Kazakhstan increased steel production by 13.4% y/y in March

In March 2024, steel enterprises of Kazakhstan increased steel production by 13.4% compared to March 2023, up to 357.11 thousand tons. This is evidenced by the data of the Statistical Committee of the Ministry of Economy of the country, Kallanish reports.

Compared to February 2023, steel production by Kazakhstan’s metallurgists increased by 5.9% y/y.

Flat products production in March amounted to 236.74 thousand tons. This is up 15.7% month-on-month and 11% y/y.

In January-March 2024, Kazakhstan increased steel production by 2.1% compared to the same period in 2023, to 943.1 thousand tons. Flat products output reached 593.8 kt, down 7.9% y/y.

In 2023, Kazakhstan increased steel production by 16.4% year-on-year – to 3.92 million tons. Production of flat products in the period fell by 3.6% compared to 2022, to 2.45 million tons.

Kazakhstan’s Qarmet plans to increase production of steel products in 2024. It is expected that this year’s steel production will increase by 13% compared to 2023, to 3.3 million tons, and iron ore concentrate production will increase by 10%, to 10 million tons. At the same time, coal production is expected to decline by 2%.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in December last year, ArcelorMittal completed the sale of its assets in Kazakhstan to Qazaqstan Investment Corporation. QIC acquired all the shares in ArcelorMittal Temirtau and ArcelorMittal Tubular Products Aktau. Qazaqstan Steel Group and its founder Andrey Lavrentiev became the new investor. ArcelorMittal Temirtau was later renamed Qarmet.

In addition to acquiring assets, the Kazakh investor pledged to invest another $3 billion in modernizing production and protecting the region’s environment, with $1.3 billion to be invested in 2024.