GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY FOR THE NEW SINTERING LINE WAS HELD IN HBIS GROUP SERBIA COMPANY

Wednesday, 24.07.2019.

During the official ceremony on July 24th 2019 in HBIS GROUP Serbia company, the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, Her Excellency, the Ambassador of the People's Republic of China in the Republic of Serbia, Chen Bo and the President of HBIS Tangsteel and HBIS GROUP Serbia, Wang Lanyu marked the groundbreaking moment for the new agglomeration and sintering line by laying a time capsule into the foundation.
The President of HBIS GROUP Serbia Wang Lanyu expressed his gratitude, on behalf of HBIS Group and on behalf of the President Yu Yong, to everyone who came to witnessed this historical moment for the company: “Today is a great day for laying the foundation and for starting work on a comprehensive project of energy conservation and environmental protection of HBIS Serbia company. This will certainly remain recorded in the glorious history of friendly cooperation between Serbia and China. The total amount of investment in this key project for the promotion of energy savings, emission reduction, green production and intelligent development of HBIS Serbia is about 120 million US dollars.”

He also emphasized that in the past three years the leaders of two countries China and Serbia – Xi Jinping and Aleksandar Vučić paid great attention to the development and construction of HBIS Serbia.

When the project is completed, most of the old buildings and equipment will be replaced by a green, intelligent, modern factory, leader in energy savings in Europe. Preservation of energy and protection of environment will reach the advanced world level.

“In order to achieve this goal, we shall comply with high standards and will fully share the knowledge of our companies, all 21 of them, owned by HBIS Group. We shall proactively introduce advanced new technologies and processes in green and intelligent production from China and the world, we will apply energy savings and intelligent operational innovations to the raw material system, pushing furnaces and converter systems. We are convinced that after this kind of renovation, HBIS Serbia will rise to the level of the leading company in Europe in terms of comprehensive energy use and environmental protection, and furthermore this project will also become an important milestone for HBIS Serbia, in building a highly competitive steel production company in Europe”, stated by Wang Lanyu.

President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, said that without the support of our great Chinese friends we would not have 120 million US dollars investments. “We found a friend in President of People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, who was here and was thrilled with your hospitality and heartfelt and, among other things, that is why he decided to support the Republic of Serbia and Smederevo steel plant. Smederevo is my love and my work, but it did not had to be the love of President Xi. However, it also became his love and I am very happy about that”, said by Vučić about the ironworks and its workers, and continued: “More than 5000 people still works in this steel plant, only in the last year 269 young people have been employed, whereas 501 worker who were employed for a certain period of time have contracted employment for indefinite period of time, and just like this investment, this also speaks about the commitment of HBIS, Hebei Province, Tangshan, People’s Republic of China and the determination of President Xi Jinping for our steel plant to succeed.”

The President then said that the conditions for the operation of the ironworks are not at all easy, from the quota system from the EU to many other things that we are facing. “But our Chinese partners did not withdraw when these troubles began, instead they said that they will fight together with us and all of that guarantees the future of the ironworks, and also to a large part the future of Serbia”, he said.

He pointed out that an investment of 120 million US dollars means that the Chinese will continue to invest and bring technologies which will allow us to keep up with the most advanced factories in Europe and the world. This is important, Vučić said, among other things, because of our people who are living in Smederevo and the surrounding villages, so that they breathe clean air and know that they have a secure future.

Vučić has announced that he is going to send an invitation to the President Xi Jinping to visit Serbia again and to come to the steel plant and to see how much our people is grateful for what he does for us. “Steel plant is an issue of the whole of Serbia, from the factory that brought big problems, it became the biggest exporter, and I'm sure that once the political conditions are improved, it will be even more successful”, concluded by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.

Her Excellency, Ambassador of China to Serbia, Chen Bo said that the ironworks is a house built together by the Chinese and Serbian parties. “Every member of this family has one dream - to build a steel plant: as a leading, modern, green and smart European factory. Today's groundbreaking ceremony for the new agglomeration and sintering line represents the first important step towards this wonderful dream. A year after the renovation, the steel plant will reach the top European level, it will be even more competitive, and it will bring the city of Smederevo and the surrounding areas even fresher air and even more clear sky. We are happy that as members of this family we from the embassy also gave our modest contribution to the development of ironworks. Steel plant is a legend of Serbia's economic development and the legend of cooperation between China and Serbia and also a legend of the Belt and Road initiative. I would like to ask you to keep our joint house together and create even more beautiful legends together”, said Ambassador Chen Bo. She then sent a sincere gratitude to the Chinese management for the contribution to the development of the ironworks in the past three years, as well as the development of the Chinese-Serbian friendship and the Belt and Road initiative. “To our joint ironworks I wish a lot of success”, said Chen Bo.