U.S. Steel

Over 50 percent of the world steel market is in the hands of the Chinese and they in their long-term calculations have a reason for coming to our market.

The privatization of Zelezara Smederevo will have a positive effect on Serbia's GDP growth, World Bank Country Manager for Serbia Tony Verheijen has said.

SMEDEREVO - The Serbian government and the He Steel Group on Monday signed a contract on the sale of the Smederevo steel mill whereby the Chinese company acquired all 98 property units of the plant for EUR 46 million.

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday that Chinese President Xi Jinping would in June visit Serbia.

The Serbian government and the He Steel Group on Monday signed a contract on the sale of the Zelezara Smederevo steel mill.

The Chinese company acquired all 98 property units of the plant for EUR 46 million.

The Serbian government and Chinese company He Steel will sign a sales contract for Serbia's sole steel mill Zelezara Smederevo on April 18.

This will happen "if the European Commission gives the go-ahead for the privatization," Serbian government sources told Tanjug.

The bid submitted by China's HBIS to privatize the Zelezara Smederevo steel mill was accepted on Tuesday, Tanjug reported.

The price offered is slightly over the required minimum - namely, the Chinese offered EUR 46 million.

Serbia has put the troubled giant up for a sale after it spent a year under the management of a Dutch-based company HPK Engineering BV and unsuccessful privatization talks with US company Esmark.The government earlier said it was negotiating with China's HBIS Group, the world's second largest steel producer, which has reportedly expressed interest in investing some 300 million euro in the mill.

A call for tender has been issued for Serbia's sole steel mill Zelezara Smederevo, setting the starting price in the privatization process at EUR 45.7 million.

The invitation, published in the Politika daily, says the estimated market price of the assets on December 31, 2015 was EUR 91.3 mllion, the initial price being 50 percent of this sum.

European and U.S. steel producers are only slowly emerging from a 2008 sector meltdown, but already they are faced with a new challenge, the Chinese dumping.

Chinese steel is overabundant since a sharp slowdown in the Asian giant's economy has sapped domestic demand, and is shipping to world markets at cut-down prices.