ASTANA, Kazakhstan, March 25. Kazakhstan continues to develop the transport sector and wants to turn it into one of the main sectors of the economy.
Trend News Agency provides an overview of the main events in the transport sector of Kazakhstan in the first quarter of 2024:
Railroad Transport
- Kazakhstani railway carrier Kaztemirtrans JSC increased its fleet of freight cars by 67 new domestic open wagons. The wagons can carry up to 70 tons. Freight cars were manufactured by the Kazakhstan Railroad Car Building Company in Ekibastuz.
- As Kazakhstan Railways informed, the company plans to expand its fleet of locomotives and wagons in the coming years, Thus, by 2030, Passenger Transportation JSC (a subsidiary of the KTZ) will add 537 passenger wagons from Stadler to its fleet. At the same time, Kaztemirtrans JSC (a subsidiary of KTZ) plans to buy about 3,000 freight wagons by 2025.
- Kazakhstan's KTZ Express JSC (a subsidiary of Kazakhstan Railways) has organized the dispatch of three container trains from China (Xi'an) to Azerbaijan (Absheron station) and Georgia (Poti/Tbilisi station) in the first two weeks of February 2024.
- On March 1, Kazakhstan's KTZ Express JSC and Chinese Yuxinou Logistics Co., Ltd. signed an agreement on the organization and dispatch of 200 container trains through Kazakhstan, including along the Middle Corridor, with a cargo volume of more than 20,000 TEU.
- The volume of cargo transportation by rail in Kazakhstan amounted to 61.6 million tons from January through February 2024. The country's Bureau of National Statistics' data shows that this is 6.1 percent less than the level of the same period in 2023. At the same time, cargo turnover by rail for the above period amounted to 48.8 billion ton-kilometers, which is 8.2 percent less than from January through February 2023.
- From January through February 2024, 3.5 million passengers were transported by rail. This figure exceeds the same period in 2023 by 10.2 percent. In addition to this, passenger turnover for the above period amounted to 2.5 billion passenger-kilometers, which is 2.2 percent more than from January through February 2023.
- Kazakhstan Railways JSC has started the scheduled renovation of the railway line this year. In total, over 570 km of railway will be overhauled in 2024. Enhanced average repair of the track, complete replacement of rail supports, and rail gauge are also provided. In general, all types of repairs will cover 1,400 km of railway track. In addition to this, by 2029, KTZ plans to repair 11,000 kilometers of railway sections.
Maritime Transport
- KazMunayGas JSC (KMG, Kazakhstan's national oil and gas company) intends to increase the number of its oil tankers. In this regard, KMG is negotiating with Chevron and Tengizchevroil (TCO) to conclude a long-term agreement on oil transportation on the high seas (from the ports of Novorossiysk and Ceyhan). Once such agreements are reached, the issue of expanding the fleet with one or two more Aframax tankers will be worked out.
- During the first meeting of the Kazakh-Croatian intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation in Zagreb, Kazakhstan called on Croatian businesses to participate in projects along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, including Caspian Sea ports such as Aktau and Kuryk.
- At the Global Gateway Investors Forum for EU-Central Asia Transport Connectivity held in Brussels, Kazakhstan offered European companies the management of the country's major ports, Aktau and Kuryk.
- Minister of Transport Marat Karabayev during a meeting with the vice president of the Rotterdam port, Matthijs van Doorn has invited the port to take an active part in the development of the country’s Caspian ports.
- The total volume of cargo transshipment through the Aktau seaport in Kazakhstan amounted to over 360,000 tons in January 2024. Thus, this is 12.7 percent higher than the same period in 2023. The port provided transshipment of 3,000 tons of grain and 310,000 tons of oil and petroleum products.
The seaport handled over 2,300 twenty-foot equivalent containers (TEUs), up 30 percent from January last year. Including over 2,000 TEU along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR, or Middle Corridor). This figure has doubled compared to last year.
