David Burritt, CEO of US Steel

0:00Thank you, sir. We appreciate DFCU Financial for once again being our sponsor. Thank you Ryan and the whole team there And we thank our first guest who is in fact the keynote speaker for today this Thursday, March 12th from the Detroit Economic Club at the beautiful Masonic He was with us a couple years ago, and there was a lot going on then that has changed tremendously to the benefit of his company and of the United States of America if I might add I'm speaking about the CEO of U.S. Steel David Burrett And at that time David we were talking about you very much welcoming the people from Neapon Steel to buy into your company or buy your company And there were a lot of people who didn't understand it including maybe the president of the United States It said oh, we're not selling our our steel industry United States steel industry to the Japanese Well, he came around on that and you are now a part of Neapon Steel

1:04Welcome back and tell me if it's worked out the way you hoped it would Well, yes, it has Paul and thank you very much For having me back. It's great to be here in Detroit where you know, this is kind of where manufacturing Happens across America and long history. They're just like with U.S. steel in our Pittsburgh We have this of great commonality, but We're very pleased with the way this thing turned out And I think some people would say against all odds, you know, you have a situation where You have the president of the United States President Biden is against the deal and then President Trump was against the deal But over time what we like to say when the truth gets told into President Trump's credit he listened and he understood and he got the message that This is something the workers wanted and indeed it would strengthen national security economic security And you know that that four-letter word that we can say jobs

2:06J.O.B.S. which you were very concerned about losing if this deal didn't go through you did not have the financial Wherewithal to do the things you've now been able to do with Neapon steel now if the craziest thing is it you know A lot of people say well, you shouldn't be selling U.S. steel to the Chinese Well, you weren't ever considering that now and we get along with the Japanese. There are friends at least so far And you know, I think what made this so possible as the CEO of U.S. steel David Burrett is you Because you've said and I appreciated this about you That steel isn't just iron and carbon. It's people That's what you said. That's what you believe. That's what you live and lead the company with So what is it about our American steel workers that still impresses you most well first off Paul You're giving me way too much credit No, I'm not the reason the reason this deal got done was because of our workers

3:11And the talented people that believed in the deal with U.S. steel and Neapon and that it looks the man at the top Well, thank you very much for that, but the but the workers came for they took the time to understand it Let's face it when somebody's gonna buy an iconic company like U.S. deal There's a whole bunch of people that just don't want that to happen And then when you say oh no the foreigners are coming that gets scary to people But once they understood and you just think about this deal Paul The investments that are being made some 10.8 billion dollars between now in 2028 and then 14 billion overall That's Required we have to do that because of a national security agreement while some Companies are wondering how am I going to get the resources for my capex? Am I going to be able to spend my capital? Is there going to be a recession? What's the Fed going to do? What's going to happen in everybody's nervous? We know We have a national security agreement that requires us to get this done

4:14And the financiers already there to make sure that we can make it happen So this this is a fabulous thing that we're involved in I always tell people I just I feel a little bit like The dog that caught the car because now we have a really good problem to solve We got a lot of work to do in a short period of time and making a lot of investments and working so closely With nippon who are experts in steel making they are engineers engineers and they're bringing us what they call Dispatchers where they're handing this to their technology and letting us implement that technology and You know, I worked at caterpillar for many years and been involved in many transformations But I can tell you this deal with nippon. I've never been in one that has worked so well and so collegial It's it's remarkable how well we've come together and I think one of the reasons is One of the benefits of this deal taking so long to close We made some really good friends at nippon People that we trust and so we can have some frank discussions about where we're headed and what we need to do and and

5:20Let's face it. I'm impatient to get they'd like to say can't get to the future fast enough because when we're building and by the way This is our 125th anniversary at us steel so in the 250th anniversary of this country So with our workers How happy this makes them for not just this generation but the next generation the generation after that because of the amount of money That is being invested by nippon believing in them. It's really special. Well, I'm glad Thrilled that it's worked out just as you told us it would David For those people who didn't understand or were even against it may sayers. It has worked out. We might not have a US steel If this did not happen. Well, we weren't looking to be saved. We would be Better we would still exist. It's just that we would get Probably smaller and we'd realign our footprint differently But with this investment We can now invest in things that we really wanted to invest in because you know what it is when you have limited capital

6:25You have to parse out where that money goes and you have to make sure you make money for your stockholders That's your fiduciary duty. That's your legal obligation to make money for the stockholders and you're you have a limited cash That means you have limited money to spend so you don't necessarily spend it Where you would like to because you have that duty that you're held to David before I let you go to the stage where you are the keynote speaker here The Detroit economic club David Burrett see you of US steel I got to ask the local question because here you are in Detroit What role does the auto industry still play in the story of American steel? Well the auto industry is the most important industry for Steel for US steel our most important customers and our base our largest base is within the auto industry and they're They're tough customers, but that's where we have the advanced high-strength steel We have the lightweighting we're building cars that are safer helping them do their jobs better for their customers

7:28And we couldn't be more privileged to have them as best customers You mentioned those couple of things It does seem that steel has gotten better over the years. Oh no doubt about it If you step back in time It's not just the steel that's more formidable, weldable more and during course It's always been nearly a hundred percent recyclable What's really special is Safety is better the environment is better and everything is headed in the right direction especially with this nip on steel deal Quick off the wall question. Do you think you'll ever be asked by the government to get into munitions? You know, that's that's a question. We are US citizens first right now That's not something that we do But we're here to make sure we remain patriots and we'll continue to be patriots at you guys love that answer You are so perfect at what you do. Did he come in from central casting or is he really the the CEO at US steel? Is it he flattery will get you everywhere Paul, you know, okay. I'll get you my resume

8:32David Burrett CEO, US steel I release you to all of these people waiting to hear from you again And I know they're in for a great to conversation with you. Thanks for coming by. Thanks for having me Paul I enjoyed this all right. Thank you, and you have good help there too I made the mistake of calling her an administrative assistant But I didn't know what to call her. What are you called now? Would it just say just say Just say the boss, you know, we she sets us up and we we follow, you know Thank you very much for being here. We appreciate it. Go break the leg as we say and show business All right at David Burrett CEO, US steel. We're here at the Detroit economic club with our relentless positive radio Paul W Smith in focus on WJR