As a start, whitehouse.gov, today, time of this post, apparently has nothing on it about the Essar steel mill to be built in Iowa; (search = https://www.whitehouse.gov/news/?s=essar being null on the move).
And - Gary's point - why Iowa, not in Minnesota where the ore gets mined. It is not as simplistic as Gary speculates. And it is not Gary's fault he got misled.
It will be most interesting to see how Whitehouse.gov spins things, when it posts of the new Essar Steel move.
Briefly, Gary spins as if Dems are at fault for Republicans being moribund naysayers in Minnesota when it comes to innovation and energy independence. That Rep. Stauber and his Republican friends up on the Iron Range are indifferent to the fact energy matters - and they should not be. Gary misses that point.
Trump obfuscated, Gary speculated, not unreasonably. But, wrong.
Gary posts this. It may be what confused him into not looking further.
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| https://www.youtube.com/embed/tnpuPIYCAlI |
Of importance, AP reports politics a factor, Iowa having a less moribundd Republican presence than in Minnesota:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday announced a new $15 billion steel plant being built in Iowa, highlighting an economic victory in a key battleground state where Republicans face competitive midterm races.
Trump announced the new plant at an Oval Office event alongside steel executives and Iowa Republicans, including two running for office. The event highlighted Iowa’s elevated status for Republicans and for Trump, who on Monday pledged to campaign there in coming weeks.
“We’re going to do a great rally. We’ll all be there together,” Trump said alongside Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is running for the U.S. Senate, and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who is up for re-election. Also joining him were Gov. Kim Reynolds and Sen. Joni Ernst, who are not seeking new terms in office.
The new steel plant is being built by Mesabi Metallics, a Minnesota company owned by India’s Essar Group, an industrial conglomerate. Trump said the project will become the largest steel plant in the United States. It is expected to produce 10 million tons of steel a year after it’s fully built out.
The plant was projected to begin production in 2030, supplied by a new $2.5 billion iron ore mine that Mesabi developed along Minnesota’s Mesabi iron range. The resulting steel will be produced from start to finish in the United States, the White House said.
[...] The Oval Office announcement at times took on the tone of a campaign event. Introducing Hinson, Trump described her as a “young lady who is going to be hopefully elected to the Senate.”
“She’s outstanding, one of the top anywhere in the country,” Trump continued. “They talk about her all the time.”
Trump told Ernst she had done a wonderful job in the Senate and said he would miss her: “I can’t believe you’re leaving,” he said.
Trump and Vice President JD Vance both have touched down in Iowa this year to shore up Republican enthusiasm and energize voters before the Nov. 3 elections.
Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of Iowa’s Republican Party, said the announcement was made possible by the state’s Republican leadership, including from Reynolds.
[...] Mesabi Metallics is based in Nashwauk, Minnesota. The Essar Group is an industrial conglomerate formed in India in 1969, with ventures in industries from energy and mining to technology and retail, according to its website.
Joe Broking, CEO at Mesabi Metallics, called the announcement a “major moment for U.S. made steel,” saying the factory would be supplying a critical product that U.S. national defense, cars and trucks, shipbuilding, household appliances, energy and infrastructure depend on.
Largely parallel, CBS does add detail -
Once it's up and running in 2030, the plant is expected to produce 7.5 million or more tons of steel per year. A White House official said the plant is expected to create 1,750 permanent jobs in Iowa.[... Trump tariffs were mentioned ] Mesabi has not announced where in Iowa the steel plant will be, but Energy Secretary Chris Wright mentioned that it would be in the southeast part of the state. A White House official said this will be the first mega steel plant built in the U.S. since the 1960s. The Trump administration expects the steel could support U.S. defense projects in the future. The Wall Street Journal was first to report the president's anticipated announcement of the new steel plant.
The Export-Import Bank's board approved a $770 million direct loan to Mesabi Metallics for its iron ore endeavors on Sept. 24, a spokesperson for EXIM told CBS News. The board was initially considering up to $10 billion in support, according to a March news release.
Mesabi Metallics is owned by India-based Essar Group, but its operations haven't always been known as Mesabi Metallics.
In 2008, the Essar Group's Essar Steel Minnesota LLC began work on a massive iron mine and processing facility in Minnesota. But after years of delays, missed deadlines and financial challenges, Essar Steel Minnesota LLC filed for bankruptcy in 2016. Frustrated with the delays, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources took steps in 2019 to potentially bar Essar Global from working with the state, although the company sued over that move, and the state ultimately did not complete the debarment process.
