(Gary, IN) - U.S. Steel is being acquired by an overseas steelmaker, as Japan-based Nippon Steel Corp. and U.S. Steel have agreed to a purchase price of $14.9 billion, marking the end of a more than century-old era of U.S. Steel.

Once a symbol of America's might with mills in Gary and other locations in the country, reports indicate that the U.S. Steel steelmaking and mining operations currently in operation will be continued by Nippon.

Under the deal, Nippon, in Northwest Indiana, will take over Gary Works, the Midwest Plant in Portage, and the idled East Chicago Tin steel mills. The Japanese steelmaker says that it plans to honor the existing contract with the United Steelworkers and maintain a relationship with the union.

The sale still has to go through a process for it to become official, and opponents such as Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman are vowing to try and kill the deal, calling it “wrong for workers and wrong for Pennsylvania.”