U.S. Steel, Nippon Steel end litigation against Cleveland-Cliffs

Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel have ended its lawsuit against steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs and the head of the United Steelworkers union.

Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel merged in June.

A federal lawsuit was filed in March alleging Cleveland-Cliffs, its president, Lourenco Goncalves, and United Steelworkers President David McCall, were conspiring to monopolize the steel market and sabotage the potential merger.

In July, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Horan declined to end the litigation.

Attorneys for both Nippon and U.S. Steel at the time planned to move forward with the lawsuit alleging Cleveland-Cliffs had conspired against them to try to block the deal despite the successful $14.9 billion merger being finalized a month earlier.

Cleveland-Cliffs had been a suitor for U.S. Steel but was ultimately refused in favor of the deal with Nippon.

The plaintiffs this month had voluntarily dismissed their lawsuit with prejudice. A notice of dismissal was signed by Judge Horan on Thursday.

“This outcome speaks for itself,” Cleveland-Cliffs’ chairman, president and chief executive officer Lourenco Goncalves via company statement. “The case has been dismissed with prejudice, there was no financial consideration exchanged, and all claims have been released. We remain fully focused on advancing our steel-making leadership in North America.”

In 2023, Cleveland-Cliffs offered $7 billion to buy U.S. Steel, but the company rejected the bid. It later accepted Nippon’s all-cash offer — although the Biden administration blocked the sale in January.

However, in May, President Donald Trump gave his blessing to the merger subject to a number of provisions, including that the federal government can block Nippon from reducing pledged capital investment, transferring jobs from the country, acquiring competing businesses or closing existing facilities.