Essar Steel and local officials say the steel mill will create hundreds of jobs and job opportunities.
- Construction will provide employment for about 2,000 construction workers.
- At full capacity, the facility will employ 500 people, according to Essar's estimate.
- The facility could create three spinoff jobs for every production position, potentially providing employment for another 1,500 workers.
The steel mill could open doors to other types of enterprise, as well, said Mike Andrews, interim director of the Itasca County Development Corp.
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"This may hold out the promise of attracting other industries that want to be located close to a source of steel. It could bring high-paying manufacturing jobs to the area in the future," he said.
The project could bring additional transportation jobs to the Twin Ports, too. Some of the steel slabs produced near Nashwauk will be shipped by water to a steel plant Essar recently purchased in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The plant also could feed steel to other mills throughout the Midwest, probably via a dedicated barge service.
"If we get slabs moving on the Great Lakes, it could change the way a lot of other cargo moves, as well. It could introduce a whole new class of ship or barge," said Adolph Ojard, executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority.
New slab-handling vessels and facilities could open the way for other breakbulk -- or piecemeal -- cargoes to move by water, Ojard said. Right now, most Great Lakes vessels are dedicated to the movement of bulk cargoes, such as taconite or coal.
