A number of important events occurred in the country's transport sector in November 2014:
- Baku Shipyard began constructing three passenger ships with a capacity of 80 people each upon the Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company's order. The order must be implemented in the first half of 2016. The cost of each passenger vessel is estimated at about 8.5 million AZN. The length of the vessel will be 38.22 meters, width - 8.2 meters, depth - 4.18 m, draft - 2.25 meters. The speed of new vessels will be 20 knots, load capacity - 50 tons.
- The Azerbaijani closed joint-stock company Baku Metro and the French company Bouygues Travaux Publics signed a design and build contract worth around 147 million EUR for separation of the red and green lines of the May 28 station of the Baku metro. Bouygues Travaux Publics will construct two caverns around the existing tubes, which will make it possible to build the new tunnels. "The work is scheduled to begin in February 2015," the company said.
- The Azerbaijani Transport Ministry plans to commission a dry cargo terminal of the new International Sea Trade Port in Alat settlement in 2016, Azerbaijani Deputy Transport Minister Musa Panahov said. Panahov said that the previously commissioned ferry terminal is operating normally. A three-four-percent growth in cargo transportation is predicted for 2015. "This is connected with the significant improvement of infrastructure, as well as the possibility of the Kazakh side to transport their goods through our transportation corridor," he said. The port will be able to receive up to 11.6 million tons of cargo per year. Creation of a powerful port infrastructure is important from the point of view of transportation of goods via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway which is expected to be fully commissioned in 2015.
- Silk Way West Airlines, the Azerbaijani freight specialist, has been granted a foreign carrier air permit by the US Department of Transportation (DoT) enabling it to offer both scheduled and charter cargo flights between Baku and New York JFK (John F. Kennedy International Airport).
The Azerbaijani transport sector transported 202.6 million tons of cargo in January-November 2014 or by 1.6 percent less than in the same period of 2013, according to the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee's report.
According to a report, the volume of non-oil cargo increased by 3.3 percent, reaching 145.1 million tons in January-November.
Around 76.5 percent of the total volume of goods transported in January-November fell to the private sector.
Some 58.1 percent of all cargo were transported by vehicles, 27.6 percent - by pipelines, 9.8 percent - by railway and 4.5 percent - by ships.
Around 218 million tons of cargo were transported by the Azerbaijani transport sector in 2013, which is 3.4 percent more than in 2012.
Some 1.7 billion people used passenger transport in January-November, which is 4.9 percent more than in the same period of 2013. Most of the passengers were transported by vehicles (88 percent) and metro (11.8 percent).
Automobile transport takes the lion share in the transport field of the country. Some 117.7 million tons of cargo were transported by vehicles, which is 2.7 percent more than in January-November 2013. The volume of passenger transportation hit 1.5 billion people (a 5 percent growth compared to the same period of 2013). Some 96.2 percent of the passengers were transported by buses and 3.8 percent - by cars.
Freight turnover by vehicles increased by 2.8 percent during the reporting period, while passenger turnover - by 5.4 percent.
Some 19.8 million tons of cargo were transported by railway in January-November compared to 21.3 million tons in the same period of 2013.
The number of loaded carriages made up 582, in average per day and unloaded - 603. Average daily load of carriages in the northern direction is 21,900 tons and in western direction 6,300 tons and southern direction - 5,400 tons.
Around 9 million tons of cargo were transported by ships in January-November compared to 10.7 million tons in January-November 2013. All cargo accounted for international operations. The volume of goods handled in Azerbaijani ports amounted to 10.9 million tons in January-November.
Some 56.2 percent of cargo shipping fell to oil and oil products, while 43.8 percent on dry cargo. The volume of international transit cargo handled in the ports hit 86.5 percent. As of Dec. 10, around 159,600 tons of import cargo left in the ports for transportation.
Some 41.8 million tons of oil (a 5.1 percent increase) were transported via main oil pipelines in January-November. During this period, 75 percent or 31.5 million tons of oil were transported via the BTC (data provided by the State Statistics Committee). Sangachal terminal transported 5 million tons of Turkmen oil via BTC in January-November.
Gas transportation via main gas pipelines made up 19.6 billion cubic meters (a 10.1 percent growth) in January-November. Some 30.1 percent of the transported gas fell to the South Caucasus Pipeline. Some 5.9 billion cubic meters of gas were transported via this pipeline.
Some 1.7 million passengers were transported by air transport in January-November which is 7.4 percent more than in the same period of 2013. Some 0.4 percent of shipment by this kind of transport fell to private sector.
Some 195.1 million people were transported by metro (a 4.2 percent growth) compared to January-November 2013.
Some 48 million tons of cargo were transported through the Eurasian transport corridor TRACECA (Europe-Caucasus-Asia) through the territory of Azerbaijan in January-October 2014 compared to 49.1 million tons in January-October 2013, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee said.
Around 49.8 percent of the total volume of transported cargo fell to vehicles, 34.5 percent - railway and 15.7 percent - ships.
Some 254.8 million people were transported through the corridor in January-October, which is 7.8 percent more than in the same period of 2013.
Around 59 million tons of cargo were transported through the Azerbaijani segment of the corridor in 2013, which is 3.8 percent more than in 2012. Around 285.2 million people were transported as part of the corridor in 2013 or by 9.3 percent more than in 2012.