[HN Gopher] U.S. Steel Shareholders Approve Sale to Japan's Nipp...
___________________________________________________________________
U.S. Steel Shareholders Approve Sale to Japan's Nippon Steel
Author : safaa1993
Score : 28 points
Date : 2024-04-14 21:35 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.wsj.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.wsj.com)
| advisedwang wrote:
| Crazy that congress is fighting over ownership of TikTok, but
| letting a critical piece of US manufacturing be foreign owned
| with hardly a word.
| sanxiyn wrote:
| I think the critical difference is that Japan is an ally and
| China is not.
| Loughla wrote:
| For now?
|
| I am pretty sure that at one point China was an ally and
| Japan an enemy. I think.
| tw04 wrote:
| And I'm pretty sure if Japan became adversarial, there
| would be a breakup triggered on national security concerns.
| comex wrote:
| For the last 80 years.
|
| Things will probably change someday, but not anytime soon.
| woooooo wrote:
| In the 80s and 90s there was a lot of hostility to Japan,
| because they looked like they might surpass us
| economically. They were even the villain of some Tom Clancy
| books.
|
| Now, the fear/hate is aimed at China, same reason.
| jszymborski wrote:
| There's more reason than that for Western hostility to
| China, not least of which is that it is an authoritarian
| regime with aggressive expansionist goals.
|
| Let's also not forget the reciprocity of the hostilities.
| catlikesshrimp wrote:
| Japan never had nuclear weapons.
|
| China has like ten times the population of japan, is now
| a dictatorship (like the roman republic, maybe?), the
| territory is massive, is a russian ally and a couple more
| reasons.
| bozhark wrote:
| China has never been a western ally
| dudeinjapan wrote:
| Perhaps you are forgetting WWII, when China was a main
| member of a group which literally called themselves "The
| Allies" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Policemen
| woodruffw wrote:
| China was very notably an ally while the KMT was in power
| of mainland China.
| azinman2 wrote:
| Having an adversary control the psychological inputs to half of
| your population (including a majority of the youth) is clearly
| a bad idea. I actually commend congress for taking this action,
| no matter the rhetoric.
|
| US steel is a separate issue that also probably shouldn't be
| sold, but at least with Japan there's some reciprocity in
| access to markets.
| loufe wrote:
| I'm surprised this is confusing. While one could talk in terms
| of what is just and right according to law and rules, but this
| is without a doubt a political deciison.
|
| It's a question of US-opposed vs US-aligned country company
| ownership.
| mtcprodus wrote:
| There's obviously a difference between Japan, a US ally,
| ownership and China, a US enemy, ownership. Chinese 50 cents
| army hard at work here.
| MattGaiser wrote:
| "Foreign" comprises both friends and foes. That is more the key
| issue. If TikTok were from the UK, there would be no hearings
| in Congress.
| delfinom wrote:
| They didn't care an actual us adversary bought a major pork
| producer in the US....
|
| Japan is at least an allied country, and they wouldn't be
| buying a failing company to just throw it away. The company
| that mainly opposed it, Cleveland cliffs wants to buy the
| remains to have a complete monopoly on automotive metal supply.
| bsder wrote:
| You can "solve" Japan owning US Steel by the army showing up
| tomorrow. You can't move a steel mill.
|
| You can't "solve" TikTok short of shutting them down.
| bradleyjg wrote:
| The factories aren't going anywhere. If Japan and the U.S. go
| to war, we can nationalize them.
| benced wrote:
| Can you explain what nefarious things Japan - one of the US's
| closest allies by the way - could do by owning 12% of the USA's
| steel output in the form of physical factories that are on US
| soil?
| echelon wrote:
| Where are the subsidies for US Steel? This seems like a critical
| input for national defense and industry.
|
| Even though the Japanese are allies, we should always have a
| domestic iron in the fire.
| sanxiyn wrote:
| Nucor exists. US Steel is not #1, even in US.
| MattGaiser wrote:
| US Steel isn't even the biggest steel producer in the USA. That
| would be Nucor.
| jessriedel wrote:
| Strongly recommended blog post: '"No inventions; no innovations,"
| a History of US Steel' by Brian Potter
|
| https://www.construction-physics.com/p/no-inventions-no-inno...
| macintux wrote:
| > Today, it makes just 12% of American steel...and employs
| around the same number of people as online pet retailer Chewy.
|
| That's...surprising.
| sosull wrote:
| +1. I read this a few weeks back and it really stuck with me.
| blackeyeblitzar wrote:
| Thanks for sharing. This is a disturbing read in some ways:
|
| > To maintain prices in the face of fluctuating demand, Gary
| would gather the industry's leadership together in regular
| "Gary Dinners," where price levels would be agreed upon and
| Gary would "exhort the chairmen, presidents, or other major
| owners of steel companies to maintain rank." Those who refused
| to cooperate would be "disciplined" by the others. Many former
| Carnegie Steel executives, schooled in the intense competition
| of the Carnegie years, were allergic to this strategy, and
| departed for other steel companies.
|
| > Under his leadership, the company successfully fought off a
| Justice Department lawsuit to break up the company as an
| illegal monopoly. (Perversely, the court ruled that the Gary
| Dinners proved that US Steel did not have the power to set
| prices, and thus couldn't be a monopoly).
|
| This makes me wonder if we just need totally different laws
| that are not going to be mired in lawsuits that drag out for
| years while monopolies and oligopolies continue making money.
| Maybe we just need higher taxes for the biggest corporations.
| lifeisstillgood wrote:
| One of the driving forces in steel making is high capital cost
| which drives the need to keep operating at full capacity, driving
| prices to margin.
|
| There are not many industries like that anymore - steel still is,
| oil, and some industrial chemicals. But even Pharma has slightly
| different cost structures.
|
| The big remining one is chip making - I wonder if "data centres"
| counts too?
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-04-14 23:00 UTC)