IBTT, Myanmar
Myanmar is undergoing rapid growth and modernization since reforms started in 2010. The food industry is at the forefront of that transformation to bring accessible and safe food to Myanmar's 53 million inhabitants. The consumption of baked goods, biscuits, noodles and meat is growing rapidly.
For years, Myanmar has been fueling its food industry growth with grain imported by containers. Back in 2013, Lluvia, a Joint Venture Company of Mitsubishi Corporation and Capital Diamond Star Group, teamed up with Kamigumi, Japan's largest bulk operating company, and JOIN, Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation for Transport & Urban Development, to solve Myanmar's import bottleneck by creating the first bulk terminal in the country: the International Bulk Terminal Thilawa (IBTT) was born.
The project settled on the banks of the Yangon river in the Thilawa Economic Zone, about one hour and a half drive South of Yangon, Myanmar's economic capital. The project was rapidly awarded to Penta Ocean Corporation and Bühler. The site was built in less than 2 years and commissioned on schedule, an achievement in Myanmar's sometimes challenging business and infrastructure environment.
IBTT is strategically located in the river mouth South of Yangon, Myanmar's economic capital, and close to the Thilawa Special Economic Zone. With bulk demand forecasted to increase rapidly, the IBTT team came to Bühler early in the process to discuss not only the initials project's plan, but also receive strategic advices on potential expansions of the site, creating a future-proof project.
he first stage project of IBTT site includes a jetty 230 meters in length, 25 meters in width, with 11-meter draft, which has a designed capacity to accommodate vessels up to 200 meters LOA and 60,000 DWT (Dead Weight Tonnage).
For grain storage, Bühler provided a full intake and pre-cleaning system with conveying to 13 grain bins for a total capacity of 40,000 tons of wheat. The site also features a truck loading system with 3 dedicated smaller bins. The grain part of the project started to operate in May 2019.
For soy bean meal, used by animal feed mills in the region, Bühler provided a flat storage of a capacity of 20,000 tons. IBTT foresees many potential growth opportunity for the company. First, grain and soy meal imports will continue increasing as the downstream customers will start building capacity.
Bühler therefore made sure that the project can be expanded according to a "4-folds" design, multiplying the storage capacity of the project by 4 by mirroring 2 times the existing set up.
IBTT also anticipates that with the development of agriculture in the country, the project may soon start to export grain such as rice and corn by bulk vessel. Therefore it was important that the project remains versatile. The team insisted to create a simple design which could be re-purposed to support other products in the future.
By kickstarting bulk cargo operations in Myanmar, we strengthen the country's food quality and improve competitiveness of local food and feed industries
Okada Shimpei, Corporate Planning Manager, BTT, Myanmar.
Bühler didn't compromise on quality for our installation in Myanmar. This is the same top global quality standard we enjoyed in Japan.
Inaba Shogo, Port Operation Director, IBTT Myanmar
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