Yangon factories now down to two hours of electricity per day

Factory owners in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon say their daily ration of electricity has been reduced to just two hours—half what it was until the start of this week. Junta officials announced the measure during meetings held last week with business owners operating in the city’s industrial zones, sources told Myanmar Now. “It started on Sunday [May 19]. I am currently at the industrial zone and everyone here is using generators right now,” said the owner of a factory at the Shwe Lin Ban industrial zone in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township. He said the reason given for the move was “current conditions of the electricity generation process”—referring to acute power shortages affecting Yangon and the rest of the country. In an interview with the BBC’s Burmese-language service, Kyaw Thu, the executive director of the Yangon Electricity Supply Corporation (YESC), said the aim of rationing to businesses was to ensure that the public had enough power to cope with recent high temperatures. YESC district and township managers were unavailable for comment when contacted about the decision. No objections were raised at the meetings held to announce the move due to fear of repercussions for criticising the junta’s management of the electricity distribution system, said one person in attendance. Another business owner from Hlaing Tharyar said that forcing companies to rely on generators to meet their needs would only drive up the price of fuel and cause many to go broke. “Our generators are already breaking down because we have to use them all the time. And fuel prices are at an all-time high. It’s difficult to even find a place to buy any these days,” he said. “To be completely honest, it’s really not working at all. Some have had to downsize their businesses,” he added. While electricity from the national power grid costs around 150 kyat (US$0.07) per unit, a gallon of diesel fuel can cost more than 10,000 kyat ($4.76). Producing around 10 units of electricity per gallon, this puts the cost per unit at 1,000 kyat ($0.48). While no recent data is available about how many local businesses have gone under because of the dwindling power supply, a number of foreign-owned companies are known to have pulled out of the country for this and other reasons. Last Friday, CJ Feed Myanmar Company Limited, a South Korean company manufacturing animal feed, announced that it was shutting its doors at the end of this month, citing multiple issues related to the state of the economy under the current regime. According to a report released by the United Nations Development Programme last month, poverty has deepened significantly since the military seized power three years ago, while the segment of the population regarded as middle class has been cut in half.

Yangon factories now down to two hours of electricity per day

The new limit imposed by the regime cuts access in half and significantly increases the cost of doing business, say factory owners

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