President Donald Trump on Monday announced an $18 billion investment in a fully integrated American steel system, including a major steel plant coming to southeast Iowa's Lee County.
The $15 billion plant will be built by Mesabi Metallics, a Minnesota-based company belonging to the Indian conglomerate Essar Group. The other $3 billion will help complete Mesabi’s new mine in Minnesota’s Iron Range, which will supply iron ore to the Iowa steel plant.
“With the new steel complex in Iowa, we will complete the fully integrated American supply chain, from mine to mill,” said Rewant Ruia, a member of Essar’s founding family and Mesabi Metallics' chair. “American ore carried on American railroads to an American steel plant powered by American energy, built and operated by an incredibly hardworking and talented American workforce.”
The president said the plant would produce steel for use at home and abroad.
“Soon after my inauguration, I imposed powerful 50% tariffs on all foreign steel, and now our steel industry is roaring back to life,” Trump said.
Mesabi expects the plant to begin operations in a few years and offer at least 1,700 permanent high-paying jobs.
A slate of Iowa Republicans, including Gov. Kim Reynolds, Sen. Joni Ernst, Rep. Ashley Hinson and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks joined Trump at the White House.
“Really, what this does is it changes the economic trajectory for this region,” Reynolds said. “It's one of the most depressed regions of Iowa.”
The announcement comes as Republicans are facing steep competition from Democrats for key congressional seats. Trump won Iowa comfortably in 2024, but now Hinson and Miller-Meeks are in toss-up races for the U.S. Senate and House, respectively.
The Iowa state Legislature may be called into a special meeting to consider tax breaks for the company.
“These are the kinds of opportunities we have been looking for and that Iowa needs,” Iowa Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh wrote in a statement. “As we look to remain competitive on the national level, the largest private investment in Iowa history makes it clear our state is open for business.”
Iowa Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner said in a statement that the Statehouse has no details regarding a potential incentive package.
"The announcement this afternoon regarding a potential steel plant in southeast Iowa is compelling. I would love to see the creation of good-paying jobs for hardworking Iowans," Weiner wrote. "We don’t know whether transparency and accountability measures will be included to safeguard Iowans and the local communities, whether Iowa’s skilled union laborers will be prioritized, how any potential deal will impact landowners, or why haste is necessary. Until we know what kind of deal is on the table, we won’t be able to determine whether this project is indeed in taxpayers’ best interests."
White House officials said the project is not dependent on any local incentives.
“I think this deal is done,” said Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. “They've already worked it out. That's why we're all together with the president. The president doesn't bring people together unless it's a done deal.”
