Posted on 18 Jan 2024
HBIS Group Serbia Iron & Steel will continue to operate with only one blast furnace due to weak demand globally, especially in the European steel market, says the company’s executive director of operations, Vladan Mihailovic.
HBIS Serbia’s production last year was slightly over 1.1 million tonnes of slab, after blast furnace No.1 was idled in mid-2023, Kallanish notes.
"We continued production with blast furnace No.2, and about 35% of our products are shipped to the domestic market,” Mihailovic says in an interview with Serbian state-owned broadcaster RTS published on HBIS Serbia’s website. “We exported around 10% to former Yugoslav countries, while the rest went to Central and Southeastern European countries like Germany, Italy, Austria, Poland and France."
The steelmaker is ready to restart blast furnace No.1 if required by the steel market and customers, he adds.
In March 2022, HBIS Serbia opened a new sinter plant, built using the most advanced sinter production technology, contributing to improved ecological standards, Mihailovic emphasises.
"The new sinter plant exclusively uses blast furnace gas instead of natural gas and is equipped with state-of-the-art gas purification facilities,” he notes. “This year, we will build a protective wall around the open raw material storage, enabling a reduction in emissions from iron ore fines during unloading. The plant will also build converter No.4, which will use so-called 'dry' purification of converter gases, and we will construct a facility for storing converter gas, which will serve as fuel for other facilities.”
In its previous investment cycle, the firm invested over €300 million ($326m), while the next investment cycle for improving environmental quality and energy efficiency will be significantly larger, Mihailovic claims.
The plant in Smederevo can produce about 2.2 million tonnes/year of pig iron across its two furnaces, while No.1 alone has a capacity of about 900,000 t/y. Product range comprises hot and cold rolled coil, pickled coil and electrolytic tinplate.
Serbia's production of crude steel totalled 1.33mt in January-November 2023, down by 34.5% on-year, according to worldsteel data (see Kallanish passim).
Source:Kallanish