[...] What was known as Essar Steel Minnesota LLC was eventually reborn from the ashes of bankruptcy and was bought by Chippewa Capital Partners. But Essar Group eventually regained control starting in 2019.
CBS News has reached out to Mesabi Metallics and the Essar Group for comment.
State aid could potentially be on the way for Mesabi Metallics, too.
The Des Moines Register reported state lawmakers are being alerted they may need to return to the statehouse to approve tax breaks for Mesabi. CBS News has reached out to top members of the Iowa statehouse for comment.
"I'm so excited about this project," Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst said, thanking Mr. Trump and Essar.
It's not clear why the steel plant is in Iowa, instead of Minnesota, closer to the iron ore mine.
Perhaps that history created a hostile animus on Essar's part, with the ore in Minnesota and thus having to be mined there, but with Essar having the choice to locate bigger capital down river.
It also anchors an idea that an Essar promise differs from a working facility generating jobs and steel output in Iowa, where specific siting remains unclear and Iowa ground has not been broken. More -
Iowa Republicans are facing competitive races for the U.S. House, Senate and governor's mansion. Republicans, who currently hold the governor's mansion and both Senate seats, are trying to fend off Democrats from changing that.
In the governor's race, Democratic Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand is facing off against Republican businessman Zach Lahn in what's expected to be a close race. In the open U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Joni Ernst's departure, Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson faces Democratic state lawmaker Josh Turek.
In the House, there are closely watched races in two Iowa congressional districts, between Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Democratic former state Rep. Christina Bohannan, and between Republican Rep. Zach Nunn and Democratic state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott.
Mr. Trump gave Hinson a shoutout in the Oval Office Monday, saying she will be "hopefully elected to the Senate, and she's outstanding." The president said he'll visit Iowa for a "great rally" there before the midterms.
A reporter asked the president why Republicans are having to work so hard to win seats in Iowa, a state he won by 13 points. The president said he thinks the polls, which show close statewide races in the Hawkeye State, are inaccurate.
"I don't know, I love Iowa," he said. "I've always been very strong with Iowa."
So, ExIm Bank ponies up cash. Iowa gets the big capital investment. Iowa politics seems a factor. Other reporting - important technical content added --
Mesabi Metallics’ iron ore mine on Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range is the first new iron ore mine built in the United States in 50 years, with close to $3 billion invested. Located in Nashwauk, Minnesota, the mine will produce Patriot Pellet, the company’s direct-reduction-grade (DR-grade) iron ore pellet engineered for modern electric arc furnace steelmaking – one of the highest-quality iron ore pellets made anywhere in the world. More than 1,500 construction workers are on site today, alongside over 200 full-time employees already working at the mine, building towards 350 full-time jobs once fully operational.
[...] Some of the details of the project include:
- [...] Innovation and Sustainability Through innovation and new technologies, Mesabi Metallics’ integrated steel complex in Iowa will be one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly facilities in the world. The complex will utilize hot direct-reduced iron (DRI) and electric arc furnace (EAF) technology that will significantly lower energy usage and reduce emissions.
- DRI technology involves taking the iron ore mined in Minnesota, removing oxygen at temperatures below its melting point, and creating solid metallic iron. Feeding the DRI into the electric arc furnace while it is still hot reduces the energy required to melt it, improving the efficiency and productivity of the steelmaking process.
- EAF technology is a more efficient, cost-effective way to produce steel. This facility’s EAFs will be fed with a mixture of hot, freshly reduced iron from the plant’s own DRI process and scrap steel – reducing energy use and emissions compared to traditional blast furnaces. These technologies, along with other innovations and sustainable practices, will allow Mesabi Metallics to deliver a highly efficient, fully domestic manufacturing process – producing high- quality, sustainable, cost-effective, 100% American steel: mined, melted and poured.
So electric power availability and pricing, Genco capacity, is a major factor for plant location. That is simple economics, apart from Iowa or Minnesota politics. In terms of where this analysis will be headed, this parallel item is interesting -
A $250 million Nucor Corp. "micro" mill taking shape in Sedalia, Mo., that will be the first U.S. steel production plant that will run on wind energy.
The Sedalia mill’s significance stretches beyond the state and represents the potential for greening the steel industry, which globally is a major source of carbon emissions, environmental advocates say. A report last year from the group Mighty Earth — "Cold Steel, Hot Climate" — noted that steel represented 7% of global carbon emissions worldwide in 2013, much of that from less efficient blast furnaces.
The plant is also indicative of what Midwest utilities and clean energy advocates alike see as new potential for economic expansion in the Heartland. While Appalachia has cheap shale gas driving big new investments, the Great Plains has an unlimited supply of even cleaner cheap wind.
