Kazakhstan–Azerbaijan freight traffic has risen sevenfold in four years – Talgat Oldabekynov

Freight traffic between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan has increased sevenfold over the past four years, the chairman of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), Talgat Oldabekynov, said on Wednesday.

He said cargo volumes reached 4.1 million tonnes in the first ten months of 2025, with grain shipments accounting for most of the increase.

“Grain traffic has grown 25-fold, reaching around 600,000 tonnes this year,” he said at the CIS Railway Council meeting in Baku.

He added that container traffic along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (the Middle Corridor) has risen 12% this year to 917 trains.

China’s Xinjiang REI joined the corridor two weeks ago, and KTZ expects this to double overall volumes.

Oldabekynov said the railways of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia completed a 10-day audit of the entire route — from the China–Kazakhstan border to Georgian ports — identifying bottlenecks.

He said the main investment need is expanding the Caspian Sea fleet. Kazakhstan is purchasing six container vessels that are expected to enter service in the first half of 2027.

Container capacity at the port of Aktau is also being expanded: the first phase, with 140,000 TEU, will be launched by year-end, and a second phase raising total capacity to 240,000 TEU will come online in 2026.

Aytac Zeynalova