Myanma Shipyards-AMECC Joint Venture Co Ltd plans to complete a new fabrication workshop in March aimed at meeting the needs of the domestic and export markets.

“The workshop will support our steel structure production for local infrastructure projects and the shipping industry,” U Kyaw Kyaw, the company’s general manager for planning, said. “It will be a big thing for Myanmar.”  Construction of the workshop, which started last November, is 40 percent completed, he added.

The nearly four-hectare facility, located on the eastern bank of the Hlaing River in the compound of the state-run shipyards, will produce an estimated 12,000 tonnes of steel structures annually. It will have a strong technical team of trained engineers, welders and quality controllers using state-of-the-art machinery.

“Our management decided to diversify our business to not only focus on shipbuilding and repair but also on steel structure manufacturing in order to penetrate the niche markets in Myanmar,” U Kyaw Kyaw said.

The company, which is a joint venture of Myanma Shipyards and Vietnam’s Dong A Shipbuilding Industry, specialises in ship building and repair, fabrication and installation of steel structures and equipment, and construction. It has built 38 vessels in four years.