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%.
