Trump says Iowa is getting the US’s biggest steel plant by 2030. But will it really happen, or is it a midterm mirage?
The rumors started last week, with landowners in southeast Iowa’s Lee County telling the Des Moines Register a commercial real estate agent had been looking around for land for a possible steel plant.
On Sept. 24, state lawmakers heard there might be a special legislative session called to decide whether to incentivize, or give money to, the company to build it. That special session is now officially happening Oct. 2.
But on Sept. 28, President Donald Trump announced that Mesabi Metallics, based in Minnesota and owned by a conglomerate in India, would build a $15 billion steelmaking complex in Iowa, before any deal was reached.
The plant could be operational by 2030. It would be the largest steel plant in the US—if it’s built as announced.
Mesabi claims the plant will need approximately 6,000 construction workers to build it, and says around 1,750 will be needed to run it.
That would be excellent news to Lee County, which has lately had one of Iowa’s highest unemployment rates at 4.6%.
But will it actually happen?
The Iowa Capital Dispatch points out that the Iowa Economic Development Authority could offer incentives and tax breaks to Mesabi to entice them to come to Iowa, without needing the legislature’s approval.
That could mean that Mesabi is asking for a large amount of taxpayer money that Iowa, running billion-dollar deficits year after year, does not really have.
Iowa Sen. Janice Weiner said in a statement this week lawmakers “have no details regarding any potential incentive package that may be offered to this foreign company.”
Building the country’s largest steel plant from scratch in four years is also suspect, particularly since Mesabi took almost 20 years to complete its taconite iron ore mine in Minnesota, which is expected to supply Iowa’s plant.
The number of jobs could be inflated, too: Mesabi claimed 350 jobs were coming to its mining operation in Minnesota, but just 200 workers have been employed so far, according to Minnesota Public Radio.
And then there’s the timing: Trump announcing a giant steel plant before there’s an agreement in place, in a state where 60% of Iowans disapprove of Trump and Republicans on the economy, is all pretty interesting just a month from the Nov. 3 election.
Maybe that’s why Iowans on Reddit think it’s likely not even going to happen.
A plant like this could be huge for Iowa’s workers—if it’s not all smoke and mirrors.
