Bloomberg reported that Serbia extended the deadline for bids for Zelezara Smederevo, its sole steel mill, to December 26th 2012.

Mr Dusan Belanovic, spokesman for Serbia's Privatization Agency, said that the two month extension is meant to give potential buyers more time to make an offer. Russia's NPO Uralvagonzavod OAO is the only company to indicate interest in the mill.

Serbia put the unprofitable plant up for sale in January 2012, when the government bought it back from US Steel Corporation for USD 1. Potential bidders have to buy documents from the government before submitting a bid.

NPO Uralvagonzavod, the state owned maker of battle tanks and railcars was the only purchaser of the documents, the agency said on October 19th 2012. The new deadline for buying the sales papers is November 2nd 2012.

Source - Grupo Simec

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