SHANGHAI, Jan 11 (SMM) – Operating rates across blast furnaces in steel mills in China fell to a multi-month low in December as inclement weather prompted environmental authorities to implement production curbs more strictly.

The average operating rate across 486 blast furnaces in 110 mills, with total pig iron capacity of 586.05 million mt, came in at 85.25% in December, down 1.16 percentage points from November and is expected to rebound to 86.19% in January, SMM data showed.

While seasonality factors would drive more mills to undertake maintenance, output recovery in Jiangsu, China’s second-largest steelmaking province, and the removal of smog alerts are likely to improve overall production across mills in January.