OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Switzerland-based fertiliser producer EuroChem said it would increase investment in its phosphate mine in southern Kazakhstan to try to drive up production. EuroChem produces 640,000 tonnes of phosphate rock annually at its Zhambyl mine. It wants to more than double this.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
SEPT. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – During a visit to the Karakalpakstan region in west Uzbekistan, acting President and PM Shavkat Mirziyoyev urged the local administration to speed up the modernisation of the region’s biggest thermal power station, Takhiatash. The upgrade scheme is being part funded by a $300m loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and will boost overall production to 930MW from the current 730MW.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Gazprom Kyrgyzstan representatives said they would apply a 1% discount on gas supplies to households and industries to reflect the strengthening of the som currency. Gazprom Kyrgyzstan, a subsidiary of Russia’s gas giant Gazprom which owns Kyrgyzstan’s gas distribution network, can revise gas tariffs on a monthly basis. Gas prices have become a political issue in the region, often sparking protests against proposed price rises.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – LG CNS, the IT provider owned by Korea’s LG, signed a $12.1m contract with Uzbekistan’s ministry of IT and communications to build a national online electronic library system. The project will be started at the Navoi national library and will then be expanded to education institutions, government agencies and airports.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – CRRC, China’s state-owned train manufacturer, signed an agreement with state-owned Georgian Railway to supply 28 new electric locomotives and jointly build a factory to produce trains in the country. The new $20m factory, located near Tbilisi, will be operated by CRRC and local companies BMI Partners and AS Group 1990. The joint venture aims to create an export hub for train parts to Europe and Turkey.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Natig Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s energy minister, said that, once operational, the Kashagan offshore will increase Kazakhstan’s oil shipments to Baku to 150,000 barrels of oil/day, feeding into the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Mr Aliyev’s statement relied on the assumption that the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which pumps oil around the Caspian Sea to the Russian port of Novorossiysk, and the Kazakhstan-China pipeline will not be able to absorb the additional 370,000 barrels of oil/day that Kashagan will produce at its peak. Kazakhstan has slashed oil shipments from Aktau to Baku this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
SEPT. 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s parliament approved a deal to build the TANAP pipeline across Turkey, a long-overdue step in the development of the project to pump gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe. An initial agreement on TANAP, a $10b gas pipeline, was signed in May 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
OCT. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Anaklia Development Consortium started construction at the $2.5b Anaklia Deep Sea Port, just north of Poti, on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. At the groundbreaking ceremony, Georgia’s PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili said the port will be complete by 2020. TBC Holding and US-based Conti are part of the consortium. Mamuka Khazaradze, chairman of TBC Bank, owns TBC Holding.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
ALMATY, OCT. 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan-focused copper producer Central Asia Metals reported a 38% growth in production in Q3 2016 compared to the same period last year, because of the expansion of its Kounrad project near Lake Balkhash.
The company, listed in London, said it could potentially surpass its goal of producing 14,000 tonnes of copper this year. In the first nine months of the year, it produced 11,010 tonnes of copper cathode, up 31% compared to last year.
The news sent its shares up 3.6% to 181.75p, its highest level since April. The depreciation of the Kazakh tenge after the Central Bank ditched the peg to the US dollar in August 2015 also helped the company cut production costs which should help its full-year results.
“As a result of the devaluation of the tenge as well as some engineering cost savings, we remain confident that we can complete this capex programme approximately 25% below our initial budget of $19.5m,” chairman Nick Clarke said.
Central Asia Metals mainly exports its copper products to Turkey. Its exposure to other markets is limited.
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(News report from Issue No. 299, published on Oct. 7 2016)
SEPT. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Abdulaziz Kamilov, Uzbekistan’s foreign minister, paid an official visit to Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon in Dushanbe in an effort to boost cooperation. Mr Kamilov and Mr Rakhmon held talks on joint efforts to combat terrorism and on water and energy issues that still divide the two countries. Uzbekistan has maintained strong opposition against Tajikistan’s decision to build a major dam and hydropower plant because it would affect downstream water supply.
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(News report from Issue No. 298, published on Sept. 30 2016)
