Production targeted for 2030, years after voters decide November midterms
President Donald Trump on Monday announced what he called the largest steel plant in American history — a roughly $15 billion facility planned for eastern Iowa by Mesabi Metallics, a steelmaker owned by India’s Essar Group. Speaking from the Oval Office flanked by Iowa’s top Republicans, Trump said the plant would produce “some of the highest quality, most affordable steel anywhere in the world.”
The White House said the project aims to begin production in 2030, years after voters go to the polls in November. Trump also claimed construction had already begun, saying the plant “they’ve already started building,” though his administration’s own timeline puts first steel years after the midterms he is using the announcement to influence.
The federal government is providing substantial financial backing. The Export-Import Bank, a federal agency, will provide up to $10 billion in financing for the expansion, according to a White House official. Trump credited his tariffs — the taxes the US charges on imported goods — for drawing the investment, telling reporters: “Everyone’s building their plant here because they don’t want to pay tariffs. It’s really not that complicated. A lot of people say they don’t understand it, but they do. They just don’t like to give us credit.”
The plant will run on iron ore from Mesabi Metallics’ mine in Minnesota, which Trump said accounted for roughly 60 percent of US iron ore production in the 20th century. He used the announcement to attack that state’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, saying: “They have one of the worst governors in history, a real stupid guy, but they do have good iron ore, which is more important, I guess.”
The two men have previously clashed over mining in Minnesota, most recently over Walz’s August order halting permitting for mining projects near the Boundary Waters wilderness area. The Iowa plant Trump announced would draw on Mesabi Metallics’ Minnesota ore, putting state-level mining policy on the supply side of the project.
When asked whether global outsourcing would be needed to build the plant, Mesabi Metallics chairman Rewant Ruia said “most of the critical materials” would come from the United States but added that “there are some materials that might be used that need to be imported for making and refining the highest quality steels.”
Trump used the event to single out Rep. Ashley Hinson, a Republican congresswoman running for the Senate seat being vacated by Joni Ernst, who was also in the Oval Office. “I saw some good polls just recently,” Trump told Hinson. “Looks like you’re doing well.”
The polling for that race is less rosy than Trump suggested. A Marist survey published last week found Hinson trailing Democrat Josh Turek by eight points in the conservative state. An earlier Emerson College poll had Hinson narrowly ahead but found voters worried about tariffs. Democrats see the seat as one of four they need to retake the Senate.
The project is “expected to create up to 6,000 new construction jobs, nearly 2,000 manufacturing and mining jobs, and add another $95bn to the US economy,” according to Trump.