Posted on 29 May 2025
Kazakhstan’s authorities are preparing a six-month ban on the export of billet, which is expected to support the domestic steel industry, Kallanish notes.
Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Industry and Construction has developed a draft order "On some issues of regulating the export of steel billets”.
According to the document, the country plans to ban the export of the following products for six months: iron and non-alloy steel, in ingots or other primary forms (except iron of heading 7203) and semi-finished products made of iron or non-alloy steel.
The restrictions will apply to all types of transport. The draft document is posted on the Open NPA portal and is available for public discussion until 11 June.
According to the ministry, the temporary ban is intended to stimulate the processing of raw materials within the country in order to produce finished products with higher added value. “This will help strengthen the economy and reduce dependence on imported finished steel products,” it notes.
Kazakhstan increased crude steel production in April to 369,634 tonnes, up by 1.2% month-on-month and 5% higher year-on-year (see Kallanish passim). January-April steel production was thus 1.41 million tonnes, up 9.1% on-year.
In 2024, Kazakhstan’s steel production was 4.17 million tonnes, up 9.5% on-year, driven by flat steel output growth of 18.2% to 2.9mt.
Kazakhstan’s Qarmet steelworks’ business plan for 2025 provides for the production of 3.7mt of steel. The firm said previously it planned to increase tube production at its AktauPipe Plant to 100,000t, alongside the addition of railway tracks into the plant. It currently has an annual design capacity of 60,000t of pipe products.
Qarmet and China’s Xinxing Ductile Iron Pipes Co. agreed last year to build a ductile iron pipe plant in Kazakhstan (see Kallanish passim). The pipe mill’s design capacity is to be 200,000 t/year, for a total investment of $161 million.
Qarmet also signed a $1 billion agreement with China Metallurgical Group Corporation to cooperate in the mining and metallurgical industries.
Source:Kallanish
