Firing up of blast furnace at Zelezara Smederevo uncertain

The planned commissioning of a blast furnace at Zelezara Smederevo steelworks in April is under the question mark because that furnace is in a much worse condition than expected, Danas reports.

- Considering that this blast furnace has not been fired up for more than nine months, it is in a very bad condition. Therefore, it is uncertain whether all preparatory activities and preparations will be completed by the scheduled time for putting the blast furnace into operation. Also, it should be underlined that the poorer condition of the furnace, the more expensive its commissioning, meaning that more money than planned will be spent for that purpose - Zeljko Veselinovic, president of the Associated Trade Unions of Serbia Sloga, says to Danas.

He points out that he is sceptical about the announcements of competent people that the Smederevo steelworks will enter into business arrangements with partners from abroad.

- We would all like to see these arrangements happen. However, at this moment I simply cannot see who would be interested in sheet metal and steel produced at Zelezara Smederevo. The only option is to sell products below the price, but that is not a solution as the state, which now runs the steel plant in Smederevo, would thus incur even more expenses. In any case, we can conclude that only cosmetic changes have been made to date, which is certainly not enough to restart production. One of the prerequisites for that is to change the management and appoint people with experience and knowledge to managerial positions, so they could close deals with partners from abroad - Veselinovic stresses.