Arailym Temirgaliyeva
From January to July 2024, the volume of cargo and baggage delivered by maritime and coastal routes in Kazakhstan increased by 2.1 times against the same period in 2023 and reached 1.6 million tons. The figure is reported to be the highest within the past five years, Kazinform News Agency learned from Energyprom.kz.
Maritime and coastal freight transportation also sees a 2.1-time rise, having reached 966 million tkm, the highest indicator since 2020 (no data for 2019), both compared to January-July 2024, and annual figures.
The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), which connects China and Europe and engages both railroad and sea transport, contributed to the rise of cargo deliveries by maritime and littoral transport.
For instance, maritime transportations in Kazakhstan are ensured by the ports of Kuryk and Aktau. A container hub is set to be opened in Aktau Port in 2025, which will ensure transshipment of containers with the capacity of up to 300,000 TEU per annum (TEU stands for twenty-foot equivalent unit, a general unit of cargo capacity.).
As President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev stated, by 2030, cargo traffic along the TITR will be raised to 500,000 TEU per year. In 2022, this volume stood at 33,600 TEU.
Meanwhile, the volume of transportations along the TITR is not to be compared with transportation volumes in the world’s busiest ports.
Nine of the world’s 10 busiest ports are operating in Asia, with seven of them located in China, which demonstrates its central role in the global manufacturing process and trade as well as the transition of the global trade flows to the east.
In the 90s, more than 70% of Asian exports in monetary terms were exported outside the region, and containers were sent back mostly empty. Today, around 60% of exports in Asia are traded within the region.
The Shanghai Port is recognized as the world’s busiest port with 49 million TEU of cargo traffic in 2023. Then comes Singapore Port (39 million TEU). China’s Ningbo-Zhoushan (35.3 million TEU), Shenzhen (26.9 million TEU) and Qingdao ports (26.4 million TEU) rank 3 rd , 4 th and 5 th respectively. The Port of Busan in South Korea is 6th with cargo traffic at 22.8 million TEU. The Netherland’s Rotterdam, the only non-Asian port in the list, ranks 10th with the cargo traffic at 13.4 million TEU. /// nCa, 21 August 2024 (cross post from Kazinform, 20 August 2024)