BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 17. Work on the design of the second phase of the construction of the Baku Port continues, Taleh Ziyadov, Director-General of Baku International Sea Trade Port in Azerbaijan, told journalists, Trend reports.
According to Ziyadov, it is expected to complete this work by the end of 2023.
He noted that after the preparation of the project, a model will be presented, according to which the development of the Port of Baku will continue.
"Here we are talking about public-private partnership, or about the entire implementation of the second phase at the expense of our country," Ziyadov said.
The director-general pointed out that during the above phase, special attention will be paid to container transportation.
"As we know, a great number of containers are transshipped between China and Europe, and Azerbaijan plays the role of a hub in this process. Today, our port can handle up to 100,000 containers, and after carrying out the second phase, this figure will grow to 500,000 TEU (a measure of volume in units of twenty-foot-long containers) per year. At the same time, last year we handled 62,000 containers, which points to the need to start the realization of the second phase," Ziyadov added.
In addition, in 2022, over 6.3 million tons of cargo were handled through the mentioned port, which indicates an increase of 14 percent compared to the figure of the previous year. Moreover, at the end of last year, almost 52,300 TEU containers were handled, which is 16 percent more than in the preceding year. Meanwhile, the steady growth of the container transshipment rate indicates the need in the medium and long term for the construction of a large container terminal, which will increase the capacity from 100,000 to 500,000 TEU containers.