Kazakhstan’s domestic metallurgical enterprises are looking for ways to expand their export potential after experiencing an increase in production, QazMonitor reports citing the Central Communications Service.
The issue of the development of ferrous metallurgy was discussed during an online conference between representatives of the Industrial Development Committee and metallurgical businesses.
The mining and metallurgical complex is the second largest industry in the Kazakh economy after oil and gas. The total share of ferrous metals and iron ore mining in the GDP of the country in 2021 was 3.1%. The share of ferrous metallurgy in the manufacturing industry is 18.6%.
Zhanat Igisinov, department head of the ferrous metallurgy and coal industry, said that the income from operations in ferrous metallurgy was 100% for the first 9 months of 2022.
"Domestic enterprises have seen an increase in production of ferroalloys, rebar, steel pipes, rails, and shapes. That’s why we need to expand the export potential of the industry,” he said.
According to Iginisov, Kazakhstan should pay special attention to the development of railroad and sea transportation in the direction of China and the Caspian regions.
The first task towards development is to reduce dependence on imports by expanding the nomenclature of steel products. For that, it was announced that new projects on the production of steel products, ferroalloys, coke, and special coke will be launched in the coming years.
Another plan is to create a metallurgical cluster on the territory of the Ekibastuz industrial zone, located in the Pavlodar region.
The idea is to build three interconnected plants, including a ferroalloy plant to produce ferrosilicon, used to improve the quality of steel, and a DRI factory for producing hot-breaking iron, which is used as a high-quality raw material for steel production. These plants will be implemented in order to provide the raw material base for a steelmaking plant with a capacity of 3 million tons of steel.