ASTANA, Kazakhstan, August 5. Kazakhstan and Russia have discussed cooperation in the field of maritime transport, Trend reports.
The discussions took place during the visit of the Minister of Transport of Kazakhstan, Marat Karabayev, to the Murmansk port (Russia), where a bilateral meeting was held with the leadership of the Administration of the Murmansk region.
"Today at the meeting, there are representatives of business from Kazakhstan who also came to get acquainted with the logistics potential of the region to consider further joint projects. There are all the prerequisites for the development of our cooperation in the field of transport and logistics," Karabayev said.
During the conversation, the Kazakhstan delegation also provided information about the port infrastructure, transshipment volumes, the capacity of railway approaches, and the capabilities of terminals for cargo transshipment.
In addition, the delegation of Kazakhstan visited a number of port terminals: Murmansk trade port Lavna, Murmansk sea trade port, and Murmansk bulk terminal.
To note, the cargo turnover at the port of Murmansk is growing steadily from year to year. In 2023, the cargo turnover at the port of Murmansk amounted to 58 million tons. The new Lavna port terminal, with a capacity of 18 million tons, is at a high stage of readiness.
Meanwhile, the volume of trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Russia amounted to $9.7 billion from January through May 2024. This is 12.5 percent less than in the same period in 2023 ($11.1 billion).
Kazakhstan's exports to Russia in the first five months of 2024 amounted to $3.36 billion, which is 21.5 percent less year-on-year ($4.3 billion). Imports from Russia from January through May 2024 decreased by 6.7 percent to $6.3 billion. For the same period in 2023, this figure was $6.8 billion.