NOTHING ABOUT THE IOWA STEEL MILL IS GUARANTEED. INDIAN COMPANY ESSAR JUST PULLED EVERY IOWA JOB LISTING
Commerce Secretary Lutnick said "this deal is done." Trump said "they've already started building." Neither is true. No site. No permit. No land purchase. No binding contract. Iowa has a memorandum of understanding it has not published, and a company that has not committed to a location.
And since Wednesday, Essar has pulled every Iowa job listing it posted.
Last week
@Amanda_Goodall went through every job Mesabi Metallics posted after the White House announcement. Every Iowa role was tagged remote. No site office. No site team. The listing for the procurement lead, the person who awards the mill's equipment and construction contracts, said the hire would be "based in Paducah, Kentucky."
Paducah is where this plant was headed before Iowa. Mesabi set up a Kentucky subsidiary in 2025 and filed with Kentucky regulators in August for a 7 million ton DRI and steel plant with three electric arc furnaces. Its CEO said Kentucky was one of "multiple sites." Then Iowa got the announcement, and the Paducah listings got an Iowa tag.
Friday, Iowa called a one-day special session and doubled its tax credit for Mesabi to 10% of the investment, paid out over 10 years. The credits are refundable and transferable, so they can be sold. Up to $1.5 billion. The company still has not committed to a site.
By Sunday the procurement listing was gone. We checked today. Every Iowa and Paducah listing is gone from Essar's job board. Click one and you get: "Hiring for this position has been put on hold at this time." The 38 jobs still posted are all in Minnesota.
Same owners who left Minnesota with a half-built plant and a bankruptcy. Iowa just handed them up to $1.5 billion in tax credits on paper, and they do not have one job listing in the state.
INDIAN COMPANY TO BUILD LARGEST STEEL PLANT IN AMERICAN HISTORY
They already fucked one state out of billions, and now they will build in our heartland.
Mesabi Metallics is owned by Essar Group. This is their leadership team. Essar is a Mumbai conglomerate run by the Ruia family.
This is not their first American steel plant. Essar Steel Minnesota started a taconite project in Nashwauk, Minnesota in 2008. They spent roughly $1.9 billion, left it half built, and filed for bankruptcy in 2016.
Minnesota pulled their mineral leases. The state spent years fighting them in court.
Essar bought the project back under the Mesabi Metallics name and made new promises to finish it. It is still not done.
Now the White House says the same company will build the largest steel plant in American history.
Same owners. Same playbook. Different state. Expect us to get fucked again.