The Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI), a Washington-based trade group with passenger vehicle producers and technology sector suppliers as its members, has sent a letter to two United States senators and two House of Representatives members with antitrust responsibilities expressing concern about a bid by steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs to buy its rival United States Steel Corp.
The letter from AAI President and CEO John Bozzella reads in part, “A consolidation of steel production capacity in the U.S. will further increase costs across the industry for both materials and finished vehicles, slow electric vehicle (EV) adoption by driving up costs for customers, and put domestic automakers at a competitive disadvantage relative to manufacturers using steel from other parts of the world.”
This summer, the bid by Cleveland-based Cliffs to acquire Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel went public despite the seeming reluctance of U.S. Steel executives to consider the bid.
The companies are the sole remaining operators of basic oxygen/blast furnace steel mills in the U.S. Both companies also produce grades of “electrical steel” used in several applications, but with those in the EV sector considered a likely growth market.
The AAI letter to senators Amy Klobuchar and Mike Lee and representatives Thomas Massie and J. Luis Correa reads in part, “The potential concentration in domestic steel production that will result from this proposed transaction deserves antitrust scrutiny…
