BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 19. Azerbaijan Railways (ADY) transit cargo transportation will exceed 7 million tons in 2023, advisor to the head of ADY Emil Mammadov told Trend.
At the same time, transit cargoes will account for almost 40 percent of the total volume of cargo transportation through ADY.
"Dry cargoes led the category of transit cargoes traveling from Central Asia (CA) to Europe via the Caspian Sea and the Azerbaijan-Georgia railroad. This year saw a considerable increase in the transportation of products from Kazakhstan's and Turkmenistan's petrochemical and chemical complexes, particularly fertilizers. Our railroad did not transfer oil from CA countries," Mammadov noted.
According to him, among the cargoes transported along the direction from Europe to Central Asia, there were many agricultural products this year.
"We are very active with Kazakhstan on the Poti-Baku-Aktau route and in the opposite direction. There are constant discussions on how to attract more cargo from China. The Azerbaijani leadership pays great attention to transit transportation. There is room for growth," the ADY representative emphasized.
In his opinion, the increase in throughput capacity of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway route will contribute to the growth of transit traffic, and currently, the work in this direction has reached the "finishing line.".
Mammadov mentioned that the number of rolls of stock at the disposal of ADY allows ADY to fulfill its obligations on cargo transit without failure.
"In the development strategy of ADY, we have outlined an increase in the car fleet," he added.
The data from the State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan shows that Azerbaijan Railroads transported a total of 16.7 million tons of cargo from January through November 2023, taking into account domestic and transit traffic.