In August 2018 the federal cabinet for the first time voted to block a foreign takeover. The Chinese company Yantai Taihai wanted to buy Leifeld Metal Spinning, a machine-tool maker in Westphalia. The buyer withdrew shortly before the expected ban. Leifeld’s products are used in aerospace and can also be used in the nuclear industry. The government then planned to lower the threshold at which it may review a foreign purchase of a German company from 25 to 15 percent.