Builder of Unfinished Taconite Facility Looks to Restructure Millions in Debt
03/28/2016 - Essar Steel Minnesota, the company building Minnesota’s first new taconite facility in years, owes approximately US$1 billion and has hired advisers to help it restructure its debt, reports the Reuters news service.
According to Reuters, the company, which is affiliated with Indian conglomerate Essar Global Group, has hired a law firm and an investment bank to help.
The nearly US$2 billion project in northern Minnesota has been developed in fits and starts, but was to have been completed later this year. However, work has been on hold since the beginning of 2016, according to reports.
Minnesota state Rep. Tom Anzelc told the Duluth News Tribune newspaper that major investors in the project had visited Minnesota’s Iron Range in recent days to look at how it might be moved forward without Essar.
"I'm actually optimistic that by getting Essar out of the way, we may see good things still happen," Anzelc told the newspaper.
"The investors are apparently willing to move ahead, possibly looking for other new partners, and finish the project. They also seem interested in moving toward a (direct-reduced iron) product as well."
Last week, Lourenco Goncalves, chairman and chief executive of iron ore miner Cliffs Natural Resources, told Iron Range business and civic leaders that he believes his company’s future lies in making products for electric arc furnaces – and “strongly hinted” that he’d like to build a DRI plant at the unfinished Essar Steel facility, according to the News Tribune.
"We need to put a DRI facility in Minnesota" he said, according to the newspaper.
The nearly US$2 billion project in northern Minnesota has been developed in fits and starts, but was to have been completed later this year. However, work has been on hold since the beginning of 2016, according to reports.
Minnesota state Rep. Tom Anzelc told the Duluth News Tribune newspaper that major investors in the project had visited Minnesota’s Iron Range in recent days to look at how it might be moved forward without Essar.
"I'm actually optimistic that by getting Essar out of the way, we may see good things still happen," Anzelc told the newspaper.
"The investors are apparently willing to move ahead, possibly looking for other new partners, and finish the project. They also seem interested in moving toward a (direct-reduced iron) product as well."
Last week, Lourenco Goncalves, chairman and chief executive of iron ore miner Cliffs Natural Resources, told Iron Range business and civic leaders that he believes his company’s future lies in making products for electric arc furnaces – and “strongly hinted” that he’d like to build a DRI plant at the unfinished Essar Steel facility, according to the News Tribune.
"We need to put a DRI facility in Minnesota" he said, according to the newspaper.
