On April 5, 2018, the feeder vessel Mahmud Rehimov, residing to the «Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping» CJSC (ACS CJSC), moored to the Aktau seaport purposely for servicing a regular feeder container line of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (Middle Corridor). Later on the next day, 70 twenty-foot containers (TEU) with Kazakhstani wheat and lentil were stowed on the vessel.
After getting in Port of Baku (Alyat), the containers will be trucked to the fitting platforms residing to the «Azerbaijan Railways» CJSC and «Georgian Railway» JSC. Further from Port of Baku containers will be sent to the Turkish port of Mersin via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line launched in 2017. This is the first in the history container transportation by the feeder vessel entered the seaport of Aktau. Until now, "National Company "Aktau International Sea Commercial Port" JSC has been serving dry bulk fleet for general goods (grain crops, metals, etc.) and also ferries in connection with the sea Port of Baku (Alyat).
According to the new sea link development plans, the expected handling time of the feeder vessel in the sea ports of Aktau and Baku (Alyat) will not exceed 24 hours in each one while the time of transportation of the containers between the ports will not exceed 36 hours.
In future the feeder vessel will be plying on the route Port Baku - Port Aktau - Port Baku on a weekly basis. So, the next sailing of the vessel is scheduled on the 11 of April 2018. On top of that, in common with the export goods from Kazakhstan, the next container shipping will also include transit cargo, such as tomato paste transporting from China to Italy by the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (Middle Corridor).
"As from now, the sea Port of Aktau will focus on the development of regular container services on the Caspian Sea with the use of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (Middle Corridor) and this is absolutely new business for our company. All this was realized thanks to the personal support of the first leaders of the railways of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Caspian Sea Shipping Company and the sea administration of the Port of Baku - the founders of the International Association "Trans-Caspian International Transport Route" (Middle Corridor). This is obviously confirmed by the fact of today's arrival and successful forwarding of the vessel. We are convinced that there will be more feeder vessels in our port" shared the Chairman of the Executive Board (President) of the "NC "Aktau International Sea Commercial Port" JSC, Abay Turikpenbaev.
Secretary General of the International Association "TITR", Rakhmetolla Kudaibergenov, also attended the official ceremony of launching the first feeder vessel and noted that the start of a regular feeder service at the Caspian Sea will be a new milestone in the development of containerization in the region and will influence on the extending of the capacity of TITR (Middle Corridor). Also it is planned to attract a second feeder ship to the route in 2018.
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION "TRANS-CASPIAN INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORT ROUTE"
