Trump Announces Largest Ever US Steel Plant – The Epoch Times

President Donald Trump makes an announcement on steel (AP Photo)

President Donald Trump revealed plans for the biggest steel plant in U.S. history from the White House on Sept. 28.

“This plant will produce some of the highest quality, most affordable steel anywhere in the world,” Trump said during the event.

Mesabi Metallics executives joined the president and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) in the Oval Office to highlight the company’s $15 billion investment in Iowa.

After the first phase of construction is complete, the facility will produce approximately 7.5 million tons of steel annually, increasing to 10 million tons per year once fully constructed.

The build-out is expected to take about three years, adding more than 5,000 construction jobs and about 1,750 permanent positions, and contributing more than $95 billion to Iowa’s economy by 2040, according to White House estimates.

State leaders landed the deal with a combination of tax and withholding credits and sales-tax refunds for construction.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds thanked Mesabi executives and the administration, touting the investment’s impact on the Hawkeye State.

“This is a transformational opportunity, not only for our country, but for Iowa, and really, for American families,” Reynolds said, noting the benefits to economic and national security created by strengthening a supply chain critical for defense and manufacturing industries.

Steel produced at the new plant will provide components for energy and other critical infrastructure, shipbuilding, machinery, and appliances, among other uses.

Mesabi’s development marks the first so-called mega steel plant built in the nation in more than 60 years. The Bethlehem Steel Burns Harbor Works in Indiana was built near Lake Michigan between 1962 and 1964.

The project is being privately funded, and will be supplied with iron ore by the company’s affiliated Minnesota Iron Range project, which received assistance from the Export–Import Bank of the United States.

Mesabi recently invested $2.5 billion in iron ore production facilities in Nashwauk, Minnesota, which will provide material for steel production at its new Iowa operation.

Export–Import Bank Chairman John Jovanovic attended the Oval Office event and visited the site on Sept. 17 for a ceremonial mine blast.

“It all starts with mining more in America,” he said during the event. “What you see here today is private capital flowing to rebuild America and to build America’s future.”

The facility’s direct-reduction pellets will allow for clean high-quality production of high-quality virgin iron using electric-arc furnaces, far superior to the scrap iron that currently makes up 70 percent of U.S. steel production, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

“This deal will be mined, melted, and made right here in the U.S.A., which is something very unusual,” Trump said.

Rewant Ruia, chairman of Mesabi and parent company Essar, detailed the vertically integrated business model, from the mining and creation of the first iron ore pellets produced in the country in half a century, dubbed the Patriot Pellet, to the new steel plant in Iowa, while thanking the president for “bringing back the importance of building things in America.”

The Trump administration prioritized reshoring manufacturing, using 50 percent tariffs on foreign steel to incentivize domestic development.

“Everyone’s building their plant here because they don’t want to pay tariffs,” Trump said during the ceremony. “It’s really not that complicated.”

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and the president also announced in March plans for the first steel plant in the nation since the 1960s, slated for Ascension Parish near Donaldsonville. A joint venture between Hyundai Steel, Hyundai Motor Group, and POSCO, the $5.8 billion investment will produce about 2.7 million tons per year of coated sheet steel for its automobile manufacturing operations.

Steel production has increased by 9 percent since Trump took office, and the nation climbed to third worldwide in annual output, surpassing Japan last year for the first time since 1999, according to a statement from the White House.

Domestic mills now account for 84 percent of steel used in American finished steel, up by 7 percentage points in the president’s second term.

The White House criticized President Joe Biden’s administration for blocking leases for copper and nickel mining projects in Minnesota. The 2023 decision to rescind access to more than 225,000 acres halted the Twin Metals Mine in the Duluth Complex.

Essar’s history in the region dates to 2005, when the firm purchased the assets in Nashwauk. The company broke ground in 2008 before financial complications during the Great Recession stalled construction.

With the midterms looming, Republican candidates in Iowa’s races, including Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), who seeks to fill Ernst’s vacated seat, and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), running for reelection, were on hand for the announcement.

“We feed and fuel the world, and now we’re going to continue to be a part of the American manufacturing story,” Hinson said.