NEW YORK (NEWSnet/AP) — United States Steel Corp. said Sunday that it rejected a $7.3 billion buyout proposal from rival Cleveland-Cliffs and was reviewing “strategic alternatives.”

Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel said it rejected the offer because Cleveland-Cliffs was pushing it to accept the terms without being allowed to conduct proper due diligence.

"At this juncture, we cannot determine whether your unsolicited proposal properly reflects the full and fair value of the Company. For all of the above reasons, the Board has no choice but to reject your unreasonable proposal,” U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt said in a letter, released Sunday, to Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves.

Cleveland-Cliffs announced earlier Sunday that it had made an offer valuing the U.S. Steel at $7.3 billion, based on $17.50 a share in cash and 1.023 shares of Cliffs stock. Cleveland-Cliffs said the value of the offer was $35 a share, a premium over U.S. Steel's closing stock price of $22.72 on Friday. The company said it decided to reveal the private offer after U.S. Steel rejected it.

Burritt had said previously that company received several unsolicited offers and had launched "a comprehensive and thorough review of strategic alternatives.” U.S. Steel said there was no guarantee that any deal would emerge from the review process.

Cleveland-Cliffs said its proposal, first made on July 28, would create a company that would be among the 10 biggest steelmakers in the world and one of the top four outside of China. Lourenco Goncalves, CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs, said the offer has the support of the United Steelworkers union, which has 14,000 members at Cleveland-Cliffs and 11,000 at U.S. Steel.

Cleveland-Cliffs is the largest producer of flat-rolled steel and iron in North America.

U.S. Steel was founded in 1901 by J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and others; its stock price has struggled in recent years as steel prices have fluctuated.

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