(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 11. Against the
backdrop of geopolitical changes in Europe, which also affect the
wider region, the world is facing challenges in all economic
sectors, including transport.
Traditional transport and logistics chains are being disrupted,
thus making it necessary to use alternative, safer, and efficient
routes. The most optimal option for Eurasia are routes passing
through Azerbaijan, located at the junction of the North-South and
East-West corridors.
In particular, significance of the Middle Corridor, or
Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), in which
Azerbaijan plays a crucial role, is growing. The Corridor is a
multilateral institutional development linking China's rail freight
transport networks and the EU through Central Asia, the Caucasus,
Türkiye, and Eastern Europe. There are few routes linking Europe to
Central Asia, and at the moment, the Middle Corridor offers the
shortest and least expensive route to Europe.
In this context, considering the rising global interest in
Azerbaijan's cargo transportation, expansion of the throughput
capacity of the Port of Baku is very relevant.
As President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said at a plenary
meeting on“Eurasia's Middle Corridor: From Pathway to Highway”
held as part of the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) on
January 19, 2023, the Baku International Sea Port with a capacity
of 15 million tons will be expanded up to 25 million tons, and
already a budget has been allocated for that. A growing number of
cargoes are expected, in particular due to the difficulties of
transportation through traditional routes.
“We have already seen the diversion of a large number of cargoes
from Central Asia, and this is only the beginning. Also, I'd like
to add that starting from this year, we started to transit oil from
Kazakhstan, not only from Turkmenistan, which has been taking place
for many years, with the potential to use this corridor for
hydrocarbons too. Therefore, I think that we now need to have
closer cooperation between all the countries involved – Central
Asia, Caucasus and Europe – in order to work actively on customs
administration, to have more or less a 'single window' approach and
on tariffs policy. Because we need to make this route not only
attractive from the point of view of absence of other routes, but
attractive commercially,” President Ilham Aliyev said.
The master plan for the second phase of the Port of Baku is
being prepared by the Dutch Royal HaskoningDHV company. It is
expected to be ready by mid-2023.
Given that the Port of Baku transshipped over 6.3 million tons
of cargo, which speaks of a growth of 14 percent compared to 2021,
it's scheduled to build a terminal for loading/unloading and
further transportation of block trains, as well as to construct a
multi-modal logistics terminal that will perform transport
replacement, packing/unpacking of goods, and a number of other
logistics operations.
This terminal is expected to play a key role in implementing the
existing and future transshipment potential of the port. In
addition, at the end of 2022, nearly 52,300 TEU containers were
handled, which was 16 percent more than in 2021. The stable growth
in container numbers proves the need for the medium and long-term
construction of a larger container terminal (with increased
capacity from 100,000 to 500,000 TEU).
Further speaking of the Port's activity - the rise in handling
of heavy trucks (TIRs) amounted to 31 percent (over 51,514 trucks).
The number of transshipped passenger cars tripled. Moreover, for
the first time in the last three years, in 2022, the transshipment
of rail cars has increased. This growth amounted to 27 percent – up
to 38,700 rail cars.
It needs to be added that transit cargo comprises 90 percent of
the overall cargo transported through Azerbaijan.
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan have big production
potential (about 10 million tons per year) and are important
exporters of mineral fertilizers. In this regard, Azerbaijan has
already reached preliminary agreements to have these countries
transport their goods through Azerbaijan and further to the EU
countries. The construction of a mineral fertilizer handling
terminal is currently underway. The transshipment capacity of the
new terminal is going to amount to 2.5 million tons per year.
Furthermore, construction of a grain terminal is also expected in
the short term.
Azerbaijan plans also to bring additional 60,000 TIRs to the
Port of Baku as part of its cooperation with Turkish Albayrak
Group. For more efficient transshipment of these vehicles, and the
construction of a TIR part is expected for their efficient
transshipment.
On July 15, 2022, Chairman of the Albayrak Group Ahmet Albayrak
and Director General of Baku International Sea Trade Port Taleh
Ziyadov signed the first public-private cooperation agreement. As
part of the agreement, Albayrak will invest in construction and
management of the bulk cargo terminal of the Baku Port, as well as
in the management of the Ro-Ro terminal in order to redirect
Turkish wheeled vehicles from Central Asia to Azerbaijan.
Thus, the port's capacity is expected to reach 25 million tons
and 500,000 TEU containers per year.
Azerbaijan continues to invest in transport infrastructure
(roads and railways, in particular) and is restoring the historical
connection of the region. The development of transport networks
will lead to economic growth not only for Azerbaijan, but also for
the neighboring countries.
The transport network created by Azerbaijan is closely connected
with other routes and corridors that have a significant impact on
the development of international trade and the creation of a new
supply chain. In this regard, the role of the Zangazur corridor
becomes of major importance. With the opening of this corridor, the
time of cargo transshipment from China to Europe is going to be
reduced to two weeks, new markets for Azerbaijan are going to open,
including transit to Africa, and the cost of cargo transportation
is expected to decrease as well.