The contract between Nucor and Kansas City-based utility Evergy Inc., which will bring new wind capacity online to supply the plant, is part of a broader national trend of corporate renewable energy purchases to achieve sustainability goals.
Chuck Caisley, a senior vice president at Evergy, said the Nucor project symbolizes an advantage the utility has in the states where it does business: Kansas and Missouri.
"Of all the utilities in the U.S., we might be the best positioned to use wind for economic development," Caisley said, referencing both to the wind resource of the central Plains, the location of its service area in the center of the country, and highway and rail access.
The plant, expected to be commissioned by year’s end, is one of the largest capital investments in the Show-Me State in years. It will employ more than 250 people and be powered through a 75-megawatt power purchase agreement between Nucor and Evergy, which is seeking regulatory approval for a special tariff to serve the plant.
The utility will bring a new wind farm online to supply the mill, where high-efficiency electric arc furnaces will melt recycled scrap and convert it into steel rebar used for construction throughout the region.
To be sure, Nucor’s decision to build the plant in west-central Missouri was driven by more than access to wind.
When it announced the project in 2017, the company said its siting decision was driven by proximity to sources of scrap steel and end use customers. Two other wind-rich states, Kansas and Nebraska, were finalists for the project.
Charlotte, N.C.-based Nucor, the largest U.S. steelmaker, didn’t respond to interview requests.
But in testimony filed with the Missouri Public Service Commission, company officials said "access to a fixed, long-term, and competitive electric rate" was "critical" to the plant’s success.
See, also: here. And there are online caveats in some reporting -
The planned steelmaking route combines direct-reduced iron (DRI) technology with electric arc furnaces (EAFs), using iron ore pellets from Minnesota and scrap steel. The company says this design is intended to reduce energy use and emissions compared with traditional blast-furnace steelmaking. Actual environmental performance will depend on final design, energy sources, operations, and regulatory reporting.
[...]
Execution and schedule: Production is targeted for 2030. Permitting, detailed engineering, construction, financing, equipment delivery, and commissioning remain important milestones.
Project history: Mesabi’s Minnesota project has a long and complicated development history, including the 2016 Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Essar Steel Minnesota and disputes over state mineral leases. Historical claims about lease termination, restoration, repayments, and litigation should be supported with Minnesota state records and court documents.
Litigation: Mesabi and Cleveland-Cliffs have been involved in disputes. Any specific damages figure, allegation of anticompetitive conduct, or characterization of a party’s position should be attributed to the relevant court filing or party. Allegations are not court findings.
Market absorption: New capacity will compete with existing US steelmakers and imports. Whether demand can absorb additional production depends on construction, automotive, energy, infrastructure, manufacturing, and export demand, as well as the product mix and operating costs of new facilities.
Policy exposure: Changes in tariff policy, exemptions, trade relationships, or financing terms could affect project economics. The existence of tariffs is not proof of a particular investment return.
[...] Conclusion
Essar Group’s planned US$15 billion Iowa steel complex is a major proposed expansion of its US operations, following development of its Minnesota iron ore mine and pellet plant. Mesabi Metallics describes the combined Minnesota and Iowa investment as approximately US$18 billion, including US$3 billion in Minnesota and US$15 billion in Iowa. The project reflects the current US industrial policy environment, including steel import tariffs and federal financing support. The Iowa facility is targeted to begin production in 2030, with planned capacity of 7.5 million US tons annually in its first phase and approximately 10 million US tons at full build-out. The company and government project 1,750 permanent jobs and up to 6,000 construction jobs. These figures remain projections. The project’s eventual contribution to US steel capacity will depend on construction progress, permitting, financing, market demand, and the company’s ability to meet its milestones. Suppliers, manufacturers, and investors should monitor verified construction and financing developments rather than treating the announcement itself as proof of completed capacity.
There is more reporting online, but the above several reports flesh out pellets of a particular kind mined and processed in Minnesots. Then steel produced from the pellets and scrap steel in Lee County Iowa.
The specific source mentioning Lee County:
Once it’s completed, Mesabi Metallic’s new steel plant will produce 10 million tons of steel per year, using iron ore from the company’s Minnesota mine, which will then be transported by rail to Lee County.
While nobody at the press conference spoke about specific locations other than Southeast Iowa, a press release Miller-Meeks did state that Lee County will be the home of the new steel plant.
“It’s the first new iron ore mine in the United States in more than 50 years; with the highest quality ore,” Trump said. “In other words, this steel will be mined, melted and made right here in the USA, which is something very unusual. The project is expected to create up to 6,000 new construction jobs, nearly 2,000 manufacturing and mining jobs and another $95 billion dollars to the US economy.”
