Feature: Serbian metal industry regains vitality with Chinese investment

"After the Chinese group bought our Smederevo steel mill, the factory regained life. Now we are not afraid of losing jobs and hopeful of the future," Novica Jovanovic, a 51-year old veteran told Xinhua.

In the Smederevo steel mill, which was founded in 1913 and once labeled "the pride of Serbia" for its outstanding profit, Xinhua journalists witnessed a busy and orderly scene.

In the reception hall, the national flags of Serbia and China are hung side by side on the wall while further inside the factory, machines are growling, various technical vehicles are running and workers are busy operating.

The present of the steel mill is quite a contrast to the past.

It went bankrupt in 2003 before it was sold to U.S. Steel for 23 million U.S. dollars. Serbia bought it back in 2012 when the U.S. investor withdrew, but since then the company's 5,000 workers had been sent on paid leave until April 2013 when the furnaces of the steel mill started operating again with limited capacity.

Then Chinese HeSteel Group (HBIS) bought the factory for 46 million euros (51.6 million dollars).

The natives called the smoke produced by the furnaces "the smoke of hope" because it meant the normality of production, and regular work and payment for the workers, said Nikola, a safety mechanic.

HBIS has promised to employ all workers in the factory and invest in technical improvement and market expansion.

According to data provided by the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, export of steel last year from Serbia was worth 325 million dollars, but Ljubisa Obradovic, an official of the Chamber of Commerce, believed this to improve significantly with the arrival of HeSteel.

"The arrival of HeSteel to Serbia opens huge potentials in metal-electro industry and mining in the sense that the level of production will double in comparison to the current state," Obradovic said.

Slobodanka Susa, director of the Serbian Association of the Steel Industry, echoed by saying that HeSteel's purchase of Smederevo steel mill is a win-win deal.

"It is very important for Serbia's economic development that Smederevo steel mill can continue production. Meanwhile the deal makes the steel production go to the European market more easily," Susa explained.

For regional development, this purchase is a good example within the frame of China's Belt and Road Initiative and the China-Central and Eastern European (CEE) cooperation, which integrates Chinese capital, technology and Serbian work force and steel producing experience, Susa added.

"Chinese people are old friends of Serbian people," said Jovanovic. The veteran with 30 years of working experience in Smederevo steel mill said he believes that the factory's future will be as bright as the cooperative relations between Serbia and China. Endi