Kazakhstan increased steel production by 7.3% y/y in August

In August 2024, metallurgical enterprises of Kazakhstan increased steel production by 7.3% compared to August 2023 – up to 341.94 thousand tons. This is evidenced by the data of the Statistical Committee of the Ministry of Economy of the country, Kallanish reports.

Compared to July this year, steel production by Kazakhstan’s metallurgists in August fell by 3.6% y/y.

Production of flat products in August was 190.77 thousand tons. This is down 23.4% month-on-month and 13.7% y/y.

In January-August 2024, Kazakhstan increased steel production by 9.4% compared to the same period in 2023, to 2.78 million tons. Flat products output reached 2.03 million tons, up 24% 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 to 3.5 million tons compared to 2.9 million tons in 2023, while iron ore concentrate production will grow by 10% – to 10 million tons. At the same time, coal production is expected to decline by 2%.

Last December, 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.