Kazakhstan Electrolysis Plant plans to increase production by 0.8%

Last year this figure was 256 thousand tonnes. Thus, production growth is planned at 0.8%. This was announced by the vice-president for production Baurzhan Smilov, Interfax-Kazakhstan writes on Friday, November 23.

"The increase in production occurs as part of a long-term program to increase the current strength in existing electrolysers from the initial 320 kilo ampere to 340 kA. This will allow producing up to 265 thousand tonnes of primary aluminium per year," B.Smilev said. As the speaker noted, the main task of the program is to increase the capacity of electrolysers without additional financial investments and new equipment at the existing facilities. Works are designed for five to seven years.

According to B.Smailov, today 90% of the production is exported and 10% remains for the domestic market. "Of the total export volume, 20% of production is shipped to the Russian Federation. About 70% is exported to Europe. In addition, Belarus, Uzbekistan are among consumers. Over 9 months of the current year, more than 181 thousand tonnes of finished products were exported. In the same period of 2017, the export figure amounted to more than 163 thousand tonnes. Forecast on exports for the current year is more than 240 thousand tonnes of finished products," B.Smaylov said.

On the question about reducing the cost of production, Smaylov noted that this is possible due to the local content. "Today, the share of local content is about 90%. Since 2014, they have launched production of their own anodes, where the main raw material is burnt coke from Pavlodar UPNK. This year, about 60% of local coke is used in our products.

Previously, molds made in China were used, now they are made by Aluminium of Kazakhstan. Since last year, the rods used on electrolysers were taken from SSGPO (Sokolovsko-Sarbayskoye Mining and Production Association, Rudny). Kazakhstan Electrolysis Plant is the only enterprise in Kazakhstan that produces high grade primary aluminium. More 90% of its products the plant directs to foreign markets.

The largest consumers of Kazakhstani aluminium are plants in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Uzbekistan. ERG is one of the world's largest diversified natural resource development companies with fully integrated enterprises in the fields of mining, processing, energy, logistics and marketing. The Eurasian Group manages the production assets of ERG in Kazakhstan: TNK Kazchrome, Aluminium of Kazakhstan, SSGPO, Kazakhstan Electrolysis Plant, Eurasian Energy Corporation, Shubarkol Komir, and the TransCom transport group.

Reported by ABC TV (Kazakhstan).