OREANDA-NEWS. October 15, 2012. ArcelorMittal Aktau is in talks to supply pipes for a 250km gas pipeline from Kazakhstan’s former capital city Almaty to Taldykorgan, in the east of the country, reported the press-centre of ArcelorMittal.

On 28 September, representatives from ArcelorMittal Aktau attended an opening ceremony to mark the official launch of the project. As a major partner in Kazakhstan’s national gas supply programme to deliver gas from pipelines that are used to export gas to towns and cities in Kazakhstan, our Aktau unit is in talks with the regional authorities to supply this latest pipeline project.

Kazakhstan is home to some of the largest oil and gas reserves in the world. Despite this, much of the country – including the capital city Astana – has only limited access to piped gas. 

ArcelorMittal Aktau – a pipe mill on the Caspian Sea in western Kazakhstan that has an annual production capacity of 60,000 tonnes – is currently the only local supplier to Kazakhstan’s ambitious gas pipeline programme. 

To date, the unit has provided about 64km, or 7,000 tonnes, of steel pipes for the regional government’s Almaty – Baiserke – Talgar gas pipeline project. The almost-complete project was the first in Kazakhstan and Central Asia to use locally manufactured pipes. From using coal and iron ore from our mines in Kazakhstan, to manufacturing steel and hot-rolled coil at our plant in Temirtau, through to pipe manufacturing and the three-layer anti-corrosion coating applied in Aktau, almost 100% of the project was supplied from ArcelorMittal’s local manufacturing facilities and with a local workforce. Previously Kazakhstan relied wholly on imports to supply the material needed for gas pipelines.

ArcelorMittal Kazakhstan began working with the local government in Almaty in 2010, with the delivery of 400 tonnes of steel pipe manufactured in Aktau and made from Temirtau steel. The Aktau team is now in discussions with Ak-Niet, the local construction company that won the tender for the construction of the new pipeline. Around 30,000 tonnes of steel pipes with a three-layer anti-corrosion coating will be needed to build the pipeline.

“We hope that our cooperation with the project owner will continue" said Zhenis Utegenov, CEO of ArcelorMittal Aktau.

Serguei Malyshev, business development director of the tubular products division in the Caspian region, said: “Our ‘think globally, act locally’ strategy made ArcelorMittal the only company in Kazakhstan capable of offering a value-added product using almost 100% local content to the country’s ambitious gasification programme”.