Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

Kazatomprom sells solar power business

DEC. 30 2020 (The Bulletin) — Kazatomprom, the world’s largest uranium miner, said that it wanted to sell its three solar power subsidiaries — KazSilicon, Astana Solar and Kazakhstan Solar Silicon. The three companies had produced parts and materials for solar panels. Kazatomprom, which mines 25% of the world’s uranium, said that it wanted to concentrate on its core business.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Romania’s OMV sells Kazakhstan assets

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DEC. 29 2020 (The Bulletin) –Romania’s OMV sold its two subsidiaries in Kazakhstan, KomMunai and Tasbulat Oil, to Magnetic Oil, which is inked to the Kazakh elite for an undisclosed because it said that it wanted to concentrate on projects closer to its core base in the Balkans. KomMunai and Tasbulat Oil owned four production licences for onshore fields in Kazakhstan’s western Mangistau region.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Kazatomprom sells stake in subsidiary to China

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ALMATY/DEC. 29 2020 (The Bulletin) — — Kazakhstan’s Kazatomprom, the world’s biggest uranium miner, agreed to sell China’s CGN a 49% stake in one of its most important subsidiaries as part of a contract to boost bilateral cooperation in the sector.

Under the deal, signed between 2014 and 2016, China will commit to funding the construction of a nuclear fuel assembly plant in Kazakhstan and will guarantee orders for these fuel assemblies for the next 20 years.

Kazatomprom said that the coronavirus pandemic had slowed construction of the Ulba Fuel Assembly Plant in the east of the country but that the project was now back on track.

“Under the current ramp-up and product qualification plan, and assuming no further delays, the first production from the Ulba-FA plant is expected near the end of 2021, with first delivery of finished, certified fuel assemblies to the customer in 2022,” Kazatomprom said in a statement.

China is the world’s biggest growth market for nuclear power and a natural marketplace for Kazatomprom’s uranium. Fuel assemblies are enriched uranium rods grouped together to generate power for power stations.

The deal highlights the trade co-dependency of the two neighbours and also how China is continuing to increase its ownership of Kazakh industry.

China has been buying up many of Kazakhstan’s top industrial assets, especially in the oil and gas and the mineral and mining sectors, for the past 15 years or so.

The Kazatomprom subsidiary that CGN, which stands for China General Nuclear Power Group, has agreed to take a 49% in, as part of the fuel assembly supply deal, is called Ortalyk.

It owns two uranium deposits in Kazakhstan, the Central Mynkuduk Deposit and the Zhalpak Deposit. The deal is expected to be completed by the middle of 2021.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

The Caspian Sea is shrinking, warn scientists

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ALMATY/DEC. 23 2020 (The Bulletin) — The Caspian Sea, which provides a livelihood for thousands of people and acts as a fulcrum for international transit routes through the Central Asia and South Caucasus region, is shrinking, new scientific research showed (Dec. 23).

The report produced by universities in Germany and the Netherlands said that the Caspian Sea could lose up to a third of its water by 2100, with water level dropping by 18m, marooning previously important ports hundreds of kilometres inland.

The report’s authors said they wanted to use the threat to the Caspian Sea to highlight the dangers of global warming to inland seas and lakes.

“A massive warning signal is the projected catastrophic drop in water levels for the Caspian Sea, the largest lake in the world, which could hit stakeholders unprepared,” the report said.

Previous studies have warned that the Caspian Sea has been shrinking since the 1990s but not this quickly.

Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Azerbaijan border the Caspian Sea, which lies at the centre of a series of transport corridors that ultimately connect East Asia with Europe.

The Caspian Sea also hosts the region’s oil and gas industry and is a wildlife reserve, supporting seals, and migratory birds. The report showed how vast areas of the northern section of the Caspian Sea could dry up, with Atyrau in Kazakhstan effectively being stranded hundreds of kilometres from the shore.

Central Asia’s reputation for ecological disasters is already secure with the shrinking of the Aral Sea, which is shared by Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. It shrank in the 1960s and 1970s to half its original size because of Soviet schemes to siphon off its tributaries to irrigate cotton fields.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Kazakhtan begins production of Russian Covid vaccine

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DEC. 21 2020 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan has started production of Sputnik-V, the Russian vaccine for Covid-19, Russian officials said. This could mean that Kazakhstan, and other countries in Central Asia, will receive batches of the vaccine more quickly. Media reports said that the first batch of the vaccine had been sent off to Russia for quality checks.

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— This story was first published in issue 467 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Kcell posts sales rise for H1

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JULY 30 (The Bulletin) — Kcell, Kazakhstan’s biggest mobile operator, said that sales increased by 7.7% in the first six months of the year, compared to the same time last year, despite the coronavirus pandemic.. It also said that net income was up by 17.8%. Results from Kcell, which is owned by the state-owned Kazakhtelecom, are watched as they are considered important indicators on the health of the Kazakh economy.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

KAZ Minerals says that H1 copper output was higher than expected

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JULY 30 (The Bulletin) — KAZ Minerals, the Kazakhstan-focused and London-listed, copper producer said that output for the first half of the year was higher than expected. It said that copper production was up by 4% and that gold production was up by 25%. Importantly, it said that while the coronavirus pandemic had not disrupted its operations so far a second lockdown in Kazakhstan had “heightened risk”. Kazakhstan went into a second lockdown in early July.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Kazakhstan to extend second coronavirus lockdown

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JULY 29 (The Bulletin) — Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that a second lockdown imposed at the start of July to control the coronavirus will be extended by another two weeks into mid-August. The second lockdown was supposed to have been imposed only for a fortnight to mid-July. PM Askar Mamin has said that the number of new infections per day had dropped by 30% but that they were still measuring around 1,500. Kazakhstan has recorded 92,662 coronavirus cases and 793 deaths.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Caspian seals are now under threat, says Kazakhstan

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JULY 27 (The Bulletin) — Kazakh officials said that the population of the Caspian seal, unique to the Caspian Sea, has declined by 90% over the past 100 years. It said that the population of the seals was now at around 100,000 and that they would be placed on the government’s endangered list. It blamed over hunting during the Soviet Union and release of toxins from industry and the oil and gas sector as the main reasons for the decline.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Kazakhstan Railways to sell wagon manufacturing site

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JULY 24 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan Temir Zholy plans to sell its Tulpar Wagon manufacturing plant, a factory that Kazakh officials often hold up as one of the most advanced in the country. Media reported that a joint venture between Spain’s Talgo and Kazakhstan Temir Zholy ended in 2019. Kazakhstan Temir Zholy did not say how much they expected to raise from the sale.

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— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.