Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. Thank you for participating in today's event. This conference's objective is to explain the U.S. Steel acquisition by Nippon Steel and is to the benefit of Nippon Steel's shareholders and investors. My name is Elio Tai, Head of Metals Investment Banking at Citigroup and today's moderator. I would like to remind everyone that this event is being recorded and will be uploaded on the Nippon Steel website. We will start the conference with a presentation from Mr. Mori, Representative Director and Executive Vice President of Nippon Steel. Mr. Mori, please go ahead.
Let me briefly make a presentation. Next, please. Yes. Starting from the overview of the transaction we signed, I will get into the rationale of it, and then we will see the individual strong points of U.S. Steel. Next, please. This is an overview of the acquisition. Both U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel have a rich history of providing excellent products and services to our customers, and we have decided to join hands to move forward together through this transaction. Nippon Steel's mission to be the best steelmaker with world-leading capabilities shares its value closely to U.S. Steel's mission of delivering best for all. Next, please. We believe this acquisition is beneficial for all stakeholders. U.S. Steel shareholders will benefit from the premium in the merger consideration, and Nippon Steel shareholders will benefit from a substantial profit contribution upon consolidation of U.S. Steel.
Customers will benefit from higher value proposition and quality to meet their growth needs, and employees will benefit from the growth potential this deal unlocked. Additionally, we will honor all labor agreements of U.S. Steel. For the communities, we intend to uphold the strong and positive relations in place. Next, please. The transaction will consist of establishing a steel company that will merge with U.S. Steel. This scheme is adopted to minimize the time where the entity is exposed to the equity market, and it is a common scheme adopted in the U.S. M&A transaction. Next, please. In terms of cash flow, we intend to make U.S. Steel a wholly-owned subsidiary in the second quarter or third quarter of the next year, which means to complete the payment of the merger consideration. U.S.
Steel's total assets of approximately $20 billion and interest-bearing debt of $18 billion will be consolidated into our balance sheet. As a result, the D/E ratio is expected to deteriorate to 0.9 times from the current 0.5 times. However, this is a profit-accretive investment, and we expect the D/E ratio to gradually improve towards 0.5 times over a not-too-long time frame. For the impact to the PL, if the deal is closed by mid-August of next year, U.S. Steel will be consolidated from our third-quarter result. U.S. Steel's profit before tax for the January-September period is JPY 170 billion, and post-tax profit of JPY 140 billion, which annualized is over JPY 200 billion, implying a substantial profit-consolidation contribution. Next. This acquisition will have a very significant impact on our global strategy. Nippon Steel's vision is to achieve 100 million tons and 1 trillion scale.
Our current global crude steel capacity stands at 66 million tons, which will increase to 86 million tons by the addition of U.S. Steel's capacity of 20 million tons. Furthermore, the capacity expansions underway and planned in India mean that achieving this vision is now well within reach. Next, please. This acquisition is an exact fit to our global strategy. The key points of our global expansion policy are: number one, markets with high visibility of demand flows; second, markets where our technologies and products are highly appreciated; number three, the integrated steel mill to capture the value added from upstream; and number four, to acquire brownfield capacity through M&A that will not add incremental surplus capacity to that market. All these points are realized in this acquisition. Realizing this deal will bring our global strategy nearer to completion.
Together with the Indian expansions and the footprint in our home market of the ASEAN region, and through this U.S. acquisition, is the largest steel market of developed economies. Next, please. Globally speaking, the U.S. steel market ranks after India and China in terms of steel demand and has a potential for growth for high-grade steel products. In addition, U.S. steel demand is likely to grow further given enduring growth, availability of cheap energy resources, and the revival of U.S.-based manufacturing due to global division leading to economic growth. On the other hand, the supply-side consolidation has limited the number of players. The U.S. steel market is one of the most attractive markets in the world, as it is not dependent on export but primarily supplies the country's domestic steel demand. Next, please.
The areas of synergies and product lineup, production technology, and decarbonization technologies where there is scope for mutual complementarity. Areas where Nippon Steel's technology is advanced can be transferred to expand the U.S. market presence, which should not only benefit the U.S. economy but also benefit Japan. We intend to provide more details on synergy post-closure. Next. Both companies share the common goals of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, although the methods and pathways are different. Nippon Steel is pursuing technology-oriented practices comprised of the three breakthrough innovations. U.S. Steel is primarily pursuing CCS to achieve carbon neutrality. There is room to leverage the best practices of both pathways to achieve the common goal that can lead to synergy in the carbon neutral initiative. Next, please. U.S. Steel's manufacturing location within the U.S.
Consists of four main business domains of the flat-rolled steel products: electric arc furnace mini mill, steel pipe production, and mining. U.S. Steel also has a Slovakian production site in Košice. Main product categories are steel sheet and pipes and tubes. Raw steel production is 17 million short tons or 16 million metric tons in the United States, plus over 4 million metric tons in Košice, bringing total capacity to over 20 million metric tons. U.S. Steel is a fully self-sufficient iron ore supplier from its in-house mines of Minntac and Keetac that produce ore with quality and cost competitiveness. Next, please. U.S. Steel is a powerful brand underpinned by its rich history with long-standing trust built with customers. Also, given the importance of the brand to employees, we will maintain the brand name of U.S. Steel.
In addition, the well-balanced production base comprising mines to blast furnace and electric arc furnace makes for a powerful and effective structure, something Nippon Steel has not yet achieved. U.S. Steel mines are also competitive on a standalone basis. Other strengths include highly talented workforce and management that result in high employee retention and strong intellectual property portfolio. U.S. Steel's balance sheet has improved significantly thanks to the numerous reforms carried out by the current CEO, including the decision to acquire the U.S. mini mill company. Through our due diligence process, we are positively surprised at how much care is taken to maintain facilities, and the production site is extremely clean. I believe this is a testament to the CEO's deep roots in the manufacturing industry, including his 32 years of career in Caterpillar. Next, please. U.S.
Steel is moving forward with strategic investments such as Keetac Mine to build DR-grade pellet facility. The pig iron caster facility at Gary Works investment should help to improve EAF's cost competitiveness by moving the ore from the mine to make pig iron. Given that high-quality scrap metal prices are likely to increase in the scramble to secure scrap metal in the future. Big River investment for non-grain-oriented electric steel sheet and galvanizing line are both cutting-edge facilities that should improve quality and cost competitiveness. The capacity will nearly double with Big River 2, which is expected to come on stream in 2024. From an investor's perspective, U.S. Steel's attractiveness is these strategic investments are almost finished so that they are likely to start contributing to cash generation from next year. Next, please.
Both Big River Steel and Big River 2 are state-of-the-art mini mills even when compared to other North American facilities. What was particularly impressive was that these investments were carried out on budget and on schedule, which speaks to the strong discipline of U.S. Steel. Next, please. Given the 100% self-sufficiency in iron ore supply, U.S. Steel's profitability of flat-roll products made from conventional blast furnaces is significant and highly competitive. Products such as automotive steel made and supplied to the OEM, including Toyota and GM, which testifies to the quality of U.S. Steel products. This ends my presentation on the points I want to highlight on U.S. Steel. Remaining slides concern Nippon Steel for the purpose of investment of the shareholders of U.S. Steel. I'm confident that coming together will enable both companies to reach greater heights. With that, I would like to end my presentation.
Thank you for your attention. Thank you, Mr. Mori.