AMBASSADOR H.E. CHEN BO AND SERBIAN PARLIAMENTARIANS VISITED NEW SINTER LINE

May, 10.05.2023.

The ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Serbia, H.E. Chen Bo, together with members of the Parliamentary Group of Friendship with China of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia have visited company HBIS Serbia on May 10. The numerous group of Parliamentarians and Chinese Embassy officials was joined by the Mayor of Smederevo Jovan Beč. The guests accompanied by HBIS Serbia company management headed by the managing director Sihai Song toured the New Sinter Line, where its features were presented in detail.

After the tour of the plant, guests were greeted by the director Song who emphasized: "We are very proud of our New Sinter Plant that we have put in operation in March last year, as well as two other major capital investments that we also commissioned during 2022. So far, we have invested more than 300 million euro in improvements to our equipment and the impact on the living and working environment, as well as in the investments for the benefit of the local community. With the progress of the Steel Mill we are actually fulfilling the promises we had made when taking over the factory."

Marina Raguš, President of the Parliamentary Group of Friendship with China at the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, pointed out that everyone is full of incredible impressions, especially when it comes to environmental standards: "They exceed many European standards even. We saw a factory that Serbia can be proud of", said the People's Deputy.

H.E. the ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Serbia Chen Bo reminded us that seven years have passed since the purchase of the factory by HBIS and that significant results were achieved during that period. "It was not easy, because the factory was facing many crises, but the people who run this Steel Mill managed to maintain production and thus saved 5000 jobs. In this way, a great contribution was made to further development of the City of Smederevo and the economy of Serbia itself. They achieved significant results in the field of environmental protection and solved the problems which previous owner failed to solve properly. The HBIS Company in Smederevo is a symbol of steel friendship between the two countries", pointed the ambassador Chen Bo out.

At the end of the visit, the guests were shown three short presentations given by Ljubica Drake, General Manager of Environmental Protection, Milovan Tasić, General Manager of Engineering and Investments, and Miodrag Minic, General Manager for Primary Production. In their presentations, they shared a common theme - the achieved improvement of environmental protection.