Essar Breaks Ground on New Great Lakes Region Steel Plant
Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 10:16AM 
Essar
Steel Hodings Ltd., a steelmaking subsidiary of the Essar Group of
Mumbai, India has broken ground on a revolutionary new steel product
making facility in Nashwauk, MN near Hibbing MN and less than 90 miles
from the Seaway Port Authority of Duluth, the highest volume port on
the Great Lakes.
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlnety joined Essar executives for the groundbreaking on the new facility which is slated to be the first mine-to-steelmaking plant in North America. The new facility will include an iron ore pellet plant, a direct reduced iron (DRI) plant and a steel mill. The new facility's output is pegged at 2.5 million tons per year. At this level of production the plant is expected to employ 700 workers. Construction of the facility will employ nearly 2,000 construction workers.The Governor's office says that the State of Minnesota is putting up nearly $72 million worth of bonds to support infrastructure projects associated with the plant.
As reported on June 6th in The Seaway Channel, the Essar Group has become a major player in recent years in the Great Lakes steel market with their purchase of the former Algoma Steel plant in Sault Ste. Marie, ON and the purchase of the former Missesota Steel's assets in Nashwauk, MN last October. The new mine-to-mill facility in Minnesota which is expected to be completed within five years, will solidfy Essar's strong position in the Great Lakes region steel market and very likely result more steel industry cargoes for Great Lakes and Seaway vessels.