Air Transport
- Kazakhstan will reconstruct the runway at Astana Airport. The reconstruction of the runway was one of the main and primary tasks when transferring the airport to the trust management of the investor. Terminals Holding (the UAE) airport management company informed about the upcoming schedule of preparatory, construction, and installation work. According to the plan, the start of reconstruction is scheduled for the end of March 2024. The project will be implemented using private funds from the investor and will be completed in the spring of 2025.
- Kazakhstan's Qazaq Air resumed flights from Astana (Kazakhstan) to Novosibirsk (Russia) on January 15. Flights are carried out on Canadian-made De Havilland Dash 8-Q400 new-generation aircraft. The frequency of flights is twice a week on Mondays and Fridays.
- Kazakh Air Astana plans to increase its fleet of passenger aircraft. The airline intends to purchase Airbus A320/321neo and Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
- The new international terminal at Kazakhstan's Almaty airport is planned to be put into operation in June of this year.
- The Italian Neos airline plans to open flights between Astana (Kazakhstan) and Rome (Italy), as well as between Astana and Milan (Italy). The airline also plans to increase the number of flights on the Almaty-Milan route.
- The Kazakhstan's Air Astana Group of Companies has increased its fleet to 50 aircraft. On January 20, the airline received a new Airbus A321neo aircraft, which became the 50th in the company’s fleet.
- At the end of January, during a meeting on the development of small aviation in the country, the country's Minister of Transport, Marat Karabaev, gave instructions to build four new airports in Kazakhstan. Thus, Karabayev was instructed to consider the construction and reconstruction of airports in the cities of Urjar, Usharal, Zaisan, Katon-Karagai, Karkaraly, Ulytau, and Arkalyk, as well as to continue work on the development of small aviation.
- Kazakhstan is interested in transferring 22 airports under the management of European investors. The Turkish-French company TAV Airports Holding, which partly belongs to the Paris airport, manages the Almaty airport with a passenger turnover of roughly 10 million passengers. We gave our capital's airport, Astana airport, to the trust of management at Terminals Holding, which manages Abu Dhabi airport. So Kazakhstan is ready to give the remaining 22 airports in Kazakhstan to European investors for management, which have a great potential to become a transit hub between Asia and Europe.
- In February, it also became known that Kazakhstan's airline SCAT would resume flights between Astana (Kazakhstan) and Batumi (Georgia). Flights are planned to resume on June 8 of this year. Flights on the route Astana - Batumi will be operated twice per week.
- Kazakhstan and South Korea discussed and agreed on the resumption of flights between Astana and Seoul, an increase in flights on the Almaty-Seoul route, as well as the opening of flights from Shymkent to Seoul and between Busan and the cities of Kazakhstan.
- Kazakhstan's airlines are considering launching direct flights with Japan, Chairman of the Civil Aviation Committee of the Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan Saltanat Tompiyeva said during a meeting with the Japanese Ambassador to Kazakhstan Yamada Jun. Following the meeting, the parties agreed to continue working together to resume air traffic to expand economic, business, and cultural cooperation between the countries.
- On March 15, Kazakhstan's Qazaq Air Airlines was granted permission to operate regular flights to Uzbekistan. The authorization was issued in accordance with the intergovernmental agreement on air communication between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Road Transport
- The Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan has formed a pool of investment projects worth more than $31 billion in the fields of railway and maritime transport, aviation, and roads. About $40 billion will be required to implement all the assigned tasks, including increasing capacity in the transport infrastructure in the next few years.
- Kazakhstan plans to simplify road freight transportation with Uzbekistan. Thus, in order to further simplify the issuance of Uzbek permit forms, a draft joint order of the Ministers of Transport, Finance, and Digital Development, Innovation, and Aerospace Industry of Kazakhstan has been developed.
Middle Corridor
-In January 2024, at the Investors Forum for EU-Central Asia Transport Connectivity in Brussels, it was agreed that European and international financial institutions will allocate 10 billion euros to support and invest in sustainable transport connectivity in Central Asia.
As part of this agreement, the European Investment Bank (EIB) signed Memorandums of Understanding totaling 1.47 billion euros with the governments of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, as well as the Development Bank of Kazakhstan.
In addition to this, the EBRD expressed its readiness to invest around 1.5 billion euros in Trans-Caspian Corridor-related infrastructure and associated transport solutions over the next 2–3 years.
