By 2020, Kazakhstan plans to create a production of soda ash, which will ensure the supply of their own glass production.
This project will be implemented in the territory of Kyzylorda region within the second five-year plan of industrial-innovative development (2015 to 2019). As the representatives of the regional administration, to build a new plant will be in Aralsk, the forces of the joint venture, consisting of the Kazakh company "Araltuz" and the Chinese company «Qinghai Desheng Soda AshIndustrial Co. Ltd ». To date, the bilateral agreement on the establishment of the joint venture has already signed, and its registered capital is about 17.5 billion tenge.
According to the project, the annual production capacity of the plant will be 300 thousand tons of raw materials. In total, a total of enterprise construction will require an investment of 87.5 billion tenge. At the same time, today at the construction site has already allocated 100 hectares of land.
This attempt to create a plant for the production of soda ash in Kazakhstan is not the first. A similar project was included in the plans for the first five years (2010 to 2014), but then he has not been implemented. Now, experts say, the decisive positive factor may be the participation of Chinese investors.
It should be noted that currently Kazakhstan has no own production of soda ash, and their needs are fully provided for by supplies from Russia in the amount of 400 thousand tons annually. The main consumers of this type of raw materials are metallurgical and chemical industries, as well as glass production. So, at the end of this year in Kyzylorda it is planned to put into operation a plant for the manufacture of sheet glass. This venture will be one of the biggest consumers of soda ash.
According to exploration, there are large reserves of raw materials in Kazakhstan for production of soda - only in the Aral Sea region, they account for more than 40 million cubic meters.
