Kazakhstan sets new record for ferroalloy production in one run

The Aktobe Ferroalloy Plant in Kazakhstan has set a world record for the volume of ferrochrome produced in a single technological cycle. The plant’s metallurgists successfully extracted 177 tons of the product from a single electric arc furnace.

According to the press service of the Aktobe Region Governor’s Office, the achievement was officially recorded in the World Book of Records, under the supervision of independent experts and metrology service specialists. Furnace No. 43 was the unit that set the record.

Facility representatives noted that a furnace like this typically produces between 50 and 60 tons of ferroalloys, but new technological solutions enabled them to significantly exceed the standard output.

Askhat Shakharov, the region’s governor, praised the plant’s metallurgists for their expertise and congratulated them on the achievement.

Last year, the plant produced 1.85 million tons of ferroalloys, marking the facility’s highest output in its history.

The Aktobe Ferroalloy Plant is a division of the Transnational Company Kazchrome, which in turn is part of a major natural resources corporation Eurasian Recourses Group (ERG). ERG’s ultimate beneficiaries are the Ministry of Finance of Kazakhstan (40%), the successors of Alexander Mashkevich and the Ibragimov family (20.7% each), and Patokh Chodiev (18.6%). ERG’s founders — the late Mashkevich, Chodiev and the late Alijan Ibragimov — became Kazakhstan’s first dollar billionaires in 2005, each with equity worth $1 billion, according to Forbes. Ibragimov’s share is currently distributed among his wife Mukadaskhan Ibragimova and four sons — Dostan, Davron, Shukhrat and Furkhat — who collectively rank seventh on Forbes’ list of the richest Kazakhstanis, with a net worth of $2.06 billion.

In late June, ERG announced its intention to invest $20 million in gallium production and to become the world’s second-largest producer of this critical metal. Notably, earlier this week, the country’s cabinet decided to abolish a 10% export duty on gallium, aiming to stimulate production of the metal in Kazakhstan.

Ferrochrome products are widely used in the manufacture of corrosion-resistant steels, including stainless steel, as well as alloy and engineering-grade steels.