Government kept quiet for six months about U.S. Steel leaving Serbia

(Zelezara Smedervo)

U.S. Steel told the Serbian government in July 2011 that it was going to leave Smederevo and gave them a free hand to find a new owner for the steelworks.

U.S. Steel put maximum efforts into cutting the costs of production in Smederevo and focusing on the production of ready-made products. However, the company's actions gave no results. Blic daily cites its source as claiming that John Surma, president of the Pittsburgh-based company, realized that the best thing to do to optimize the costs was to leave the steelworks to Serbia because that would enable them to quickly withdraw from the business, without incurring some additional expenses.

As Blic learns, the government was seeking potential buyers in the meantime, but everything was kept secret. However, eight months later, these efforts gave no results. The daily cites its source as claiming that potential buyers are only interested in certain parts of the steel plant.

- It is most likely that a buyer will be found for hot and cold rolling mills, and maybe for a sheet metal plant in Sabac. Along with Administration and Maintenance divisions, the new owner would practically take over a third of 4,500 workers at Zelezara - Blic cites its source, who also reminds that Zelezara had had 9,000 employees before it was sold to U.S. Steel in 2003.