ArcelorMittal Temirtau in Kazakhstan is renamed Qarmet

The team was introduced to a new investor who took on production and social obligations

ArcelorMittal Temirtau, which was sold last week to the state-owned private equity fund Qazaqstan Investment Corporation (QIC), has been renamed Qarmet. This was reported by the press service of the Karaganda region administration.

The head of the region, Ermaganbet Bulekpayev, introduced the new investor to the team: Qazaqstan Steel Group (QSG) and its founder, Andriy Lavrentiev.

«The new owner faces important tasks, first of all, in terms of ensuring and creating working conditions, improving the welfare of employees, they will also have to take an active part and help develop the local community through social projects,» he noted.

Vadim Basin has been appointed CEO of Qarmet. Basin served as Executive Director of ArcelorMittal Temirtau in 2017-2021, and at the end of October 2023, after the deaths of miners at the Kostenko mine, the President of Kazakhstan entrusted him with the leadership of the company.

«QSG, represented by Kazakh businessman Andrey Lavrentiev, has reached an agreement with the Ministry of Industry and Construction of the Republic of Kazakhstan to acquire the assets of ArcelorMittal Temirtau. Under the terms of the agreement, QSG will purchase AMT’s assets for $286 million and make guaranteed deferred payments of $450 million, payable in four equal annual installments. In addition, an additional $250 million will be paid at closing as a repayment of AMT’s outstanding intercompany debt,» the company said in a statement.

In addition to the acquisition of assets, the Kazakh investor is committed to investing another $3 billion in the modernization of production and environmental protection in the region, of which $1.3 billion will be invested next year.

The new investor’s short-term objectives include a radical improvement in production safety and environmental performance, modernization and reorganization of production, and an increase in the volume, range and types of products.

On December 12, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev commented on the arrival of a new investor, a Kazakh company, at ArcelorMittal Temirtau (Qarmet), Zakon.kz reports.

«Now the government’s task is to facilitate it, especially at the initial stage of operation, and then the demand from the new owner will be very tough,» he said.

As GMK Center reported earlier, last week, ArcelorMittal sold its assets in Kazakhstan to QIC, which acquired all the shares in ArcelorMittal Temirtau and ArcelorMittal Tubular Products Aktau. During the negotiations, ArcelorMittal asked for $3.5 billion, which did not correspond to the calculations of international consultants, and the state reduced the value of the assets from this amount to $286 million.