He said the No(1) Steel Mill Project (Myingyan), was first opened in fiscal 2004-05 by the Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) with a €1.1 billion loan from the China Development Bank.

“Currently, the total debt including interest is more than €1.6 billion. The repaid amount up to September 2018 was €136.7 million . The amount including interest that needs to be paid off daily in fiscal 2019-20 is around K500 million,” said U Zarni Aung at the Mandalay Region Hluttaw on February 18. 

The mill is directly managed by the Ministry of Planning and Finance and Industry and is not under the management of regional government, said U Zarni Aung.

“This project has really high interest rate and was done by MEC from 2010 to 2012. It was transferred to No.1 Industry in 2012 and as it was transferred to the current government after the project had been implemented with loans, the public is bearing the burden of repaying these loans,” said Nwartogyi township’s No.1 Constituency Hluttaw MP Daw Nyein That Nwal.

The factory was only able to produce steel billets and steel slabs since becoming operational in fiscal 2009-10 has only distributed the products to MEC.  A supporting air separation plant was also damaged and not repaired, leading to the project and production works being suspended by the Ministry of Planning and Finance since 2017. – Translated

Source: https://www.mmtimes.com/news/taxpayers-bear-costs-loss-making-steel-factory-mandalay.html