The Serbian Ministry of Finance has launched a new tender to sell 75 percent of the Smederevo-based Zelezara steel mill, the country’s only steelmaking plant, as reported by local Serbian media sources. Bids must be submitted by October 26.
Companies seeking to bid for the former US Steel Serbia must operate in the fields of mining or iron and steel, must have achieved revenues exceeding $2 billion in 2011 and have assets of at least $2.5 billion. Bidders will also have to submit a business plan to restart the mill’s two idled furnaces and a four-year investment plan worth at least $50 million.
On September 26, Serbia’s prime minister, Ivica Dacic, said the government was close to agreeing a sale with a Russian investor, without naming the investor in question.
At the end of January this year, the Serbian government bought back the Smederevo plant (then called US Steel Serbia) from Pittsburg-based US Steel for a symbolic amount of $1.