“I want to buy,” chairman and chief executive officer Lourenco Goncalves said during a press conference Monday.

"I have an all-American solution in place. The all-American solution centers on people, on workers,” he said. 

CNBC reported Monday that Cliffs and Nucor Corp. are partnering on a potential bid for U. S. Steel, with Cleveland-Cliffs purchasing all of U.S. Steel in cash and then selling its U. S. Steel’s Big River subsidiary to Nucor. 

But first, U. S. Steel and Nippon Steel would have to abandon the merger, Goncalves said during the press conference, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

“I don’t control the wishes of the board of U. S. Steel.  I want that to happen. I can’t make it happen,” he said.