U.S. Steel sale is a monumental moment for the steel industry

I planned to write about what I usually do in this column: Steel Market Update’s latest price data on sheet prices, lead times, and service center inventories. But that plan changed when U.S. Steel announced on Aug. 13 that it was considering a sale of all or part of the company after receiving multiple unsolicited offers.

Any doubts about straying from sheet prices and lead times this month were removed when Cleveland-Cliffs said its offer for U.S. Steel had been rejected, and U.S. Steel shortly thereafter confirmed as much. Meanwhile, Cliffs remains undeterred and seeks to remain involved in the sales process.

The Cliffs offer was valued at more than $7 billion dollars. To give some idea of scale, that’s likely to be more than what Cliffs paid for AK Steel ($3 billion) and ArcelorMittal USA ($3.3 billion) in 2020 combined.