(Bloomberg) – ArcelorMittal’s Kazakh unit, the biggest steelmaker in the central Asian country, agreed to form a joint venture with the national railway to produce rails and long products.

The ArcelorMittal operation in Kazakhstan is a 6 million tonne integrated steel works with around 50,000 employees.

State-owned Kazakhstan Temir Zholy will invest 50%, and the venture will be based at ArcelorMittal Temirtau’s facilities, the railway monopoly said today in a statement. The amount of investment wasn’t disclosed.

The venture is planned to start working by the end of 2013, with annual production capacity of 400,000 metric tons, divided equally between rails and long products, according to the statement from KZT, as the railway is known. The venture will target exports.