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Review of transport sector in Azerbaijan (January-October 2015 )

Analysis Materials 9 December 2015 17:51 (UTC +04:00)

The economic ties between Iran and Azerbaijan, including the transport sector, have been intensified after resolving the issue of Iran's nuclear program and upcoming lifting of all international sanctions and restrictions from Iran.

Two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on the construction of the railway [a Qazvin-Rasht-Astara section] to transport five million tons of cargo in October. "North-South" railway will connect Northern Europe to South-East Asia. It will serve as a bridge to connect the railways of Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia. According to the preliminary estimates, its capacity will be 1.4 million passengers and five to seven million tons of cargo a year.

The Iranian side offered to consider the option of a new route of cargo transportation within the North-South project, Director General of the Department of International Relations of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (IRIR) Abbas Nazari said.

"Currently, a railway from the Persian Gulf to the port of Amirabad on the Caspian Sea operates in Iran," said Nazari. "From there, trains will be transported on the ferry to the port of Baku, and after that, they will be sent to Russia and Georgia via the railway again."

"The opening of this corridor will transform Azerbaijan and Iran to important transit countries for Russia, Georgia, the Gulf states and India," he said.

Other information was disseminated by the head of the Baku office of İran Air Mojtaba Gholamian. He said that the Iranian airline will resume the Tehran-Baku-Tehran flights in the near future.

As for the East-West trade and transport corridor:

One of the elements of the "Silk Road" projects is being tested. The second container train moving via the Trans-Caspian international transport route transited through the territory of Azerbaijan to Georgia. The first test container train moving via the Shihezi (China) - Dostyk - Aktau - Alat route, reached the Baku International Sea Trade Port in August. This project is being implemented by JSC "Kazakhstan Temir Zholy", "China Railways", JSC "Azerbaijan Railways", CJSC "Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Company" and the Baku International Sea Trade Port. The train consisting of 44 carriages departed from the export station in Alashankou, Chinese province of Xinjiang-Urumqi and reached the Tbilisi-Uzlovaya station within eight days by transit through the territory of Azerbaijan.

"North-South" and "East-West" will be able to become truly competitive transport projects in case of the maximum reduction of the "travel time". This will depend on the simplification of all customs procedures and formalities at border crossings.

In this regard, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's decree on establishing the Azerbaijani coordinating council on transit cargo should be stressed. A "single window" principle must be used while transporting the transit goods through the territory of Azerbaijan by trains, ships, ports and marine terminals.

The Azerbaijani transport sector carried 184 million tons of cargo in January-October 2015 or by 0.5 percent more than in the same period of 2014, according to the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee's report as of January-October 2015 said.

According to a report, the volume of non-oil cargo increased by 1.8 percent, reaching 132.7 million metric tons in January-October.

Around 80.1 percent of the total volume of goods transported accounted for the private sector during this period.

Some 61.6 percent of all cargo were transported by vehicles, 27.7 percent - by pipelines, 7.7 percent - by railway, 3 percent - by ships.



Some 1.548 billion people used passenger transport in January-October, which is 3.6 percent more than in the same period of 2014. 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 113.1 million tons of cargo were transported by vehicles, which is 7 percent more than in the same period of 2014.

The volume of passenger transportation hit 1.362 billion people (a 3.6 percent growth). Some 96.1 percent of the passengers were transported by buses and 3.9 percent - by cars.

Freight turnover by vehicles increased by 7 percent during the reporting period, while passenger turnover - by 3.6 percent.

Some 14.2 million tons of cargo were transported by railway in January-October 2015 compared to 17.9 million tons in the same period of 2014.

On average, the number of loaded carriages made up 446 and unloaded - 449. Average daily load of carriages in the northern direction is 18,300 tons and in western direction 5,100 tons and southern direction - 2,200 tons.

Around 5.6 million tons of cargo were transported by ships during this period compared to 8.1 million tons in the same period of 2014. All cargo accounted for international operations. The volume of goods handled in Azerbaijani ports amounted to 7.2 million tons in January-October.

Some 67.2 percent of cargo shipping fell to oil and oil products. The volume of international transit cargo handled in the ports hit 94.3 percent. As of November 1, 2015, around 102,700 tons of import cargo left in the ports for transportation.

Some 38.51 million tons of oil were transported via main oil pipelines in January-October. Some 75.9 percent or 29.21 million tons of oil accounted for BTC.

Some 4.8 million tons of transit oil were transported via the BTC in January-October.

Gas transportation via main gas pipelines made up 17.3 billion cubic meters in January-October or by 1.8 percent less than in the same period of 2014. Some 31 percent of the transported gas fell to the South Caucasus Pipeline. Some 5.36 billion cubic meters of gas were transported via this pipeline.

Some 1.6 million passengers were transported by air transport in January-October which is 2.9 percent more than in the same period of 2014. Some 0.4 percent of shipment by this kind of transport fell to private sector.

Some 182.8 million people were transported by metro (a 3.8 percent growth) compared to the same period of 2014.

Some 39.3 million metric tons of cargo were transported through the Eurasian transport corridor TRACECA (Europe-Caucasus-Asia) in January-September compared to 43.3 million metric tons in the same period of 2014, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee said.

Around 58.2 percent of the total volume of transported cargo fell to vehicles, 29.8 percent - railway, 12 percent - ships. Some 18.3 percent of transported cargo accounted for transit goods.

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