Cleveland-Cliffs is teaming up with Nucor in a potential bid for US Steel, sources say.
Cleveland Cliffs It is in cooperation with a competitor Nucor It can be auctioned. American steelEarlier this month, a White House review of Japan’s Nippon Steel was blocked, sources told CNBC’s David Faber.
Cleveland-Cliffs will buy all of US Steel for cash and sell its Big River Steel subsidiary to Nucor, the sources said. U.S. Steel’s headquarters will remain in Pittsburgh under the deal.
The offer will be at a maximum of $30 per share. Nippon had planned to buy American steel at $55 in a deal worth more than $14 billion.
Shares of U.S. Steel jumped more than 8 percent to $37.15 on Monday. CNBC has reached out to the companies for comment.
At the end of the week, the White House extended it for the last time Nippon The companies filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging President Joe Biden’s decision to block the deal, permanently halting U.S. steel production until June.
US Steel and Nippon also filed a separate lawsuit against Cleveland-Cliffs, alleging that CEO Lorenzo Goncalves and United Steelworkers President David McCall conspired to block the deal. Shares of Cleveland-Cliffs and Nucor rose nearly 3 percent on Monday.
Goncalves dismissed the lawsuit as “an innocent effort by U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel to blame others for the dangers they caused themselves.”
Biden’s decision to block the sale came after a review by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment, but the president has made it clear for months that he believes United States Steel should remain an American company.
Biden cited national security concerns in the Jan. 3 decision and said a strong domestic steel industry is critical to the U.S. supply chain. U.S. Steel and Nippon have argued that the deal is good for workers and national security by bolstering the steel industry against threats from China.
U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt has called on President-elect Donald Trump to reverse Biden’s decision to block the sale when he takes office later this month. Trump also opposed Japan’s purchase of American steel.
US Steel closed at $34.24 a share on Friday.
