Kazakhstan eyes increasing amount of cargo in Kuryk seaport

By Trend

Kazakhstan plans to add 1.5-2 million tons cargo capacity of Kuryk seaport by 2022-23, Trend reports referring to Kazakh media.

It is reported that a press tour with the participation of regional media initiated by the port administration took place in the ferry complex of Kazakhstan's Kuryk seaport.

The existing infrastructure of the port is divided by railway and automobile berths with simultaneous servicing of four ferries, an approach channel, western and eastern breakwaters, buildings of the dispatch service, the sea terminal, and a customs clearance point.

The territory of the ferry complex is functionally divided into an area serving railway ferries with associated infrastructure, and an area serving car ferries. The capacity of the railway berth is 4.1 million tons per year. The average time of a full ferry processing cycle is 6-8 hours for a single-deck ferry, and 10-12 hours for a two-deck ferry, which makes it possible to handle up to 5-8 ferries per day. Ferries can carry up to 54 railroad cars.

During the meeting, the port management informed about the opening and operation of auto ferry lines along the route Kuryk - Iranian ports - Kuryk. As part of this direction, the port of Kuryk reached an agreement with the Russian company Transmorflot LLC on joint cooperation and launching a RO-RO type ferry “Composer Rachmaninov” on the route - ports Amirabad / Anzali - port Kuryk. Ferries of this type can accommodate up to 32 heavy vehicles (up to 17 meters long). As a result of this sea traffic, nine ship calls were made, the volume of which was more than 2,900 tons.

Also in May of this year, the new ferry "Azerbaijan" of the Ro-Pax type made its first call to the port on the Alat - Kuryk route. The ferry is about 154.5 meters long and 17.7 meters wide. These new Ro-Pax vessels are larger in terms of carrying capacity than the existing ferries to the Caspian Sea.

The head of the port, Serik Akhmetov, answering journalists' questions, spoke about the work being done to open new ferry lines and saturate existing routes as part of the development strategy of the Kuryk port.

“By 2022-23, we plan to add 1.5-2 million tons cargo capacity of the port. We are implementing these projects together with investors, they also see the great potential of this topic,” said Serik Akhmetov.