Subsidiary of Singaporean company to build storage facility for sulfuric acid in Kazakhstan
Transshipment 1 plans to build a storage facility for 500,000 tons of liquid reactive chemicals, including sulfuric acid, which is essential for uranium production and currently in short supply in Kazakhstan. The company is controlled by Singaporean Carbon Global Tech Pte. Ltd. and Anuar Musakhan, a Kazakhstani citizen.
«This project is designed for the storage and transportation of liquid reactive chemicals and includes a railway car unloading system, a sulfuric acid storage system, a liquid reactive chemicals truck loading system, as well as necessary electrical and control devices, and safety systems,» the company said in a statement.
A system for unloading sulfuric acid will be built at the facility, consisting of two train lines, each with 20 tank cars, and six additional tank cars for storing sulfuric acid. Each tank car holds 60 cubic meters, meaning the facility’s total unloading capacity will be 2,400 cubic meters per day.
The company will also construct six vertical reservoirs, each with a capacity of 600 cubic meters of sulfuric acid, providing a total storage capacity of 3,600 cubic meters. Trains carrying sulfuric acid will be parked on a specially designated line for unloading.
According to the company’s statement, the acid will be delivered to the site by railway tank cars, for which an additional 763 meters of approach lines and a designated terminal will be constructed.
Construction is set to begin in February 2025 and is expected to be completed by July 2025. The storage site is planned to be operational from 2025 to 2028, as the company has leased the land until Nov. 28, 2028.
Transshipment 1 was established in September 2023 in the Shieli settlement of the Kyzylorda region to store and manage non-food products, excluding oil.
EuroChem Karatau, a subsidiary of Russian EuroChem, plans to launch production of 800,000 tons of sulfuric acid annually by December 2025. Approximately half of this production may be supplied to Kazatomprom, according to Dmitriy Shapovalov, who oversees the construction of EuroChem Karatau.
In December 2023, Baurzhan Ibrayev, chairman of the Advisory Council of NNWI Central Asia-Kazakhstan and a former chief director of Kazatomprom’s nuclear fuel cycle operations, told journalists that Kazakhstan would require about 3 million tons of sulfuric acid annually to boost uranium production, compared to 2.2 million tons consumed in the previous year.
According to Ibrayev, Kazatomprom subsidiaries purchase sulfuric acid at $130 per ton, accounting for 30% to 40% of the prime cost of uranium production in Kazakhstan. The situation is exacerbated by a scarcity of the acid, even before Kazatomprom decided to expand production. In contrast, uranium production enterprises in neighboring Uzbekistan reportedly acquire sulfuric acid for just $30 per ton, Ibrayev noted.
