Esmark Steel lost its bid to manage the former US Steel mill in Serbia this week when the Serbian government announced that the Zelezara Smederevo mill will be managed by Dutch company HPK Engineering BV.
In addition to incurring no further costs to the government, new management of the mill will result in increased salaries and safe jobs, according to Serbia’s prime minister.
The mill’s output totaled 65,000 tons in February, the expected output for March should reach 80,000 tons, and production in April is expected to reach 95,000 tons.
While the mill’s production capacity is around 2.2 million tons of steel per year, it is currently producing around 350,000 tons.