Posted on 11 Aug 2025
Kazakhstan’s Qarmet steelworks plans to launch a new sections rolling mill in 2026 with design capacity of 1 million tonnes/year, says new company chief development officer Jens Barth.
“A new casting and rolling complex will also be built in Temirtau, which is one of Qarmet's largest investment projects worth $700 million,” Barth, formerly of Research & Consulting Group (RCG), told local media outlet orda.kz. “For the first time in the history of Central Asian metallurgy, production of new premium types of steel for use in the oil, nuclear and mechanical engineering industries will be established.”
“In September of this year, the plant in Temirtau will have access to natural gas for the first time in its history and thus our blast furnace capacity will increase, and the cost of pig iron will decrease, which will allow us to increase the production of liquid steel to 6 million tonnes,” he added.
2027 will be a “historic” year for Kazakhstani steelmaking, he continues. Qarmet plans to put into operation new coke batteries, No.8 and No.9, with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes/year of dry coke. It will also launch a mining complex and enrichment plants in Karazhal, and is considering entering the large-diameter pipe segment.
“For me, the construction of the new casting and rolling complex at the metallurgical plant occupies a special place in the production modernisation project,” Barth noted. “There are no such complexes in the EAEU and CIS countries. We are working with potential equipment suppliers like Primetals Technologies, SMS Group and Danieli. By the end of the year, we will be fully involved in the project and, according to our calculations, the start of production is planned for 2027.”
Qarmet’s business plan for 2025 provides for the production of 3.7mt of steel (see Kallanish passim). The firm said previously it plans to increase tube production at its AktauPipe Plant to 100,000t, alongside the addition of railway tracks into the plant. It has an annual design capacity of 60,000t of pipe products.
Kazakhstan decreased crude steel production in June to 358,789 tonnes, down by 12.2 year-on-year. January-June steel production still rose 2.3% on-year to 2.14 million tonnes.
Source:Kallanish
