David, thank you very much for doing this. Tell me a little bit about what's around us right now.
Well, we're here in Allegheny County in Pennsylvania in a city called Irvin. And this is what you're seeing here is the finishing line, the pickling line. So, you have coils here that weigh about 40 tons. And a coil like this could make like 40 cars or 200 appliances.
Wow. Yeah. So, that's my next question is who is the biggest customer these days for US Steel?
Well, we have customers in auto. We have customers in appliance. We have customers in construction. We also have oil and gas customers. Auto is the biggest sector, but appliance is also what we do primarily here is also an important customer to us, too.
So, everyday Americans who are watching this, they're going to encounter this product most likely in an appliance or in their vehicle.
Absolutely. Mined, melted, and made in the USA.
All right. Tell me about that. So this is not recycled. This is fresh ore out of the ground here in America.
Yes, sir. It starts in the Minnesota ore operations which we have. We take coal from Appalachia and then bring it here, put some limestone in to a blast furnace in our facility called Edgar Thomson just a few short miles away. Put it in the blast furnace. We make big slabs that are long slabs that we bring into the hot mill and then they show up here in the pickling line where we make sure the finish is very good. You know that fine finish you see on appliances and on automobiles? That's what happens right here.
You ever wish they were building more Empire State buildings so you could make a few more sales in that department.
We're excited about what's happening now. Over the next few years, we're going to be spending some $14 billion at US Steel.
We're going to be building our facilities like right here, a couple billion dollars on a brand new hot strip mill in Minnesota. We're going to be improving the Minnesota ore operations. In Indiana, we're working on blast furnaces there. In Arkansas, we're putting in a DRI facility. And in Alabama, we're also investing there with premium connections for the oil business. And we just opened up a blast furnace in Illinois near Granite City. So, we're really excited about what's happening at US Steel.
Talk to me about the big picture. I think the peak for production for US Steel was about 100 million metric tons. That was in the 70s, I believe. You'll correct me. Where are we now and where do you want to be?
Well, 100 million tons is basically the opportunity here in the United States. And we're 15 to 20% probably on the market share aspect here. But we're going to grow. Autos will grow. Appliances were growing. We actually are investing so much for the future because we see our best days ahead.
Talk to me about the jobs picture. I'm coming to you from Detroit. I was at a Ford plant. I talked to the CEO of GM. They have hiring difficulties that they've talked about where they'll have open jobs for mechanics, but they're unable actually to find somebody for the position.
Yeah, this essential industry, it's a real issue. But so far, we've been in really good shape in terms of the people that are attracted to the business that we operate. The people have a very good pay, very good benefits. Let's face it, the people that do the work here, they're the difference that makes it for US Steel.
The tariffs, they came in during the first Trump administration. Biden kept most of them. Now they're back and even higher than before. How are they helping or hurting you here at US Steel?
Oh, they're a game changer. We really appreciate that the tariffs are in place. This strengthens national security, economic security and also make sure we have job security and creates jobs. So it's really is a game changer for us. We need to keep them in place and then we can make sure this $14 billion is put to work.
When you think about US Steel as an American, I have a reaction. It's an incredible American company. The might and the history, it's all inspiring. As I said, we had this acquisition over the summer with Nippon. How should we feel about it? Are you still an American company?
We have a great partnership with Nippon, and we're grateful for the president who approved this. This partnership really is a game changer because without the partnership, we would not be able to invest as much money as what we're doing now. Let's face it, this is really a wonderful thing for the workers and the workers were the ones that made this happen. The communities were the ones that made this happen. And President Trump listened to them and he heard them loud and clear. We need this investment and we could not have a better partner than Nippon.
As part of the partnership, as you call it, the president has a golden share allowing him to veto certain key business decisions like closing a plant or moving locations. How does that work?
Well, there's nothing in this golden share that prevents us from doing what we want to do. We're aligned with what the president wants us to do. In fact, we wouldn't have agreed to this thing if we weren't sure it was going to be great for our workers and great for our company.
The Wall Street Journal looking at that deal, thinking about it and other business publications. They've used this term state capitalism. It's capitalism, but you've got this extraordinary state intervention. How do you feel about it or how would you describe it?
Well, I don't see it as a great intervention because the things that are in this, we don't want to do anyway. Like things like changing the name of US Steel. If we want to change the name, we have to get approval for that.
