The Trump administration announced the largest steel plant in US history: a $15bn facility in Lee County, Iowa, to be built by India-based Mesabi Metallics, a subsidiary of Essar Global. The plant would produce 1,750 permanent jobs and up to 6,000 construction jobs, with steel production aimed for 2030. Iowa's legislature convened a special session and approved $1.36bn in tax incentives over ten years. The problem is the builder. Essar Global first proposed this steel plant in 2007 when it purchased Minnesota Steel for $1.65bn. By 2016, Essar Steel Minnesota had filed for bankruptcy following construction delays and financing issues at its Nashwauk, Minnesota project — the same iron ore mine that is supposed to fuel the Iowa plant. The company changed hands briefly to Virginia billionaire Thomas Clarke, who lost control in 2018, with Essar regaining ownership but then losing its Minnesota mining leases in 2021 when the state revoked them after a missed deadline. To shed debt, Essar sold assets including Essar Oil for $12.9bn to a Russia-controlled energy company. The political timing is unmistakable. Trump's approval ratings are lower than in 2018, Democrats are expected to regain control of the House and possibly the Senate, and Iowa's Republican midterm prospects are shaky. Doug May, a 43-year steelworker veteran from Granite City, Illinois, called the announcement "political pandering" and drew a direct parallel to the 2018 Foxconn project in Wisconsin, which Trump called the "Eighth Wonder of the World" and promised would create 13,000 jobs. That site currently employs around 1,100 people. Local reporting undermines the administration's claims of progress. Trump has claimed "they've already started building" the plant, but a TV6 Investigates review of county records found no major property purchases tied to the project, no permits before supervisors, and county officials without details from the company. No site location has been publicly disclosed. Mesabi Metallics did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The lobbying connections are direct. White House senior communications strategist Jason Miller's firm, SHW Partners, received at least $240,000 from Mesabi Metallics as a registered lobbyist. Miller's firm also received $150,000 per month from the Indian government for strategic counsel beginning April 2025. Public Citizen called the arrangement a "three-headed beast of divided loyalties." Miller said he deregistered from Mesabi Metallics months ago and recused himself from the White House announcement. He also called Public Citizen "America-hating fake news soy boy losers." Iowa is paying for the gamble from an empty wallet. The state faces back-to-back $1bn-plus budget deficits. The Sierra Club's Iowa chapter questioned why the state would double its standard incentive packages for a company with this track record. Former Minnesota governor Mark Dayton, who dealt with Mesabi Metallics through their bankruptcy, said he'd "like to see that money on the table from Essar before they start to bring a shovel." The steel industry's actual survival was built by workers and trade enforcement, not White House photo ops. The United Steelworkers filed over 150 trade cases over past decades to combat unfair foreign steelmaking practices, as more than 40 domestic steel producers went bankrupt in the late 1990s. The workers who lobbied Congress and held rallies — not the politicians who claim credit at announcement ceremonies — arguably saved domestic steel.
