Nippon Steel to Invest 300 Million Dollars in U.S. Steel

Tokyo, Sept. 25 (Jiji Press)–Nippon Steel Corp. said Thursday that it will invest some 300 million dollars in two United States Steel Corp. plants as part of the Japanese company’s 11-billion-dollar commitment to the U.S. steelmaker. This represented Nippon Steel’s first detailed investment plan for U.S. Steel to be made public since the Japanese firm’s takeover of the U.S. company in June. Nippon Steel said it will invest about 200 million dollars to improve a hot strip at U.S. Steel’s Gary Works in Indiana. The Japanese company will also spend about 100 million dollars to build a new slag recycler at the U.S. firm’s Edgar Thomson Plant in Pennsylvania. The Japanese steelmaker plans to announce a mid- and long-term turnaround plan for U.S. Steel later this year. “There has been progress in our plans to transfer our advanced technologies to U.S. Steel,” Tadashi Imai, president and chief operating officer at Nippon Steel, told reporters. Recent news reports said that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has exercised his “golden share” power to block a decision to suspend production at U.S. Steel’s Granite City Works plant in Illinois. Imai said that the move appears to be part of Trump’s efforts to protect U.S. manufacturing and jobs. “We can protect U.S. production and employment” by enhancing the competitiveness of U.S. Steel, Imai said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]