The plant is expected to be up and running by 2030.
Export-Import Bank Chairman John Jovanovic said during the press conference that: “What we’re really talking about today is America’s economic security.”
“We are creating one American supply chain,” he said.
Howard Lutnik, U.S. Secretary of Commerce lauded Trump’s tarrifs.
“Without those tariffs, this mine doesn’t get built and this steel plant does not get built. $2.5 billion iron ore mine, it does iron ore pellets,” he said, and added that the U.S. primarily gets its iron ore pellets from Brazil. “So we are beholden to Brazil to build our steel in America because the input is coming from outside the country.”
Mesabi Metallics Chairman Rewant Ruja said the iron ore from the Minnesota mine “will be amongst the highest quality iron ore pellets in the world.”
“With the new steel complex in Iowa, we will complete the fully integrated American supply chain from mine to melt,” he said. “American ore carried on American railroads, to an American steel plant, powered by American energy, built and operated by the incredibly hardworking and talented American workforce. 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.”
Reynolds said this is a “transformational” opportunity “not only for our country, but for Iowa and really for American families.
With more quoted than "Lee County" it does show how horseshit rhetoric was a part of Trump's show.
Lee County and Electricity
Through innovation and new technologies, Mesabi Metallics’ integrated steel complex in Iowa will be one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly facilities in the world. The complex will utilize hot direct-reduced iron (DRI) and electric arc furnace (EAF) technology that will significantly lower energy usage and reduce emissions.
- DRI technology involves taking the iron ore mined in Minnesota, removing oxygen at temperatures below its melting point, and creating solid metallic iron. Feeding the DRI into the electric arc furnace while it is still hot reduces the energy required to melt it, improving the efficiency and productivity of the steelmaking process.
- EAF technology is a more efficient, cost-effective way to produce steel. This facility’s EAFs will be fed with a mixture of hot, freshly reduced iron from the plant’s own DRI process and scrap steel – reducing energy use and emissions compared to traditional coal-fired blast furnaces.
These technologies, along with other innovations and sustainable practices, will allow Mesabi Metallics to deliver a highly efficient, fully domestic manufacturing process – producing high-quality, sustainable, cost-effective, 100% American steel: mined, melted and poured.
Lee County, Iowa, and environmentally friendly permits some speculation. First. Lee County appears to have a shit load of available unused genco capacity to supply the mill.
Next, in Iowa, genco wind energy capacity is greater than all other Iowa genco sourcing. Not in Lee County, specifically, but in the State's grid. With Lee County utilities presumably all on the grid.
It seems that wind energy likely will be a factor in the proposed plant's proposed future, given the thrust of the online info on Iowa electircity.
So in Iowa because of politics, and because Stauber and his Republican group up on the range have been lax about energy, they have wind there, so, Gary's blaming the DFL power in Minnesota is less true than the Republican Iron Rangers dropped the ball. And politics of Trump and others.
No DFL fault at all. Gary is wrong in his speculation. Even with Essar not specifically saying "It will involve reliance on the long term availability of steady wind energy on the Iowa grid."
Finally, with Essar's bankruptcy court history in Minnesota, don't count your chickens until they're hatched.
End of story.
_______________UPDATE_____________
Here is the story in a nutshell. Iowa gets 64% of its electricity from wind, and Siemens has a blade factory there. Per Wikipedia. Now. With a potential for more wind and less expensive transmission line opportunities than in urban places.
Minnesota wind energy is all concentrated on the Iowa border, the Iron Range is not optimal.
If reliance on cheap wind energy beyond what is need for existing local consumption, go to Iowa.
That simple. Gary is wrong ginning up a bum theory - blame game against the DFL.
Crabgrass, above, was overly critical of the Iron Range politicians. They can be windy, but not enough to turn a turbine. Not a spot for wind energy potential.
As to sulfide mining poisoning the waters, the Republican Rangers suck big time. Save the BWCA Wilderness! Let tribal fishing and wild rice treaty rights mean something by protecting water quality.
FURTHER: Trump his administration politicians, and the Iowa politicians made a possible thing a promise in spirit. It may not happen. Essar is not the most capital heavy operation on the planet.
The politicians all saying great things got Gary wandering why not Minnesota. Well, the part that Minnesota holds, ore in the ground, is a hammer of sorts. Without that part, which could be a business apart from the Iowa mill which at present is enthusically touted. And the ore production is needed first.
So, Iowa has the cheap electricity and Lee County where barge shipment of the pellets is feasible.