- Kazakhstan and Romania will develop cooperation within the Middle Corridor. Kazakhstan emphasized the significance of Romania’s role in the development of this route, the active involvement of companies from the two countries, and stable ties between cargo carriers.
- In mid-January, Kazakhstan invited the Netherlands to consider the possibility of the kingdom’s participation in developing the potential of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.
- The Middle Corridor’s cargo traffic is planned to increase to 10 million tons. To achieve this goal, Kazakhstan signed road maps with Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Türkiye to eliminate bottlenecks on this route. Along with this, a number of large projects are being implemented in Kazakhstan to modernize the railway and port infrastructure, build up rolling stock, and build up the build up the merchant fleet.
- On January 27, at the meetings of the International Association Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (MA TITR) in Ankara (Türkiye) by unanimous decision of 25 participants (by the largest international and regional organizations in the field of transport and logistics from different countries), the head of Kazakhstan Railways was re-elected Chairman of the Board of MA TITR for three years.
- During the meetings of the International Association Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (MA TITR) in Ankara (Türkiye), a transportation plan along the Middle Corridor for 2024 was also approved. The projected total for 2024 is approximately 4 million tons.
- On February 14, Kazakhstan exported ammonium nitrate along the Middle Corridor for the first time. The first batch of ammonium nitrate produced by KazAzot JSC was shipped from the Aktau port.
- An agreement to intensify cooperation between the railway administrations of Kazakhstan and Austria in order to increase the volume of cargo transportation along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route was reached. A corresponding agreement was reached during a meeting between the Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Austria, Mukhtar Tleuberdi, the Chairman of the Board of the Federal Railways of Austria, Andreas Matte and the Board Member of the Rail Cargo company Christoph Grasl.
- Kazakhstan informed that the volume of cargo transportation along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route amounted to 274,200 tons in January 2024. Thus, the volume of cargo transportation on this route in January increased by 147 percent compared to the same period in 2023.
- At the end of February, Kazakhstan has proposed the World Bank prepare a strategy for the development of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.
- During the meeting of the Kazakh-Lithuanian mixed commission on international road transport in Vilnius, Kazakhstan offered Lithuania cooperation in launching container transportation between the countries within the framework of the Middle Corridor.
- Kazakhstan plans to transport 4.2 million tons of cargo along the Trans Caspian International Transport Route. Thus, new railroads, logistics hubs, and warehouses will continue to be built in order to expand transit corridors and boost the volume of goods transported by all modes of transportation.
International and cross-border co-op
- On January 19, the new international trade and logistics center began operating in Kazakhstan. The new center is located on the Kazakh-Chinese border, near the village of Dostyk. This project was implemented by Dostyk Storage LLP together with the State Revenue Committee. The main goal of the project is to develop and improve cross-border logistics infrastructure and increase the capacity of the Alakol road crossing.
- AsstrA Associated Traffic AG plans to open representative offices in Kazakhstan's Aktau and Astana cities. As she noted, the company is also actively developing a partner network to provide warehouse areas.
- On February 3, the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) approved the expansion of the list of priority integration infrastructure projects in the field of transport initiated by the participating countries. Thus, the number of priority projects increased from 7 to 11. New projects include ensuring increased transport connectivity among the member countries and promoting transit and export-import transport.
- On February 21, Kazakhstan's Parliament approved the intergovernmental agreement with Türkiye for international combined transportation of goods, the aim of which is to enhance the transit-transport potential and foster trade and economic relations between the two countries.
- On February 28, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan launched a new innovation center created by Kazakhstan Railways jointly with the Chinese company Huawei. The Chairman of the Board of KTZ, Nurlan Sauranbayev informed that this center was created to implement the Smart Railway project.
- In order to simplify cross-border trade procedures and increase transit traffic, the State Revenue Committee of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan developed draft concepts and a Multilateral Agreement on Facilitating Transit Procedures within the framework of the development of transport corridors in the countries of Central Asia, the Caspian region, and the South Caucasus. The main goal of these projects is to introduce a paperless transit ecosystem in the countries of the region.
