Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, May 1
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
A presentation of the potential of the Turkmenbashi International Seaport was organized in Riyadh in the context of optimizing traffic flows in the Eurasian region, Trend reports with reference to the newspaper “Neutral Turkmenistan.”
The embassy of Turkmenistan in Saudi Arabia acted as an organizer of the event, which was attended by representatives of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies and the local Center for Research and International Knowledge.
At the briefing, emphasis was placed on the development of a modern maritime transport system, which creates favorable conditions for access of countries of Europe, the Middle East, South Asia and the Asia-Pacific region to the Black Sea, the report said.
In accordance with the opinion of the meeting participants, favorable geographical position of the Caspian countries and common interests determine favorable prerequisites for creating new multimodal transit-transport corridors using the potential of the Caspian and Black Sea regions.
It was earlier reported that volumes of freight traffic through the Turkmenbashi International Seaport in Turkmenistan have recently grown.
Ships delivering construction materials from Iran are unloaded at the port berths, and the Kazakh wheat is being loaded onto Iranian cargo ships.
The port provides transshipment of goods arriving for Afghanistan and in the opposite direction - to Azerbaijan and Turkey. Containers from Spain, intended for consignees in Uzbekistan, are unloaded. Shipment of construction materials, metal and wood from Turkey and Russia is provided.
Urea produced in Turkmenistan’s Garabogaz city, polyethylene and polypropylene from the polymer plant in Kiyanly settlement, petroleum coke from the oil refining plant in the city of Turkmenbashi are sent regularly from the seaport to Turkey, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania and other countries. The flow of passengers and vehicles transported to the Caspian ports by Ro-Pax Berkarar and Bagtyyar ferries increased significantly.
The updated transport and logistics hub in Turkmenbashi city is designed to provide a qualitatively new level of economic and trade cooperation between the countries of Asia and Europe, to give a strong impetus to interregional relations, optimize transport flows in the Eurasian space, the report said.
The solemn ceremony of opening of this port took place on May 2, 2018. The annual capacity of the port will be 17-18 million tons.
The international ferry and passenger port will be able to serve 300,000 passengers and 75,000 trailers a year. The container terminal has an average annual capacity of 400,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units). The cost of the project implemented by Gap Insaat Company (Turkey) is more than $1.5 billion.