Cleveland-Cliffs, Nucor weigh joint bid for US Steel – Bloomberg

US steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs is working with Nucor to weigh a potential joint bid for US Steel. Bloomberg reports, citing a source.

The companies are considering a proposal under which Cleveland-Cliffs would acquire most of US Steel and Nucor would acquire the latter’s so-called mini-mills, the insider said. A final decision on this has not yet been made.

US Steel did not respond to the agency’s requests for comment, while Nucor declined to comment.

Meanwhile, Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lorenzo González confirmed his interest in US Steel at a press conference. He said that his company has an “all-American solution to save United States Steel Corporation”, but did not provide details on how the purchase would be financed.

González said that as soon as Nippon Steel terminates the deal, “we will work.”

Earlier, US President Joe Biden blocked the takeover of US Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel for national security reasons. Subsequently, the companies filed lawsuits in a last-ditch effort to save the merger. A separate lawsuit involves Cliffs, Lorenzo González and David McCall, the international president of the United Steelworkers union, who are alleged to have sought to undermine the deal. Both defendants called the allegations “baseless.”

In January of this year, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) approved an extension of the deadline for Nippon Steel to abandon the takeover of US Steel to June 18 from February 2.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in December, US Steel warned that its profit for the fourth quarter of 2024 would be lower than forecast in the fall. The steelmaker expected its adjusted EBITDA for October-December to be approximately $150 million, down from its previous forecast of $225-275 million.