Blocking the acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel: China’s growing influence on America’s steel industry and the formation of a U.S.-EU platform

On January 4, 2025, US President Joe Biden imposed a ban on the acquisition of US Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel, which resulted in both companies going to court.

The Biden administration’s ban on the deal to buy US Steel from Japan’s Nippon Steel was a sharp signal of a shift in emphasis in US industrial policy.

Even though Nippon Steel is a Japanese company with only 5% of its production capacity in China, the partial participation of Chinese stakeholders in its capital has raised concerns in the White House about the potentially toxic impact on the American steel sector if the deal is completed.