October 6 (SeeNews) - The European Commission's decision not to impose anti-dumping measures on steel producers from Serbia gives local steel mill Zelezara Smederevo a competitive advantage over sector players, prime minister Ana Brnabic said on Friday.
Serbia will be able to export steel to the EU without anti-dumping duties and Zelezara Smederevo will be much more competitive than any other manufacturer, Brnabic said as quoted in a statement by the government.
The Commission's decision means that Serbia has planned and implemented well the contract with China's Hesteel for the sale of Zelezara Smederevo and that the country is a secure location for the steel and iron industry, Brnabic said.
Earlier on Friday, the Commission said the EU's imports from Serbia were not included in the final regulation for imposing anti-dumping duties on imports of hot-rolled flat steel products from Brazil, Iran, Russia and Ukraine because their volume was considered negligible.
In April 2016, Serbia's government agreed to sell the country's sole steel mill, Zelezara Smederevo, to Hesteel, after the Chinese investor submitted a binding offer to buy all 98 property units of Zelezara Smederevo for a total of 46 million euro ($53.9 million).