AUTEL Comes Back to Serbia

In 2008, engineers of AUTEL implemented and commissioned the electro and automation part of the renovated pickling line in U.S.Steel Serbia in Smederevo, Serbia. After previous short operation, this line was shut down due to economic crisis and lack of orders.

In November 2011, the Serbian government bought the loss-generating company from U.S.Steel for the symbolic price of $1 hoping to prevent its closure and loss of employment for 5,400 workers. In 2016, the Serbian government sold the company Zelezara Smederevo to the Chinese company Hesteel which is the largest steel producer in China.

The Chinese have extensive plans for the Serbian company. Only for the year 2017, they are planning to invest $120m for modernization of production. These plans include commissioning of the pickling line which was renovated by workers of AUTEL company.

The Hesteel Serbia Iron&Steel company contacted AUTEL with demand for commissioning the pickling line. The contract concluded involves verification of line condition, delivery of missing and spare parts, software installation, parameter setting, and commissioning the line.

Implementation will be carried out in the first half of 2017.