Reuters
A month before Nippon Steel discovered its $15 billion takeover of U.S. Steel was on the brink of being torpedoed by President Joe Biden, the Japanese company received a strong hint that things were taking a turn for the worse. On Aug. 1, officials from the powerful Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) told representatives of Japan's biggest steelmaker and its U.S. target that the committee had identified a potential national security risk, two sources familiar with the negotiations told Reuters. CFIUS was concerned that the deal could reduce U.S. steel production capacity, disrupting critical industries like transportation and infrastructure, the officials told the executives in the call, which has not previously been reported.