At the end of last year, Kazakhstan almost doubled its coal supplies to Uzbekistan, Spot reported citing Kazakhstan Railways as saying.

In 2023, the volume of cargo exports by rail from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan increased by 29% to 10 million tons. The main export product was grain, the supply of which amounted to 3.5 million tons.

Exports of Kazakh coal to the Uzbek market increased over the year by 82.3% or 1.4 million tons, exceeding 3 million tons.

Also, supplies of petroleum products, ferrous metals, chemicals and mineral fertilizers were carried out by rail.

At the beginning of June last year, Vice Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development of Kazakhstan Iran Sharkhan shared plans to gradually increase thermal coal exports to Uzbekistan by more than 25 times, to 12.8 million tons. In the first four months of 2023, coal supplies from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan almost tripled, to 255.3 thousand tons.

In July, the Kazakh authorities considered the possibility of increasing tariffs for the transportation of coal to Uzbekistan. In particular, this may lead to an increase in the cost of exported Kazakh coal.