Workers load transformers for shipment last week. Pic: Ye Kaung Myint Maung

YANGON Transformer and Electrical Co, Ltd last month exported the first of 17 transformers it had contracted to manufacture for the mining industries in Mali and Ivory Coast.

U Thant Zin Thaung, the executive director of the company, said the deal to produce the high-voltage transformers had been inked earlier this year with Australia-based Tanis IPS Pty Ltd. He said the production of the transformers, which range in capacity from 20 kilovolt-amperes to 50 megavolt-amperes, has been completed and the first two were shipped to Africa last month, followed by two more last week.

“The rest will be shipped by the end of this month,” he said.

“We won the contract agreement through tender bidding only after competing with South Korean and Indian manufacturers. We are proud of earning the contract for Myanmar because no other domestic firm can export such a heavy-industry product,” said U Thant Zin Thaung.

He said that although exports currently account for fewer than 1 percent of the company’s total production, it had ambitious plans to expand into more overseas markets.

“Mining firms consume huge amounts of electricity and they need high-quality transformers. This contract will increase our company’s reputation and help us reach our goal of exporting more products,” he said, adding that the Middle East in particular was a promising market for the company.

Yangon Transformer and Electrical Company was founded as a transformer importer in early 1990s.

In 2000 it established a factory at Shwe Pyi Thar Industrial Zone to manufacture its own products.