(The Center Square) – The largest steel plant in U.S. history is coming to Iowa, the White House said Monday.
Mesabi Metallics, a company headquartered in Minnesota but based in India, will be building the $15 billion mill in Lee County, Iowa, a county that sits along the Mississippi River on the western edge of the industrial Midwest’s Rust Belt.
“Southeast Iowa, my district, has long had jobs leave and go overseas,” said Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, while lauding the anticipated arrival of the new mill.
Mesabi Metallics estimates the steel plant will create over 1,700 permanent jobs and up to 6,000 construction jobs, which Miller-Meeks called “transformational” for the area.
The company is also currently commissioning its new $2.5 billion iron ore mine and pellet plant in Minnesota, the first iron ore mine opened in the U.S. in approximately 50 years.
Miller-Meeks also mentioned a “natural gas pipeline that’s going to come” to the area that would help support the mill, though it was unclear which specific pipeline or project she was referring to.
Attendees also stressed that the supply chain for the mill would be wholly domestic.
“This deal will be mined, melted, and made right here in the USA, which is something very unusual,” said President Donald Trump.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright called it a “win of American national security, and a massive economic win and vote of confidence in the fabulous State of Iowa.”
The administration has been engaged in efforts to reshore manufacturing, largely through tariffs, as well as deregulation aimed at expanding domestic energy production.
Trump and members of his administration credited those policies with helping make the plant possible.
“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.
The president has also repeatedly argued that expanding domestic manufacturing is important not only for creating American jobs but also for reducing U.S. dependence on foreign supply chains as a matter of national security.
The steel plant will “create steel at the same price they make it and import it from China. This is competitive,” said Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.
