Bolivia’s Ministry of Mines and Metallurgy (MMM) has reactivated construction at the Empresa Siderúrgica del Mutún (ESM) steel mill. Preliminary activities began earlier in the month with the construction to be completed by mid-2023 and commissioning by the end of 2023.
In 2014, ESM structured a National Steel Plan in which the MMM committed external credit efforts to finance the first phase. The plan includes three phases with the first achieving production of 194,000mt of construction bars annually, increasing it to 450,000mt annually in phase two, and reaching production of 1mn mt of construction bars and flat and special steels in the final phase.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Sinosteel, Cisdi, and Siderúrgica del Mutún Companies for the reactivation of the Mutún Steel Plant Project in February.
The Bolivian president Luis Arce Catacoran said the government has guaranteed investment to complete the project that is now 15 months overdue.
The construction stage will employ 4,500 workers with 1,500 direct jobs and 3,000 indirect jobs. Once the steel mill launches operations, the mill will create 600 direct jobs in addition to 1,200 indirect jobs.