Contract on sale of steel mill signed with China’s He Steel April 20, 2016 The Serbian government and the He Steel Group on Monday signed a contract on the sale of the Smederevo steel mill whereby the Chinese company acquired all 98 property units of the plant for EUR 46 million. Minister of Economy Zeljko Sertic and He Steel Group Chairman Yu Yong signed the contract at the steel mill. The He Steel investment in the steel mill will be worth at least EUR 300 million and the company plans to retain the plant’s 5,000-strong workforce. With an annual output capacity of 50 million tons, the Chinese company – which was the sole bidder – is Asia’s largest steel producer.The new owner announced plans to make the plant the most competitive in Europe and offer employment to all of its present workforce. The sale of the Smederevo steel mill will help boost GDP growth, anticipated at 1.8 percent this year, Finance Minister Dusan Vujovic said on Monday. Yu Yong, chairman of China’s He Steel Group, which has bought the Smederevo steel mill, announced Monday that the company does not intend to shed jobs or introduce changes to plant’s management, and believes that, already in 2017, the steel mill will be a profitable operation.Yong explained that strategic plans will be carried out in the second half of this year. We expect that the steel mill will generate the first profit already in late 2017, he added. He Steel will invest EUR 300 million in Smederevo in the first stage alone, but the investment will not only be in money, but in new technologies, know-how and a new management model as well. Source: www.tanjug.rs
