President Donald Trump announced on Monday that India’s Essar Group, through its US subsidiary Mesabi Metallics, will invest $18 billion to build what he called the largest steel plant in American history, in the state of Iowa.
Trump made the announcement from the Oval Office, flanked by Essar Group co-founder and vice-chairman Ravi Ruia and his son Rewant Ruia, chairman of Mesabi Metallics, along with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. “Today we’re thrilled to announce that Mesabi Metallics will be building the largest steel plant in American history in the great state of Iowa,” Trump said, adding that it is “one of the largest plants in the world” but “the largest plant in America by far.” When Ravi Ruia announced the $18 billion figure, Trump quipped, “I heard it is 20.”
Ruia calls it a “true homecoming”
Rewant Ruia thanked Trump “for bringing back the importance of building things in America,” and framed the investment in personal terms. “While I was born in India, I went to high school in New York, college in Boston and did my MBA in California. I have spent half my life here, so announcing this investment today is a great honour and a true homecoming for me,” he said. He also described the project’s ambition: “This is a defining moment for American steel and a transformative milestone for Mesabi Metallics. We are building a fully integrated steel business from the ground up, connecting Minnesota’s world-class iron ore resources with steelmaking in Iowa to produce 100 per cent American steel.”
Ravi Ruia said he and his brother founded Essar decades ago as a family business of “builders,” and said the investment would build on Essar’s experience in steel and strengthen economic ties between India and the United States.
What the plant will produce
The Iowa facility is designed to produce 10 million tonnes of steel a year, using direct-reduced iron and electric arc furnace technology, which Mesabi Metallics says will cut energy use and emissions compared with traditional blast-furnace steelmaking. The White House said production is expected to begin by 2030.
Estimates of the jobs the project will create vary slightly across reports, but generally include around 1,750 permanent jobs alongside up to 6,000 to 8,000 construction, manufacturing and mining jobs. Mesabi Metallics has said the project could generate an estimated $95 billion in economic output during construction and its first 10 years of operation.
Why Minnesota matters to the story
The Iowa plant is meant to draw raw material from an iron ore mine and pellet plant Mesabi Metallics is building in Nashwauk, Minnesota, on more than 16,000 acres. Rewant Ruia said the family is investing $3 billion there to build “the first new mine in America in 50 years,” and said the operation will soon produce what the company calls the “Patriot Pellet” for the US market. Essar has said it has already put more than $2 billion of equity into the Minnesota project, and in March secured a further $520 million credit facility from Valor Mining Credit Partners to advance it.
Essar’s presence in Minnesota goes back to 2007, when it acquired Minnesota Steel, which controlled more than 1.4 billion tons of iron ore resources. The state project has had a troubled history: in 2021, Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources terminated Mesabi Metallics’ mineral leases there after the company failed to meet its commitments, a lapse the current investment appears intended to move past.
Commerce Secretary Lutnick linked the investment directly to the Trump administration’s trade policy, saying that without tariffs, “this mine doesn’t get built, and this steel plant does not get built.” The administration has imposed a 50 per cent tariff on foreign-made steel, and Trump said the tariffs have brought the US steel industry “roaring back to life.” Some domestic steel trade associations have separately urged the White House to “stand firm against efforts to weaken the tariffs.”
The bigger picture for Essar
Essar Group, founded by Shashi and Ravi Ruia in 1969, has a five-decade history that has included India’s largest single-location steel facility in Hazira, Gujarat, and the country’s second-largest single-location oil refinery in Vadinar. The Iowa and Minnesota projects point to the group’s ambition of building a fully integrated domestic steel supply chain in the US, from ore extraction to finished steel. Essar has also announced plans for a low-carbon steel plant in Saudi Arabia, suggesting the US investment is part of a wider global expansion into steelmaking.
