China's MofCom to provide training to Hesteel Serbia employees as part of Zelezara Steel Mill Modernization Project in Smederevo (Linked to Record ID#67013, #52821)

Project narrative

On April 18, 2016, the Zelezara Smederevo plant was bought by China's largest steelmaker, HBIS Group, for €46 million Euros to purchase 98% of the plant's assets, saving the over 100-year-old plant from bankruptcy. The equity acquisition was captured in Record ID#52821. Shortly after, in June of 2016, the Bank of China extended a $600 million loan to the power plant for the modernization of steelworks in Smederevo project (captured in Record ID#67013). Renamed Hesteel Serbia, the plant now employs over 5,000 workers, bringing local unemployment rates down to 6 percent from 18 percent. In 2017, the Chinese Academy for International Business Officials (AIBO) of China's Ministry of Commerce introduced a series of eight training courses for Hesteel Serbia employees as part of the overarching Zelezara Steel Mill Modernization Project in Smederevo. The training courses opened on July 4, 2017. The first three courses were focused on business management (Source: China starts training courses). The remaining five courses were in the field of technical and management improvement of the HBIS Serbia plant, out of which three will be held in Serbia. The course on the complete process of steel rolling as a part of the production capacities was described as being particularly important.