For manufacturers and exporters
How to enter the Kazakhstan market
A practical guide for manufacturers in China who want buyers in Kazakhstan without opening a company, hiring a local team or learning customs law first. Written by a B2B platform that sells industrial goods to Kazakh enterprises every day.
- 360,000+
- items in the catalogue
- 1,100+
- brands already listed
- 20
- cities we deliver to
- 16%
- VAT, invoices in tenge
Why Kazakhstan is worth the trip
Kazakhstan buys what it does not make. Mining, oil and gas, construction, agriculture and transport run on imported equipment, spare parts and materials, and the machines on site are Chinese more often every year: excavators, loaders, dozers, trucks, compressors, pumps. Each of them needs parts for a decade after the sale, and that demand does not go away when a project ends.
The country is inside the Eurasian Economic Union, so one certification and one customs procedure open Russia, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan from the same warehouse. For a manufacturer this is the difference between one market of twenty million people and a region of nearly two hundred million.
It is also close. Rail from Urumqi to Almaty is days, not weeks; the Khorgos and Dostyk crossings run year round; road freight reaches the north of the country in under a week. Compared with shipping to Europe or Africa, the cost of being wrong about a first shipment is small.
What Kazakh enterprises actually buy
The demand is industrial, not consumer. These are the categories that come through our platform every week — if your factory makes any of them, there are buyers here already asking for them by part number.
Spare parts for heavy machinery
Undercarriage, buckets and teeth, hydraulic cylinders, pumps and motors, filters, seals. Anything that fits Shantui, XCMG, SANY, LiuGong, Komatsu, Hitachi, CAT.
Hydraulics and pneumatics
Pumps, valves, hoses and fittings, cylinders, compressors and air preparation. Sold both to plants and to repair shops.
Rolled metal and fasteners
Sheet, pipe, sections, rebar, wire, and the bolts and anchors that go with them. Volume business with steady repeat orders.
Electrical and power equipment
Cable, switchgear, transformers, motors and gearboxes, generators, industrial lighting.
Pumps, filtration and process equipment
Water treatment, dosing, separation, conveyors, crushing and screening for mines and quarries.
Consumables and PPE
Welding, abrasives, lubricants, workwear, safety gear. Low ticket, high frequency, very sticky once you are the supplier.
Four ways in, and what each one costs you
Every manufacturer that sells here has picked one of these four. They differ mostly in how much of the local work you take on yourself.
| Route | What you do | What it costs | Fits you if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct export to end customers | Find buyers, quote, invoice, ship, handle claims — all from China | Months of sales effort per customer; payment and warranty risk on you | You already have named customers asking for you |
| One exclusive distributor | Sign one partner and supply them | Your price becomes their margin; your market is as big as their ambition | You want a single point of contact and can live with their pace |
| Your own legal entity | Register a company, hire staff, rent a warehouse, keep accounts | Setup plus a running monthly cost before the first sale | You already sell enough here to pay for it |
| A B2B platform (what we do) | Send a price list and ship confirmed orders | No setup cost, no local staff, no legal entity | You want demand first and a local presence later |
The rules you cannot skip
None of this is hard, but all of it is mandatory, and a shipment that ignores one of these sits at the border instead of on a customer's site.
Certification (TR CU / EAC)
Most machinery, electrical equipment, PPE and materials need an EAEU declaration or certificate of conformity. It is issued in Kazakhstan on the basis of your test reports; a local partner can hold it for you. Plan two to six weeks the first time.
Customs codes and duties
The HS code decides the duty, the paperwork and how fast the truck clears. Getting it wrong is the single most common reason a first shipment is late. Confirm the code before you quote, not after.
VAT and invoicing
Kazakh enterprises buy against an invoice in tenge with 16% VAT and expect a full set of closing documents. A buyer who cannot put your goods into their books will not buy them, whatever your price is.
Payment terms
Bank transfer, usually with a contract. Prepayment is normal for a first order; after that buyers ask for terms. Currency risk sits with whoever invoices in tenge.
Parts and warranty
Machinery is bought on the assumption that parts will exist in two years. Say plainly what you stock and how fast you can send it — this is what separates a repeat customer from a one-off sale.
Five mistakes that cost Chinese manufacturers this market
Quoting EXW and calling it a price
A buyer in Karaganda cannot compare EXW Ningbo with a delivered price from a competitor down the road. Quote what it costs to be on their site.
No Russian-language documentation
Manuals, nameplates and certificates in Chinese or English only will fail an inspection and scare an engineer. Russian is still the working language of industry here.
Selling once and disappearing
No parts, no answer to an email six months later, no replacement for a part that failed. One bad experience travels through an industry this size in weeks.
Pricing for the port, not the site
Rail, transhipment at the gauge break, customs, VAT and local delivery are real money. A price that ignores them is not a price, it is a surprise.
Waiting for the perfect entry
The manufacturers doing well here started with a price list and one shipment, then built from real orders. The market rewards showing up before it rewards strategy.
How Kaufbund works for a manufacturer
Kaufbund is a B2B platform in Kazakhstan: 360,000 industrial items, buyers who are enterprises rather than consumers, and managers who quote, invoice and chase the order. For a manufacturer we are the part of the market you do not have to build.
1. Send your price list
Excel, PDF or a link to your catalogue. Our system reads it and builds the product cards — you do not fill in a web form 4,000 times.
2. We publish and sell
Your items appear in the catalogue with your price and your stock. Buyers search by part number, by machine model, by specification — in Russian, which is what they type.
3. We handle the Kazakh side
Quotation, invoice in tenge with VAT, contract, closing documents, delivery, questions from the customer's engineer. Your name is on the goods; the paperwork is ours.
4. You ship confirmed orders
You see the order in your supplier cabinet: what to hand over, how many, from which warehouse. No forecasting, no consignment stock, no money tied up.
Questions manufacturers ask us
Do I need a company in Kazakhstan to sell through you?
No. You can start as an exporter shipping against confirmed orders. A local entity makes sense later, when your volume justifies a warehouse here — and by then you will know exactly what it is worth.
Who deals with certification?
Goods sold inside Kazakhstan need EAEU conformity documents. We tell you which of your items need them, and we can point you to certification bodies that work with Chinese factories. Some categories need nothing at all.
In what currency do I get paid?
The buyer pays us in tenge; we settle with you in the currency agreed in our contract, usually USD or CNY. You do not carry tenge risk unless you choose to.
Do I have to keep stock in Kazakhstan?
No. Many suppliers work to order at first: the item shows a lead time instead of a stock figure, and buyers here are used to that for equipment. Stock becomes worth it once the same part sells every month.
Can I sell only through you, or also directly?
Both. Nothing in the arrangement stops you supplying your own customers. In practice the platform finds buyers you would never have met, and your direct sales continue in parallel.
What does it cost to list?
Nothing to publish a price list and nothing monthly. We earn on the sale, which means we only make money when you do.
What languages do you work in?
Russian with the customer, English or Chinese with you. Our site runs in Russian, Kazakh, English and Chinese.
Tell us what you make
Send your company name, what you produce and how to reach you. A manager replies within one business day — in English or Chinese — and tells you honestly whether there is demand here for your range.