The project of ecological construction of the raw material treatment system, as well as other capital projects being built in the company HBIS Serbia, were presented to the public on December 21, 2020, for the first time since the laying of the cornerstone, on July 24, 2019. The construction works on the new plant for the preparation of ore and the improvement of environmental protection during the production of sinter have been mostly completed, said by Vladan Mihailovic, the Executive Director for Production, and continued:

“We are currently in the initial phase of assembling the equipment. We expect that this facility will start with cold tests in June at the latest, and with production from July 1, 2021. The facility currently has the best available technology in terms of sinter production and environmental protection. All gas purification systems will allow emission of no more than 20mg per cubic meter, which is currently probably the best result in all steel plants and sintering facilities operating in Europe. It will also have a very modern gas desulphurization plant for sinter production and the capacity of this plant will be 50% higher than the current production that can be achieved with the 3 sinter machines currently in operation.”

General Manager of Engineering and Innovation Milovan Tasic said that this plant will bring greater efficiency of the technological process, and thus enhance all the effects of environmental protection. “It will have the best applied techniques for waste gas purification, mounted on the inlet section of the sinter line, and all filling points on all conveyors will be equipped with additional waste gas purification plants. There will be a total of 7 such facilities on the entire line.”

The value of the investments that will visibly improve the protection of the environment and energy efficiency is 160 million dollars, and it includes a new sinter plant, a walking beam furnace at the Hot Strip Mill, Blast Furnace gas reservoir, and Converter No. 4 in Steel Shop.

After these large investments, there are plans for new projects, which will also raise energy efficiency and environmental protection, and which Tasic listed: “New energy plant, a new blast furnace tuyere facility, and new converter N^o4, which will contain the reservoir for converter’s gas of 50,000 normal m³. We are also considering a new continuous caster machine in the near future. “

Ljubica Drake, General Manager of Environmental Protection, emphasized that this plant, built once every half a century, will visibly improve the performance in the area of environmental protection. “This facility is designed so that its maximum emission will be two and a half times lower than allowed limit by the law of the Republic of Serbia.”

Great progress in improving environmental performance will be, in addition to air quality, in large water savings. “These are all dry dedusting systems. So zero water, zero wastewater discharge. All the raw materials that we process here, and that are separated through the dedusting system, will immediately be able to return to the production process without any subsequent treatment,” said Drake.