November 23 (SeeNews) - HBIS Group Serbia Iron & Steel, a unit of China's HBIS, is investing $140 million (118 million euro) in environmental projects, the company's executive director for production, Vladan Mihajlovic, said on Monday.
The company is carrying out four environmental projects that will significantly improve the air quality in the city of Smederevo where its steel mill is located, Mihajlovic said in a video file posted on the website of private broadcaster TV Prva.
"The new agglomeration will be launched on June 1, 2021, with ash concentration of 20 mg/m3, which is below the limit in the European Community, and better than any steel mill in Europe," Mihajlovic said.
Another large investment is the construction of a furnace that will use blast furnace gas as an alternative fuel and will start operating on July 1, 2021, Mihajlovic noted. "In November, we completed a revamp of converter number 2, which has not been upgraded since the mid-1980s," he added.
The fourth investment is a reservoir for blast furnace gas, Mihajlovic also said.
HBIS took over the management and ownership of Zelezara Smederevo in July 2016, three months after the government agreed to sell the steel mill to the Chinese group for 46 million euro.
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