BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 3. The 300th container block train has been sent on the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR, or Middle Corridor) from the People's Republic of China in the direction of Azerbaijan, Trend reports via Azerbaijani Railways CJSC (ADY).
According to information, the train, which started movement from the Kazakhstan-Chinese terminal in the Chinese city of Xi'an, will pass through the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan and will arrive at the Baku International Sea Trade Port on December 8-10.
The organization of the block train shipment was carried out within the framework of cooperation between ADY Express and Xi'an Free Trade Port, the main partners in the Middle Corridor.
To date, the volume of cargo transported from China through TITR has exceeded 27,000 containers in 20-foot container equivalents, 25 times more than in the same period last year. This growth demonstrates the increasing interest of shippers in TITR as one of the main transportation routes providing fast and efficient communication between China and Europe via Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
Meanwhile, it is planned to more than threefold increase the number of block trains traveling from China to Azerbaijan and Europe by 2025 to reach 1,000 within a year.
Along with cargo transportation from China to Azerbaijan, cargo transportation in the opposite direction has started. Thus, on November 24, for the first time, export cargo was shipped from Baku by rail to China.
The first export block train, Baku-Xi'an, consisting of 62 40-foot containers, will be delivered multimodally through Kazakhstan to one of the largest land ports of China—the port of Xi'an. Initially, within the framework of the project, a total of 15 thousand tons of export cargo, i.e., 600 containers, are planned to be shipped to China by the end of this year along the mentioned route.
The cargo transportation along the China-Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan-China routes not only accelerates the formation of the Middle Corridor as an East-West-East route but also makes fast, safe, and efficient transportation services available to shippers in both directions.