Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: India’s leading business group Essar on Tuesday announced to invest USD 18 billion (approximately INR 1.73 lakh crore) to build a fully integrated steel business in the US, including a USD 15 billion steel complex in Iowa, the media reported.
The company described the move as the largest single-location investment in an integrated steel complex in American history.
The project marks a major overseas manufacturing push by the India-origin Essar Group, linking an iron ore mine and pellet plant in Minnesota with a proposed USD 15 billion steel complex in Iowa.
When completed, the integrated operation is expected to produce 10 million tonnes of steel annually by 2030, using iron ore from Mesabi Metallics’ Minnesota mine, US President Donald Trump said while announcing the investment at the White House in the presence of Essar Group founder and Vice-Chairman Ravi Ruia, Mesabi Metallics Chairman Rewant Ruia and senior US officials and lawmakers.
Mesabi Metallics, an Essar Group company, is developing a USD 2.5 billion direct-reduction-grade iron ore mine and pellet plant in Nashwauk, Minnesota, the state’s first new iron ore mine and pellet plant in nearly 50 years.
President Trump said the project would create up to 6,000 new construction jobs and 2,000 manufacturing and mining jobs and add USD 95 billion to the US economy.
“This is a tremendous investment and it is going to be over 10 years using advanced steel making technology. The plant will produce the highest quality, most affordable steel anywhere in the world,” Trump said.
“Everyone’s building their plants here because they do not want to pay tariffs,” he added.
The Iowa complex will use direct-reduced iron (DRI) and electric arc furnace (EAF) technology, with the company saying the process will lower energy consumption and emissions compared with conventional blast-furnace steelmaking.
Rewant Ruia said the company is investing USD 3 billion in Minnesota to build “the first new mine in America in 50 years.” “We will be producing the Patriot pellet very soon which will be amongst the highest quality iron ore pellets in the world.”
With the new steel complex in Iowa, he said the company would complete a fully integrated American supply chain “from mine to mill”. “The American ore will be carried on American railroads to an American steel plant powered by American energy, built and operated by incredibly hardworking and talented workforce,” he said while standing next to President Trump.
“This plant will use the latest technology and will compete head-to-head with any steel plant in the world on size, quality and on cost,” Ruia added.
The company said that nearly USD 3 billion has already been invested in the Minnesota operation. The Minnesota mine will produce direct-reduction-grade iron ore pellets for the Iowa steelmaking facility.
“This investment marks a new chapter in Essar’s global journey,” Ravi Ruia said, adding that the project would contribute to stronger India-US economic ties through investment, industrial growth and job creation.