EuroChem commissions major sulfuric acid plant in Kazakhstan as $1 billion phosphate project advances

EuroChem has commissioned a new sulfuric acid production plant in Kazakhstan’s Zhambyl Region, marking a key milestone in the company’s more than $1 billion investment project to develop a fully integrated phosphate and fertilizer production chain in the country.

The new facility, which has a design capacity of 800,000 metric tons of sulfuric acid annually, is among the largest plants of its kind in Kazakhstan. According to the company, production from the plant will supply both EuroChem’s fertilizer complex currently under construction and customers in Kazakhstan’s domestic market.

The sulfuric acid plant represents the second phase of EuroChem’s development of phosphate resources in the Karatau phosphorite basin. During the first phase, the company launched a mining and beneficiation complex with annual capacity to process 840,000 metric tons of phosphate ore. The final stage of the project, scheduled for completion in 2027, will see the launch of a chemical complex producing mineral fertilizers and industrial chemical products.

Once fully operational, the integrated complex is expected to produce more than 1 million metric tons of products annually. EuroChem said the project will create one of the world’s few fully integrated chemical production sites, combining phosphate mining, raw material processing, and finished fertilizer manufacturing within a single production chain.

The company expects output from the complex to serve markets across Central Asia, as well as Russia, China, and Europe. The project is also expected to deliver significant economic benefits to the region. EuroChem said tax payments generated during the project’s implementation have already reached approximately 70 billion tenge. Upon completion, the complex is expected to support more than 1,200 direct jobs, with a similar number of positions created in related logistics and service industries.