Garage meets and sleepless flights: How Nippon Steel's negotiator stuck at U.S. merger

Nippon Steel executive perseveres through political challenges to secure potential $14 billion deal with U.S. Steel.

Snow lay thick in the Pittsburgh suburbs as Takahiro Mori, a bespectacled, 67-year-old executive from Japan's Nippon Steel, huddled in a cluttered garage with community leaders to reassure them he was not giving up on a bid to buy the town's steel mill.

Just days before the early January meeting, U.S. President Joe Biden had blocked Nippon Steel's proposed $14.9 billion takeover of U.S. Steel, a move both companies said risked thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in investment. With Mr. Biden's incoming successor Donald Trump also voicing opposition to the planned purchase, the outlook was bleak. Fast forward five months and the persistence shown by the firm's chief negotiator seems set to pay off, with Mr. Trump now signalling he is prepared to support a deal.

"It's been a long, hard battle," said Chris Kelly, the 70-year-old Mayor of West Mifflin who hosted Mr. Mori for the January meeting at his garage-cum-office on a suburban residential street near U.S. Steel's ageing Irvin plant. He said he has met Ms. Mori on several occasions since Nippon Steel's bid was first unveiled in late 2023, including at an American football game and a Pittsburgh restaurant just over a week ago when the Japanese executive flew in to give an update on the latest developments of the planned takeover. Nippon Steel declined to comment on the meetings.

Mr. Mori, a 40-year company veteran, has been the public face of Nippon Steel's extensive efforts to convince local workers, officials and U.S. lawmakers of the economic merits of a merger plan that has had to weather a political firestorm. "I just have a strong desire to make this work somehow," a calm and smiling Mr. Mori, who serves as the company's vice chairman and executive vice president, told Reuters in an interview last week when asked about how he had personally endured the saga.

China exports push Nippon Steel to seek growth in US, India after blocked deal

Mr. Mori said he had made around 10 trips to the United States since the start of the year alone, visiting steel towns and Washington D.C., where lawmakers have been deliberating over any potential national security risks posed by the transaction. "On the plane to the destination, I can hardly sleep," he said, explaining that he had to read reams of documents, prepare for meetings during the flight, and work through the night to manage tasks back in Japan.

There may still be twists ahead. While Mr. Trump has said he supports a "planned partnership" between the two companies, lingering questions remain about the scope of the deal and its costs for the Japanese firm.