State officially takes over steel factory

When I look at this photo, I can't help but think - these politicians are again viewing this steel company as an opportunity to reel in more self benefit - like they did from its original sale to US Steel. God help this Serbian nation from these people.

How long before the chinese start sniffing about? They could pick it up cheap, upgrade, protect jobs and have another foot in Europe. They are after all on the look out for good deals in the current EU crisis.

@ EU Dude: I'd forget about protecting jobs - an article in Novi magazin http://www.novimagazin.rs/vesti/u-nedeljniku-novi-magazin40 quotes some "American expert" as saying that U.S. Steel left because of high taxes and the inability to lay off workers. If the rules don't change, don't expect the Chinese to save you - their economic model is based on cheap labor.

@ eudude.

Don't you think that if this company was worth more than $1 and if the indians or chinese were interested in buying it, that the americans would have sold it to them?

@Danilo & Amer,

You think it so straight forward. Just because the american owners cannot justify it in current market conditions does not mean the same reasons apply to much deeper pocketed asians who might want a foothold that they can expand in Europe. Both your comments reflect the catastrophic short-termism mindset that is so prevalent among the US/british and other similar economies (unlike the french and the gemans who do actually plan decades in advance, but face other problems of course).

The simple fact is US Steel is looking after its own bottom line and this plant is probably the easiest to give up, rather than says shutting down a US steel plant (do they still exist) and all the political fire and ire they would undoubtedly draw and this in the golden US economic model where wages are also very low in many professions and labor is treated like chattle. It is conditions like these significantly helped by reganomics that lead to the explosion of 'Going Postal' incidents.

As for the chinese model depending on 'cheap labor', that says a lot more about you lack of understanding of the chinese model than anything else. Put simply, cheap labor is but one component, where as the more important component is to keep on pushing up the value chain and produce ever higher quality products that can demand higher gross margins and also offer value. Who is the world's no.2 (or possibly 3) pc manufacturer? It is Lenovo, who bought out IBM's ThinkPad range and has continues to expand and improve the products. That is one simple example.

If the chinese or indians did buy in, it wouldn't be to keep it as it is or as an employment scheme (as the current head of FIAT said in an interview recently, FIAT makes absolutely no profit on any automobiles produced in Italy. It's profits come from its foreign factories who may be initially cheaper, but whose productivity is much much higher than anything the italian unions can offer). The steel plant is not obsolete unlike the Bor aluminium processing plant down in Montenegro.

When I look at this photo, I can't help but think - these politicians are again viewing this steel company as an opportunity to reel in more self benefit - like they did from its original sale to US Steel. God help this Serbian nation from these people.

How long before the chinese start sniffing about? They could pick it up cheap, upgrade, protect jobs and have another foot in Europe. They are after all on the look out for good deals in the current EU crisis.

@ EU Dude: I'd forget about protecting jobs - an article in Novi magazin http://www.novimagazin.rs/vesti/u-nedeljniku-novi-magazin40 quotes some "American expert" as saying that U.S. Steel left because of high taxes and the inability to lay off workers. If the rules don't change, don't expect the Chinese to save you - their economic model is based on cheap labor.

@ eudude.

Don't you think that if this company was worth more than $1 and if the indians or chinese were interested in buying it, that the americans would have sold it to them?

@Danilo & Amer,

You think it so straight forward. Just because the american owners cannot justify it in current market conditions does not mean the same reasons apply to much deeper pocketed asians who might want a foothold that they can expand in Europe. Both your comments reflect the catastrophic short-termism mindset that is so prevalent among the US/british and other similar economies (unlike the french and the gemans who do actually plan decades in advance, but face other problems of course).

The simple fact is US Steel is looking after its own bottom line and this plant is probably the easiest to give up, rather than says shutting down a US steel plant (do they still exist) and all the political fire and ire they would undoubtedly draw and this in the golden US economic model where wages are also very low in many professions and labor is treated like chattle. It is conditions like these significantly helped by reganomics that lead to the explosion of 'Going Postal' incidents.

As for the chinese model depending on 'cheap labor', that says a lot more about you lack of understanding of the chinese model than anything else. Put simply, cheap labor is but one component, where as the more important component is to keep on pushing up the value chain and produce ever higher quality products that can demand higher gross margins and also offer value. Who is the world's no.2 (or possibly 3) pc manufacturer? It is Lenovo, who bought out IBM's ThinkPad range and has continues to expand and improve the products. That is one simple example.

If the chinese or indians did buy in, it wouldn't be to keep it as it is or as an employment scheme (as the current head of FIAT said in an interview recently, FIAT makes absolutely no profit on any automobiles produced in Italy. It's profits come from its foreign factories who may be initially cheaper, but whose productivity is much much higher than anything the italian unions can offer). The steel plant is not obsolete unlike the Bor aluminium processing plant down in Montenegro.