BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 17. Container transportation from China to Italy along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR, or Middle Corridor) resumes after a one-year suspension on April 17, Trend reports.
"This morning, a route train departed from Xinjiang (People's Republic of China) bound for the port of Naples (Italy) via TITR, made possible by collaborative efforts between the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route International Association and COSCO SHIPPING Lines Co., Ltd," the TITR Association said.
A container train carrying cargo (tomato paste) bound for Italy will traverse the rail border, crossing Khorgas-Altynkol on the Kazakh-Chinese border. Subsequently, it will reach the Aktau Sea Port (Kazakhstan) on the Caspian Sea, where the containers will be transferred onto a feeder vessel operated by a Kazakh shipping company.
Following that, the cargo will be transported by the feeder vessel to the port of Alat at the Baku International Sea Trade Port, and then onward via the railway networks of Azerbaijan and Georgia to Poti.
"Once they arrive and undergo processing at the port of Poti, the containers carrying tomato paste will be loaded onto a vessel operated by COSCO. Subsequently, they will traverse the Black and Mediterranean Seas, with a transit stop at the Greek port of Piraeus, before reaching their final destination at the port of Naples in Italy," the statement reads.
The expected travel time from Jinghe station (China) to the port of Poti amounts to 11 days; a single transport document will be used throughout the multimodal route.
The TITR Association highlighted that specialists from Kazakhstan Railroad (Kazakhstan Temir Joly) have devised a specialized timetable for container trains running between Altynkol station and Aktau port. According to this schedule, the trains are expected to maintain a speed of approximately 1050 km/day, enabling them to cover this route segment (3128 km) within 72 hours.
Similar train schedules are used on the railroads of Azerbaijan and Georgia.
"In the coming week, another route train with tomato paste is to depart from China's Urumqi to Italy along the TITR route. In addition, two container trains to Italy are planned for May and June this year, with a further increase in the number and frequency of their departures," said the association.
Since 2018, the TITR Association has been successfully cooperating with Xinjiang COSCO Shipping Container Lines Co., Ltd. on the project of multimodal rail-sea transportation from China to Italy along the TITR route.
During the mentioned period of cooperation, more than 100 container trains with tomato paste were organized and successfully shipped along the Middle Corridor.