Kazakhstan's crude steel output down 1.9 percent

The Agency of Statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan has released that the country's crude steel output fell 1.9 percent year on year to 1.31 million tons in the first four months of 2006. The outputs of iron ore mining and flat rolled products increased, on the other hand, 0.6 percent and 23.2 percent year on year to 7.194 million tons and 930,847 tons respectively in January-April of 2006. The production of ferroalloys in the republic rose 7 percent to 544,072 tons in the given period.