A MEETING WAS HELD WITH THE REPRESENTATIVES OF SMEDEREVO LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Thursday 04.10.2023
The company HBIS GROUP Serbia was visited by the mayor of the city of Smederevo, Jovan Bec, and representatives of the local communities of Smederevo, Radinac, Vranovo and Ralja today. In the presence of the host, they toured the New Sinter Line, and then had a joint meeting.
The general director of the company, Wang Lianxi, recalled that since the company took the Steel Mill over in 2016, it had invested over 300 million euros in projects that are mainly focused on environmental protection. “The most important thing is that this is just the beginning and we plan to continue investing in some more environmental projects, to stay here for a long time and to work hard and improve our performance. We also received an Integrated (IPPC) permit recently for the Smederevo location and we have outlined in our plans to reach the level of emissions prescribed in the EU by 2025. At the same time, everyone’s understanding and patience is necessary, because this is a multi-decade problem that we have inherited, and we will certainly spare no effort to solve it in the coming years”, Wang said.
The presentation was held by Ljubica Drake, general manager of Environmental Protection, who emphasized that the company has 8 continuous meters on emitters (chimneys). “The central emitter on the New Sinter Line has a triple dedusting system: an electric filter, a bag filter and a gas desulfurization system. We have a continuous meter on it and the maximum dust on it is up to 2mg/m3, and our limit is 50 mg/m3. This is a big improvement now. Although we have never had a problem with Sulphur, we did introduce gas desulphurisation, expecting that the laws would become more strict in the future, so we have also preempted that. Among the projects undertaken by the company, which led to the improvement of the influence of HBIS GROUP Serbia, is first and foremost the commissioning of the New Sinter Line. Stable road spraying systems were installed, as well as regular washing, cleaning and asphalting of roads, control of emissions from emitters on continuous dust meters, monitoring increased thanks to new measurements and video surveillance. The control of the delivery and unloading of raw materials has also been increased, along with the control of their humidity. Regarding the external influences we find the influence of the traffic, boiler houses, meteorological conditions, individual fire pits contributing as well,” Drake concluded.
The executive director for production, Vladan Mihailović, highlighted the advantages of the three new plants, which are energy efficient, because they use blast furnace gas instead of expensive natural gas and have a minimal impact on the environment. The New Sinter Line is designed according to the best available technology and this plant uses only blast furnace (BF) gas. The BF Gas Reservoir enables the distribution and higher consumption of the BF gas for other consumers in the factory, and it’s also being used by the new Walking Beam Furnace at the Hot Strip Mill.
The representatives of local communities praised the new improvements that HBIS GROUP Serbia is making through new projects related to environmental protection. They also spoked about pressing current issues in the surrounding villages, which jointly, with the help of the company, could be solved, such as the greening of the part of the belt outside the perimeter of the factory, the arrangement of green areas and footpaths that are important and useful to the citizens.
The Smederevo City Mayor, Jovan Beč, said that thanks to the Steel Mill, a large number of fellow citizens obtained new jobs, which means a greater inflow into the budget for the City. “I would like to thank HBIS GROUP Serbia for the care and investments in environmental protection, and we also heard that there are many plans in the future. I am glad that there is a dialogue with the residents of Radinac, Ralje and Vranovo, who are in the immediate vicinity of the factory, that you do hear each other out and that we all have the opportunity to see these results and future plans, because I am sure that we all together are on the same task”, concluded the Mayor.