Tajikistan last year exported some 103,000 tons of primary aluminum, which is 29,000 tons less than in 2016, according to the Customs Service under the Government of Tajikistan.
In 2017, the international price for one ton of primary aluminum was 1,970 U.S. dollars.
The Ministry of Industry and New Technologies (MoINT) had earlier reported that the Tajik Aluminum Company (TALCO) produced 85,600 tons of primary aluminum over the first ten months of 2017, which was 23 percent less than in the same period of 2016.
Aluminum production has begun significantly decreasing in Tajikistan since November 2016.
Representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoEDT) attribute the setback in aluminum production in the country to an electricity blackout that hit Tajikistan on October 28, 2016.
The TALCO press center noted on October 30 that the electricity blackout had nearly led to shutdown of the Tajik aluminum smelter.
Electricity blackout reportedly hit the city of Tursunzoda on October 28 at 6:31. Barqi Tojik (Tajikistan’s national integrated power company) tried to resume electricity supply to the aluminum smelter at 8:40 pm but it failed. Power supply was resumed only at 9:30 pm but Barqi Tojik needed another one and a half hours to resume normal power supply to the smelter, therefore, normal power supply to the smelter was reportedly resumed at 11:18 pm.
Damaged caused to the Tajik aluminum smelter by the power outage has been estimated at 8 million U.S. dollars.
The Tajik Aluminum Company (TALCO) is one of the ten largest aluminum smelters in the world. It consumes more than 30 percent of the country’s electrical power. TALCO is wholly owned by the Tajik government. Tajikistan does not mine alumina but imports the raw material through tolling arrangements.
Construction of the Tajik aluminum plant (TadAZ) began in 1972, and the first pouring of aluminum took place on March 31, 1975. THz Tajik aluminum smelter has a rated capacity of 517,000 tons of primary aluminum per year. On April 3, 2007, TadAZ was officially renamed to TALCO – Tajik Aluminum Company.
