The second blast furnace at the Smederevo steel mill has been restarted, Tanjug reported on Thursday.
Both furnaces now in operation and the first quantities of steel expected to start flowing in two days, the plant’s manager Peter Kamaras said.
“The process of slowly reigniting the second blast furnace began late last month, the Cowper stoves were heated and the furnace was fired up at 5 a.m. on Wednesday,” Kamaras told Tanjug.
“The part of the work that we wanted to do quickly is done – one of the four Cowper stoves has not been overhauled yet as that requires another EUR 5 million, so we put that aside because we can work perfectly with three Cowpers,” he said.
China’s He Steel Group acquired the Smederevo factory for EUR 46 million last month.
He Steel Group Chairman Yu Yong confirmed recently that the company will complete its takeover of the Serbian steel mill by the end of June, expressing hope that the plant’s production capacity will be maximized to about 2 million tons of steel by the end of next year.
Source; B92
