Axel de Vernou
On October 21, Bahnoperator Austria and KTZ Express, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan Railways, signed a memorandum outlining their intention to regularly ship cargo to one another through the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), also known as the Middle Corridor. This is the latest development in the vertiginous growth of the TITR, already circumventing trade via Russia and laying the groundwork for further cooperation between the West and Central Asia.
Goods originating in China that flow through the TITR can expect to traverse Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, where they then either branch off to Turkiye or travel across the Black Sea, finishing in Bulgaria, Romania, or Ukraine. From Turkiye, these goods can be expedited to the Mediterranean, and from Ukraine, they can move forward to Poland. Conspicuously absent from this arrangement is Russia, which remains the bastion of the Northern Corridor.
As Rovshan Rustamov, Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, pointed out in an interview last month, significant shifts are taking place in global logistics markets. Persistent sanctions from the Ukraine War have dissuaded companies from trading with Russia. Accordingly, the TITR saw an incredible 70 percent surge in freight volumes from January to September 2024.
Countries adjacent to the corridor have demonstrated interest in increasing their involvement. For instance, Turkmenistan and the European Union (EU) launched a Coordination Platform to integrate Central Asian countries into the TITR further and advance the infrastructure projects that make the corridor possible in the first place. Indeed, congestion points, especially in Kazakhstan, have produced undesirable border wait times that may push companies to look for alternative routes.
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