Uzbekistan’s Uzmetkombinat will build a $180 million blast furnace to reduce reliance on imports

The Uzbek Steel Plant (Uzmetkombinat) plans to build a blast furnace with a capacity of 600,000 tons of pig iron per year. This was reported by Kallanish.

According to local media, the project is estimated to cost $180 million, with implementation scheduled for 2026–2028. It is expected that launching in-house production will replace imports worth up to $210 million. Additionally, by implementing modern technological solutions, the company plans to increase its own electricity generation.

Key milestones in the plant’s development:

• May 2026: The plant plans to begin producing hot-rolled steel at the newly built casting and rolling complex with a capacity of 1 million tons per year.
• Self-sufficiency: upon completion of this project, Uzbekistan will be able to fully meet domestic demand for hot-rolled coils.
• Further processing: a significant portion of the output will be supplied to the Tashkent complex for cold-rolled, galvanized, and non-ferrous flat products (capacity: 500,000 tons per year).

Uzmetkombinat is also expanding its raw material base: the company has signed an agreement with the Tajik Steel Plant (TMP). Under the terms of the agreement, starting in the third quarter of 2027, the Uzbek enterprise will receive up to 300,000 tons of direct reduced iron (DRI) per year.

As reported by GMK Center, at the end of last year, Uzmetkombinat secured €132.5 million in financing with the support of the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credits (ICIEC) to complete the construction of a new casting and rolling complex in the city of Bekabad in the south of the country.