BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 17
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
The biggest challenge of 2020 was the COVID-19 pandemic for the transport cooperation between Kazakhstan and Lithuania, the Lithuanian Ministry of Transport and Communications told Trend.
The ministry official said that last year, Lithuania and Kazakhstan successfully cooperated in the area of transport. Railway freight traffic between the two countries was growing.
Thus, LTG Cargo, the Lithuanian Railways group company, transported 486,800 tonnes of goods from and to Kazakhstan in 2020, which is 215 percent more than in 2019.
“Rail freight transit operations through Lithuania increased significantly and reached 390,500 tonnes (282 percent more); the import increased 5-fold. This impressive growth was the result of oil products carriage which comprised a major proportion of all freight. There was also an increase in coal, ferrous metal and mineral materials transportation,” the official said.
The volume of transit cargo in proportion to the total cargo transported through the Port of Klaipėda last year reached 40 percent, 0.1 percent of which was cargo from Kazakhstan, the official said.
“Its volume decreased by 14 percent compared to 2019. Road freight and freight transit between Lithuania and Kazakhstan in 2020 amounted to 185,200 tonnes, which is 27 percent less than in 2019,” the official said.
The official added that the biggest challenge of 2020 was the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In order to stop the spread of the virus, both Lithuania and Kazakhstan introduced restrictions that had a direct impact on the transport sector. Mobility control and restrictions affected the areas of goods transport by cars the most. Joint efforts of both countries ensured efficient response to the challenges ahead and allowed finding acceptable solutions,” the official said.
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