Essar-backed Mesabi Metallics to set up $15-billion steel plant in US

MUMBAI: Essar Group-backed Mesabi Metallics is setting up the largest steel complex in the US with $15-billion investment, the company said on Tuesday. The Ruia family-owned Essar Group, once among the largest producers of flat steel in India, will set up the steel plant in Iowa with a capacity to produce 10 million tonnes of steel each year.

Mesabi Metallics will use iron ore for the Iowa plant from its mine in Minnesota, which was recently operationalised. The company has invested nearly $3 billion in this iron ore mine at Nashwauk in the state, which is the first new mine in Minnesota in five decades. This combined $18 billion investment is the largest single-location investment for steel in the country.

"This steel will be mined, melted, and made right here in the USA, which is something very unusual," US President Donald Trump said in a briefing late Monday. "This is a tremendous investment...the plant will produce some of the highest quality, most affordable steel anywhere in the world," he said.


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In 2018, Trump imposed 25% tariffs on steel imports, which were doubled to 50% in 2025, when Trump returned for his second term. "Our steel industry is roaring back to life. Everyone is building their plant here because they don't want to pay tariffs," Trump said.

Direct-reduction grade iron ore pellets produced at Mesabi Metallics' mine in Minnesota will feed the steel complex in Iowa, where steel will be produced using an electric arc furnace.

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This method of producing steel emits lower carbon emissions compared to the traditional blast furnace route, which uses coking coal.

"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% American steel," Rewant Ruia, chairman of Mesabi Metallics, said.