BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 28. China
has emerged as the leading partner in Kazakhstan's external trade
landscape, capturing an 18% share of total exports and 29.4% of
imports during the first seven months of 2026, according to data
from the Bureau of National Statistics of Kazakhstan.


Kazakhstan's total foreign trade turnover in
January–July 2026 amounted to $87.75 billion, representing a
nominal increase of 10.7% compared to the corresponding period of
2025. Exports expanded by 15.8% to reach $50.89 billion, while
imports grew by 4.3% to total $36.86 billion, resulting in a robust
trade surplus of $14.03 billion.


According to Trend calculations, export growth outpaced import
growth by 11.5 percentage points, which explains the widening of
the trade surplus, equivalent to 27.6% of total export value and
16% of overall trade turnover.


The commodity structure of exports remained heavily
anchored in energy and raw materials. Crude petroleum and petroleum
products obtained from bituminous minerals dominated the export
structure at 48.2%, followed by refined copper and unwrapped copper
alloys at 6.6%, radioactive chemical elements and isotopes at 4.8%,
copper ores and concentrates at 4.6%, and ferroalloys at 2.4%.


In terms of geographical distribution for exports,
China led with 18%, closely followed by Italy at 17.7%, Russia at
8.9% , Türkiye at 7.7%, the Netherlands at 6.2%, and France at
5.9%. The gap between the top two export destinations, China and
Italy, was under 2% of Kazakhstan's total export value, indicating
China's lead as the top export market remains narrow.







On the import side, Russia ranked first, supplying
30.8% of total incoming goods, followed by China at 29.4%, Germany
at 4.7%, the United States at 4%, South Korea at 2.5%, and Türkiye
at 2.2%.


According to Trend calculations, China's combined
two-way trade turnover with Kazakhstan — exports plus imports —
reached $20 billion in January-July 2026, equivalent to 22.8% of
the country's total foreign trade turnover. This makes China
Kazakhstan's largest trading partner by aggregate volume, even
though Russia leads on imports alone and Italy runs close behind
China on exports alone.


Meanwhile, mutual trade with EAEU member states
reached $18.15 billion — an 8.1% year-on-year increase. According
to Trend calculations, EAEU trade accounted for 20.7% of
Kazakhstan's total foreign trade turnover, meaning roughly
four-fifths of the country's trade flows now run outside the bloc.
Within the EAEU, the Russian Federation accounted for the vast
majority of turnover at 87.4%, followed by the Kyrgyz Republic at
8.3%, Belarus at 4%, and Armenia at 0.3%.