Nippon Steel Corp. is promising unionized workers of United States Steel Corp. that it won’t send steel shipments from its overseas mills as part of its commitments to seal a $14.1 billion takeover of the iconic American company.
The letter mostly reiterated the promises made by the Japanese steelmaker in the last year, though also served to counter arguments against the deal made by union leaders including USW President David McCall. Last week, the union leader questioned the legality of Nippon Steel’s meeting with workers. Mori’s letter vowed not to import any overseas produced steel slabs into the US, or reduce the ability of US Steel to produce slabs. He also reiterated a promise that Nippon Steel wouldn’t pursue layoffs as part of the takeover and reaffirmed plans to make investments of about $2.7 billion to upgrade US Steel facilities around the country.