Mizzima News

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Authorities have shut down at least five cement factories located in Burma’s second largest city of Mandalay for failing to comply with an order to move issued two years ago.

Popular cement companies including the AAA cements, Myanmar Elephant, and Tiger Head were shut-down last week, for failing to comply with an order to shift their factories to Than village in Kyaukse Township in central Burma’s Mandalay division, a factory manager said.

“We were closed during the Thingyan festival [Water Festival]. We have shut-down since we were ordered to. And our factory in Than village is still under construction and will take another one and-a-half years to complete,” the manager of one of the factories that was told to close told Mizzima on Wednesday.

The manager said, they received an order to shift their factories to Kyaukse Township about two years ago. But since they were unable to complete building the factories, they have not been able to move.

An official in-charge of the Myaingkalay cement company near Pa-an town in Karen state said shifting cement factories could be troublesome and could entail heavy expenditure as well as loss of capital.

“It is not easy to move a cement factory from one place to another because it requires moving heavy machineries and these are mostly not meant to be moved around,” said the officer in-charge of the factory that produces popular cement brands including Myingyan and Kyiant cement.

It is however, not clear why the authorities have ordered the cement factories to move from Mandalay to Kyaukse town, which is the home town of Burma’s military supremo Senior General Than Shwe.

Sources said the shutting down of the popular AAA Cement Company, which has over 2,000 employees, has left at least a thousand daily wage earners jobless and desperate.

While the AAA has stopped operations, the Tiger Head Company, which is also among the list of companies that were ordered to move, continues its operation, sources said.

Meanwhile, a sales manager at the Cement World Company in Rangoon said, prices of cement have gradually increased from Kyat 6,000 (USD 5) per bag before the Water Festival to Kyat 8,000 (USD 6.6).

“We do not have goods coming in. Supply has been halted since the Thingyan festival [Water Festival]. We don’t know the reason,” the sales manager said.