The newly built sintering plant of Smederevo Steel Plant.

In the central control room of the hot rolling workshop of the steel plant, the Serbian employees are working. The above pictures were taken by our reporter Xie Yahong

On April 29, President Xi Jinping sent a letter to Serbian employees of Smederevo Steel Plant of Hegang Group, encouraging them to make new contributions to China Serbia friendship. President Xi Jinping stressed that the sound development of Smederevo Steel Plant is a vivid practice of high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road" between China and Serbia, and also a successful example of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.

"Thank you very much for President Xi Jinping's reply to our letter, which is a reflection of the strong friendship between Serbia and China. We will take the reply as an incentive to do our job well and make greater contributions to the friendly cooperation between the two countries." Felici Nenard, an employee of Smederevo Steel Plant, said, "We warmly welcome President Xi Jinping to visit Serbia again."

"The steel plant has changed its appearance, and our work and life have been guaranteed"

Driving about 60 kilometers southeast from Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, you can see a large factory building beside the highway. Here is Smederevo Steel Plant, which was founded in 1913. Smederevo Steel Plant, known as the pride of Serbia, was once on the verge of bankruptcy due to old equipment and poor management. In April 2016, China Hegang Group invested in the plant and established the Serbian company of Hegang Group, gradually extricating the steel plant from the business crisis.

On the morning of June 19, 2016, President Xi Jinping, who is paying a state visit to Serbia, visited Smederevo Steel Plant. Thousands of steel factory workers, their families and local citizens lined the way to welcome them. In the tall and spacious hot rolling workshop, the machine roars, the hot steam is steaming, and various rolled steel and forged materials on the production line roar past from time to time. From time to time, President Xi Jinping stopped to visit the products, boarded the central control room, and inquired about the process in detail to understand the production situation. Accompanied by Serbian leaders, President Xi Jinping came to the staff canteen to exchange and interact with workers.

In his speech at the steel plant, President Xi Jinping pointed out that the joint cooperation between Chinese and Serbian enterprises has opened a new chapter in the production capacity cooperation between the two countries. This is not only a continuation of the traditional friendship between the two countries, but also reflects the development determination of both sides to deepen reform and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results. Chinese enterprises will certainly cooperate sincerely with their counterparts in Serbia.

Over the past eight years, Smederevo Steel Plant has gradually stepped out of the predicament and turned losses into profits, not only maintaining the work of more than 5000 employees, but also making the steel plant an important pillar of local economic development. According to Wang Lianxi, deputy general manager of the steel plant, since 2016, the steel plant has accumulated 4.77 billion euros in foreign exchange earnings from exports, making it the largest export enterprise in Serbia for many consecutive years. In 2023, the steel mill will contribute an output value of 795 million euros to the local area, accounting for 1.15% of Serbia's GDP that year.

"At the most difficult time, the steel plant almost stopped production. After Hegang Group took over the operation, the steel plant changed its appearance, and our work and life were guaranteed." Ivan Matkovich, production manager of the hot rolling workshop of the steel plant, said. He took the reporter to the central control room of the workshop. "The equipment here has just been updated, and the steel plant has achieved full automation management, which has greatly improved the safety factor and production efficiency." He said, "This year, we are confident that the efficiency of the workshop will be improved to a new level."

"The revival of Smederevo Steel Plant is a successful example. It strongly proves that the" Belt and Road "initiative has brought employment growth and economic growth to Serbia," said Serbian President Vucic.

"The changes brought by Chinese friends have made steel mills more competitive"

A few days ago, 30 staff representatives from Smederevo Steel Plant of Hegang Group sent a letter to President Xi Jinping, introducing the recent development of the steel plant and its important contribution to the improvement of local people's livelihood, and expressing their gratitude to President Xi Jinping for his personal care and promotion of the project.

In his reply to the letter, President Xi Jinping said that the employees of the steel plant are participants, witnesses, contributors and beneficiaries of China Serbia friendly cooperation. I hope that you will continue to do your job wholeheartedly, devote yourself to the operation and development of the steel plant enthusiastically, and make new and greater contributions to the economic and social development of Serbia and the consolidation of the iron friendship between China and Serbia.

