President Trump said on Friday that Nippon Steel was planning to make a major investment in U.S. Steel after the Biden administration moved to block the Japanese company’s $14 billion takeover bid last month on the basis that it was a threat to national security.
Such an investment, if it moves forward, could be a breakthrough for a transaction that ran into U.S. political opposition.
Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Mr. Trump agreed that U.S. Steel should remain American owned and operated. Mr. Biden’s decision last month to block the deal left the fate of U.S. Steel in limbo, with the company saying it would need to close mills and lay off workers.
The rejection also cast a cloud over relations between the United States and Japan, which are traditionally close allies.
“The concept, psychologically, was not good,” Mr. Trump, speaking at a news conference on Friday, said of Nippon Steel’s plan to buy U.S. Steel.
U.S. Steel is based in Pennsylvania, a key electoral battleground state, and the powerful United Steelworkers union adamantly opposed the deal. The union reiterated those concerns on Friday.
“Our union has had no contact with either company or the administration regarding reports of a Nippon investment in U.S. Steel,” said David McCall, president of United Steelworkers International. “However, our concerns regarding Nippon’s continued interest in U.S. Steel remain unchanged.”
He added: “While we await the details of the proposed investment, we encourage President Trump to continue safeguarding the long-term future of the domestic steel industry by instead seeking American alternatives.”
Mr. Trump said on Friday that he remained opposed to Nippon’s owning the company but that an investment was “very exciting.” He spoke during a news conference with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba of Japan at the White House, where the two leaders discussed trade, tariffs and investment in the United States.
Mr. Trump did not describe the details of the investment, including how much Nippon might put into U.S. Steel and how such an arrangement would be structured. He said he would “mediate and arbitrate” the terms.
Mr. Ishiba also spoke optimistically about the notion of an investment.
“Japanese technology will be provided, and the better-quality products will be manufactured in the United States,” he said.
A spokesman for Nippon declined to comment, and a spokeswoman for U.S. Steel did not immediately return a request for comment.
After Mr. Biden blocked the deal, the companies filed a lawsuit, arguing that the review process, which was conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, was corrupted by politics. They claimed that American steelworkers and the steel industry were being harmed because the transaction was blocked.
Lauren Hirsch contributed reporting.
