Kazakh steel output down in Jan-Nov

According to the data released by the Republic of Kazakhstan's Agency of Statistics, during the January-November 2006 period the country registered a 16.3 percent increase in iron ore production, a 6.7 percent decrease in crude steel production, a 2.7 percent decrease in production of flat rolled and a 5.7 percent rise in ferroalloys production year on year. The respective figures in metric tons were 20.6 million, 3.8 million, 2.7 million and 14.8 million. In November 2006, Kazakhstan saw a 1.9 increase in production of iron ore to 1.8 million metric tons, a 9.7 percent decrease in crude steel output to 360,593 metric tons, a 17.7 percent decrease in flat rolled production to 238,508 metric tons and a 8.8 percent rise in ferroalloys production to 134,908 metric tons, as compared to the corresponding period of 2005.