The statements in this article are based on reliable sources and are repeated at the end of this article
In 2016, China HBIS Group acquired a "century-old factory" in Serbia - Smederevo Steel Plant, although it was once known as the "pride of Serbia", but at this time it has gone through vicissitudes.
Previously, the United States had acquired it in 2002 at a price of 33 million US dollars, but after nine years it did not turn a loss into a profit, and in the end it could only be sold at a low price of 1 US dollar. [Listen to the song]
01 The decline of miracles
The Smederevo Steel Mill was founded in 1913, and for Serbia at that time, the status of this enterprise can be said to be quite high, and it is a well-deserved "first steel mill".
With the continuous construction and hard work of the locals, the company is getting bigger and bigger, even in the flames of two world wars, it can still stand tall.
However, around the 90s of the last century, there was serious turmoil in Serbia at this time, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, where it was located, was facing a huge risk of disintegration.
It was in this situation that the Smederevo steel mill was hit by a global financial crisis and finally officially declared its closure in July 2002.
The loss of such a job is quite serious, countless workers have been laid off and unemployed, and the factory has been forced to be abandoned, which seems to now show that this legend is gradually going into ruin.
The collapse of the Smederevo steel mill was a huge blow to the Serbian government, but when it did, they had to sell it in the hope that one country would bring it back on track.
At this time, U.S. Steel took the lead in extending an olive branch and pocketed it at a price of $33 million, confident that it could turn a loss, but the reality still gave them a resounding slap in the face.
In the expectation of U.S. Steel, it has so much money, and there are so many business contacts with many countries, and the technology is also extremely advanced, so it will not be difficult to revitalize this steel mill.
But when they renovated the factory, distributed the top equipment at that time, and re-planned the management model, it did not turn a loss into a profit, but became a bottomless pit, no matter how much money was invested, it seemed that there would be no return of money.
This situation made U.S. Steel instantly feel that he was afraid that he had not bought a "fake factory", and it was not a way to continue to lose money like this, so after barely holding on for 9 years, he still said that he really couldn't hold on, so let's change someone.
02Acquired in China
After U.S. Steel found that it could not recover the Smederevo steel mill, it could only choose to give it back to Serbia, of course, the other party also knew that "big American companies can't save it, let alone themselves."
As a result, I didn't expect that U.S. Steel really didn't want to take over such a bottomless pit, and found the U.S. government to use both soft and hard measures, and finally sold it back to the Serbian government for $1.
And in order to reduce more losses, U.S. Steel packed up all the equipment it was equipped with here and all the things it had produced before, and just pushed away such a mess.
And for the Serbian side, it will be even more uncomfortable, after all, it took 9 years for U.S. Steel to return to the factory, let alone yourself, can you only declare bankruptcy?
But at the request of more than 5,000 workers at the mill and many people, the Serbian government decided to give it a try, and this time it was China's HBIS that found them.
In 2014, not long after Serbian Prime Minister Vučić took office, he had already learned about the situation of the Smederevo steel mill and began to look for a buyer willing to take over, and the mainland showed its willingness to engage after learning about the situation.
After learning about it, HBIS immediately sent a special person to investigate the situation of the factory, and according to the results, they found that the probability of a reversal of the situation of the Smederevo steel plant was actually very high, so they expressed the idea of acquisition.
In April 2016, HBIS Group acquired the steel mill for 46 million euros and sent a nine-member leadership team led by Zhao Jun, minister of iron smelting, to manage and command the local area.
And it was such an opportunity that really saved this steel mill from fire and water and welcomed its own "nirvana rebirth".
03 Turn things around
HBIS Group's change of Smederevo steel mill is not as exaggerated as the previous U.S. Steel is changing its management strategy and introducing advanced equipment, and it mainly puts forward two important plans: reducing costs and increasing sales.
First of all, the cost problem, the steel mill's products are not bad, but the production cost is very high, which leads to its profit is too meager to support such a large factory, so how to reduce the cost has become an important issue.
The Chinese personnel first excluded and tested these products and raw materials one by one, but in which they found that in their production process, adding a certain amount of lump ore to the raw material iron ore can effectively reduce costs and improve production efficiency.
Of course, the Serbian workers did not believe it at first, but under the persuasion and testing of the Chinese personnel, it was found that it was indeed possible, and there was almost no loss of product quality.
This discovery has greatly alleviated the loss situation of the steel mill, and the profit has become more, but there is another problem that although the loss has improved, such a large factory, some small business is obviously unable to sustain, so it is necessary to find a larger market.
Relying on the friendly cooperation between China and Serbia, coupled with the mainland's huge market and foreign import and export trade, these products can have a better space and environment.
So not long after HBIS took over, it made a radical change to the Smederevo steel plant, and in the second half of 2016 alone, steel and iron production increased by 53%, reaching an output value of 313 million US dollars.
And then it made another effort, with revenue reaching $750 million in 2017 and $1 billion in 2018, not only reversing decades of losses in the first year, but also achieving what U.S. Steel failed to do in 9 years, and even surpassed itself and reached new glory.
It is worth mentioning here that after seeing the huge victory of the mainland in helping the Smederevo steel mill to succeed, the Western countries can be said to be very uncomfortable, after all, this can be said to be a very loud slap in the face to themselves.
Someone was then looking for someone to stigmatise the Smederevo mill, saying it had caused a lot of pollution, but this rumor was dispelled when the mill took the initiative to demonstrate the various processes and raw materials used in production.
On the contrary, it is the countries themselves that are so familiar with these so-called "polluting water sources and causing people to get sick" problems, I am afraid that only they themselves know.
Sources of information:
[1] China's Belt and Road Network - Sharing the Future丨Serbia: The "New Life" of Steel Mills - China's Belt and Road Network
[2] Xinhuanet - (The Belt and Road Story) Global Connection | A "steel symphony" on the banks of the Danube - Xinhuanet
[3] Xinhua International Headlines - Global Connect | Investigation of the truth about the "carcinogenic" pollution of Chinese enterprises in Serbia