TOKYO -Nippon Steel shares rallied on Monday in Tokyo after U.S. President Donald Trump expressed support for the company’s $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social the “planned partnership” between the two companies will create at least 70,000 jobs and add $14 billion to the U.S. economy.
Trump added that the bulk of that investment would occur in the next 14 months and said he would hold a rally at U.S. Steel in Pittsburgh on Friday, without offering specifics.
It is unclear whether Trump’s term “partnership” refers to the full acquisition of U.S. Steel that Nippon Steel has been pursuing. The White House did not respond to questions about the announcement on Friday.
But U.S. Steel shares soared 21% on Friday as investors interpreted the comments from Trump, who had originally opposed the deal, to mean Nippon Steel had received his approval for its long-planned takeover, the last major hurdle for the deal.
Both U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel have lauded the comments.
For Nippon Steel, Japan’s top steelmaker, the deal is core to its global expansion strategy. It would lift production to 86 million metric tons from 63 million tons now – at a time when domestic demand is declining.
Shares of Nippon, the world’s fourth-largest steelmaker, gained 5% to 3,025 yen in Tokyo after being untraded with a glut of buy orders earlier in the day. Nippon shares were the biggest percentage gainer on Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index.
A merger would create the world’s third-largest steel producer by volume, following China’s Baowu Steel Group and Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, according to World Steel Association data.
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