Speaking to Serbian state-owned broadcaster RTS, Vladan Mihailovic, executive director of operations at Serbia-based steel producer HBIS Group Serbia Iron & Steel, has stated that the company will continue to operate with only one blast furnace due to global weak demand. However, he said that the company is ready to restart blast furnace No. 1, which was idled in mid-2023 due to weak demand and lower prices, if the steel market and customer needs require it. He pointed out that many competitors have also partially idled production due to market difficulties.
Stating that HBIS Serbia’s production last year was slightly over 1.1 million mt of slab, Mr. Mihailovic said that the company sold about 35 percent of its products in the domestic market. The company exported around 10 percent of its production to former Yugoslav countries, while the rest went to Germany, Italy, Austria, Poland, and France.
Meanwhile, in March last year, HBIS Serbia launched a new sinter plant, built using the most advanced sinter production technology. The new sinter plant exclusively uses blast furnace gas instead of natural gas and is equipped with state-of-the-art gas purification facilities. Mihailovic stated that this year the company will build a protective wall around the open raw material storage facility, enabling a reduction in emissions from iron ore fines during unloading, and will also build converter No. 4.
