The president of Bolivia’s Empresa Siderurgica de Mutun (ESM), Jorge Alvarado Rivas, announced that the construction of its iron ore and steel complex has achieved an 85 percent advance stage, comparable to 78 percent as measured in early October.
Rivas mentioned that the fast advance reflects chiefly the construction and set-up of equipment, as civil construction and metallic structures represent only 10 percent of the project.
He added that, from the $546 million investments in the project, 85 percent were destined to the construction of equipment in eight countries.
According to Rivas, 97 percent of the equipment construction is concluded, and 83 percent are already in the project’s site at Puerto Suarez, with the start-up of operations maintained for September 2024.
At full capacity the plant will produce 200,000 mt of steel products per year, sufficient to replace half of the current steel imports of Bolivia.
Earlier in this month, the project achieved an important milestone with the confirmation of the natural gas supply by the country’s oil company YPFB.