Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend , corr. S. Aliyev/ Sadraddin Mammadov, the Chief of the Department for Transport Policy
Next year, this may be considered as a major regional project. China is very interested in the implementation of the project as it is the key source of container loads delivered in Asia. They have applied for use of the container train and received conditions of the train's operation.
Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kazakhstan are viewing the issue to delay the route of the demonstration (initial) container train up to the Railway station of Dostyk on the border between Kazakhstan and China. Upon completing all the deliveries, the one tariff (22 cents per one ton of load per one km of the distance) is to be applied.
This train previously operated via the Poti-Baku-Aktau-Almaty route. The operators of the train are Black Sea Transit Limited and Advantage International Transport and Logistics Limited. The container train was launched on December 24, 2006 and intended for the consignments of goods from China and Europe. All the loads are carried from the Georgian Sea Port of Poti to Baku and then to the Kazakhstan Sea Port of Aktau and return.
Notably, due to Russia recently carrying out its anti-dumping policy, just 3 - 4% of the total container freight flow, which is to be delivered to Europe and Asia and return, is currently carried out via the Russian territory. It totals approximately 150,000 container wagons per year. Furthermore, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Georgia have plans to involve a part of these goods to be carried out via the TRACECA corridor.