According to the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in the January-February period this year Kazakhstan’s crude steel production totaled 618,759 mt, increasing by 34.3 percent year on year. In particular, flats production surged by 79.3 percent year on year to 327,511 mt. Such considerable changes are not caused by an improvement in the steel industry, but by lower-than-usual production results in 2019, SteelOrbis understands. At the beginning of the previous year, the production at a key steelmaking plant in Kazakhstan, ArcelorMittal Temirtau, was partially suspended due to an explosion at its gas pipeline in November 2018. Normal production resumed in March 2019.
In the ferroalloys segment, in the January-February period Kazakhstan’s production increased by 3.8 percent year on year to 361,184 mt.