BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 12. The dynamics of cargo transportation growth along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) will be maintained for the next 10 years, Trend reports.
If in 2022 more than 33,000 TEU containers, or 1.5 million tons, were handled by TITR, then this year an increase in container transshipment is projected by more than 20 percent - up to 40,000 TEU, and an increase in transshipment volume is projected at the level of 35 percent - up to 2 million tons.
Moreover, the growth of cargo transshipment through TITR is projected at over 150,000 TEU per year in the medium term (5-10 years). So, already today, leading European logistics companies, in particular Danish Mærsk, Austrian Rail Cargo Group, Finnish Nurminen Logistics and Dutch Rail Bridge Cargo, are working on attracting cargo to this corridor.
Several other countries, mainly Singapore, Bulgaria and Lithuania, are also working on joining this corridor. Negotiations are underway with Austria and Germany. All this gives grounds to expand the geography of the TITR corridor.
Meanwhile, the TITR Association and Singapore will create the concept of digitalization of the TITR corridor. Work is currently underway on detailing. Work on the digitalization of TITR will be carried out with leading Singaporean companies. It is expected that this concept will contribute to improving data exchange between participants, as well as speeding up border crossings.
This week, the issues of establishing a joint venture for the Middle Corridor have been discussed by the railway departments of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Türkiye. Work on the creation of a joint venture is in progress, intensive negotiations are underway among participating countries.
Also this week, members of the Coordinating Committee of the countries of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and the UN Economic Commission for Europe, including representatives from Azerbaijan, Türkiye, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other countries, discussed the latest developments and initiatives of the countries on the commissioning of the Almaty-Istanbul corridor and the TITR. The UN and ECO are actively working to develop transport cooperation in the region, which plays an important role in ensuring connectivity between Europe and Asia.
The deepening and development of transport routes has been and remains an important issue and requires joint internationally coordinated decisions. Of particular importance on the agenda was the discussion of the draft work program of the Coordinating Committee and the adoption of a two-year program for 2023-2025.
Moreover, TRACECA and TITR are working on attracting additional cargo to this route. Within the framework of the document signed between the parties, it is planned to exchange information on transport and strengthen socio-economic conditions in the regions of Europe, the Caucasus and Asia, which in turn will create a favorable investment climate.
TRACECA has started pilot cargo transportation by semi-trailers on a multimodal route. The project is being implemented along the route: EU countries - Black Sea - Georgia - Azerbaijan - Caspian Sea - Central Asian countries. Its results will be presented as part of a study tour along this route on June 12-16, 2023.
At the same time, transportation along the International North-South Transport Corridor (ITC) from January through May 2023 increased by 40 percent and amounted to 4 million tons. The main share fell on the Western Route connecting Russia with Iran through Azerbaijan - 3.6 million tons (an increase of 37.9 percent).
The dynamics is higher along other corridors, but the volume of cargo transportation is less. Thus, 3.5 million tons were transported along the Eastern Route through Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan (an increase of 80.3 percent), 1.1 million tons were transported along the trans-Caspian route (an increase of 80.5 percent). According to estimates, the cargo traffic on the eastern North-South Route will exceed 1 million tons in 2023, it is expected to reach the level of 5-7 million tons in 2025.
In addition, the main freight forwarder of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, Sara Logistics, is redirecting cargo to the international North-South transport corridor, given that repair work is currently underway on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway route.
This company can handle up to 2,000 railway cars, or up to 300,000 tons every month. Thus, out of the total volume of transit cargo falling on the territory of Azerbaijan, about 200,000 tons are handled monthly by Sara Logistics. The main type of cargo is lumber, while the main directions are cargo from Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Türkiye and other countries.
