After guarding mineral resources for thirty years, Tajikistan has decided to take a gamble—its president personally spearheading investment promotion, marking the beginning of a "black trade" between China and Tajikistan.
Lately, Tajikistan officially announced that its president met with representatives from three of China's largest metallurgical enterprises, discussing cooperation in the fields of black metallurgy and silicate industries using modern technologies. On the same day, he had just inspected the construction site of a local metallurgical complex currently under development. The country’s top leader visiting a specific construction site, meeting with representatives from three Chinese companies, and discussing concrete collaborations in black metallurgy, cement, lime, and glass—this is not a ceremonial reception of foreign dignitaries, but rather the president directly engaging in project negotiations.
Let’s first understand what black metallurgy is. Simply put, it refers to the entire steel industry chain, centered around three key black metals: iron, manganese, and chromium. It includes iron ore exploration and mining, beneficiation and sintering, iron smelting and steelmaking, rolling into finished products, and ferroalloy processing. All materials used in building construction—rebars, infrastructure steel plates, machinery and machine tool steels, engineering pipes, special military-grade steels—are derived from this sector. It is the foundational industry of all industrial development; without black metallurgy, roads cannot be built, factories cannot be constructed, equipment cannot be manufactured, and infrastructure projects cannot proceed.
Silicate industry primarily focuses on the production of materials containing silicates. Its core products include cement, glass, ceramics, refractory materials, bricks, and building materials. Infrastructure projects like road and bridge construction, housing developments, and civil engineering are impossible without cement. Windows and doors, industrial containers rely on glass. Industrial furnaces and metallurgical kilns must use refractory silicate materials. This sector is essential for infrastructure and tightly linked with black metallurgy: steel plants require refractory silicate materials during steel production, while steel output must be paired with cement to realize large-scale engineering projects.
For decades, Tajikistan’s industrial economy was entirely dependent on non-ferrous aluminum. Over half of the country’s export revenue came from aluminum ingots, resulting in an extremely monotonous industrial structure and weak risk resistance. Despite vast reserves of iron ore and construction raw materials within its borders, Tajikistan lacks complete smelting and processing technologies, forcing it to sell raw ores at low prices, with profits captured by foreign traders.
President Rahmon’s strategy is clear: leverage China’s advanced technologies to process domestic mineral resources locally, achieve import substitution, and pursue export-oriented development. Black metallurgy is the first step toward industrialization—without self-sufficient steel production, one can only purchase others’ rebar and cement for construction. Tajikistan, however, possesses iron ore resources. In April 2025, Tajikistan launched construction of its first iron ore beneficiation plant. With abundant mineral resources, electricity supply, and human capital, all that remains is Chinese technology and capital.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1870303742087305/
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