Trump-announced $15bn US steel mill draws scrutiny over Essar's Russia ties

A Trump-announced $15bn steel megaplant in the United States is drawing attention because the project is linked to the Indian Essar Group, which has longstanding business ties to Russia. The mill is being developed by Mesabi Metallics, a Minnesota-based company owned by Essar Group, and is expected to become the largest steel plant in the United States once completed. The announcement was made on Monday from the Oval Office, with Donald Trump presenting the project as a major economic win.

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Ravi Ruia, a cofounder of Essar Group, stood behind Trump during the announcement, alongside a line of US politicians and cabinet members. The project is to be built in Iowa, and the White House has said it would bring hundreds of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue. The report says there is no evidence the steel project itself violates Russia-specific US sanctions.

Even so, the ownership structure has prompted scrutiny because of Essar's wider commercial history. That history includes major oil and refining dealings with Russian-linked interests. Essar sold one of India's largest private oil refineries in 2016 to a Russian-led consortium for nearly $13bn, after which Essar Oil was rebranded as Nayara Energy.

Nayara is now half-owned by Rosneft, the Russian gas major that is under heavy US and European sanctions over Moscow's war in Ukraine. The company has also been supplying petroleum products to Russia, according to the report, at a time when Russia is facing fuel shortages after repeated attacks on its oil and gas depots. The steel announcement matters because it places a high-profile US industrial project alongside a corporate group with deep exposure to sanctioned Russian energy assets.

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That creates a politically sensitive backdrop for a project being promoted as part of an American manufacturing revival. It also highlights the difficulty Western governments have faced in trying to isolate Russia economically while global companies continue to operate across borders and sectors. The timing of the announcement, just before the US midterm elections, adds to its political significance.

Essar's links to Russia are not new. The report notes that a decade earlier, in October 2016, Shashi Ruia appeared in a photo frame with Vladimir Putin during the signing of another major deal. The group has also relied on Russian investments in the past to help manage major debts, according to the article.

Those connections help explain why the new steel project is being examined not only as an industrial investment, but also as part of a broader pattern of cross-border business involving Russian capital and assets. Nayara Energy remains central to that wider picture. Formerly Essar Oil, it continues to use Essar branding in India under a 99-year deal and operates thousands of petrol stations there.

The company is under European Union sanctions, and Rosneft's stake links it directly to a Russian state-backed energy major. In that context, the steel project has become more than a local manufacturing story, because it sits within a corporate network that has repeatedly intersected with Russian energy and finance. What remains unclear is whether the steel project will face any regulatory or political consequences in the United States.

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The report says there is no current evidence of a sanctions breach, but the ownership and financing background is likely to remain under scrutiny. It is also not clear how the project will be affected by the wider sanctions environment around Russia-linked assets. For now, the key issue is whether the industrial benefits promoted by the White House will outweigh the reputational questions surrounding Essar's business history.

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