Kazakhstan beefs up its commercial fleet on the Caspian Sea
According to Kassym Tlepov, head of the Transportation Committee under the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development, Kazakhstan is going to enter into operation two additional bulk carriers on the Caspian Sea.
As the official noted, the potential of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) hasn’t been used fully. However, the country has already built a ferry complex in the port of Aktau.
«We’ve taken a range of measures to extend the capacity of the existing port of Aktau. In particular, we have built three dry bulk terminals. As of today, this infrastructure has a capacity of 21 million tons of any cargo. Also, we have a commercial fleet. Now, only four Kazakhstani bulk carriers go from Aktau to Baku and back. And now Kazmortransflot, the national sea carrier in Kazakhstan is going to enter into operation two new container carriers,» Tlepov said.
As he noted, Kazakhstan even has a big and ambitious goal of being able to build ferries on its own.
«In the long term, we want to have about 10 ferries. So far, the key player in this area is Azerbaijani fleet. Given the intention to beef up the flow of containers between two coasts of the sea, Kazakhstan is going to build a container hub in the port of Aktau. In order to achieve these goals, we are going to invite international transport and logistics companies such as PSA International, Maersk, NC and Cosco Shipping. We have been negotiating with these companies and counting on their container fleet. Today we are suffering from a shortage of containers and if we succeed in attracting new containers, we succeed in expanding our transit and export capacity,» he said.
Also, Tlepov said that the government is going to build a new railroad bypassing the city of Almaty. The move will help to save about 30% of the Almaty transport hub capacity.
«Plus we are examining the idea of constructing a third border crossing and new railroad between Bakty and Ayagoz (East Kazakhstan). Kazakhstan Railways Company is negotiating with Russian and Chinese counterparts to realize this project on the principle ship-or-pay,» Tlepov noted.
On July 7, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev discussed with the cabinet members the task of diversification of oil export routes. He mentioned TITR as the main route Kazakhstan shall work on. The president has ordered the government to implement the project and attract investors from Tengiz.
