The five companies are: China Steel Equipment Co., Ltd.; Myanmar Go Excellent Myanmar Co Ltd, Millcon Thiha Co Ltd, Direct Investment Ltd and India IMR Resources (AG) India Private Ltd.
The state-owned No. 1 steel mill is located near Sar Khar Village in Myingyan Township, Mandalay Region. It is reported that its annual production capacity is 1.8 million tons. Due to continuous equipment damage, the government temporarily stopped the factory's production.
The holding company of the state-owned No. 1 steel mill said in January that it would require an estimated 225 billion kyats to restart the plant and was seeking investors to help it operate.
The Myanmar government expects that government spending on infrastructure and foreign direct investment will increase in the next five years, thereby increasing steel consumption, so the government is working hard to restart the local steel production industry.
The Southeast Asia Steel Association estimates that Myanmar’s steel demand will continue to grow at an average annual rate of 8%. The steel demand will exceed 3 million tons by 2020 and 5 million tons by 2025.
In comparison, Singapore currently consumes nearly 5 million tons of steel, while Thailand is about 11 million tons. Therefore, the authorities are increasing their efforts to produce more steel at home to reduce costs. Myanmar currently imports 90% of steel.
After COVID-19, the government recently reiterated its commitment to support the local construction industry. Due to the outbreak of the pandemic, cash shortages and delays in the importation of construction materials, many construction projects have stalled.
"Construction work cannot be suspended because it involves the country's infrastructure development. As long as they abide by the health guidelines, we will allow them to resume work." Aung San Suu Kyi. She said that the government will continue to use state funds and international loans to implement new infrastructure projects and cooperate with the private sector to promote real estate development.
Myanmar is also seeking assistance from the international community to promote the import of construction machinery and construction materials. The Ministry of Planning, Finance and Industry stated that Myanmar will set standards to ensure the quality of locally produced and imported steel.
"Myanmar is the only country in ASEAN that does not have steel standards." Now, the main problem of the industry is low prices and low quality imports. Local steel companies also expressed concern about the ability of local industry to compete with cheap imported products.
U Sit Taing Aung, chairman of the Myanmar Iron and Steel Association, said that with basic standards, the authorities can also check and minimize the use of counterfeit products. "Our association is helping the government to develop such standards to advise the government technical committee
