HBIS to relaunch blast furnace at Serbia's Smederevo plant on Aug 16

"The current market situation has created favourable conditions for the launch of the blast furnace, whose production volume will depend on market demand," HBIS said in an e-mailed statement.

The other blast furnace at Smederevo steel mill has been kept in operation.

The lockdowns and other coronavirus restrictions dampened manufacturing and construction activities, leading to a drop in global steel demand last year.

HBIS took over the management and ownership of Zelezara Smederevo in July 2016, three months after the Serbian government agreed to sell the steel mill to the Chinese group for 46 million euro ($56 million).

($ = 0.82255 euro)