UralVagonZavod is the name of the Russian company which is interested in purchasing the Zelezara Smederevo steel mill in Serbia. The company is an important industrial group operating in the field of military vehicles, rail cars, excavators, tractors and metallurgical products.
Negotiations between the company and the Belgrade government are said to be at an advanced stage. Earlier this week the Serbian government launched a new tender for the sale of 75% of the steelworks while the government has imposed strict requirements for interested investors which are fully satisfied by the Russian group.
Mr Oleg Sienko CEO of UralVagonZavod has confirmed the ongoing negotiations to Russian business newspaper Kommersant, although he stressed that a final agreement has not been reached yet. The Smederevo based steelworks could establish important synergies with other foreign assets of the group.
Sources close to the negotiations, however believe that the tender launched by Serbia has complicated the negotiations because the intention of UralVagonZavod was to obtain the former US Steel Serbia for free or nearly for free given the huge investment necessary to reignite the two blast furnaces and to modernize or replace obsolete production capacities.
Source steelguru
