TEHRAN, Iran, July 12
Trend:
Iran shipping would develop in the Belt and Road Initiative, said Managing Director of Khazar Shipping Company.
The current Iranian year (started March 21, 2021) has been successful for maritime transit in the Caspian Sea, Davood Tafti told Trend in an interview.
Khazar Shipping Company has started cooperation with Kazakhstan KTZ Express in Iran, Kazakhstan, China triangle, this route is part of the Belt and Road Initiative. Khazar Shipping Company has set three ships in this line that transport transit cargo. The capacity of these ships is 3000TEU, in addition to the transportation capacity of normal and refrigerator containers in the northern ports.
"We have more than 7000 TEU capacity per month in total, that includes 4000 TEU created by ourselves and 3000 TEU capacity based on the cooperation agreement. These capacities would develop fleet development," he noted.
"The Caspian port is one of the ports in the contract that does not have the necessary equipment for unloading and loading cargo, and it does not have to tow, we hope these ports would be upgraded. It is approved in the signed agreement between Iran, China and Kazakhstan that Iran would transit cargo from its side to Caspian and Amirabad ports," Tafti added.
He went on to add that the corridor is a part of One Road One Belt, the corridor is active in Amirabad and Caspian ports. Amirabad Port is functioning well but Caspian Port is slow in this regard that led to dissatisfaction of the Kazakh side. Iran has provided discounts to compensate for the issue.
"The trilateral agreement is obligated to reduce transportation costs by the launch of the railway from China to Aktau Port in Kazakhstan and then from Aktau Port to Amirabad and Caspian ports in Iran from where cargo is unloaded and most of it transported to Bandar Abbas port and from there transported to Africa, Iraq or the Gulf countries," he expressed.