President Donald Trump said Monday that Mesabi Metallics intends to invest roughly $15 billion to build a steel plant in Iowa that would be the largest facility of its type ever constructed in the United States.
The Oval Office announcement came only weeks before the November midterm elections, which are expected to be shaped by Americans’ increasingly negative views of Trump’s handling of the economy, CNBC reported.
A White House official, speaking to CNBC on condition of anonymity ahead of the event, said the plant is planned for Iowa and is targeted to begin production in 2030. The Wall Street Journal was first to report the announcement earlier on Monday.
Mesabi Metallics, headquartered in Nashwauk, Minnesota, told CNBC the project would deliver “100% American steel: mined, melted and poured in Minnesota and Iowa.”
Iron ore for the plant would come from Mesabi’s mine on Minnesota’s Iron Range — a project valued at more than $2.5 billion that is only now starting production after roughly two decades of development. The mine was slowed by controversies, including Essar Steel Minnesota’s bankruptcy filing in 2016. Mesabi forms part of the Essar Group, an Indian conglomerate.
According to the White House, the first phase of the Iowa plant is estimated to produce about 7.5 million tons per year and to support as many as 6,000 construction jobs. The official told CNBC it is eventually to scale up to 10 million tons annually and sustain at least 1,750 permanent positions. Minnesota Public Radio reported that the Minnesota mine has so far created 200 full-time jobs against an anticipated total of 350.
Joining Trump in the Oval Office were Mesabi Metallics chief executive Joe Broking and chairman Rewant Ruia, alongside Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Export-Import Bank Chairman John Jovanovic and several Iowa elected officials.
Early in his second term, Trump imposed 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and later doubled them to 50%. The president, a longtime critic of trade deficits and free-trade agreements, has levied a range of heavy import duties in pursuit of boosting domestic manufacturing.
Critics contend the tariffs have been a major driver of rising U.S. steel prices, which recently reached multi-year highs.
On Friday, however, a number of steel trade groups wrote to Trump crediting his steel tariffs with generating $47 billion in “announced and underway investment.” They pressed him not to weaken the measures, warning that doing so would “put that progress at risk.”
Lutnick described the plan in the Oval Office as a “done deal.” Yet large, complex construction projects can change drastically — or run into insurmountable roadblocks — over the course of their development. Construction of the Minnesota iron mine, for instance, was supposed to be finished by 2016 before the company behind the project filed for bankruptcy, Minnesota Public Radio reported.
Trump has previously touted projects that failed to live up to their initial hype. During his first term he attended the groundbreaking for Taiwan electronics manufacturer Foxconn’s planned $10 billion Wisconsin factory and praised it as “the eighth wonder of the world.” In 2021, Foxconn reduced its planned investment to $672 million and cut expected new jobs to 1,454 from 13,000.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement to CNBC on Monday: “President Trump is delivering on his promise to rebuild American industry, reshore manufacturing, and create new jobs.”
“Today’s announcement underscores the President’s historic efforts to revitalize the U.S. steel industry — supporting local communities, strengthening supply chains, and protecting our national security,” Rogers said. “After decades of decline, this President is restoring America’s industrial competitiveness and securing trillions of dollars in new investment.”
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