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US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

cnn.com

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Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#61

Post by verdverm »

kranke155 wrote: post #49
wmeredith wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please illuminate us. How is this misinformed?

Top comment said the company was a failure. Doesn´t seem to be the case, since the company was clearly profitable.

Shrinking and laying off workers is rarely seen as successful. You can play games and look/stay profitable all the while the real story is far from it.

Success is typically seen as something that is improving, whether profit or market share. Shrinking while still remaining profitable sits in a more gray zone. I think most don't see this as successful, but I wouldn't call it a complete failure either, unless you consider selling a local company to a foreign company a failure.

Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#62

Post by analog31 »

ryzvonusef wrote: post #3
ryzvonusef wrote: post #2

> US Steel has agreed to be bought by Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest steelmaker, in a $14.1 billion deal. > Earlier this summer the United Steelworkers union vowed to only support a proposed offer by another unionized American steel company, Cleveland Cliffs, to buy US Steel, in a cash and stock deal then valued at $32.53 a share, or 40% less than Nippon’s all cash offer. The US Steel board rejected that offer and sta…

on why it failed: > US Steel and other steelmakers eventually followed those foreign competitors to upgrade factories and equipment, but they still largely used the older methods to make steel by melting raw materials such as iron ore in giant blast furnaces. > Those “integrated” steelmakers soon lagged behind so-called “mini-mills,” nonunion competitors that use more efficient electric arc furnaces to turn old steel…

The question is... who's going to smelt iron ore?

In fact I think it was the head of US Steel, who put it succinctly several years ago: Somebody has to turn iron ore into iron.

Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#63

Post by verdverm »

AYBABTME wrote: post #37
abtinf wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no comment on this specific case, but in general: all of those things—all government interventions that ostensibly protect an industry or company—make it more brittle, less efficient, and more likely to fail. That is precisely the point. You can’t build a successful business by ignoring reality.

At the same time some industries and their major businesses are strategically important enough to warrant government support.

The gov't might support an industry, but it should not pick winners in it.

Look at what's happening to GM, called Government Motors when they were bailed out, they seem to be headed down the same path US Steel is. Their thinking is broken

Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#65

Post by Kon-Peki »

adastra22 wrote: post #17
MisterTea wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[citation needed]

Seriously? What citation is needed? The unions are why they didn’t switch to a less labor-intensive process. How is that a controversial statement?

Electric arc furnaces don't necessarily reduce union labor needs. They reduce the amount of energy needed and reduce the carbon emitted and are simpler to operate (yes, fewer people). But the newfound flexibility and utilization that they provide generally increases the number of union laborers the steel mill employs.

The IBEW brings union workers in from multiple states and puts them up in temporary housing just to build these things as fast as possible. Everybody wants them, they are just so incredibly expensive at the size that US Steel needs.

Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#66

Post by AlbertCory »

tehjoker wrote: post #50
RetpolineDrama wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So the question is... did unions prevent a path to upgradation to new tech? Of course they did. It's even worse in legacy auto, Engineering has to get approval from the union for any significant new vehicle features.

probably bc there are safety and other concerns that need to be addressed? management gets to check that off why not the people building it?

" other concerns " doing a lot of work there. What other concerns?

Is "how many people get employed, and at what salaries" one of them?

Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#67

Post by caycep »

verdverm wrote: post #61
kranke155 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Top comment said the company was a failure. Doesn´t seem to be the case, since the company was clearly profitable.

Shrinking and laying off workers is rarely seen as successful. You can play games and look/stay profitable all the while the real story is far from it. Success is typically seen as something that is improving, whether profit or market share. Shrinking while still remaining profitable sits in a more gray zone. I think most don't see this as successful, but I wouldn't call it a complete failure either, unless you consi…

is the reason for the sale mostly due to corp management profit min/maxing then?

Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#68

Post by Der_Einzige »

ryzvonusef wrote: post #2

> US Steel has agreed to be bought by Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest steelmaker, in a $14.1 billion deal. > Earlier this summer the United Steelworkers union vowed to only support a proposed offer by another unionized American steel company, Cleveland Cliffs, to buy US Steel, in a cash and stock deal then valued at $32.53 a share, or 40% less than Nippon’s all cash offer. The US Steel board rejected that offer and sta…

This btw is why Japanese cars are better than American cars.

It's objectively better to work in a unionized environment. Let's you be "lazier" and get away with half-asserey - great from the worker perspective but from the perspective of a prospective buyer, ideally your product is produced by people who work as hard as possible. The Japanese have a work-hard without half-assing attitude. This is why Toyota/Lexus have consistency the best build quality, stitching, etc in their cars. Their employees are mostly not unionized and not even paid particularly better than the American ones - but the Japanese work ethic is preserved.

This is also why "made in japan" toyota/lexus is prefereed to made in america/canada toyota/lexus.

Re: US Steel, once the largest corporation, agrees to sell to Nippon Steel

#70

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

RecycledEle wrote: post #64

[flagged]

> We were ignored, slandered, and our votes were never counted. Literally, the State of Texas does not count votes in Presidential Elections for "third parties."

You understand that's by design, right? In most states (likely all, but I can't be bothered to check if there's an exception), a candidate has to register as a "write-in candidate" or votes writing in their names won't be counted at all. Ostensibly, this was done when people were actually writing on paper, and it might be impossible to count 100,000 unique write-in names if 100,000 voters voted for unique names.

Now, in the digital/electronic voting machines where there would never need to be separate first class candidates and second class "write-in" candidates, the system is preserved for whatever reason.

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