Key facts
- The White House said the Iowa mill would create 6,000 construction jobs and 1,750 permanent jobs and generate $95 billion in economic activity.
- Iowa's legislature approved $1.4 billion in tax breaks for the Mesabi Metallics project.
- Mesabi Metallics is a Minnesota-based firm that is part of the Indian conglomerate Essar Group.
- Mesabi spokesperson Charles Sutton said the company anticipated several announcements in the coming weeks in line with the project schedule.
- Wever bar owner Mike Strom said he found no records of land sales in public records he reviewed.
- Days after the Iowa announcement, Trump said South Korea would invest $54 billion in an Alaska natural gas pipeline, and officials in Seoul said they had agreed to no such deal.
Donald Trump gathered Iowa Republicans in the Oval Office in late September 2026 to announce that Mesabi Metallics, a Minnesota firm owned by the Indian conglomerate Essar Group, would invest $15 billion to build the largest steel mill in the country in Iowa. According to the White House, the project would create 6,000 jobs during construction and 1,750 once complete, and generate $95 billion in economic activity.
One month later, in the small town of Wever, population 142, word had spread that the mill would be built somewhere nearby. Residents said they had seen no shovels in the ground, no workers on a job site and no machinery on the dirt roads toward the Mississippi River. At the Green Bay Bar and Grill, Wever's only restaurant, Missy Pollpeter, 52, cited more jobs as the project's potential, while her husband Mike Pollpeter, 60, added: "If they bring it here."
Iowa's Republican-controlled legislature quickly approved $1.4 billion in tax breaks for the mill. Charles Sutton, a spokesperson for Mesabi, said the company was on track to produce steel by 2030 from a site in eastern Iowa whose location would be announced in the very near future. "The project is in active development with strong momentum," Sutton said, adding that Mesabi anticipated several announcements in the coming weeks in line with the project schedule.
Mariannette Miller-Meeks, the Republican who represents south-eastern Iowa, said the project was for sure happening and that details were under negotiation between the county and Mesabi. Blaine Watkins, a Republican who represents the area in the state legislature, said talks had been going on for seven or eight months and that he had a hard time believing they would not come to fruition.
Skepticism in Wever centered on the timing and staging of the announcement, made just over a month before the midterm elections, and on Trump's history of proclamations that did not pan out. Jeff Thompson, serving drinks at the town's only bar, asked: "Remember Foxconn?" Foxconn is the electronics manufacturer Trump declared would build a large factory in neighboring Wisconsin during his first term, only for the project to wind up flopping. Days after the Iowa announcement, Trump said South Korea would invest $54 billion in an Alaska natural gas pipeline, and officials in Seoul said they had agreed to no such deal.