The driving force behind a plan to build a steel plant in the US partly funded by one of China’s biggest steel companies has hit out at his critics, saying that objections to the scheme are a “ploy” by established US companies to block fair competition.

John Correnti, chief executive and part owner of Steel Development, which intends to construct a $168m plant in Amory, Mississippi, with the aid of investment by state-owned Anshan Iron & Steel, dismissed as “l(fā)udicrous” a claim by a group of US congressmen that the involvement of a Chinese company could potentially damage US national security.

“I don’t know of any tanks and guided missiles that will be made using the kind of steel [mainly used in the building industry] we will produce at the Amory plant,” Mr Correnti told the Financial Times.