When Rewant Ruia took the microphone at the White House on Monday, he started with a bit of biography. He was born in India, he said, but studied in New York, Boston and California, and had spent half his life in the US. It was a fitting preface. The 43-year-old chairman of Mesabi Metallics was there to help unveil what President Donald Trump called the largest steel plant in American history, a project that could well define his career.
Mesabi, an Essar Group company, will invest $15 billion in an integrated steel complex in Iowa, taking the group’s total US commitment to about $18 billion once its Minnesota mine and pellet plant are counted. Production is targeted for 2030, starting at 7.5 million tonnes a year and rising to about 10 million tonnes. “This plant will use the latest technology and will compete head-to-head with any steel plant in the world on size, quality and cost,” Rewant said.
For a group once cited as a case study in corporate indebtedness, it is a remarkable turn. Between 2017 and 2019, Essar went through one of corporate India’s largest deleveraging exercises, losing its steel business to ArcelorMittal and its refinery to Rosneft. Much of the decade since has gone into repair work. Iowa marks a shift from survival to something closer to redemption.
Rewant’s American story, though, began long before the insolvency. In 2007, Essar acquired Minnesota Steel Industries with plans for an integrated mine, pellet plant and steel mill at Nashwauk, and construction started under him the following year. It has been a long road, but the 7-million-tonne mine and pellet plant is now the raw-material anchor for Iowa, and the first new iron ore mine in the US in about half a century.
Rewant is the son of Ravi Ruia, who founded Essar with his brother Shashi in 1969 on the back of a marine construction contract at Chennai Port. He joined the family business in the summer of 2005 after an MBA from Stanford, by which time his cousins Prashant and Anshuman were firmly established in the empire. At the White House, his father spoke of carrying forward the vision of Shashi Ruia, who died in November 2024.
These days Rewant is rarely in one place for long. He shuttles between the US, the UK, West Asia and India, overseeing the group’s metals and mining operations in the US, its oil and gas business in the UK, green steel projects in Saudi Arabia and mining in Mauritania. He has also helped oversee Essar Steel Algoma in Canada and played a key role in the acquisition of Trinity Coal. “He has very good knowledge about most big markets, which has helped the group’s operations globally,” said a person who has known him for about a decade.
His stated aim is to move Essar’s portfolio from assets built over the last 50 years to ones that will stay relevant for the next 50. Colleagues describe him as a go-getter who has streamlined the group’s systems and pushed old-economy assets towards ESG-compliant businesses. “He has a heart of a Marwari but mind of a modern entrepreneur who believes that technology can transform businesses,” said a longtime acquaintance.
He is also said to be a firm believer in teamwork, which counts for something at a time when several of India’s top business families are locked in public battles over control and legacy. “He believes in building relationships, and shares a great rapport with his cousins,” said a former employee. Friends say he wears his responsibilities lightly and has a great sense of humour. Away from work, he is passionate about automobiles, sailing and art, and sits on the board of MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Iowa now gives him the chance to prove that the Ruias can not only rebuild, but build big again.