The Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Kazakhstan has reported the first successful trial goods movement via road from China to Europe. The cargo movement happened from the Kazakh port of Kuryk to Baku seaport via the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, also known as the Middle Corridor, a logistics route connecting Central Asia and China to Europe via the South Caucasus.
The first three 80-ton Chinese trucks left Ürümqi, a city in northwestern China, and boarded a ferry at Kuryk port to head to Baku via the China-Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan-Georgia route, the Ministry’s release stated.
According to Ali Altai, Chairman of the Road Transport and Transport Control Committee, the agreement signed last year with China regarding road transportation has become a key point of mutually beneficial cooperation, opening up limitless opportunities and prospects for the further development of trade relations.“For the first time in history, vehicles of the two countries have access to directly travel to all major trading cities of the parties and even transit through the territories,” he said.
Altai also stated that to date, hundreds of millions of tons of cargo from China to Western countries is delivered by sea, a journey that can take up to 52 days. The same movement through rail can also take up to 22 days. However, road transportation can bring the transit time down to 12 days, with the added benefit of door-to-door delivery without intermediate loading or unloading.
For now, the transport departments of both countries have agreed to issue 120,000 cross-border movement permits for 2024. By 2025, the physical process is likely to become fully digital, which would remove the cap on the number of permits issued per year.