agreement, claiming in a statement that this made the Ohio-based company “the only realistic buyer.”
Michael Millsap, director of USW District 7 — which covers the states of Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin — echoed Conway’s support for the deal in an interview with the Post-Tribune. He said that he expects the impact of a Cleveland-Cliffs buyout on steelworkers to be modest, pointing to the fact that U.S. Steel and Cleveland Cliffs have similar collective bargaining agreements with the USW.
“I think that Cliffs is committed to operating blast furnaces in the United States and providing jobs, so maybe a little bit more job security.” he said. “I don’t know. I’m not gonna know until something happens here.”
On Aug. 14, privately held steel company Esmark made a $7.8 billion bid for U.S. Steel, but the company reversed course on Wednesday and withdrew its bid, citing the USW’s stance on the bidding process.
So far, the extent of international interest in U.S. Steel is unclear. The company has not released information on the other offers alluded to in its statement. On Aug. 16, Reuters reported that the Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal, which previously owned the Indiana Harbor and Burns Harbor mills in Northwest Indiana, was considering making its own offer. The CEO of Brazilian CSN told Reuters that his company was not interested, squashing rumors of its own buyout ambitions.
Mrvan wasn’t the only member of Congress to preemptively voice reservations about a foreign acquisition of U.S. Steel. In an Aug. 17 letter to the company’s leadership, U.S. Senator J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, urged the company to reject any foreign bid to acquire the company in whole or in part.
“As the second largest integrated steelmaker in the country and a giant of American industry, the future of U.S. Steel will be consequential for the future of the U.S. steel industry,” Vance wrote in a statement. “I fear that the strategic review could undermine our national security if mismanaged. In particular, I worry about the implications of an acquisition by a foreign entity that may not share your business’s storied connection to the United States.”