India's Essar Group to invest $18 billion in US, build largest steel plant in Iowa: Trump

US President Donald Trump on Monday said Indian conglomerate Essar Group will invest a total of $18 billion in the United States, including in building America's largest steel plant in Iowa.

Trump made the announcement at the Oval Office where Essar Group co-founder Ravi Ruia and Mesabi Metallics Chairman Rewant Ruia outlined the group's plans for investments in the US.

"I heard it is 20," Trump joked after Ravi Ruia announced an $18 billion investment.

Ravi Ruia said Essar, which he founded with his brother Shashi Ruia several decades ago, is a family-owned business focused on building large industrial assets.

"My brother Shashi and I founded Essar many decades ago. We are a family business and above all, we are builders. We have built world class steel plants, oil refinery ports, power plants, and various other assets, in India and overseas," he said.

Ruia said Essar had now chosen the US for its "next major chapter".

"We have expertise of building projects like the proposed steel plant in Iowa and we look forward to come to complement all the excellent knowledge that already exists within the American steel industry with our own expertise," he said.

He also acknowledged the support of the Trump administration, saying it had been "highly engaged and proactive".

"Thank you Mr President for your leadership and your confidence in Essar and the Ruia family. Thank you again sir for standing behind American investment and American industry and for making this possible," Ravi Ruia said.

The new steel plant is being built by Mesabi Metallics, a Minnesota company owned by India’s Essar Group.

Mesabi Metallics is building the plant to start production by 2030, a White House official said.

The facility is expected to produce 10 million tonnes of steel a year and create as many as 1,750 permanent jobs in the state, the official said.

The plant will use iron ore from a new mine that the company invested $2.5 billion to build in Minnesota. The mine will produce about 7.5 million tonnes of iron per year and create about 350 jobs in the state, the White House official said, noting that it will be the first new iron mine in the US in 50 years.

Rewant Ruia, chairman of Mesabi Metallics, thanked Trump "for bringing back the importance of building things in America".

"While I was born in India, I went to high school in New York, college in Boston and did my MBA in California. I have spent half my life here so announcing this investment today is...a true homecoming for me," he said.

Ruia said the new steel complex in Iowa would help complete a fully integrated American supply chain "from mine to mill".

"With the new steel complex in Iowa, we will complete the fully integrated American supply chain, from mine to mill," he said.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick; John Jovanovic, chair of the Export-Import Bank; and David Copley, senior director for Global Supply Chain, were among the other people present at the announcement.

Lutnick linked the proposed investment to the Trump administration's steel tariffs under Section 232.

"So these are your (Section) 232 tariffs, the steel tariffs at work. Without those tariffs, this mine doesn't get built, and their steel plant does not get built," Lutnick said.

He said the project involved a $2.5 billion iron ore mine and pointed to the US dependence on imported iron ore pellets.

"Where do we get those pellets from now? We get them primarily from Brazil, so we are beholden to Brazil to build our steel in America because the input is coming from outside the country," Lutnick said.

"So now we are unleashing the Iron Range in Minnesota, which is the greatest, as the chairman said, the greatest set of iron," he added.

Essar Group's US investments include the Mesabi Metallics iron ore project in Minnesota. The company has been developing the project as part of its plans to establish an integrated steelmaking and iron ore production chain in the US.