However, Strib writer Aaron Brown had some shade on the whole thing, and MSN carried the item:
Internet-age humans have short attention spans, so I’d like to bring up some historical facts from the not-too-distant past.
In 2001, I wrote a Hibbing Daily Tribune editorial supporting a company called Minnesota Iron and Steel. This company wanted to open a mine and steel mill on the site of the former Butler Taconite plant that closed in 1985. The closure of Butler was a landmark event in my childhood, sending the Mesabi Range into an economic tailspin from which it has yet to recover. I remember throwing all my toys in a big box because my parents lost our house in Nashwauk, and we had to leave.
When India’s Essar Steel bought the project in 2007, I supported that, too. After a long delay as the company pitched for investment, construction at the facility ramped up in 2014 and 2015. The state of Minnesota kicked in more than $66 million for electrical and railroad infrastructure through a bonding bill allocation to Itasca County.
And then, it all stopped. Essar Steel Minnesota went bankrupt in 2016 while the parent company sorted out its own bankruptcy in India. The city of Nashwauk, Itasca County and many local contractors starved waiting for payments from Essar, only some of which ever materialized.
Ultimately, the partially completed facility was rebranded as Mesabi Metallics, just in time to lose state mineral leases to rival Cleveland-Cliffs. At the time it was hoped Cliffs would restart the value-added dream on the Mesabi, but it has largely sat on those leases like a vulture, waiting for Mesabi to die.
Unfortunately for the vulture, this one was still alive. In fact, Mesabi Metallics alleges that Cliffs interfered in its financing and construction prior to bankruptcy in an antitrust lawsuit yet to be resolved. Just a few years ago, the construction site started to rumble back to life. We soon learned it was the original owners, the Ruia family in India, and a reorganized Essar Group, raising money to finish the project.
So, a troubled Minnesota history, with bankruptcy a factor, and still pending litigation.
[...] Let’s make a few things clear about the past. Essar had all the permits it needed to open the mine and make steel in Minnesota more than 15 years ago. It simply chose not to build here.
It has its reasons. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds called a Friday, Oct. 2 special session. The Legislature there will consider amending the state’s tax credit program in a way that might allow up to a gobsmacking $1.5 billion in tax credits for this project. That’s paired with an unprecedented $10 billion loan package from the Trump administration’s EXIM Bank.
But even with this massive shot of government assistance this company still needs to raise money and doesn’t have cash flow yet. Thus, I am vexed by both the financial and logistical questions surrounding this proposal.
When I spoke to Mesabi Metallics CEO Joe Broking on May 5, we discussed moving iron ore on the Mississippi River. At the time, he was preparing to sell ore on the open market to steel mills in Louisiana.
Broking imagined massive tow barges carrying 100,000 tons of ore per load. Such an idea could be cost-effective, if it works. The logistics of hauling ore by rail south of the Twin Cities and shipping by barge are both complicated and untested.
And no, we can’t ignore the timing, or the blatant political tone, of Trump’s announcement.
In 2018, during his previous midterm election campaign, Trump announced major federal financial support to a Foxconn manufacturing facility in Racine, Wis. The project promised a jaw-dropping 13,000 jobs. But within months the company dramatically lowered its projected size. The initial announcement was pure bluster. Given the financial status of Mesabi Metallics, I worry the same here. Again, I say that as a supporter of the project.
[...] In Minnesota, the question is not how many jobs we lost to Iowa. I can name 15 billion reasons those jobs don’t exist yet. We are investors in a very expensive iron ore mine in Nashwauk, one that would benefit the local economy, schools and public services. We need this company to finish its work and start production so it can contribute to the state that gave so much to its founding.
If this company rushes again, as it has before, it risks another bankruptcy, and the shuttering of a good idea that Minnesota has supported at great cost.
So, it is not as if Apple is rolling out a new product. It is a thin company, apparently, wanting to expand its business reach with public money. That's dicey. If it happens and turns an ecologically clean profit, great.
If not, the idea was appealing, but a grond beaking is not even an assurance that steel will be made. So wish the venture well, in Iowa, with Minnesota getting the less fraught part of things, that job boost, and don't be greedy about the other State perhaps getting more. Show appreciation for getting the likelier less risky part of things. Be grateful. Not sore-headed over Iowa getting a promise bigger than Minnesota's.
Risk is a part of any planned venture. Risk at each juncture. The whole planned thing can be built out and producing steel, but then if the profit is not there, the thing suffers, and markets can vary for metals where the business is supply to other businesses also facing risks, so hope and wait and see.
Brown does mention the Foxconn slip twixt cup and lip.
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