The world’s largest steel maker has pulled out of the country over China’s emissions regulations and warned the government it could lose millions of jobs.
Steelworks SA (SSB) announced Wednesday it was withdrawing from a joint venture with China’s steelmaker China Steel Group Corp.CGS is one of the world’s biggest producers of steel and a key investor in the United States.
Its decision to withdraw from the CGS-CGS joint venture, which provides financing for the steelmaker’s expansion, comes as President-elect Donald Trump faces increasing pressure from China to address rising emissions.
The U.S. Steel Institute, which represents the steel industry and represents the world steel industry, said in a statement that it is concerned about the impact the CGT partnership would have on the company’s operations in China and the potential for the company to be left vulnerable if its operations are disrupted.
The CGS joint-venture is the largest of several that the steel giant has with China.
The U.K.-based company is also one of three Chinese steelmakers that are part of a consortium that owns and operates several U.N. facilities.
The CGS consortium includes Beijing Tianjin Heavy Industry Co., which is the world leader in heavy-duty steelmaking.
China Steel Group, the world-largest producer of steel, is China’s largest private company.
In 2016, it invested $8.3 billion in U.W. Steel Corp., the U.B.C.-owned parent company of American steelmaker PPG Inc.
The investment was made during the Trump administration.
Trump had pledged during the campaign to withdraw the U,W.
and PPG companies from the joint venture.
On Wednesday, China Steel announced it was closing all operations at its factories in Urumqi, Xinjiang, and the central city of Zhengzhou.
China Steel also announced it would sell off its assets and said it would seek to sell off the Urumishi Steel Group to Chinese state-owned enterprises.