United States Steel Corp. shares posted their biggest drop in two months, a day after US President Donald Trump reiterated his long-held position that he doesn’t want to see the steelmaker owned by a Japanese company.
Shares in US Steel sunk more than 10% Thursday in New York, marking the biggest intraday decline since early February, before trimming losses. The stock was down 7% at $41.98 as of 11:12 a.m. — still well below Nippon Steel Corp.’s $55-a-share offer to buy the iconic American steelmaker.
The drop followed Trump’s Wednesday afternoon comments in the Oval Office that pointed to the US producer’s rising steel orders as evidence that the company doesn’t need any investment right now. Trump also said he doesn’t want US Steel bought by “any other place” — apparently referring to other foreign buyers.
Investors in the past week had boosted US Steel shares to the highest level since March 2024 on hopes that Trump would reverse a decision by his predecessor to block Nippon Steel’s bid to buy the US company. Trump ordered another national security review of the proposed deal on Monday, with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States told to submit its report within 45 days.
“I mean, if you go back to US Steel from 90 years ago, it was incredible, it was the No. 1 company in the world for a long time,” Trump said Wednesday. “That’s why we don’t want to see it go to Japan, and we love Japan but US Steel is a very special company.”
It’s the latest twist in a more-than year-and-a-half saga in which the fate of US Steel’s future has been left in the lurch. US investors and policymakers viewed Nippon Steel’s $14.1 billion offer as a home run, not thinking twice that one of America’s closest allies in the post-war era would trigger national security concerns.
But Trump and former President Joe Biden, both part of a generation that grew up knowing US Steel as one of the most iconic US companies that exemplified America’s 20th century economic power, never indicated they were comfortable with Nippon Steel owning the steelmaker. Despite Trump’s latest comments, the decision still may ultimately come down to whether the Cfius panel again finds national security concerns.
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