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Review of Transport sector in Azerbaijan (January-February 2014)

Analysis Materials 14 April 2014 14:58 (UTC +04:00)

The following major events took place in Azerbaijan's transport sector in February 2014:

- The Economic Policy Committee of the Milli Majlis (Parliament) of Azerbaijan recommended to discuss the draft law on seaports at the plenary session. The law will regulate relations within the merchant shipping at the sea ports, as well as the ports' construction, opening and closing, and the merchant shipping rules. It will also cover the shipping agents' activities at ports, the activities of marine terminal operators, carriers, port infrastructure owners as well as issues regarding financing the port operations and terms of rental of state owned property on the port's territory.

- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) intends to issue the second loan to Azerbaijan in 2014 as part of the new multi-tranche financing (MFF) for road construction in the country (Second Road Network Development Investment Program).

- A new road bridge over the River Araz at the Julfa border checkpoint on the Azerbaijani-Iranian border was commissioned. Trucks over 30 tons will be able to travel across the bridge.

- The third meeting of the Joint Commission in the sphere of international transport communications between Azerbaijan and Iran ended in Baku. Following the meeting, the parties signed an agreement on cooperation on solving the problems related to cargo and passenger transportation.

The Azerbaijani transport sector transported 32.8 million tons of cargo in Jan.-Feb. 2014 compared to 31.8 million tons in the same period of 2013, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee said.

Around 75 percent of the total volume of goods transported in February fell to the private sector.

Some 52.1 percent of all cargo were transported by vehicles, 33.6 percent - by pipelines, 9.5 percent - by railway and 4.8 percent - by ships.

Some 272.8 million people used passenger transport in Jan.-Feb., which is 6.2 percent more than in the same period of 2013. Most of the passengers were transported by vehicles (87.3 percent) and metro (12.5 percent).

Automobile transport takes the lion share in the transport field of the country. Some 17.1 million tons of cargo were transported by vehicles, which is 5.4 percent more than in Jan.-Feb. 2013. The volume of passenger traffic exceeded 238.2 million people (a 6.6 percent growth). Some 96.5 percent of the passengers were transported by buses and 3.5 percent - by cars.

Freight turnover by vehicles increased by 5.5 percent during the reporting period, while passenger turnover - by 7.3 percent.

Some 3.1 million tons of cargo were transported by rail in Jan.-Feb. compared to 3.8 million tons in the same period of 2013.

The number of loaded carriages made up 496, in average per day and unloaded - 493. Average daily load of carriages in the northern direction is 20,000 tons and in western direction 5,100 tons and southern direction - 3,600 tons.

Around 1.6 million tons of cargo were transported by ships compared to 2.1 million tons in Jan.-Feb. 2013. All cargo accounted for international operations. The volume of goods handled in Azerbaijani ports amounted to 2.1 million tons in two months.

Some 60.6 percent of cargo shipping fell to oil and oil products, while 39.4 percent on dry cargo. The volume of international transit cargo handled in the ports hit 86.3 percent. As of March 1, 2014, around 16,400 tons of cargo left in the ports for import.

Some 7.9 million tons of oil were transported via main oil pipelines in Jan.-Feb. 2014. During this period, 75 percent or 5.6 million tons of oil were transported via the BTC (data provided by the State Statistics Committee). Sangachal terminal transported 938,400 tons of Turkmen oil via BTC in Jan.-Feb.

Gas transportation via main gas pipelines made up4.3 billion cubic meters (a 16.8 percent increase) in Jan.-Feb. Some 26.5 percent of the transported gas fell to the South Caucasus Pipeline. Some 1.2 billion cubic meters of gas were transported via this pipeline.

Some 224,300 passengers were transported by air transport in Jan.-Feb. which is 3.2 percent more than in the same period of 2013. Some 0.2 percent of shipment by this kind of transport fell to private sector.

Some 34 million people were transported by metro (a 3.7 percent growth) compared to Jan.-Feb. 2013.

Some 4.6 million tons of cargo were transported through the Eurasian transport corridor TRACECA (Europe-Caucasus-Asia) through the territory of Azerbaijan in January 2014, compared to 4.9 million tons in January 2013, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee said.

Around 50.9 percent of the total volume of transported cargo fell to vehicles, 31.8 percent - railway and 17.3 percent - ships.

Some 24.9 million people were transported through the corridor in January, which is 7.9 percent more than in the same period of 2013.

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