Snow lay thick in the Pittsburgh suburbs as Takahiro Mori, a bespectacled, 67-year-old executive from Japan¡¯s Nippon Steel, huddled in a cluttered garage with community leaders to reassure them he was not giving up on a bid to buy the town¡¯s steel mill.

Just days before the early January meeting, U.S. President Joe Biden had blocked Nippon Steel¡¯s proposed $14.9 billion takeover of U.S. Steel, a move both companies said risked thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in investment.

With Biden¡¯s incoming successor Donald Trump also voicing opposition to the planned purchase, the outlook was bleak.