China-Europe transportation volumes through the Middle Corridor expected to triple this year - ADY Container 

During the first four months of this year, around 9000 (to be exact, 8,696) TEU containers were transported through the Middle Corridor, Director of ADY Container, Natig Jafarov, said in an interview with RailFreight.com.

According to him, this is 30 per cent more than the same period of last year.

“However, it should be noted that 30 per cent growth is the actual growth and does not include prospective China-Europe transportation volumes, orders for which are coming in due to changes in the geopolitical situation. We received transportation orders for 1,000 trains this year, and we expect 3-fold or even more growth by the end of this year compared to 2021,” he added.

He also noted that apart from the Middle Corridor, container transportation transiting Azerbaijan’s territory increased by 130 per cent. “Regarding the short-term development, we are all aware of the changing geo-economic scenarios and logistics landscape in the Eurasian region due to the geopolitical situation.”

“We share the same opinion with our Kazakh partners on an expected many-fold increase in traffic on the Middle Corridor,” he said. “According to Kazakhstan Railways, as far as container traffic is concerned, an increase will equal 50,000 TEUs. In my opinion, judging by the positive trend, the numbers expressed by our Kazakh partners are pretty much realistic. The number of feeder vessels operating between the ports has increased to strengthen transport connectivity on the part of the route crossing the Caspian Sea. Our company is a co-operator of these vessels. As the volume of cargo increases, we plan to attract additional vessels. We have started a new service far beyond Azerbaijan’s territory – a feeder vessel started sailing between the Georgian ports of Poti and Batumi and the Romanian port of Constanta. On May 24, the first feeder vessel with a capacity of 220 TEUs sailed from Poti to Constanta and will operate regularly. In case of an increase in volume, we are ready to involve more feeder vessels.”