The Russian Rostec corporation has been unable to finish the project for the launch of an iron-smelting plant in Myanmar due to the recent change of power in this Asian country.
Under the terms of the project, the company planned to build a 200,000 ton iron smelter in the city of Pang-Peta with the planned commissioning in 2021.
According to the Russian Kommersant business paper, the commissioning of the plant will be probably postponed until 2023.
The February military coup in the country and the imposition of a state of emergency, have made the prospects of the project cloudy even after 2023.
The success of the project could promote for exports the Soviet technology "Romelt", which allows processing of low-grade iron-bearing ores. Such market prospects could be primarily associated with China, which, according to some analysts, in 2020 increased imports of pig iron from 920,000 tonnes to 5.3 million tons.
According to analysts, China is the largest pig iron producer with a 67% share of world production. In recent years the country has also increased imports of pig iron.
The increase in imports is dictated by China's attempts to slow the growth of carbon emissions, reduce steel production in China and the overall energy consumption in the iron and steel industry.
The dependence of the Asian region on the whole on the import of cast iron is low being less than 1% of total consumption.
According to the analyst's forecasts, iron prices in the Asian region will be fixed at $ 550-570 per ton in the medium term. Additional pressure
on prices may be put by the Chinese authorities, which are now actively conducting verbal interventions trying to reduce prices for iron ore and other metals.
By: Eugen Gerden