"We are very excited to receive President Xi Jinping's reply. For us, President Xi Jinping's reply is a very precious gift, "Thank President Xi Jinping for his visit to the steel plant in 2016. In the letter, we reported to President Xi Jinping on the recent development of the steel plant, and expressed our expectation that President Xi Jinping would visit Serbia again."

Sitting in his own seat in the staff canteen, Vladimir Mikhailovich, the chief operating officer of the steel mill, recalled the scene when he met President Xi Jinping in 2016. "President Xi Jinping was sitting next to me and listened to my introduction of the factory with a smile." He said, "If I had the honor to see President Xi Jinping again, I would report on our work again: with the joint efforts of the employees in Serbia and China, the steel plant is getting better and better."

In the office of Zlatan, a mechanic in the maintenance department of the steel plant, the reporter saw many national flags of Serbia and China. He told reporters that this was the national flag used when welcoming President Xi Jinping, and he has always kept it as a witness to the friendship between the two countries. Zlatan was thrilled to learn that President Xi Jinping is going to visit Serbia again. He told reporters: "In recent years, our factory has built many new projects and plants. The changes brought by Chinese friends have made the steel factory more competitive."

Under the guidance of the employees of the steel plant, the reporter came to the sintering plant, one of the "new projects" mentioned by Zlatan. Liubica Drake, manager of the environmental protection department of the steel plant, said that iron ore powder is easy to cause environmental pollution in the process of sintering into blocks and removing impurities. For this reason, Hegang Group introduced China's advanced technology and built a new sintering plant in 2022, which can reuse all the dust generated in the sintering process and eliminate secondary pollution. "The environment of the plant is better every day".

"I hope my children can realize their dreams here in the future"

In recent years, in order to achieve the goal of green development, Smederevo Steel Plant has continuously improved its process, improved automation, recycling, energy efficiency and green manufacturing level, and built and implemented a green and efficient production process transformation project. In addition to the new sintering plant, a number of key projects, such as heating furnace and gas holder, have been put into operation. The plant has not only achieved zero emission of blast furnace gas, but also created benefits of nearly 30 million euros every year.

The green and low-carbon development of steel plants is widely recognized. In 2023, the green environmental protection project of the steel plant "Reducing dust pollution with modern technology" won the award certificate of "Green Agenda" jointly issued by the European Union, the United Nations Development Programme and other institutions. In April this year, Hegang Group and Siemens Group signed a cooperation agreement on jointly building a digital green chemical plant project, which will jointly build Smederevo Steel Plant into a leading green, low-carbon and intelligent steel enterprise in Europe.

Smederevo Steel Plant has always regarded the training of local employees as one of the most important tasks. Since 2016, the steel plant has held 15 training sessions in China and 9 overseas training sessions for nearly 2000 Cypriot employees. Nenade Botic, the head of the new sintering machine team, was one of the beneficiaries. With the help of the Chinese master, he has become more skilled in operating the equipment and is now able to play his own role. He said, "I learned a lot of technology from my Chinese friends."

The industrial chain of Smederevo is mostly around steel mills, so this city is called the "City of Steel". With the continuous improvement of the efficiency of the steel plant, the economic situation of Smederevo is also improving. It is reported that the steel plant creates 200 new jobs for Smederevo every year. At present, 1/5 of the population in the city is related to the steel plant.

Martkovic's grandfather and father have worked in the steel factory all their lives. He was full of feelings for the steel factory and once took his children to visit the factory. Looking forward to the future, he said: "The steel mill is closely linked to the hopes and dreams of our family. Thanks to the arrival of Chinese friends, I have achieved the best career development in three generations. I hope my children can also realize their life dreams here in the future."

(Reporters Zhang Zhiwen, Shen Xiaoxiao, Wang Di and Wang Hailin participated in the writing)