At the beginning of 2024, the price of gold maintains last year’s record level, exceeding 2,000 euros per ounce. The impact of the pandemic, energy crisis, and conflict zones has affected the global, particularly European, metal market. Vladan Mihailović, Executive Director of Production at ‘HBIS Serbia,’ told RTS that due to industry disruptions, Blast Furnace 1 at the Smederevo steel plant has been shut down, but production still exceeds 1.1 million cast ingots. The company faces numerous environmental challenges, and Mihailović claims that efforts are underway to build facilities that will reduce pollution.
Considering the disruptions in the global, particularly European metal market, Vladan Mihailović, Executive Director of Production at ‘HBIS Serbia,’ notes that metal production at the Smederevo plant ‘HBIS Serbia’ is slightly over 1.1 million cast ingots. However, he also mentions that Blast Furnace 1 was shut down in mid-2023.
“We resumed production using Blast Furnace 2 and placed approximately 35% of our products on the domestic market. We exported around 10% to the countries of the former Yugoslavia, while the rest was distributed to Central and Southeastern European countries – Germany, Italy, Austria, Poland, and France,” says Mihailović.
He also mentions that in the “HBIS Serbia” company, they are prepared to restart Blast Furnace 1 if the steel market and customer demands necessitate it, pointing out that many competitors have also partially halted production due to market challenges.
Ecological Challenges
The steel mill opened a new ecological facility in March 2022, and Mihailović emphasizes that the new agglomeration is built according to, he claims, the most advanced technology in sinter production, contributing to improved ecological standards.
“The new agglomeration uses exclusively high-oven gas instead of natural gas and is equipped with state-of-the-art gas purification facilities,” emphasizes the director of production at “HBIS Serbia.”
However, the steel mill still faces ecological challenges, and the Chinese owner has committed to addressing pollution issues through a contract.
Mihailović emphasizes that the company is fully committed to improving the quality of the environment, and processes are being adjusted to meet the strict requirements of the European Union.
As an example, he mentions that “HBIS Serbia” will build a protective wall around the open raw material storage in 2024, which, he emphasizes, will enable a reduction in the emission of finer fractions of ore during unloading.
“In the previous investment cycle, we invested over 300 million euros in projects to improve environmental quality and energy efficiency. The next cycle will be significantly larger,” emphasizes the interviewee for RTS.
Pollution and red dust
The villages of Radinac, Ralja, and Vranovo near Smederevo have been dealing with red dust for decades, which is blowing from the nearby steel mill. A representative of ‘HBIS Serbia’ states that, in this specific case, the company plans to build converter number four with electrostatic converter gas purification. It is known as dry gas cleaning compared to the current wet gas cleaning.
Additionally, the company will construct a facility for storing converter gas, which will serve as an energy source for other facilities,” concludes the Executive Director of ‘HBIS Serbia,’ Vladan Mihailović, in an interview for RTS.
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