Hesteel Serbia turning into profitable company: group chairman

A steel mill here will turn its first profit for Chinese company Hesteel, Yu Yong, chairman of Hesteel Group, said here on Thursday.

During a visit to the mill on Thursday, Yu Yong told Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic the company would have a positive balance for the first time in December this year since Hesteel officially took over its management in July.

"The steel mill in Smederevo plans to produce two million tons of steel next year which will increase Serbia's GDP by 1.0 percent, probably even more," Vucic explained.

He said that before Hesteel purchased the Smederevo steel mill, the state-owned plant had been in a such disastrous state that no one had known what to do with it, but that the Chinese company had turned its fortune around.

Yu insisted that Hesteel, a Chinese iron and steel manufacturing conglomerate, would turn the Smederevo mill into a profitable company, and that it had engaged its resources and experts to increase production. Yu said it would also invest 120 million U.S. dollars in 2017, as it did in 2016, into new equipment and technology.

Expected total production of Hesteel Serbia would be worth 800 million U.S. dollars, Yu revealed, adding that the group expected a profit of 20 million U.S. dollars.

"We brought back the vitality to the plant and overcame the hardest situations as the factory was facing closure. I hope that the steel mill will become the pride of your nation again," he said.

Yu concluded that the first profits signified a historic moment for Hesteel Serbia and repeated his promise that the plant would be one of the most competitive in Europe and globally.

Hesteel purchased the steel mill from the Serbian government for 46 million euros (47.87 million U.S. dollars) in April, when the Chinese steel giant announced investments worth 300 million euros. Enditem