A picture taken on April 25, 2024, shows the Serbian flag colours and graffiti painted on house close to a steel mill owned by Chinese company HBIS in the village of Radinac, near the eastern Serbian city of Smederevo. In the eight years since Chinese company HBIS bought a steel mill near the eastern Serbian city of Smederevo, locals say they have been plagued by heavy air pollution and thick red dust.
HBIS — one of the world’s largest steel producers — bought the mill in 2016 in a high-profile deal marked by a visit from Chinese President Xi Jinping, on his last official trip to Serbia.Xi is to arrive in Serbia on Tuesday on another official visit, one of only three countries he is flying into on his first European trip since the Covid pandemic.
Nikola Krstic, an activist at NGO Tvrdjava , said pollution has soared since the Chinese takeover.“We don’t know the reason why… whether it’s high production, technology failure, lack of maintenance or non-compliance,” he said. “ have saved this steel mill in economic terms, but in environmental terms they have caused great damage to this city,” said Krstic.
Once a state-owned enterprise, it was privatised in 2003 and sold to US Steel. But the American corporation pulled out in 2012 after a steel market crash, and the Serbian government bought it back for one dollar. Tomislav Momirovic, Serbia’s trade minister, told state broadcaster RTS that “no other country in the region or Europe” enjoys a similar level of cooperation with China.
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