Serbia will this week call a tender for Smederevo-based Železara (steel mill), while the state will hold on to a 25 percent stake in the company.
This is according to Economy Minister Mlađan Dinkić, who told Belgrade-based daily Blic that this had been agreed on “with the Russians”.
“Negotiations are being finalized with a big Russian company, while a deal was reached for the state to keep a 25 percent stake in the company (Železara),” he was quoted as saying.
According to him, the tender will be called “because there is strong interest from a big Russian company to kick-start Železara and invest even in some completely new capacities, that currently don’t exist in Smederevo”.
Dinkić also expressed his expectation that production will be relaunched at the factory by the end of the year.
The steelmaker – then known as Sartid – was in 2003 privatized and sold to U.S. Steel. The American company sold the factory back to the Serbian government last year.
Source B92
