Kazakhstan's production for January-July 2006

According to data released by the Agency of Statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the country's crude steel production decreased 2 percent while that of flat rolled rose 13 percent and that of ferroalloys rose 4.6 percent year on year to 2.43 million metric tons, to 1.78 million metric tons and to 942,263 metric tons respectively in January-July of 2006. In July of 2006, Kazakhstan produced 373,825 metric tons of crude steel, up 1.2 percent, 282,348 metric tons of flat rolled, up 0.4 percent and 132,639 metric tons of ferroalloys, up 4.6 percent compared to July of 2005. In mining sector, the country's coal mining output rose 11.6 percent and iron ore mining output rose 14.5 percent year on year to 49.8 million metric tons and to 13.04 million metric tons respectively in January-July of 2006. In July of 2006, the coal mining output amounted to 6.4 million metric tons, up 1.6 percent and the iron ore mining output amounted to 1.86 million metric ton, up 78.5 percent compared to July of 2005.