Anshan Denies US Delay

Anshan Iron & Steel Group officials insist they are still planning to invest in the U.S., despite remarks from one company executive that the China steelmaker’s first U.S. plant has been postponed.

“Anshan Steel’s goal to invest in the U.S. market remains unchanged,” the Liaoning-based steelmaker stated om email sent via public relations firm Burson- Marsteller. “Anshan Steel is committed to working closely with our U.S. partners to move forward.”

Chen Ming, vice chairman of Anshan Steel’s listed unit, had told reporters earlier that the group had postponsed plans to build a rebar plant in a partnership with Steel Development Co. in the wake of objections from some Mississippi lawmakers. The investment posed a national security risk because the company would be controlled by the Chinese government, a group of 50 U.S. lawmakers wrote in a July letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

The US$175 million plant in Armory, Miss., was scheduled to produce 300,000 tons a year of construction rebar from recycled steel scrap.

Ming told reporters when he announced the postponement that the chance for approval was small.

The letter from the 50 lawmakers was strongly backed by the U.S. steel industry, including Nucor Corp., which has accused Beijing of heavily subsidizing China’s steel industry. Anshan has publicly denied the accusation.

Two Chinese investments involving a Nevada mine and a fiber optics company were investigated and deemed a threat to national security in the past year.