BELGRADE: The Serbian government has launched a new tender for its sole steel mill which it tried to privatize without success in 2012 as it seeks to sell off a raft of public companies.

The starting price of the Zelezara Smederevo plant, which lies 40km east of Belgrade, is 45.6 million euros ($50 million), according to a ministry advertisement in the Politika daily.

Talks with US steel group Esmark over buying a majority stake failed in February last year after US Steel, which bought the bankrupt plant for $23 million in 2003, pulled out in 2012 because of the global economic downturn.

The government then bought the plant back for the symbolic price of one dollar, saying the move was aimed at preventing the loss of about 5,500 jobs and keeping operations going while a new long-term strategic partner was sought.

Serbia’s government has expressed commitment to privatising a raft of public companies, a condition of a 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund, although it has called off the sale of one of its biggest assets, Telekom Srbija.

The president is expected to call an early election Friday after the government said it required a clear mandate to carry out reforms needed to join the European Union.

According to state broadcaster RTS, the government is negotiating with China’s HBIS over acquisition of Zelezara Smederevo, whose losses in 2014 amounted to 96 million euros ($109 million).

After last year’s failed sale, management of the plant was entrusted to Holland-based HPK Engineering BV with the purpose of preparing it for privatization.

Zelezara Smederevo has annual capacity of about two million tons and at its peak accounted for 14 percent of Serbia’s exports.

The deadline for the submission of offers was fixed at March 30, the government advertisement said.